Bible trivia questions and answers
34 Bible trivia questions with answers counted from the full text of the King James Version and World English Bible: the Bible has 31,102 verses in 1,189 chapters and 66 books, the shortest verse is John 11:35 ("Jesus wept.") and the longest chapter is Psalm 119. Each answer links to the page with the data.
Updated October 22, 2026. No answer here comes from memory or a quiz book: each is a count from the text, and the link under it opens the page with the full data.
How big is the Bible? (size questions)
1. How many books are in the Bible?
66: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, in the 66-book Protestant canon.
2. How many chapters are in the Bible?
1,189: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New.
3. How many verses are in the Bible?
31,102 in the King James Version (23,145 Old Testament, 7,957 New Testament). The World English Bible numbers 31,098, because it prints 7 verses as footnotes.
4. How many words are in the Bible?
790,325 in the King James Version and 751,245 in the World English Bible, verse text only.
5. How many pages are in the Bible?
About 3,161 at 250 words a page. That page size is a stated convention, not a printed count: real Bibles vary with type size and notes.
6. How long does it take to read the whole Bible?
About 55.3 hours silently at 238 words a minute, or 72.0 hours aloud at 183.
Books of the Bible trivia
7. What is the longest book of the Bible?
By words, Jeremiah: 42,693 words in the KJV, ahead of Psalms (42,683).
8. What is the shortest book of the Bible?
By words, 3 John: 294 words in the KJV. By verses it is 2 John with 13.
9. Which book of the Bible has the most chapters?
Psalms, with 150. It also has the most verses (2,461).
10. Which books of the Bible have only one chapter?
5 books: Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John and Jude.
11. What is the first book and the last book of the Bible?
Genesis is first and Revelation is last. The Old Testament runs from Genesis to Malachi, and the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation.
12. How many books are in each section of the Old Testament?
Law (the Pentateuch) 5, History 12, Poetry and wisdom 5, Major prophets 5, Minor prophets 12.
13. How many books are in each section of the New Testament?
Gospels 4, History 1, Epistles: Paul's letters 13, Epistles: general letters 8, Prophecy 1.
14. Which books of the Bible never use the word God?
Esther and Song of Solomon in the King James Version (the word God, gods and God's counted together).
15. How many chapters and verses are in Proverbs?
31 chapters and 915 verses. 1 Kings 4:32 says Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs.
16. How many chapters and verses are in Psalms?
150 chapters and 2,461 verses, the most of any book. Its longest chapter, Psalm 119, has 176 verses.
Longest, shortest and middle: verse and chapter trivia
17. What is the shortest verse in the Bible?
John 11:35, "Jesus wept." It is 2 words. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("Rejoice evermore.") is also 2 words in the KJV, but longer in letters.
18. What is the longest verse in the Bible?
Esther 8:9, at 90 words in the KJV (87 in the WEB).
19. What is the longest chapter in the Bible?
Psalm 119, with 176 verses. Numbers 7 is second with 89.
20. What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?
Psalm 117, with 2 verses and 33 words.
21. What is the longest chapter in the New Testament?
Luke 1, with 80 verses (1,583 words).
22. What is the longest verse in the New Testament?
Revelation 20:4, at 68 words.
23. What is the middle verse of the Bible?
The KJV has an even number of verses (31,102), so two share the middle: Psalm 103:1 and Psalm 103:2. Psalm 118:8, often called the middle verse, is verse number 15,878.
24. What is the middle chapter of the Bible?
Psalm 117, chapter number 595 of 1,189. It is also the shortest chapter in the Bible.
Names and words: how many times is it in the Bible?
25. How many times is Jesus mentioned in the Bible?
984 times in the KJV, in 943 verses. The book that uses the name most is John (256), then Matthew (172).
26. How many times is God in the Bible?
4,446 times for the word God in the KJV (4,716 with gods and God's), ignoring capital letters.
27. How many times is LORD in the Bible?
7,831 times for Lord and LORD together in the KJV (8,007 with lords and Lord's). Where the KJV prints LORD in capitals it stands for God's personal name.
28. Which person is named most often in the Bible?
Of the 20 people with a word page here, David (1,064 in the KJV), then Jesus (984) and Moses (847). Every spelling and possessive is counted.
29. Which city is mentioned most in the Bible?
Of the 23 cities with a word page here, Jerusalem (811 in the KJV), then Babylon (294) and Samaria (124).
30. How many times is love in the Bible?
310 times for the exact word love in the KJV, and 492 counting loved, loveth, loving and the other forms.
31. Does the Bible say "fear not" 365 times?
Not by our count. The exact phrase "fear not" appears 63 times in the KJV, and 103 times counting "fear ye not", "fear thou not" and "be not afraid".
32. How many times does Selah appear in the Bible?
75 times in the KJV, in 75 verses.
33. How many times does "verily, verily" appear?
25 times in the KJV, all in the Gospel of John. The World English Bible does not double the word.
34. How many times is Easter in the Bible?
1 time in the KJV (Acts 12:4, where the Greek word is pascha, the Passover). The World English Bible has none.
Want the numbers behind these answers? See the Bible by the numbers, how many times each word appears and what Bible names mean.
Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-10-22.