Bible
How Many Chapters Are in the Bible?
Direct answer: the Protestant Bible has 1,189 chapters. Use the section selector for an Old Testament or New Testament subtotal and a per-book chapter-count table.
Direct answer
The Protestant Bible has 1,189 chapters: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New Testament.
Catholic and Orthodox Bibles add more chapters because they include extra books and longer versions of Esther and Daniel.
Total chapters
1,189
66 books in whole bible.
Chapter divisions were added by Stephen Langton around 1227 AD and are not original to the biblical text. They are shared across all major English translations of the Protestant canon.
Examples
Protestant Bible
1,189 chapters
Old Testament
929 chapters across 39 books
New Testament
260 chapters across 27 books
Longest book
Psalms (150 chapters)
Single-chapter books
Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
How it works
The chapter count is fixed for the Protestant canon: 1,189 chapters total. The breakdown by Testament is:
- Old Testament: 929 chapters across 39 books.
- New Testament: 260 chapters across 27 books.
- Total: 1,189 chapters across 66 books.
Catholic Bibles include seven additional deuterocanonical books plus longer versions of Esther and Daniel, which raises the chapter total. Orthodox canons can include more.
Long and short books
Psalms (150 chapters) is the longest book in the Bible. Five books have a single chapter each: Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. The next-shortest are 2 Thessalonians, Titus, and Haggai, each with three chapters.
Where chapter divisions came from
Chapter divisions are an editorial addition, not part of the original biblical text. The chapter system in use today was introduced by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, around 1227 AD, working from the Latin Vulgate. The system was adopted across translations and traditions because it made the text easier to reference and cross-reference.
Related Bible pages
- How many books are in the Bible for the book-level count and canon comparison.
- Random Bible verse generator for a curated KJV verse sampler.
- All Bible tools and pages.
Frequently asked questions
The Protestant Bible has 1,189 chapters: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New Testament. Counts vary slightly across canons; Catholic and Orthodox Bibles add more chapters because they include extra books and longer versions of Esther and Daniel.
Psalms is the longest book at 150 chapters. After Psalms, the longest are Isaiah (66), Jeremiah (52), Genesis (50), and Ezekiel (48).
Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude are each a single chapter. They are short letters or prophecies.
929 chapters across the 39 Protestant Old Testament books. The Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) alone has 187 chapters. The wisdom books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon) have 243 chapters combined.
260 chapters across 27 books. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) contribute 89 chapters. Acts adds 28. Pauline epistles total 87. The general epistles plus Revelation account for the rest.
Chapter divisions were added by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, around 1227 AD. Verse divisions came later: Old Testament verses by Rabbi Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus around 1448 AD, and New Testament verses by Robert Estienne (Stephanus) in 1551 AD. Both are convenient editorial additions, not part of the original biblical text.
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