How Many Chapters Are in the Bible? (Total by Book)

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

How many chapters are in the Bible? It sounds like a straightforward question. But as is often the case when it comes to the Bible, the simplicity is deceptive.

In his book The Bible as Literature, John B. Gabel and his co-authors famously remarked:

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Perhaps that is one of the reasons why the Bible has had such a profound and lasting impact on Western civilization. Its diversity of genres, authors, and voices (ranging from ancient legal codes to lyric poetry, royal annals to visionary apocalypse) has allowed it to speak across time, place, and culture.

And though it’s often called “the Good Book,” it’s more accurately described as a library of books, each with its own structure and scope.

In the following content, we won’t unpack theological doctrines or literary devices. Instead, we’ll explore the Bible’s architecture, specifically its division into chapters. Where did these divisions come from? How many are there in each book? Do the numbers differ between Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Bibles? Let’s begin with the Old Testament.

How Many Chapters Are in the Bible? The Old Testament

To answer the question “How many chapters are in the Bible?”, we must begin with a brief introduction to the historical context of the Bible itself, particularly the Old Testament, or what Jews traditionally refer to as the Hebrew Scriptures. 

These texts were written, preserved, and interpreted over many centuries, long before chapter numbers were ever conceived.

By the 1st century C.E., Jewish texts were already treated as Scripture, but there was no universally fixed list of what that included. 

Evidence from Second Temple Jewish literature (including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the writings of Philo of Alexandria) suggests an awareness of a three-part structure: Torah (Law), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).

However, this tripartite division was still fluid in terms of its exact contents. Different Jewish groups (such as the Essenes at Qumran or various Diaspora communities) relied on somewhat different textual collections.

As Lee M. McDonald notes in The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon:

A turning point came in 70 C.E., when the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple. With the end of the sacrificial system, Judaism (gradually!) became even more deeply centered around texts and their interpretation.

It’s crucial to recognize, however, that none of these texts originally came with chapter numbers. Chapter divisions (so familiar to us now) are a medieval invention. They were first systematically introduced in the 13th century by Stephen Langton, a professor at the University of Paris and later Archbishop of Canterbury.

He designed his system to make the Bible easier to reference, particularly for theological argument and debate. While these divisions do not always reflect the natural literary or thematic breaks in the text, they quickly became standard across Christian Bibles but also made an impact on the Jewish tradition itself.

With that background in place, we can now turn to the contents of the Old Testament: Its major sections, books, and chapters in each.

How Many Chapters Are in the Bible? Pentateuch/Torah

The first major section of the Old Testament is known as the Pentateuch (a term derived from the Greek meaning “five scrolls”). These five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) stand at the foundation of Jewish and Christian Scriptures.

John J. Collins, in Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, explains:

The Pentateuch has 187 chapters and stands as one of the most important parts of the Bible, influencing emergence and the development of both Jewish and Christian traditions. Let’s now take a look at the collection of the so-called “historical books” of the Old Testament!

How Many Chapters Are in the Bible? Historical Books

It’s a fascinating collection of books, containing fascinating stories and legends about the history of the Jewish people. If you want to know more on these books from a world renowned scholar, check out Joel Baden’s course The Rise and Fall of Biblical Israel, and explore the dramatic history behind Israel's origins, kings, and collapse.

How Many Chapters Are in the Bible: Wisdom Literature

These books combine 243 chapters devoted to themes such as wisdom, suffering, worship, and love.

How Many Chapters Are in the Bible: Prophets

The books of the prophets occupy a central place in the Christian reading of the Old Testament. Throughout history, many Christians have seen these texts not only as records of ancient Israelite prophecy but also as foreshadowing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Among the most frequently cited passages are those from the Book of Isaiah, particularly the so-called “suffering servant” poems (e.g., Isaiah 53), traditionally interpreted by Christians as predictive of Christ’s passion.

While this interpretive strategy reflects a (later) Christian theological framework, it’s important to remember that these texts were written centuries before Jesus and originally addressed the historical and religious crises of ancient Israel and Judah.

Scholars typically divide the prophetic books into two categories: Major Prophets (5) and Minor Prophets (12). This distinction doesn’t refer to the importance of the figures or their messages but rather to the length and scale of the books. Let’s take a look, starting with the Major Prophets!

With 250 chapters across the Major and Minor Prophets, this final section of the Old Testament speaks powerfully to themes of judgment, hope, and restoration.

Our journey into the issue of how many chapters are in the Bible now shifts from the Hebrew Scriptures to the writings of the New Testament, where a new set of authors continues the story in a radically different historical and theological context.

How Many Chapters Are in the Bible: The New Testament

The books of the New Testament were written over the course of the 1st century C.E., with a few (e.g., 2 Peter) probably composed in the early 2nd century.

The earliest writings (widely accepted as the authentic letters of Paul) were likely penned between the late 40s and early 60s C.E. The four Gospels, Acts, and other epistles followed in the subsequent decades, with the Book of Revelation often dated to the late 1st century. 

These texts emerged from diverse communities across the Roman Empire, written in Greek and shaped by differing theological perspectives and historical contexts. What would eventually become the New Testament was, at its inception, a scattered collection of writings, reflecting different social and theological concerns. 

The process of canonization was neither immediate nor uncontested. By the end of the 2nd century, many Christian communities aligned with what would later be called proto-orthodoxy had begun to converge on a core group of texts, including the four Gospels and most of the Pauline epistles. Yet, they didn’t universally accept these from the outset.

As Harry Gamble notes in his book The New Testament Canon: Its Making and Meaning:

As late as the 4th century, disagreements persisted regarding certain texts. A striking example is the Codex Alexandrinus, one of the oldest surviving complete manuscripts of the Bible (dating to the 5th century but often reflecting earlier traditions), which includes 1 and 2 Clement (non-canonical epistles) as part of the New Testament corpus.

As with the Old Testament, chapter divisions in the New Testament are a much later development. Recall that the system we now use traces back to Stephen Langton, whose efforts in the early 13th century at the University of Paris led to a standardized framework applied across both Testaments.

Langton’s chapter divisions were adopted widely in manuscript traditions and later became embedded in the first printed editions of the Bible. Although sometimes interrupting the natural flow of the text or cutting across literary units, these divisions remain the primary means by which readers today navigate the New Testament.

With this in mind, we now turn to the structure of the New Testament itself: Its books, their arrangement, and the number of chapters they contain.

How Many Chapters Are in the Bible: Gospels and the Book of Acts

The four New Testament Gospels are among the most important parts of the Bible. Together with the Book of Acts they recount the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, followed by the first account of the Christian movement’s spread. To learn more about the authors behind these compositions, check out our separate articles (here, here, and here).

How Many Chapters Are in the Bible: Pauline Epistles

Paul’s letters are widely regarded by scholars as the earliest Christian writings, offering invaluable insight into the beliefs, practices, and challenges of the first Christian communities across the Mediterranean world.

Although the New Testament contains 13 letters attributed to Paul, most scholars agree only seven were genuinely written by him. The remaining epistles are considered forgeries, likely composed by later followers who wrote in Paul’s name to lend apostolic authority to their own theological positions and pastoral concerns.

In total, that is 87 chapters of early Christian letters, covering different aspects of theology and communal life. Let’s now move to the Catholic (universal!) epistles and the Book of Revelation.

How Many Chapters Are in the Bible: Catholic Epistles and Revelation

Before we begin, it’s important to clarify that the Catholic Epistles aren’t so named due to their exclusivity to the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, the term “Catholic” comes from the Greek word katholikos, meaning “universal.”

These letters were traditionally perceived as addressed not to a single congregation (as Paul’s letters often were) but to a broader audience of Christians across various regions.

As our journey into the structure of the Biblical books comes to an end, we’ll take a brief look at two separate yet related issues that reflect the various ways the history of the Bible unfolded!

How Many Chapters Are in the King James Bible?

The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, commissioned by King James I of England and first published in 1611, remains one of the most influential and widely read translations in the English-speaking world.

Produced by a team of over 40 scholars drawing from earlier English versions and Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek sources, the KJV was intended to provide a unified text for use in the Church of England.

The KJV follows the Protestant canon of 66 books, comprising 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.

How many chapters are in the KJV? It contains 1,189 chapters: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New Testament. These chapter divisions, inherited from earlier medieval systems such as that of Stephen Langton, were fully standardized in the printed editions used by the KJV translators.

How Many Chapters Are in the Catholic Bible?

By contrast, the Catholic Bible includes a broader Old Testament canon that encompasses several books written in Greek or preserved only in Greek translation. These are known as the Deuterocanonical books and include works such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and additional portions of Daniel and Esther.

These texts were widely used in Hellenistic Jewish communities and early Christianity. While debates over their status persisted for centuries, the Council of Trent in 1546 definitively affirmed them as canonical. This was a central event in the Catholic Church’s Counter-Reformation. 

In any case, this means that the Catholic Bible contains 73 books: the same 27 New Testament texts shared across all Christian traditions, plus 46 Old Testament books.

This expanded canon brings the total number of chapters in the Catholic Bible to approximately 1,334 chapters. The exact number may vary slightly depending on how chapters are counted in certain books (especially in Jeremiah or Psalms).

In sum, when we ask “How many chapters are in the Bible?”, the answer depends significantly on which Bible we’re talking about. As it turns out, Christians couldn’t even agree on the table of contents, let alone the exact chapters.

Conclusion

How many chapters are in the Bible? As we’ve seen, the answer isn’t fixed but shaped by history, tradition, and theological perspective. The Protestant Bible contains 1,189 chapters, the Catholic Bible approximately 1,334, and other Christian traditions, such as the Eastern Orthodox Church, include even more.

What remains consistent, however, is the function of chapter divisions: they aren’t original to the texts but have become essential for navigating, referencing, and interpreting the Scriptures.

While the Bible may be read as a unified story of divine-human interaction (especially within the religious circles), its internal structure (books, sections, and chapters) tells us just as much about its transmission across centuries as it does about its content.