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How Many Books Are in the Bible? 66, 73 or More

· 9 min read

Most Protestant Bibles have 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. Catholic Bibles have 73, and Orthodox Bibles usually have a few more, because the traditions accept different books in the Old Testament. Below you will find the count for each tradition, the Jewish way of numbering the same scriptures, and how the books are grouped so you can find your way around this library.

How many books are in the Bible, by tradition?

The answer depends on which Bible you are holding. Protestant Bibles have 66 books. Catholic Bibles have 73. Eastern Orthodox Bibles usually have more than 73, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has the largest collection, traditionally counted as 81 books. The Jewish scriptures, called the Tanakh, are counted as 24 books, but they hold the same text as the Protestant Old Testament.

The differences are smaller than the numbers suggest. Almost every Christian church accepts the same 27 books of the New Testament. The variation is almost entirely in the Old Testament, where some traditions include extra books written in the centuries just before Jesus.

Why does the Protestant Bible have 66 books?

The Protestant Old Testament has 39 books and the New Testament has 27, which adds up to 66. During the Reformation in the 1500s, Protestant leaders chose to follow the books of the Hebrew scriptures for the Old Testament, since those were the books the Jewish community had kept in Hebrew.

The other books found in older Christian Bibles were not simply thrown away. Many early Protestant Bibles, including the original 1611 King James Version, printed them in a separate section called the Apocrypha, placed between the testaments. Some Protestant traditions, such as Anglicans, still read them as helpful for life and example but do not use them to set doctrine. Over time most Protestant Bibles stopped printing that section, which is why a typical Protestant Bible today has 66 books.

Why do Catholic Bibles have 73 books?

Catholic Bibles have 46 books in the Old Testament and the same 27 in the New. The seven extra books are Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch. Catholic Bibles also include longer versions of Esther and Daniel, with extra passages such as the stories of Susanna and of Bel and the Dragon.

Catholics call these seven books deuterocanonical, meaning they were recognized as part of the canon in a second stage, not that they matter less. They come from the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures that many early Christians used. The Catholic Church formally confirmed this list at the Council of Trent in 1546, following lists from earlier church councils in the late 300s. Protestants and Catholics see these books differently, and each side has reasons it considers faithful to the early church.

How many books are in the Orthodox Bible?

Eastern Orthodox churches accept the Catholic Old Testament books and usually add a few more. Many Orthodox Bibles include books such as 1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, the Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151, and some print 4 Maccabees as an appendix. Because the churches have not all fixed one official list, and because editions count some writings as separate books or as parts of others, you will see different totals, often in the mid-70s.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has the broadest Bible of all, traditionally counted as 81 books. It includes writings such as 1 Enoch and Jubilees, which other churches know about but do not treat as Scripture. Oriental Orthodox churches in Egypt, Syria and Armenia have their own traditions as well, which is another reason a single worldwide number is hard to give.

Why does the Hebrew Bible have only 24 books?

The Jewish Bible contains the same writings as the Protestant Old Testament, just counted differently. In Luke 24:44, the risen Jesus speaks of the scriptures by their sections, showing that the Jewish scriptures were already thought of as a collection with parts in his day.

Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”

Luke 24:44 · BSB

The Tanakh has three parts: the Torah, or Law (5 books); the Nevi'im, or Prophets (8 books); and the Ketuvim, or Writings (11 books). The count drops to 24 because some books that Christians split are kept whole: Samuel, Kings and Chronicles are one book each, Ezra and Nehemiah are one book, and the twelve shorter prophets from Hosea to Malachi form a single book called the Twelve.

The order is different too. Christian Old Testaments end with the prophet Malachi, which leads naturally into the Gospels. The Hebrew Bible ends with Chronicles, which closes with the people invited to return home and rebuild.

How are the books of the Old Testament grouped?

In most Christian Bibles, the 39 Old Testament books fall into five groups. Knowing them makes the Bible feel less like a wall of text and more like a library with shelves.

The Law, or Pentateuch, is Genesis through Deuteronomy: 5 books about creation, the early ancestors, the exodus from Egypt and God's covenant with Israel. The History books are Joshua through Esther: 12 books that follow Israel in the land, through kings, exile and return. The Wisdom or Poetry books are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon: 5 books of prayer, song and reflection on life.

The Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel, called major because they are longer, not more important. The Minor Prophets are the 12 shorter books from Hosea to Malachi. In Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, the extra books are placed among these groups: Tobit, Judith and Maccabees with the histories, Wisdom and Sirach with the wisdom books, and Baruch with the prophets.

How are the books of the New Testament grouped?

The 27 New Testament books also fall into clear groups. First come the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which tell of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. John 20:30–31 explains why at least one of them was written, and it is a good key to the whole New Testament: these books exist so that people might come to faith.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

John 20:30–31 · BSB

Next is Acts, a history of the first Christians spreading the message from Jerusalem outward. Then come 13 letters traditionally linked to Paul, Romans through Philemon, written to churches and to individuals. After them are 8 general letters: Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. Hebrews is sometimes grouped with Paul's letters in older tradition, though the letter itself does not name its author.

The New Testament closes with Revelation, a book of visions about God's final victory and the renewal of all things. The New Testament list of 27 books appears in a letter by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367, and nearly every church has used it since.

Does the different number of books change the Bible's message?

Christians who hold 66, 73 or 81 books share the same core story: God creating, calling a people, speaking through prophets and coming to the world in Jesus. Hebrews 1:1–2 captures how Christians of every tradition read the two testaments together, with the Old preparing the way and the Son as God's fullest word.

On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.

Hebrews 1:1–2 · BSB

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 · BSB

The disputed books do matter in some debates, and it is fair to say so. But no tradition's central beliefs about God, Jesus, the cross and the resurrection rest on a book the others reject. 2 Timothy 3:16–17 is the passage many Christians turn to when they ask what Scripture is for, and its point holds whichever books a church includes: the Bible is given to form people, not merely to be counted.

How to start finding your way around the books today

Open your Bible to its table of contents and find the five Old Testament groups and the five New Testament groups described above. Just seeing the shelves helps the whole library make sense. Then pick one book from each testament to begin: Mark is the shortest Gospel and reads quickly, and Psalms gives you words for prayer in almost any mood.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105 · BSB

Before you read, you might pray in your own words, asking God to help you understand and to meet you in what you read. Psalm 119:105 is a short prayer many readers take with them as they open the first page.

Questions people ask

How many chapters are in the Bible?

A Protestant Bible of 66 books has 1,189 chapters, and Catholic and Orthodox Bibles have more because they include more books. The chapter and verse numbers were not part of the original writings. They were added many centuries later to make passages easier to find.

Who decided which books are in the Bible?

No single person or meeting decided it all at once. Over generations, churches recognized the books that were widely read in worship, trusted as faithful to the apostles' teaching and used across many regions. Formal lists came later and mostly confirmed what churches were already reading.

Why do some books have numbers, like 1 and 2 Samuel?

Some long works were divided in two. Samuel, Kings and Chronicles were each one book in Hebrew, and the Greek translation split them, likely because they were too long for one scroll. Numbered books in the New Testament, such as 1 and 2 Corinthians or 1, 2 and 3 John, are different: they are separate letters by the same author.

Which is the longest book in the Bible?

Psalms is the longest by number of chapters, with 150 psalms in Protestant and Catholic Bibles. Orthodox Bibles add a Psalm 151. Measured by number of words, other books such as Jeremiah are sometimes counted as longer, depending on how you measure.

Written with AI help and reviewed by Miguel Ridruejo Mendoza before publishing. Bible quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is in the public domain. How we write.

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