Bible Facts
How Many Chapters Are in the Bible? 1,189 Chapters Book by Book
The Protestant Bible has 1,189 chapters. The Old Testament has 929 chapters and the New Testament has 260. These totals are the same across standard English translations, because translations share the same chapter divisions.
Verse counts are a different matter. The total is usually given as about 31,100 verses, but the exact number varies slightly by translation. This article gives the chapter count for all 66 books and explains why verse totals differ.
How Many Chapters Are in the Bible? The Totals
| Books | Chapters | |
|---|---|---|
| Old Testament | 39 | 929 |
| New Testament | 27 | 260 |
| Whole Bible | 66 | 1,189 |
These figures apply to the 66-book Protestant canon. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include additional Old Testament books, so their chapter totals are higher. For the difference in books, see how many books are in the Bible.
Chapter Facts at a Glance
- Most chapters: Psalms, with 150.
- Second most: Isaiah, with 66.
- Most in the New Testament: Matthew and Acts, with 28 each.
- One-chapter books: Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John and Jude.
- Longest chapter: Psalm 119, with 176 verses.
- Shortest chapter: Psalm 117, with 2 verses.
- Middle chapter: With 1,189 chapters, the middle one is the 595th, which is Psalm 117.
Psalm 119 is arranged as an acrostic in 22 stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with eight verses per stanza (22 x 8 = 176). Many English Bibles print the Hebrew letter names as headings within the psalm.
Test yourself on the people behind these chapters. Play Who Am I? Bible Edition.
Old Testament Chapters by Book
The books are listed in the order of English Bibles. For the section groupings, see the books of the Bible in order.
| Book | Chapters |
|---|---|
| Genesis | 50 |
| Exodus | 40 |
| Leviticus | 27 |
| Numbers | 36 |
| Deuteronomy | 34 |
| Joshua | 24 |
| Judges | 21 |
| Ruth | 4 |
| 1 Samuel | 31 |
| 2 Samuel | 24 |
| 1 Kings | 22 |
| 2 Kings | 25 |
| 1 Chronicles | 29 |
| 2 Chronicles | 36 |
| Ezra | 10 |
| Nehemiah | 13 |
| Esther | 10 |
| Job | 42 |
| Psalms | 150 |
| Proverbs | 31 |
| Ecclesiastes | 12 |
| Song of Songs | 8 |
| Isaiah | 66 |
| Jeremiah | 52 |
| Lamentations | 5 |
| Ezekiel | 48 |
| Daniel | 12 |
| Hosea | 14 |
| Joel | 3 |
| Amos | 9 |
| Obadiah | 1 |
| Jonah | 4 |
| Micah | 7 |
| Nahum | 3 |
| Habakkuk | 3 |
| Zephaniah | 3 |
| Haggai | 2 |
| Zechariah | 14 |
| Malachi | 4 |
| Old Testament total | 929 |
New Testament Chapters by Book
| Book | Chapters |
|---|---|
| Matthew | 28 |
| Mark | 16 |
| Luke | 24 |
| John | 21 |
| Acts | 28 |
| Romans | 16 |
| 1 Corinthians | 16 |
| 2 Corinthians | 13 |
| Galatians | 6 |
| Ephesians | 6 |
| Philippians | 4 |
| Colossians | 4 |
| 1 Thessalonians | 5 |
| 2 Thessalonians | 3 |
| 1 Timothy | 6 |
| 2 Timothy | 4 |
| Titus | 3 |
| Philemon | 1 |
| Hebrews | 13 |
| James | 5 |
| 1 Peter | 5 |
| 2 Peter | 3 |
| 1 John | 5 |
| 2 John | 1 |
| 3 John | 1 |
| Jude | 1 |
| Revelation | 22 |
| New Testament total | 260 |
How Many Verses Are in the Bible?
The verse total for the Protestant Bible is commonly given as about 31,100, with roughly 23,100 in the Old Testament and 7,950 in the New. These are approximate figures, and different counts appear in different sources.
The main reason is that translations handle a small number of verses differently:
- Verses moved to footnotes. Some modern translations, including the NIV, place certain verses in footnotes because they are absent from the earliest Greek manuscripts. Examples include Matthew 17:21, Matthew 18:11, and Acts 8:37. The verse numbers are skipped in the main text.
- Different verse divisions. Hebrew Bibles often number a psalm's title as verse 1, while English Bibles usually do not. This shifts the verse numbering in many psalms.
- Chapter breaks in a few places. In a small number of passages, Hebrew and English Bibles begin a chapter at a different point. Malachi, for example, has three chapters in Hebrew Bibles and four in English Bibles.
Because of these differences, it is accurate to say the Bible has about 31,100 verses, but any single exact figure applies only to a particular translation or count.
Who Added Chapters and Verses?
The biblical books were not written with chapter and verse numbers. These were added later to make passages easier to find.
- Chapters: The chapter divisions used today are generally credited to Stephen Langton, an English church leader and later Archbishop of Canterbury, in the early 1200s.
- Old Testament verses: Jewish scribes marked verse divisions in the Hebrew text centuries earlier. Numbered verses were later applied to these divisions in printed Bibles.
- New Testament verses: The Paris printer Robert Estienne (also known as Stephanus) introduced the New Testament verse numbers in his Greek New Testament of 1551.
- First English Bible with both: The Geneva Bible of 1560 was the first complete English Bible to use numbered chapters and verses throughout.
Because the divisions came later, a chapter break sometimes falls in the middle of a thought. Reading across a chapter break often gives a clearer sense of the passage. For example, the account of the suffering servant begins at Isaiah 52:13, three verses before chapter 53 starts.
Chapter Counts by Section
| Section | Books | Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy) | 5 | 187 |
| History (Joshua to Esther) | 12 | 249 |
| Poetry and Wisdom (Job to Song of Songs) | 5 | 243 |
| Major Prophets (Isaiah to Daniel) | 5 | 183 |
| Minor Prophets (Hosea to Malachi) | 12 | 67 |
| Gospels (Matthew to John) | 4 | 89 |
| History (Acts) | 1 | 28 |
| Pauline Epistles (Romans to Philemon) | 13 | 87 |
| General Epistles (Hebrews to Jude) | 8 | 34 |
| Prophecy (Revelation) | 1 | 22 |
| Total | 66 | 1,189 |
The twelve Minor Prophets together have 67 chapters, only one more than Isaiah alone. The four Gospels have 89 chapters, about a third of the New Testament.
The Old Testament holds about 78 percent of the Bible's chapters (929 of 1,189), and the New Testament about 22 percent (260 of 1,189). Psalms alone accounts for 150 chapters, more than half the size of the entire New Testament by this measure. Because chapter lengths vary, these shares are only a rough guide to how much text each part contains.
How Long Does It Take to Read the Bible?
With 1,189 chapters, reading about 3 to 4 chapters a day will take you through the whole Bible in a year (1,189 divided by 365 is about 3.3). Chapter lengths vary widely, so a reading plan based on chapters will have some long days and some short ones.
Book length is also not the same as chapter count. Psalms has the most chapters, but by word count other books are comparable or longer. See what is the longest book in the Bible for the details.
Think you know your Bible? Try Who Am I? Bible Edition on Easy, Medium or Hard.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many chapters are in the Bible?
The Protestant Bible has 1,189 chapters. The Old Testament has 929 and the New Testament has 260.
Which book of the Bible has the most chapters?
Psalms has the most chapters, with 150. Isaiah is second with 66.
What is the longest chapter in the Bible?
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter, with 176 verses. It is written as an acrostic with 22 sections of eight verses each.
What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?
Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter, with 2 verses. It is also the middle chapter of the Protestant Bible.
How many verses are in the Bible?
The Protestant Bible has about 31,100 verses. The exact number varies slightly by translation, because some translations place certain verses in footnotes.