The short answer
Protestant Bibles have 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. Catholic Bibles have 73, because their Old Testament includes seven more books, such as Tobit and 1 and 2 Maccabees. Orthodox Bibles include a few more still. The 27 books of the New Testament are the same in all of them.
How many books are in each Bible?
The difference is all in the Old Testament. Here is how the main traditions count:
| Bible | Books | What’s included |
|---|---|---|
| Protestant | 66 | 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New |
| Catholic | 73 | 46 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New |
| Eastern Orthodox | More than 73 | The Catholic books plus a few more, such as 1 Esdras and 3 Maccabees; the count differs by church |
| Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) | 24 | The same books as the Protestant Old Testament, counted differently |
| With the Apocrypha, like the 1611 King James | 80 | The 66 books plus 14 printed between the Testaments |
The Hebrew Bible counts some books together: the twelve minor prophets are one book, for example, and so are Ezra and Nehemiah. Samuel, Kings and Chronicles are one book each instead of two.
Why do Catholic Bibles have 73 books?
The seven extra books are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees, along with longer versions of Esther and Daniel. They come from the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures, known as the Septuagint, that many early Christians read.
The Catholic Church affirmed them as Scripture at the Council of Trent in 1546. Protestant reformers followed the shorter Hebrew canon instead, and Martin Luther’s 1534 Bible printed these books in a separate section between the Testaments. Catholics call them deuterocanonical, meaning “second canon”, and Protestants usually call them the Apocrypha.
If you want to read them, the Douay-Rheims 1899, a classic Catholic English translation, has all 73 books. It is in the public domain, so it is free to read.
How many chapters and verses are in the Bible?
A Protestant Bible has 1,189 chapters: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New. The traditional verse count is 31,102, which is exactly what the American Standard Version has.
Translations number verses slightly differently. The Berean Standard Bible, for example, moves 16 verses that appear only in later manuscripts into its footnotes, so it counts 31,086. The Douay-Rheims has 1,334 chapters and 35,811 verses, because of its extra books and the longer Esther and Daniel.
Chapter and verse numbers aren’t part of the original text; they were added centuries later to make passages easier to find. Our guide to reading a Bible verse in context explains who added them.
What are the longest and shortest books of the Bible?
All counts below come from the World English Bible:
- Longest book: Psalms, with 150 chapters and about 41,800 words. Jeremiah is a close second by words.
- Shortest book: 3 John, with 292 words. 2 John has the fewest verses, at 13.
- Longest chapter: Psalm 119, with 176 verses.
- Shortest chapter: Psalm 117, with 2 verses. It is also the middle chapter of a Protestant Bible, with 594 chapters before it and 594 after.
- Longest verse: Esther 8:9, a single 86-word sentence about the king’s scribes writing out Mordecai’s decree.
- Shortest verses: two words each. One is John 11:35, at the tomb of Lazarus. Another is 1 Thessalonians 5:16: “Always rejoice.”
How are the books of the Bible organized?
Protestant Bibles group the 66 books by type:
- Law (5): Genesis to Deuteronomy.
- History (12): Joshua to Esther.
- Poetry and wisdom (5): Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.
- Major prophets (5): Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel.
- Minor prophets (12): Hosea to Malachi. “Minor” means shorter, not less important.
- Gospels and Acts (5): Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts.
- Letters (21): 13 from Paul, Romans to Philemon, and 8 more, Hebrews to Jude.
- Revelation (1).
To see how long each group takes to read, our guide to how long it takes to read the Bible times every book.
Which Bible should you read?
If you belong to a church, start with the Bible it uses. If you’re exploring, any of the 66-book Bibles is a good place to begin, and you can read the extra books later in a Catholic edition. Our guide to Bible translations for beginners compares the most common ones.
Common questions
Why does the Catholic Bible have more books?
Its Old Testament includes seven books from the Greek Septuagint: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. The Catholic Church affirmed them at the Council of Trent in 1546, while Protestant Bibles follow the shorter Hebrew canon.
How many books are in the New Testament?
27: the four Gospels, Acts, 21 letters and Revelation. Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Bibles share the same New Testament.
What is the shortest verse in the Bible?
In most English Bibles it is John 11:35, two words describing Jesus weeping at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. In the World English Bible, 1 Thessalonians 5:16 is just as short: “Always rejoice.”