How Many Books Are in the Bible? All 66, Grouped

It is one of the first things a new reader wants to know: how many books are in the Bible? The answer is 66 — 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New. But there are a few things worth knowing behind that number.

How the 66 break down

Thirty-nine books from Genesis to Malachi, then twenty-seven from Matthew to Revelation. There is a tidy way to remember it: 3 × 9 = 27, the number of New Testament books; and 39 + 27 = 66.

The Old Testament's four groups

Law, 5 books (Genesis to Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch); History, 12 (Joshua to Esther); Poetry and Wisdom, 5 (Job to Song of Songs); Prophets, 17 (Isaiah to Malachi — 5 major, 12 minor). "Major" and "minor" describe length, not importance.

The New Testament's four groups

Gospels, 4 (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John); History, 1 (Acts); Letters, 21 (Romans to Jude); Prophecy, 1 (Revelation). Of the 21 letters, 13 are traditionally attributed to Paul.

Why some Bibles have more books

You may have seen a Bible with a longer table of contents. Catholic Bibles carry 73 books, Orthodox Bibles more still — the additional material is called the Apocrypha, or the deuterocanon. Protestant Bibles follow the Hebrew canon, which is where 66 comes from. Nobody "removed" anything; different traditions reached different judgements about which books belong.

Chapters and verses came later

The original texts had no chapter numbers. Our chapter divisions date to about 1227 and Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury; verses waited until the sixteenth century and the printer Robert Estienne. That is why a chapter break occasionally cuts a thought in half — chapters are navigation, not part of the text.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.Psalm 119:105 (KJV)

Sixty-six books, one story

Sixty-six books, forty authors, fifteen centuries — and one subject: how God goes looking for people who are lost, and pays to bring them home himself. From the promise in Genesis 3 to its completion in the last chapter of Revelation, it runs as a single line.

To walk it in order, start at Genesis 1 in the BiblePro app and let a reading plan pace the days; or jump straight to Revelation 22 and see how the story lands. And do look for a local church to read it alongside others.