Bible facts and trivia
The 39 books of the Old Testament were composed between 1400 and 400 B.C., the 27 books of the New Testament between A.D. 50 and A.D. 100.
Discover: Who wrote the Bible?
Discover: How Many Bible Promises are There?
When the Bible was first written, there were no chapters or verses as today. In fact, many of the early, handwritten manuscripts were written without spaces between the words! Stephen Langton divided the Bible into chapters about A.D. 1228. The Old Testament was divided into verses by R. Nathan in A.D. 1448, and Robert Stephanus divided the New Testament into verses in A.D. 1551. The first complete Bible with chapter and verse divisions was the Geneva Bible of A.D. 1560.
Books of the Bible:
Old Testament: 39 books
New Testament: 27 books
Complete Bible: 66 books
Middle book of the Old Testament: Proverbs
Middle book of the New Testament: 2 Thessalonians
Verses:
Old Testament: 23,214 verses
New Testament: 7,959 verses
Complete Bible: 31,173 verses
Middle verse of the Bible (KJV): Psalms 103:1,2
-(There are two middle verses, since the KJV has an even number of verses.)
Middle verse of the Old Testament: 2 Chronicles 20:17
Middle verse of the New Testament: Acts 17:17
Shortest verse of the Old Testament: 1 Chronicles 1:25
Shortest verse of the New Testament: "Jesus wept." John 11:35;
"Rejoice evermore" 1 Thessalonians 5:16
Longest verse in the Bible: Esther 8:9
Verse containing all letters of the alphabet except "J": Ezra 7:21
Verse containing all letters of the alphabet except "Q": Daniel 4:37
Verses most alike: Psalm 107:8,15,21, 31
Chapters:
Old Testament: 929
New Testament: 260
Entire Bible: 1,189
Middle chapter of Old Testament: Job 29
Middle chapter of New Testament: Romans 13
Middle and shortest chapter of Bible: Psalms 117
Longest chapter in the Bible: Psalm 119
Chapters that are most alike: 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37
Words:
In the Old Testament: 592,439 words
In the New Testament: 181,253 words
Complete Bible: 773, 692 words
Longest word in the Bible (18 letters): Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isaiah 8:1)
Words occurring only once in the Bible: eternity (Isaiah 57:15); grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5); gnat (Matthew 23:24)
