How many books are in the Bible?
66 in Protestant Bibles: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, with 1,189 chapters in all. Catholic Bibles have 73.
| Tradition | Books | What differs |
|---|---|---|
| Protestant | 66 | 39 Old Testament + 27 New Testament |
| Catholic | 73 | 46 + 27: adds Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch, plus longer Esther and Daniel |
| Eastern Orthodox | about 76–79 | Adds books such as 1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, the Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151; the exact list varies by church |
| Ethiopian Orthodox | 81 | Includes 1 Enoch and Jubilees |
| Jewish (Tanakh) | 24 | The same text as the Protestant Old Testament, counted differently (for example, the twelve minor prophets are one book) |
See all 66 books in order with chapters, verses and reading time.
Questions
How many books are in the Bible?
66 in Protestant Bibles: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Catholic Bibles have 73.
How many books are in the Old Testament?
39 in Protestant Bibles, 46 in Catholic Bibles.
How many books are in the New Testament?
27, the same in every Christian tradition.
Why do Catholic and Protestant Bibles have different numbers of books?
Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include books from the Greek Septuagint (the deuterocanonical books, or Apocrypha) that are not in the Hebrew Bible. Protestant Bibles follow the Hebrew canon for the Old Testament.