How Many Verses Are In The Bible? A Thorough Breakdown
The Bible is comprised of 66 books with over 31,000 verses that have been treasured, analyzed and debated for centuries. But have you ever wondered exactly how many verses make up this sacred text that has shaped much of world history?
Getting an accurate verse count requires a deep dive into the complex composition of the Bible.
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick answer: there are 31,102 verses in the Bible.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll provide a detailed breakdown of the verse totals from every Bible division and book. You’ll discover interesting facts like which Bible book has the most verses and how many verses are in the Old Testament versus the New Testament.
We’ve done the research so you don’t have to when wondering: how many total verses does the Bible contain?
Verse Counts by Bible Division
Old Testament Verses
The Old Testament contains 929 chapters with 23,145 verses, comprising around three-quarters of the total verses in the entire Bible. This section covers the creation of the world, the history of the Israelites, the prophets, and other ancient writings. Some key stats on the Old Testament:
New Testament Verses
The New Testament contains 260 chapters with 7,957 verses, comprising around one-quarter of the total verses in the Bible. This section covers the life of Jesus Christ, the establishment of the Christian church, and the letters written by early church leaders.
Here are some key details on the New Testament:
Entire Bible Verse Total
Combining both the Old and New Testaments together, the full Protestant Christian Bible contains:
So in total, the complete Christian Bible from Genesis to Revelation contains just over 31,000 verses. This makes it one of the longest books ever written, spanning over 1,000 pages in printed editions.
With contributions from dozens of authors over thousands of years, the Bible remains one of the most influential books in all of human history. Its enduring legacy is a testament to the divine inspiration behind its writing.
Verse Count for Every Bible Book
Old Testament Books Verse Count
The Old Testament contains 39 books with 23,145 verses. Here is a breakdown of the verse count for each Old Testament book:
- Genesis – 1,533 verses
- Exodus – 1,213 verses
- Leviticus – 859 verses
- Numbers – 1,288 verses
- Deuteronomy – 959 verses
- Joshua – 658 verses
- Judges – 618 verses
- Ruth – 85 verses
- 1 Samuel – 810 verses
- 2 Samuel – 695 verses
- 1 Kings – 816 verses
- 2 Kings – 719 verses
- 1 Chronicles – 942 verses
- 2 Chronicles – 822 verses
- Ezra – 280 verses
- Nehemiah – 406 verses
- Esther – 167 verses
- Job – 1,070 verses
- Psalms – 2,461 verses
- Proverbs – 915 verses
- Ecclesiastes – 222 verses
- Song of Songs – 117 verses
- Isaiah – 1,292 verses
- Jeremiah – 1,364 verses
- Lamentations – 154 verses
- Ezekiel – 1,273 verses
- Daniel – 357 verses
- Hosea – 197 verses
- Joel – 73 verses
- Amos – 146 verses
- Obadiah – 21 verses
- Jonah – 48 verses
- Micah – 105 verses
- Nahum – 47 verses
- Habakkuk – 56 verses
- Zephaniah – 53 verses
- Haggai – 38 verses
- Zechariah – 211 verses
- Malachi – 55 verses
As you can see, the Old Testament contains a wide range of verse counts across its books. The longest book is the Psalms with 2,461 verses, while the shortest is Obadiah with only 21 verses. The Pentateuch (first 5 books) and major prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah contain over 1,000 verses each.
Poetic and wisdom books like Psalms, Proverbs and Job also have high verse counts. Overall, the 39 books of the Old Testament contain 23,145 verses.
New Testament Books Verse Count
The New Testament contains 27 books with 7,957 verses. Here is the verse count breakdown:
- Matthew – 1,071 verses
- Mark – 678 verses
- Luke – 1,151 verses
- John – 879 verses
- Acts – 1,007 verses
- Romans – 433 verses
- 1 Corinthians – 437 verses
- 2 Corinthians – 257 verses
- Galatians – 149 verses
- Ephesians – 155 verses
- Philippians – 104 verses
- Colossians – 95 verses
- 1 Thessalonians – 89 verses
- 2 Thessalonians – 47 verses
- 1 Timothy – 113 verses
- 2 Timothy – 83 verses
- Titus – 46 verses
- Philemon – 25 verses
- Hebrews – 303 verses
- James – 108 verses
- 1 Peter – 105 verses
- 2 Peter – 61 verses
- 1 John – 105 verses
- 2 John – 13 verses
- 3 John – 14 verses
- Jude – 25 verses
- Revelation – 404 verses
The New Testament verse counts range from the Gospels like Matthew and Luke with over 1,000 verses to short letters like 2 John with only 13 verses. Letters from Paul like Romans and 1 Corinthians contain 400+ verses each. Overall, the 27 New Testament books contain 7,957 verses.
When combined together, the 66 books of the Bible contain a grand total of 31,102 verses. This makes the Bible one of the most significant works of literature with so much wisdom and truth packed into its thousands of verses. As the word of God, every verse carries weight and significance.
What an amazing book!
Interesting Bible Verse Count Facts
The Book With the Most Verses
The book with the highest number of verses in the Bible is the Book of Psalms. This poetic book contains a whopping 24,601 verses! That’s almost 5 times as many verses as the Gospel of Luke, which contains the second highest number of verses (4,949).
The 150 chapters of Psalms explore themes like praise, lament, justice, gratitude, and repentance through songs, prayers, and reflections attributed to various biblical figures like David, Moses, and Solomon.
The Book With the Fewest Verses
In contrast to the long Book of Psalms, the Bible book with the fewest number of verses is the Book of Obadiah with only 21 verses total. This minor prophet’s short but powerful book pronounces judgement on the nation of Edom for violence against their brother nation, Israel.
Though one of the shortest books, Obadiah’s message reminds us that God sees injustice and will ultimately right every wrong.
Verses in the Catholic Bible
An interesting Bible verse count fact is the difference in totals between Protestant Christian Bibles and Bibles used by Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians. Most Protestant Bibles have around 31,100 verses total, while Catholic and Orthodox Bibles tally about 77,000 verses.
This 45,000 verse difference comes mainly from additional books included by Catholic and Orthodox Christians as part of the Old Testament scriptural canon.
Some major examples of these “extra” books are Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. So next time you’re comparing Bible stats with your Catholic or Orthodox friends, be aware your verse counts will diverge widely!
Though containing different sets of books, all branches of Christianity share and deeply value the same essential message of God’s redemption through Jesus.
Conclusion
Getting an accurate count of all of the verses in the Bible is no easy feat. But after breaking down the data, we’ve determined there are 23,214 verses in the Old Testament and 7,958 verses in the New Testament for a total of 31,102 Bible verses.
With this exhaustive information, you now have the details to answer when asked exactly how many verses are included in the entirety of Christian scripture. Whether you were just curious or aiming to supercharge your next Bible trivia night, we hope this guide gave you a fascinating overview of all the verse totals that compose this profoundly influential text.
