Sunday 26 August 2012

Bible statistics

Updated.

Included is the number of books, chapters, verses and words in the Bible. These are based on the English Standard Version (ESV) 2007 version, main text. Footnotes, chapter numbers, verse numbers, and book names are excluded. Psalm introductions are included. Word count is via LibreOffice. A brief manual check suggests this is more accurate than the OpenOffice word count I used previously. Verse count is from Biblegateway.com looking at the final verse number for each chapter. It will be incorrect for chapters that miss verses*. Verse data is cross checked on this data and this data. I diverge from the former slightly which uses a Catholic translation, I am concordant with the latter excepting the Psalm title count.

I realise chapters and verses are artificial constructs. 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 1533 36321
Exodus 40 1213 30881
Leviticus 27 859 23431
Numbers 36 1288 30950
Deuteronomy 34 959 27528
Joshua 24 658 17935
Judges 21 618 18281
Ruth 4 85 2425
1 Samuel 31 810 24118
2 Samuel 24 695 19734
1 Kings 22 816 23415
2 Kings 25 719 22760
1 Chronicles 29 942 18522
2 Chronicles 36 822 24779
Ezra 10 280 6889
Nehemiah 13 406 9842
Esther 10 167 5478
Job 42 1070 17603
Psalms 150 2577 42284
Proverbs 31 915 14530
Ecclesiastes 12 222 5333
Song of Solomon 8 117 2533
Isaiah 66 1292 35244
Jeremiah 52 1364 40432
Lamentations 5 154 3251
Ezekiel 48 1273 37184
Daniel 12 357 11224
Hosea 14 197 4964
Joel 3 73 1895
Amos 9 146 4047
Obadiah 1 21 604
Jonah 4 48 1298
Micah 7 105 3000
Nahum 3 47 1111
Habakkuk 3 56 1356
Zephaniah 3 53 1556
Haggai 2 38 1083
Zechariah 14 211 6050
Malachi 4 55 1738
OT Total 929 23261 581609
New Testament
Matthew 28 1071 22640
Mark 16 678 14344
Luke 24 1151 24605
John 21 879 18882
Acts 28 1007 23464
Romans 16 433 9467
1 Corinthians 16 437 9268
2 Corinthians 13 257 6050
Galatians 6 149 3102
Ephesians 6 155 3010
Philippians 4 104 2144
Colossians 4 95 1934
1 Thessalonians 5 89 1841
2 Thessalonians 3 47 1065
1 Timothy 6 113 2315
2 Timothy 4 83 1631
Titus 3 46 926
Philemon 1 25 457
Hebrews 13 303 6903
James 5 108 2317
1 Peter 5 105 2389
2 Peter 3 61 1550
1 John 5 105 2490
2 John 1 13 298
3 John 1 15 303
Jude 1 25 604
Revelation 22 404 11450
NT Total 260 7958 175449
Bible
Grand total 1189 31219 757058

This information may be more useful if derived from the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament texts, though there would still be disagreement over which texttype or critical text to use. The Greek New Testament has ~138000 words.

If I have my calculations correct the number of words in the ESV Bible is 757058 excluding book titles and 757143 including them.

* Such as Matthew 12:47; Matthew 17:21; Matthew 18:11; Matthew 23:14; Mark 7:16; Mark 9:44; Mark 9:46; Mark 11:26; Mark 15:28; Luke 17:36; Luke 23:17; Luke 24:40; John 5:4; Acts 8:37; Acts 15:34; Acts 24:7; Acts 28:29; Romans 16:24.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the nice work here. I'm thinking about this data in terms of averages and general communications on how to mentally approach and comprehend the Bible. I prefer the ESV so it was nice to find someone who already made the investment.

    I've been using the chapter counts, but will have fun with the verse and word counts. Using chapters, the 4 gospels are ~1/3 of the NT. Once you get through the first 8 books of the NT, you've read more than half of it (19 books to go but it's all downhill from there, with speed bumps at Hebrews and Revelation). The NT is ~20%, 1/5, of the Bible. All the longest books are in the OT, with the major prophets and books of Moses dominating the top 10. Approximately half of the books of the Bible (45%) are under 10 chapters.

    Fun stuff like that, to help me build a mental framing of what's inside!

    ReplyDelete

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