How Many Books Are in the Bible? All 66 Books in Order
The Protestant Bible has 66 books. That’s 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.
Catholic Bibles have 73, and Orthodox Bibles have a few more than that. (More on why below.) But if you picked up a Bible at a garage sale, got one from a church, or downloaded a free Bible app, you’ve almost certainly got the 66-book version.
Those 66 books hold 1,189 chapters. They were written over roughly 1,500 years by around 40 different writers: kings, shepherds, fishermen, a doctor, a tax collector, and at least one very reluctant prophet. And they weren’t written as one long book. It’s closer to a library.
Once you see how that library’s organized, the Bible gets a lot less intimidating.
How the 66 books are organized
Bible books aren’t in the order they were written. They’re grouped by type, kind of like sections in a bookstore. Here’s the quick map:
| Testament | Section | Books | What you’ll find |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old | Law | 5 | Creation, Abraham, Moses, the Exodus |
| Old | History | 12 | Israel’s story from the Promised Land to exile and back |
| Old | Poetry and Wisdom | 5 | Prayers, songs and hard questions |
| Old | Major Prophets | 5 | Longer books of warning and hope |
| Old | Minor Prophets | 12 | Shorter prophetic books (“minor” means short, not unimportant) |
| New | Gospels | 4 | The life of Jesus |
| New | History | 1 | How the early church spread |
| New | Paul’s Letters | 13 | Letters to churches and church leaders |
| New | General Letters | 8 | Letters from other early leaders, plus Hebrews |
| New | Prophecy | 1 | Revelation |
Add it up and you get 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books. If you remember nothing else, remember this: “3 and 9 is 39, 3 times 9 is 27.” It’s a goofy trick, but it sticks. Want to see how the two halves connect? Read Old Testament vs. New Testament.
The Old Testament: 39 books in order
| # | Book | Chapters | What it’s about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Genesis | 50 | Creation, the flood, and the families of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph |
| 2 | Exodus | 40 | God rescues Israel from slavery in Egypt and gives the law at Mount Sinai |
| 3 | Leviticus | 27 | Instructions for worship, sacrifice and holy living |
| 4 | Numbers | 36 | Forty years of wandering in the wilderness |
| 5 | Deuteronomy | 34 | Moses’ farewell speeches before Israel enters the Promised Land |
| 6 | Joshua | 24 | Israel crosses the Jordan and settles the land |
| 7 | Judges | 21 | A cycle of rebellion and rescue, with leaders like Gideon and Samson |
| 8 | Ruth | 4 | A widow’s loyalty leads to a new family and the line of King David |
| 9 | 1 Samuel | 31 | Samuel, King Saul and young David |
| 10 | 2 Samuel | 24 | David’s reign, his wins and his worst mistakes |
| 11 | 1 Kings | 22 | Solomon, the temple, and a kingdom that splits in two |
| 12 | 2 Kings | 25 | The two kingdoms decline until Babylon conquers Jerusalem |
| 13 | 1 Chronicles | 29 | A retelling of history focused on David and worship |
| 14 | 2 Chronicles | 36 | Judah’s kings, from Solomon to the exile |
| 15 | Ezra | 10 | Exiles return home and rebuild the temple |
| 16 | Nehemiah | 13 | Rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls in 52 days |
| 17 | Esther | 10 | A Jewish queen in Persia risks her life to save her people |
| 18 | Job | 42 | A good man loses everything and wrestles with God |
| 19 | Psalms | 150 | 150 songs and prayers for every mood |
| 20 | Proverbs | 31 | Short, practical sayings about wise living |
| 21 | Ecclesiastes | 12 | A search for meaning “under the sun” |
| 22 | Song of Solomon | 8 | A love poem between a bride and groom |
| 23 | Isaiah | 66 | Judgment, comfort and promises of a coming Messiah |
| 24 | Jeremiah | 52 | The “weeping prophet” warns Judah before Babylon invades |
| 25 | Lamentations | 5 | Five poems of grief over fallen Jerusalem |
| 26 | Ezekiel | 48 | Strange visions in exile and a promise of new life |
| 27 | Daniel | 12 | The lions’ den, the fiery furnace and visions of the future |
| 28 | Hosea | 14 | A prophet’s broken marriage pictures God’s faithful love |
| 29 | Joel | 3 | A plague of locusts and a promise of God’s Spirit |
| 30 | Amos | 9 | A shepherd calls out injustice and empty religion |
| 31 | Obadiah | 1 | Judgment on Edom, Israel’s neighbor (the shortest Old Testament book) |
| 32 | Jonah | 4 | A runaway prophet, a big fish and a city that repents |
| 33 | Micah | 7 | “Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly,” and Bethlehem’s promised ruler |
| 34 | Nahum | 3 | The fall of Nineveh |
| 35 | Habakkuk | 3 | A prophet asks God why evil wins, and learns to trust |
| 36 | Zephaniah | 3 | The day of the Lord, then singing and restoration |
| 37 | Haggai | 2 | A push to finish rebuilding the temple |
| 38 | Zechariah | 14 | Visions of hope and a coming king riding on a donkey |
| 39 | Malachi | 4 | The last Old Testament prophet, writing roughly 400 years before Jesus |
Total: 929 chapters. Psalms has the most chapters of any book in the Bible, and Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter in it.
The New Testament: 27 books in order
| # | Book | Chapters | What it’s about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | Matthew | 28 | Jesus as the promised King, written with Jewish readers in mind |
| 41 | Mark | 16 | The shortest, fastest-moving telling of Jesus’ life |
| 42 | Luke | 24 | A carefully researched account, including the Christmas story |
| 43 | John | 21 | Signs and conversations that show who Jesus is |
| 44 | Acts | 28 | The church spreads from Jerusalem to Rome |
| 45 | Romans | 16 | Paul’s fullest explanation of sin, grace and faith |
| 46 | 1 Corinthians | 16 | Fixing a messy church, plus the famous “love is patient” chapter |
| 47 | 2 Corinthians | 13 | Paul gets personal about weakness and strength |
| 48 | Galatians | 6 | Freedom in Christ versus earning God’s favor |
| 49 | Ephesians | 6 | Who believers are in Christ and how to live it out |
| 50 | Philippians | 4 | A joy-filled letter written from prison |
| 51 | Colossians | 4 | Jesus is above everything |
| 52 | 1 Thessalonians | 5 | Encouragement for a young church, and hope about Jesus’ return |
| 53 | 2 Thessalonians | 3 | Clearing up confusion about the end times |
| 54 | 1 Timothy | 6 | Advice to a young pastor on leading a church |
| 55 | 2 Timothy | 4 | Paul’s last letter before his death |
| 56 | Titus | 3 | Setting up healthy churches on the island of Crete |
| 57 | Philemon | 1 | A personal plea for a runaway slave named Onesimus |
| 58 | Hebrews | 13 | Jesus is greater than everything that came before |
| 59 | James | 5 | Real faith shows up in how you live |
| 60 | 1 Peter | 5 | Hope for Christians who are suffering |
| 61 | 2 Peter | 3 | Warnings about false teachers |
| 62 | 1 John | 5 | God is love, and how to know you belong to him |
| 63 | 2 John | 1 | A short note about truth and love |
| 64 | 3 John | 1 | A thank-you letter for hospitality (the shortest book in the Bible by word count) |
| 65 | Jude | 1 | Contend for the faith |
| 66 | Revelation | 22 | Visions of Jesus, the end of evil and a new heaven and earth |
Total: 260 chapters. Put both testaments together and you get 1,189. If you’d rather see the books laid out in the order the events happened, check out our Bible timeline.
Why do Catholic and Orthodox Bibles have more books?
It all comes down to the Old Testament. The New Testament is the same 27 books in Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.
Catholic Bibles include seven extra Old Testament books: Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch, plus some longer passages in Esther and Daniel. Catholics call these the deuterocanonical books. Most Protestants call them the Apocrypha. That gets you to 73.
Orthodox churches accept those and a few more, like 1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees and the Prayer of Manasseh. The exact list varies a bit between Orthodox churches.
Why the split? During the Reformation in the 1500s, Protestant leaders went with the books of the Hebrew Bible, the scriptures Jewish communities used. (The Jewish Bible has the same content as the Protestant Old Testament, just grouped into 24 books instead of 39.) Catholic and Orthodox churches kept the wider collection found in the early Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint.
Christians still disagree about this, and this guide isn’t going to settle it. If you want to read those extra books, a Catholic Bible or any Bible labeled “with Apocrypha” will have them.
How to remember the books of the Bible
Don’t try to memorize 66 names in a row. Nobody learns it that way. Learn the sections first, then fill in the books one section at a time.
Start with the first five: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Say them out loud until they sound like one long word. Then do the four Gospels, which most people already half know. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Now you’ve got nine books and you haven’t even broken a sweat.
The Minor Prophets are the hardest stretch (Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah trip up just about everyone). Songs help here. Kids’ Sunday school songs for the books of the Bible are corny, sure, but there’s a reason adults still remember them decades later.
Where should you start reading?
Not Genesis, honestly. People start there, hit Leviticus about two weeks later and quit.
Start with one of the Gospels instead. Mark is the shortest and moves the fastest, so you can finish it in a couple of sittings. Then try James for something practical, or Genesis once you’ve got some momentum. Our guide on how to read the Bible for beginners walks through it step by step, and the beginner Bible reading plan gives you an order to follow.
We’re working through all 66 books here at Scripture and Sketch, one hand-drawn video and summary at a time, starting with James. Each book above will link to its own page as it goes live, so bookmark this one.
FAQ
How many books are in the Old Testament?
39 in Protestant Bibles. Catholic Bibles have 46.
How many books are in the New Testament?
27, in every major Christian tradition.
What’s the first book of the Bible?
Genesis. It opens with “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
What’s the last book of the Bible?
Revelation. (Not “Revelations” with an s, though everybody says it that way at least once.)
What’s the longest book of the Bible?
Psalms, with 150 chapters. By word count, Jeremiah edges it out.
What’s the shortest book of the Bible?
3 John is the shortest by word count. 2 John has fewer verses (13 to 3 John’s 15), so you’ll see both answers floating around.
How many chapters are in the Bible?
1,189 in the 66-book Bible: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New.
Who wrote the Bible?
Around 40 writers over roughly 1,500 years, including Moses, King David, Solomon, prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, and apostles like Paul, Peter and John. Some books don’t name their author at all.
How long does it take to read the whole Bible?
Read 3 to 4 chapters a day and you’ll finish all 1,189 in about a year.
