How many chapters are in John?
John has 21 chapters and 879 verses. The King James Version text of John runs 19,093 words, about 1 hour 20 minutes of reading at 238 words a minute. It is book 43 of the 66 books of the Bible (4th of the 27 New Testament books) and the 19th longest by word count.
Verses in each chapter of John
The longest chapter is John 6 with 71 verses; the shortest is John 2 with 25.
Longest and shortest verse in John
Longest: John 8:44, 56 words in the KJV.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Shortest: John 11:35, 2 words in the KJV.
Jesus wept.
How John begins and ends
First verse, John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Last verse, John 21:25
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they would all be written, I suppose that even the world itself wouldn’t have room for the books that would be written.
John in our topic collections
104 verses from John appear on our Bible verse topic pages, most often in these topics:
- Bible Verses About Salvation (11 from John)
- Bible Verses About Alcohol (11 from John)
- Bible Verses About Grief (7 from John)
- Bible Verses About Eternal Life (7 from John)
- Bible Verses About Holy Spirit (7 from John)
- Bible Verses About Love (6 from John)
- Bible Verses About Heaven (6 from John)
- Bible Verses About Death (6 from John)
- Bible Verses About Communion (6 from John)
- Bible Verses About Family (6 from John)
- Bible Verses About Christmas (5 from John)
- Bible Verses About Truth (5 from John)
John: common questions
How many chapters are in the book of John?
John has 21 chapters. The longest chapter is John 6 with 71 verses; the shortest is John 2 with 25.
How many verses are in John?
John has 879 verses in the King James Version, and the same number in the World English Bible.
How long does it take to read John?
About 1 hour 20 minutes at an average silent reading speed of 238 words a minute. The KJV text is 19,093 words and the World English Bible text is 18,725 words.
What is the longest verse in John?
John 8:44 is the longest verse in John, at 56 words in the King James Version. The shortest is John 11:35 (2 words): "Jesus wept."
Compare all 66 books on how many books are in the Bible, see the Bible by the numbers, or work out how long it takes to read the Bible at your own pace.
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 2026-10-02.