Bible Chapters - Protestant Bible Statistics

Protestant Bible Statistics

The number of words can vary depending upon aspects such as whether the Hebrew alphabet in Psalm 119, the superscriptions listed in some of the Psalms, and the subscripts traditionally found at the end of the Pauline epistles, are included. Except where stated, the following apply to the King James Version of the Bible in its modern 66-book Protestant form, including the New Testament but not the deuterocanonical books.

Chapters

• There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament and 260 chapters in the New Testament. This gives a total of 1,189 chapters (on average, 18 per book).
• Psalm 117 is the middle chapter of the Bible, being the 595th Chapter.
• Psalm 117 is also the shortest chapter of the Bible.
• Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the Bible.

Verses

• There are 23,145 verses in the Old Testament and 7,957 verses in the New Testament. This gives a total of 31,102 verses, which is an average of a little more than 26 verses per chapter.
• Contrary to popular belief, Psalm 118 does not contain the middle verse of the Bible. The King James Version has an even number of verses (31,102), with the two middle verses being Psalm 103:1-2.
• 1 Chronicles 1:25 ("Eber, Peleg, Reu") is the shortest verse in the Old Testament.
• The shortest verse in the Greek New Testament is Luke 20:30 ("και ο δευτερος", "And the second") with twelve letters, according to the Westcott and Hort text. In the Textus Receptus, the shortest verse is 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("παντοτε χαιρετε", "Rejoice always") with fourteen letters, since Stephanus' rendering of Luke 20:30 includes some additional words.
• Isaiah 10:8 ("Dicet enim") is the shortest verse in the Latin Vulgate.
• John 11:35 ("Jesus wept") is the shortest verse in most English translations. Some translations — including the New International Version, New Living Translation, New Life Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible and New International Reader's Version — render Job 3:2 as "He said". However, this is a translators' condensation of the Hebrew which literally translated is "And Job answered and said."
• Esther 8:9 is the longest verse in the Masoretic Text. The discovery of several manuscripts at Qumran (in the Dead Sea Scrolls) has reopened what is considered the most original text of 1 Samuel 11; if one believes that those manuscripts better preserve the text, several verses in 1 Samuel 11 surpass Esther 8:9 in length.