How many books are in the Bible? Books of the Bible in order

The Bible looks like one book, but inside it is a whole library. It was written over more than a thousand years by many authors, in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and it contains history, law, poetry, prophecy, accounts of the life of Jesus and letters to churches.

In the Bibles used by Protestant churches, that library has 66 books. A Catholic or Orthodox Bible has a few more. Here are all the books in order, why the count differs, and why it matters for the way we read.

The books of the Bible in order

The Old Testament contains 39 books written before the coming of Christ. John MacArthur notes that they come from many periods, places and cultures, yet together form one revelation of God. Here they are in the order of Protestant Bibles, in their usual groups:

• The Law, also called the Pentateuch (5 books): Genesis 1, Exodus 1, Leviticus 1, Numbers 1, Deuteronomy 1
• History (12 books), the story of Israel in the promised land, the kings, the exile and the return: Joshua 1, Judges 1, Ruth 1, 1 Samuel 1, 2 Samuel 1, 1 Kings 1, 2 Kings 1, 1 Chronicles 1, 2 Chronicles 1, Ezra 1, Nehemiah 1, Esther 1
• Poetry and wisdom (5 books): Job 1, Psalm 1, Proverbs 1, Ecclesiastes 1, Song of Solomon 1
• The Major Prophets (5 books): Isaiah 1, Jeremiah 1, Lamentations 1, Ezekiel 1, Daniel 1
• The Minor Prophets (12 books), called “minor” because they are shorter, not because they are less important: Hosea 1, Joel 1, Amos 1, Obadiah 1, Jonah 1, Micah 1, Nahum 1, Habakkuk 1, Zephaniah 1, Haggai 1, Zechariah 1, Malachi 1

The Jewish Bible contains exactly the same writings but counts them as 24 books, because it treats pairs such as 1 and 2 Samuel or 1 and 2 Kings as single books and gathers the twelve minor prophets into one. It divides them into three parts: the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. Jesus pointed to this threefold Scripture after His resurrection:

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Luke 24:44 · King James Version (1769)

Albert Barnes explains that this division was in use long before Christ, and that by naming the Psalms Jesus meant the whole third part, the Writings, which the book of Psalms opens. Jesus was saying that every part of the Old Testament spoke of Him.

The New Testament contains 27 books written in the decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection:

• The Gospels (4 books), the life, death and resurrection of Jesus: Matthew 1, Mark 1, Luke 1, John 1
• Acts, the story of the early church from Jerusalem to Rome: Acts 1
• The Epistles of Paul (13 books): Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 2 Corinthians 1, Galatians 1, Ephesians 1, Philippians 1, Colossians 1, 1 Thessalonians 1, 2 Thessalonians 1, 1 Timothy 1, 2 Timothy 1, Titus 1, Philemon 1
• The General Epistles (8 books): Hebrews 1, James 1, 1 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1, 1 John 1, 2 John 1, 3 John 1, Jude 1
• Revelation, John’s vision of the risen Christ and the end of history: Revelation 1

Virtually all Christian churches agree on these 27 books. Only the order can differ a little: in Orthodox Bibles, such as the Russian Synodal translation, the seven letters from James to Jude come right after Acts, before the letters of Paul.

Why Catholic and Orthodox Bibles have more books

The difference lies only in the Old Testament. Catholic Bibles have 73 books in total: besides the 39, they include Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus) and Baruch, as well as additional passages in Esther and Daniel. Catholics call these books deuterocanonical, meaning “belonging to the second canon.” Orthodox Bibles include them too, usually with a few more, such as 3 Maccabees and the Prayer of Manasseh; the exact list varies between Orthodox churches.

These books were not part of the Hebrew Bible. They were read among Greek-speaking Jews and later appeared in many manuscripts of the Greek Old Testament, which the early church used widely.

Protestants follow the Hebrew Bible for the Old Testament. Paul says that the Jewish people were entrusted with the oracles of God (Romans 3:2). MacArthur explains that Paul means the whole Old Testament here, and Barnes adds that “no people ever guarded a sacred trust or deposit with more fidelity” than the Jews guarded the Scriptures. At the Reformation, Martin Luther printed the additional books in a separate section between the Testaments as useful and good to read, but not equal to Scripture. Protestants usually call them the Apocrypha. In Russian, the full editions of the Synodal translation include these books but mark them as non-canonical.

Protestants still value them. Matthew Henry, for example, praises the wise sayings of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon while ranking them far below Proverbs, and he turns to the history of the Maccabees to explain the Feast of Dedication mentioned in the Gospel of John (John 10:22). Christians who differ on this question still read the same Gospels, confess the same Lord and agree on the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 of the New.