Jul 15, 20 most resources claim that the book of psalms is the longest book in the old testament, and therefore the bible. The eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. Romans 9447 1 corinthians 9489 2 corinthians 6092 galations 3098 ephesians 3039 pilippians 2003 colossians 1998 1 thessalonians 1857 2 thessalonians 1042 1 timothy 2269 2 timothy 1703 titus 921 philemon 445. Actually, the number of letters would be even better. Many books and websites list faulty statistics on the king james bible. Armen shekoyan, an armenian writer committed to producing the worlds longest novel, says. They could add extra columns for the total words for each version, as well as add another line for. The bible is an amalgamation of different books written by different people. As for the number of letter characters in the bible, the total count is a staggering 3,116,480. The first book in each series below was the authors first. If you count the number of bible verses, then psalms is easily the longest book in the bible, but is it really the biggest. Even though psalms has more contributors than any other book of the bible, it turns out that two other books are much longer than psalms. Jul 11, 2011 the longest book in the new testament is the gospel of luke. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count.
The shortest book in the bible by word count is 3 john, with only 219 words in the bible s original language. The middle verse of the bible is the 8th verse of the 118th psalm. The fifth shortest book of the bible is jude with a count of 461 words. The fourth longest book of the bible is ezekiel with 29,918 words. How many words in each book of the bible the holy word.
Mahershalalhashbaz was a son of the prophet isaiah. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Sticking with the english, the total word count of the four gospels matthew, mark, luke, john is 83,898. Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. The second longest word in the bible is chushanrishathaim 17 letters. The secondshortest book by word count, 2 john, has 245 words, but it has fewer verses than 3 john. Aug 23, 2016 the second longest word in the bible is chushanrishathaim 17 letters. Its not the number of words, or verses, or chapters but the actual space displaced in a bible though not counting the empty spaces. Longest and shortest book in the new testament daniel ayad. Longest and shortest book in the new testament daniel. That left me with 66 logos word lists, each giving me every originallanguage word in a given book of the bible. Word counts on every book of the bible from longest to shortest.
Despite the gospel of luke containing 24 chapters, four less than both matthew and acts, it contains more verses and words 1. Jeremiah 33,002 words genesis 32,046 words psalms 30,147 words ezekiel 29,918 words. The bible is one of the oldest texts in the history of the world. As a book, the bible is as thick as the lord of the rings and similar fantasy novel epics. And if were being technical, english wordcount shouldnt be. Originally published 164954 in ten parts, each part in three volumes, artamene is generally attributed to. And that, i believe, is the best answer you will ever get to this question. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner unaffected by variations of format and page size. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book.
For the statistically minded, luke contains 1151 verses compared to 1071 found in matthew and 1006 found in acts 2. What are the longest and shortest books of the bible. How can the books of the bible be listed from shortest to. The king james version kjv of this verse contains ninety words. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. For more detail and discussion of the comparison method, please see the measuring homestuck thread, where notegbert explains. The second longest book of the bible is genesis with 32,046 words. The word count 788,280 is based on the kjv and seems to be almost exactly as wed expect see our page on how many words in the bible for more information on this. I built one logos word list like this for every single book of the bible. While it is by far the longest book of the bible by the number of chapters, the book of psalms is only the third longest book of the bible according to the number of words.
Of course the number of books 66 and chapters 1,189 are fairly easy to count. King james version bible breakdown books, chapters, verses. Word counts on every book of the bible from longest to shortest 1 jeremiah 33,002 2 genesis 32,046 3 psalms 30,147 4 ezekiel 29,918 5 exodus 25,957 6 isaiah 25,608 7 numbers 25,048 8 deuteronomy 23,008 9. Are epistles of paul arranged by word count largest to. The kjv bible breakdown by books, chapters, verses and word counts click or. Special thanks go to logos bible software for making determining the longest book of the bible by hebrew or greek word count much easier. Most resources claim that the book of psalms is the longest book in the old testament, and therefore the bible. At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing veteran jane friedman said 80,000 words is good for most fiction, below 60,000 isnt novel length territory, and above 120,000 is likely too much. How many words in each book of the bible the holy word church. Jan 02, 2020 the fifth longest book of the bible is exodus with 25,957 hebrew words. If you write a book according to the usual criteria, one person may like it, the other may dislike it, but when you write ten volumes, no one will say that the book is in eight. Bible concordance all words in the king james version. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. The fifthlongest book of the bible is exodus with 25,957 hebrew words.
Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many. Judith was in the bible for over 1,000 years before protestants came onto the scene. The kjv bible breakdown by books, chapters, verses and word counts click or tap icons to share. The bible is a compilation of many shorter books written at different times by a variety of authors. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Amazing how much more one can say with fewer words in koine greek. Graphic units counts the number of hebrew words in a particular.
Aug 05, 2017 the criteria typically used to determine the length of the shortest book in the bible is the number of words in the book. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Traditionally, artamene ou le grand cyrus, has been considered the longest novel, but has lately been surpassed by at least one novel, or two depending on the criterion used to determine length. This article follows on from our earlier article how many words in the bible in. The word count 788,280 is based on the kjv and seems to be almost exactly as wed. If you like what you see, subscribe to our rss feed. Interestingly enough, the word count for the greek new testament is 8,020 depending on which edition one is using. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. What are the top ten longest books in the entirety of the kjv bible. The longest book of the new testament, and the twelfth longest book of the entire bible, is the gospel of luke with 19,482 greek words. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. For the statistically minded, luke contains 1151 verses compared to 1071 found in. A logical place logos could put it would be in the version river. How many books in the bible begin with the letter j.
As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. For example when it comes to verses i have read and heard preachers and teachers say there are 31,000 verses, 31,101 verses, 31,102 verses, 31,170 verses and. Psalms you may not know youve been singing beliefnet. Most resources claim that the book of psalms is the longest book in the old. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Proust produced the first volume of his volume masterpiece in 1912 it was first published in 19. I referenced the lexham hebrew bible for ot books and the na27 for nt books, and heres what i got. Once youre done reading about the worlds longest novel, check out some of our more recent articles or have a look at our notable posts, listed in the right sidebar. However when it comes to verses, words and letters, there are a wide variety of numbers floating around. These two letters begin the hebrew words open patuach and closed sagoor, and are. The fourth shortest book of the bible, and shortest book of the entire old testament, is obadiah with 440 hebrew words.
Special thanks go to logos bible software for making the process of determining the shortest book of the bible by hebrew or greek word count much easier. The longest book in the new testament is the gospel of luke. With 150 chapters, it has more than twice as many chapters as the next longest book, isaiah, and is equal to the combined. The difference is that the bible contains history and philosophy, and can be used for spiritual guidance. Jan 02, 2020 the fourth shortest book of the bible, and shortest book of the entire old testament, is obadiah with 440 hebrew words. However, another source, bible believers, states that the 1611 king james bible has a word count of 788,280 words. Book title chapter count verse count word count 1 genesis 50 1,533 38,262 2 exodus 40. But when measuring by hebrew word count, the longest book in the old testament is jeremiah with approximately 33,000 words in the original. Word count tool this tool also reports the number of syllables, monosyllabic words, polysyllabic words, sentences, paragraphs, unique words, short words, long words. The next longest is jeremiah, which is composed of 52 chapters, 1,364 verses and 42,659 words filling out the rest of the ten biggest books are ezekiel, genesis, isaiah, numbers, exodus, deuteronomy. Using a standard font, the average bible has around 1,200 pages. Oct 17, 2011 interestingly enough, the word count for the greek new testament is 8,020 depending on which edition one is using. The number of chapters does not matter, the number of words is what counts. A breakdown of the total number of books, chapters verses and words found in the king james version of the holy bible.
This is going by word count in the original languages not any english translation of the bible. There are some variations between versions with includedexcluded text and verses, however, for the purpose of establishing the relative lengths of each book, these counts are. Sep 06, 2016 most resources claim that the book of psalms is the longest book in the old testament, and therefore the bible. The fifth longest book of the bible is exodus with 25,957 hebrew words. Psalm 119, which has more words than any other chapter. King james version bible breakdown books, chapters. The longest verse in the bible can be found in the book of esther, chapter 8 verse 9. The 117th is also the midpoint of the bible by word count. The title translates to remembrance of things past. You can click on any book of the bible to read an overview of what its about. This is a list of the novels over 500,000 words published through a mainstream publisher. The number of letters or characters can also be used as a measure of book length, but character count has been traditionally applied to the length of verses and not the length of.
Heres a list of the ten longest books of the bible. The criteria typically used to determine the length of the shortest book in the bible is the number of words in the book. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Dec 08, 2015 looking for the longest book in the bible. Apr 18, 2008 the bible is an amalgamation of different books written by different people. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length.
The book of psalms has the most chapters of any book in the bible by far. For those who are looking for a lot of information in a very short book, 3 john is recommended reading. By word count, whats the longest book in the bible. The shortest book in the bible by word count is 3 john, with only 219 words in the bibles original language. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. But, if we are counting the number of words, do we count the english words or the hebrewgreek words. I used logos bible software to find out which books are the longest, by original word count. Combining this with my figures and existing word count, the adjusted count for homestuck is currently 58808 words. They already have the word count for a passage range available, since they display differences. If the calculation is based on the number of verses or the number of chapters or the number of pages, it is correct. Based on word count, the biggest book is the psalms with 150 chapters that contain 43,743 total words. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series. Psalms is often said to be the longest book in the bible because it has the most chapters, but a better indication of actual length is the number of words.
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