How Many Verses Are in the Bible? 31,102 (KJV Count)

The Bible contains 31,102 verses in the King James Version. That is the number almost every source quotes, and it is the figure this guide uses.

Broken down, the Old Testament holds 23,145 verses and the New Testament holds 7,957. Those totals sit inside 1,189 chapters and 66 books.

Here is the full picture:

Bible section	Books	Chapters	Verses
Old Testament	39	929	23,145
New Testament	27	260	7,957
Total	66	1,189	31,102

A single verse is one numbered line inside a chapter. Some are only two words long. Others run to a full paragraph. The numbers exist so that two readers, sitting in different countries, can both open the same sentence.

Table of contents

• Where 31,102 Comes From
• The Old Testament: 23,145 Verses
• The New Testament: 7,957 Verses
• Which Books Carry the Most Verses
• The Longest and Shortest Passages
• Why Counts Differ Between Bibles
• Who Added the Verse Numbers
• A Simple Reading Plan
• Common Questions

 Where 31,102 Comes From 

The number belongs to one text: the King James Version, printed in the standard 66-book Protestant Bible.

Count every verse in that text and you land on 31,102. Count the chapters and you get 1,189. Count the books and you get 66 — 39 before Christ, 27 after.

The King James Version also runs 783,137 words across roughly 3,116,480 letters. Those figures are fixed, because the text is fixed. Any copy of the KJV you pick up carries the same total. If you want the chapter side of the same question, see how many chapters are in the Bible.

 The Old Testament: 23,145 Verses 

The Old Testament fills 39 books with 23,145 verses inside 929 chapters. That is close to three-quarters of the whole Bible.

The books cover a wide range. There is law, history, poetry, wisdom writing and the messages of the prophets. They follow one nation and its long relationship with God.

 The New Testament: 7,957 Verses 

The New Testament fills 27 books with 7,957 verses inside 260 chapters. It covers the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus, then the early church and the letters written to it.

It is roughly a quarter of the Bible by verse count — yet it carries the passages most readers quote from memory.

 Which Books Carry the Most Verses 

Not every book is the same size. A short letter like 2 John holds 13 verses; a long poetic collection holds thousands.

Book	Testament	Chapters	Verses
Psalms	Old	150	2,461
Genesis	Old	50	1,533
Jeremiah	Old	52	1,364
Isaiah	Old	66	1,292
Numbers	Old	36	1,288
Luke	New	24	1,151
Matthew	New	28	1,071
Acts	New	28	1,007
John	New	21	879
Romans	New	16	433

Psalms is the largest book in the Old Testament with 2,461 verses. Its 150 chapters mix praise, prayer, grief and thanksgiving, and their lengths vary a great deal — Psalm 119 alone holds 176 of those verses.

Luke is the largest book in the New Testament with 1,151 verses. It tells the story of Jesus in careful order and gives space to people the other Gospel writers pass by quickly.

A small caution on the Numbers total: a number of websites list 1,289 verses for the book of Numbers. The KJV, NIV and other standard translations give 1,288. The wrong figure gets copied around because it once appeared in an early list.

 The Longest and Shortest Passages {#longest}

Longest chapter: Psalm 119, at 176 verses. Each section begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is why it runs so long.

Shortest chapter: Psalm 117, at just two verses. It is also the middle chapter of the Bible — number 595 of 1,189.

Longest verse: Esther 8:9, which runs about 78 words in the King James Version — a single legal sentence packed with titles and provinces.

Shortest verse: this one depends on how you count.

• By number of words in English, John 11:35 wins: “Jesus wept” is two words.
• By number of letters in English, Job 3:2 wins: “He said” is only six letters.
• In the original Greek, 1 Thessalonians 5:16 is shortest, at 14 letters. John 11:35 has 16 in Greek.
• In the original Hebrew consonants, 1 Chronicles 1:25 is shortest, at nine letters.

So John 11:35 is not the only contender. It is simply the one everybody remembers.

 Why Counts Differ Between Bibles 

The phrase “31,102 verses” is only complete once you name the version and the tradition behind it. Three things move the number.

Which books are inside. 

Protestant Bibles carry 66 books. Catholic Bibles carry 73, because they include the Deuterocanonical writings. Eastern Orthodox Bibles carry 76 to 78. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Bible carries 81. Every added book adds verses.

How Psalms are numbered. 

Jewish tradition treats the headings of many Psalms as separate verses, while Christian practice leaves those headings unnumbered. The result is about 116 more verses in Jewish versions of the same text.

Where a verse is split or joined. 

Translators sometimes combine two short verses into one line, or move a doubtful passage into a footnote. A handful of verses changes position, and the running total shifts slightly.

This is why a careful answer always names its source. A number without a version is only half an answer.

 Who Added the Verse Numbers 

The original writers used no chapters and no verse numbers. Those came centuries later, and they were invented for navigation, not for meaning.

• Chapters: the division used in most Bibles today comes from Stephen Langton, an archbishop of Canterbury, in the early 1200s. Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro produced a rival scheme around 1238.
• Verses: the numbering now in print was created by the Paris printer Robert Estienne. He used it in his 1551 Greek New Testament, his 1553 Hebrew Bible, and a 1555 Latin Vulgate — the first Bible to print verse numbers directly inside the text.

A reference like John 3:16 therefore points to a book, a chapter and a verse. It hands two strangers the same sentence to discuss.

 A Simple Reading Plan

A total of 31,102 verses sounds heavy until you divide it.

• Three verses a day finishes the Bible in about 28 years. That sounds slow, but it never misses a day and never feels like a task.
• One chapter a day finishes in roughly three years and three months, since there are 1,189 chapters.
• Three to four chapters a day finishes inside a year — the schedule most one-year plans use.
• One Psalm a day covers all 150 in five months and gives you a natural stopping point every morning.

Write nothing down at first. Read the passage, close the book, and keep one sentence in your head. If you want the timing worked out in hours rather than days, see how long it takes to read the Bible.

 Common Questions 

Is 31,102 the exact number of verses in the Bible?

It is the exact count for the King James Version of the 66-book Protestant Bible. Other versions and traditions give slightly different totals.

Which book of the Bible has the most verses? 

Psalms, with 2,461 verses. In the New Testament, Luke leads with 1,151.

How many verses are in the Old and New Testaments together? 

23,145 in the Old Testament plus 7,957 in the New Testament equals 31,102.

Do Catholic Bibles have more verses than Protestant Bibles? 

Usually yes. Catholic Bibles carry 73 books rather than 66, so they include verses that Protestant editions leave out.

Were verse numbers in the original manuscripts? 

No. Chapters arrived in the 1200s and verse numbers in the 1550s, both added to help readers find passages.

Can I read every verse in one year? 

Yes. Read three to four chapters a day and you will finish in about twelve months.

 The Short Answer Once More 

The Bible has 31,102 verses in the King James Version — 23,145 in the Old Testament and 7,957 in the New. Change the version or the list of books, and the total moves a little.

The verse numbers themselves came long after the writing. They are a map, not the message. Now that you know the shape of the whole book, pick a chapter and start. If you are curious how long that book is on paper, see how many pages are in the Bible. And if this made you want to know what the Bible says about itself, start with God’s Word.