If you have ever typed “how many words are in the Bible” into a search box, you have probably noticed that every website gives a slightly different number. One page says 783,137. Another says 790,678. A third says 788,280. All of them are trying to answer one simple question, and all of them are partly right.
The Bible does not have a single fixed word count. It has several, because the number changes with the translation you read, the edition you hold, and the way the person counted. This guide gives you the simple answer first, then the numbers for the most popular English Bibles, the reasons behind the differences, and the longest and shortest books in Scripture. Everything is written in plain English, so you can finish it in a few minutes.
The Short Answer
A complete English Bible usually holds between 720,000 and 800,000 words. The figure you will see most often is 783,137 words, the traditional count for the King James Version King James Bible Dictionary. A second careful count of the same translation puts it at 790,678 words, and the very first 1611 edition has been counted at 788,280 words Word Counter.
Here is a quick look at the main English versions:
- King James Version (KJV): about 783,000 to 791,000 words
- New King James Version (NKJV): about 770,000 words
- New International Version (NIV): about 728,000 words
- English Standard Version (ESV): about 757,000 words
- New American Standard Bible (NASB): about 783,000 words
Whatever version you open, the framework stays the same in a Protestant Bible: 66 books, 1,189 chapters, and 31,102 verses Bible Memory Goal. The words change from one translation to another, but the number of books and chapters does not. If you would like to see how those chapters are spread across the Bible, our guide to how many chapters are in the Bible explains it book by book.
How Many Words Are in the King James Version?
The King James Version is the most counted Bible in English, which is why almost every article about Bible length starts with it. Two totals appear again and again, and both are honest counts.
The first is 783,137 words, the number shared by word-count websites and Bible fact pages. The second is 790,678 words, taken from a book-by-book tally of the same translation. In that second count, the Old Testament holds 610,296 words and the New Testament holds 180,382 Bible Memory Goal.
| Section | Approximate words | Books | Chapters |
| Old Testament | 602,000 to 610,300 | 39 | 929 |
| New Testament | 180,000 to 180,600 | 27 | 260 |
| Whole Bible | 783,000 to 790,700 | 66 | 1,189 |
The lesson from that table is simple: treat every Bible word count as an estimate, not as a fact carved in stone. When someone quotes an exact figure, it is fair to ask which edition was counted, because a 1611 printing and a modern digital copy can differ by thousands of words.
How Many Words Are in Other Popular Translations?
Older English uses more words. The King James Version repeats phrases such as “and it came to pass” and keeps words such as “thee” and “thou” that modern Bibles replace with one simple word: “you”. That single habit is why newer translations are usually shorter.
| Translation | Approximate total | Old Testament | New Testament |
| King James Version (KJV) | 783,137 (also counted at 790,678) | 602,000 to 610,300 | 180,000 to 180,400 |
| New King James Version (NKJV) | 770,430 | – | – |
| New International Version (NIV) | 727,969 to 727,993 | about 551,700 | about 176,200 |
| English Standard Version (ESV) | 756,846 to 757,439 | about 581,100 | about 175,700 |
| New American Standard Bible (NASB) | 782,815 | – | – |
Sources for the table: Word Counter and Bible Memory Goal.
The gap between the longest and the shortest Bible in that table is roughly 62,000 words, which is about the length of an average novel. Yet a reader who finishes the New International Version has read the same message as a reader who finishes the King James Version, from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation.
Why Every Bible Gives a Different Number
Three reasons explain almost every difference you will ever see.
Translation style comes first. The same idea needs a different number of words in each language. Hebrew is compact, Greek often packs detail into a single long word, and translators choose between a word-for-word and a thought-for-thought approach. One verse can end up short in one Bible and long in another.
Counting rules come second. Does the tally include chapter numbers, section headings, cross-references, footnotes, and words printed in italics? Some people count only the Scripture text. Others count everything printed on the page, and a study Bible can add hundreds of thousands of words that were never part of the biblical text at all.
The list of books comes third. Protestant Bibles carry 66 books, while Catholic Bibles add the Deuterocanonical books and reach 73. Orthodox Bibles may include a few more. Each added book pushes the total higher, so a Catholic Bible is naturally longer than a Protestant Bible written in the same style of translation.
Old Testament and New Testament Word Count
The Old Testament is far longer than the New Testament. In the King James Version it holds roughly 610,000 words against about 180,000, which makes it more than three times the size of the New Testament.
The verse count tells the same story. Of the 31,102 verses in the Bible, 23,145 sit in the Old Testament and 7,957 sit in the New. You can see those numbers book by book in our article on how many verses are in the Bible. Chapter counts follow the same pattern too: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New.
Which Book of the Bible Is the Longest?
This question has more than one fair answer, and it depends on whether you count the original languages or an English translation.
Jeremiah is the longest book when you count the Hebrew and Greek words: about 33,002 Overview Bible. Psalms takes first place when you count English words, because Hebrew poetry is short and punchy in the original but needs more words to translate, and in the King James Version it reaches roughly 43,738 words. In the earliest scrolls, 1 and 2 Kings were one book, and together they hold about 39,145 words Bible Memory Goal.
Close behind them sit Genesis with about 32,000 words and Ezekiel with about 29,900 Overview Bible. So if someone tells you that Psalms is the longest book of the Bible, they are right, as long as they mean the English text.
Which Book of the Bible Is the Shortest?
The answer here is either 2 John or 3 John, again depending on the version you read.
In the King James Version, 3 John is the shortest book at about 294 words. In the New International Version, 2 John comes first at about 302 words, and in the English Standard Version 2 John is shortest at about 300. In the original Greek, 3 John is shortest of all at roughly 219 words. After those two letters come Philemon at about 430 words, Jude at about 608 words, and Obadiah at about 669 words Bible Memory Goal.
The shortest verse is easier to remember than any word count. It is John 11:35, and in the King James Version it is only two words long: “Jesus wept.”
What About the Original Hebrew and Greek?
The first manuscripts had no chapters, no verses, and no spacing like the pages we read today. Chapter and verse numbers were added many centuries later by editors who simply wanted readers to find a passage quickly. That is why a verse number should never be treated as part of the inspired text. It is a road sign, not a landmark.
The length of the Bible in its original languages is usually given as more than 600,000 words, and that figure is an estimate too, because the ancient copies are not identical in every detail Overview Bible. If you enjoy this kind of background, our guide to the Jewish sacred scriptures shows how the Hebrew Bible was arranged long before chapters existed.
How Long Would It Take You to Read That Many Words?
Here is a friendly way to picture 783,000 words. An average adult reads about 200 to 250 words a minute, so the whole King James Version takes roughly 52 to 65 hours of steady reading. At fifteen minutes a day, most readers would reach the last page in about seven to nine months.
If you would like a real plan instead of a rough estimate, our guide on how long it takes to read the Bible gives daily reading targets for thirty days, six months, one year, and even a two-year plan. For readers who think in pages rather than hours, the article on how many pages are in the Bible shows how font size, layout, and study notes change the page count of the very same text.
Does the Bible Say How Many Words It Contains?
No. No verse gives a total word count, and no writer in Scripture ever tried to count the words. Every number you read today was produced by people, most of them using computers and Bible software. That is exactly why the totals differ, and why a careful Bible website always tells you which edition it counted.
It also means the number is not a measure of value. A modern translation is not weaker because it trims tens of thousands of words of old-fashioned grammar. The message is the same in every faithful version.
How to Use Bible Word Counts in Your Daily Study
Word counts are more than trivia. They help you plan.
If the Bible holds 31,102 verses and you read about 85 verses a day, you will finish it in a year. Three or four chapters a day gives almost the same result. If that feels heavy, begin with one short book and grow from there. The Gospel of Mark is a friendly starting point because it moves quickly. And on the days when reading feels hard, a set of Bible verses of encouragement is a gentle companion that can carry you to the next chapter.
Two more pages on this site are useful to keep beside your reading plan. Our collection of Bible quotes of wisdom gives you short lines to think about during the day, and the guide to a Bible verse about prayer helps you turn reading into a simple conversation with God.
You can also let length guide your choice of Bible. A compact edition with thin margins, and a study Bible with notes and maps, may carry the same text but feel completely different in your hands. Whichever one you pick, the important step is to open it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many words are in the Bible? A complete English Bible is usually between 720,000 and 800,000 words. The most common figure is 783,137 words for the King James Version.
Is the word count the same in every Bible? No. It changes with the translation, the edition, and the counting method. Modern translations such as the New International Version are shorter than the King James Version.
How many words are in the Old Testament? In the King James Version, about 602,000 to 610,000 words, which is more than three times the length of the New Testament.
What is the shortest book of the Bible? It is 3 John in the King James Version, at around 294 words, or 2 John in several modern translations, at around 300 words.
Why do some websites give a different number? They counted different editions, or they included or left out headings, footnotes, and italics. Some also counted the Deuterocanonical books found in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.
Does the King James Version have the most words of any English Bible? It is among the longest, together with the New American Standard Bible, because both keep older forms of English that use more words for the same meaning.
Final Words
The Bible is about 720,000 to 800,000 words long in English, with 783,137 words as the classic answer for the King James Version. The exact total shifts with the translation and the edition, and no verse in Scripture ever states the number.
What matters is not how many words the Bible holds, but how many you actually read. Open one chapter today, keep a steady pace, and the total will take care of itself.
Daniel Joseph shares powerful Bible-based reflections and Christian teachings designed to strengthen faith and bring readers closer to God’s word.
