Thursday 26 March 2009

Bible statistics

See updated post here.

Number of books, chapters, verses and words in the Bible. These are based on the English Standard Version (ESV) 2007 version, main text. I haven't been able to find the ESV summary data on the internet. The ESV exists in database form in various places so the information should be easy to calculate, I just don't have the facilities. Word count was done in Open Office. I will repost this if I get the verse data.

Footnotes, chapter and verse numbers, book names are excluded. Psalm titles are included. I realise the chapters and verses are an artificial construct.

Chapters were inserted into the Bible circa 1228 by Stephen Langton.

The Old Testament was possibly divided into verses by Isaac Nathan circa 1448 and the New Testament by Robert Stephanus in 1551.

Book Chapters Verses Words
Old Testament
Genesis 50
36909
Exodus 40
31271
Leviticus 27
23602
Numbers 36
31211
Deuteronomy 34
27845
Joshua 24
18060
Judges 21
18556
Ruth 4
2475
1 Samuel 31
24536
2 Samuel 24
20074
1 Kings 22
23741
2 Kings 25
23088
1 Chronicles 29
18590
2 Chronicles 36
24938
Ezra 10
6915
Nehemiah 13
9902
Esther 10
5519
Job 42
17825
Psalms 150
42420
Proverbs 31
14566
Ecclesiastes 12
5344
Song of Solomon 8
2537
Isaiah 66
35555
Jeremiah 52
40975
Lamentations 5
3286
Ezekiel 48
37524
Daniel 12
11314
Hosea 14
4997
Joel 3
1913
Amos 9
4134
Obadiah 1
606
Jonah 4
1318
Micah 7
3012
Nahum 3
1114
Habakkuk 3
1366
Zephaniah 3
1574
Haggai 2
1096
Zechariah 14
6145
Malachi 4
1769
OT Total 929
587622
New Testament
Matthew 28
23137
Mark 16
14642
Luke 24
25104
John 21
19322
Acts 28
23744
Romans 16
9534
1 Corinthians 16
9316
2 Corinthians 13
6061
Galatians 6
3116
Ephesians 6
3017
Philippians 4
2144
Colossians 4
1936
1 Thessalonians 5
1842
2 Thessalonians 3
1065
1 Timothy 6
2318
2 Timothy 4
1633
Titus 3
927
Philemon 1
457
Hebrews 13
6953
James 5
2333
1 Peter 5
2397
2 Peter 3
1553
1 John 5
2492
2 John 1
298
3 John 1
303
Jude 1
607
Revelation 22
11559
NT Total 260
177810
Bible
Grand total 1189
765432


This information may be more useful for the Hebrew and Greek text though there would still be disagreement over which texttype or critical text to use.

Greek New Testament ~138000 words.

If I have my calculations correct the number of words in the ESV Bible is 765432 if the book titles are excluded, and 765517 words if they are included.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for preparing this. It helps my class of readers through the Bible in a year.

    ReplyDelete

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