Fruit of the Spirit
The fruit of the Spirit is nine qualities listed in Galatians 5:22-23. The King James Version names them as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. The World English Bible words the same list as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Fruit is singular in both texts, and the verses just before it name 17 works of the flesh.
Updated October 24, 2026. Verses are quoted from the King James Version and the World English Bible. Word counts are of the exact word as the translation prints it in Galatians 5:22-23.
The nine fruits of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23 in the King James Version, then the World English Bible, with the Greek word Paul wrote for each.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
| # | KJV | WEB | Greek | KJV count | WEB count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | love | love | ἀγάπη (agapē) | 310 | 353 |
| 2 | joy | joy | χαρά (chara) | 165 | 172 |
| 3 | peace | peace | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | 429 | 412 |
| 4 | longsuffering | patience | μακροθυμία (makrothymia) | 17 | 15 |
| 5 | gentleness | kindness | χρηστότης (chrēstotēs) | 4 | 211 |
| 6 | goodness | goodness | ἀγαθωσύνη (agathōsynē) | 51 | 33 |
| 7 | faith | faith | πίστις (pistis) | 247 | 249 |
| 8 | meekness | gentleness | πραΰτης (prautēs) | 14 | 11 |
| 9 | temperance | self-control | ἐγκράτεια (enkrateia) | 4 | 9 |
The Greek words are the ones Biblehub's interlinear prints for Galatians 5:22-23 (read October 24, 2026). Counts are of the exact word: loved, loveth, joyful and similar forms are left out, and the love, joy and peace pages count their forms separately. The World English Bible's "kindness" count includes every Old Testament use of the word, not only Galatians.
How often each fruit appears in the Bible
Times the King James Version prints the word, in all 66 books. Peace leads and temperance is last.
Peace appears 429 times in 400 verses across 59 books, and its busiest books are Leviticus and Isaiah, with 32 each. At the other end, "temperance" appears 4 times and "gentleness" also 4. The word "temperance" first shows up in Acts 24:25, where Paul reasons with Felix about "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come", and again in Galatians 5:23 and twice in 2 Peter 1:6.
One of the nine is rare in the King James Version and common in the World English Bible, for a reason of translation. "Kindness" is the World English Bible's word for Galatians' chrēstotēs and it also fills the Old Testament, so it appears 211 times there against 4 for the King James "gentleness". The counts are not a ranking of importance; they show how a translation spreads its words.
The fruit and the works of the flesh
Paul sets the list against 17 works of the flesh in the three verses before it, Galatians 5:19-21. One side is "works", plural, and the other is "fruit", singular.
Works of the flesh, KJV (17)
Adultery, Fornication, Uncleanness, Lasciviousness, Idolatry, Witchcraft, Hatred, Variance, Emulations, Wrath, Strife, Seditions, Heresies, Envyings, Murders, Drunkenness, Revellings.
Fruit of the Spirit, KJV (9)
Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance.
The World English Bible also counts 17 works of the flesh: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies. Both translations end the fruit list with the same sentence, "against such there is no law" in the King James Version and "against such things there is no law" in the World English Bible.
Where "fruit of the Spirit" appears
The exact phrase appears 2 times in the King James Version, in Galatians 5:22 and Ephesians 5:9, and 2 times in the World English Bible. Ephesians 5:9 reads "the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth", which is a different list of three. So the nine in Galatians are the only list under that name with more than three items. 1 Corinthians 13:13 reads "faith, hope, charity": faith and love (the King James "charity") are on the Galatians list, and hope is not.
Read the verses by theme on our pages for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faith, and self-control. The chapter and verse counts for Galatians are on its book page.
Limits of these counts
A word count shows how a translation uses a word, not how much the Bible teaches about it. Love, for example, is also written as loved, loveth and loving, none of which are in the table. A reader who studies one quality should use the topic pages linked above, which gather verses by meaning. The Greek words come from one interlinear and the translation choices are the translators', so a different version will give a different list of English words.
Questions about the fruit of the Spirit
What are the 9 fruits of the Spirit?
Galatians 5:22-23 lists love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance in the King James Version. In the World English Bible the list reads love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control.
Where is the fruit of the Spirit in the Bible?
Galatians 5:22-23 holds the list. The phrase "fruit of the Spirit" appears 2 times in the King James Version, in Galatians 5:22 and Ephesians 5:9. The second one, Ephesians 5:9, lists a different set: goodness, righteousness and truth.
Is it fruit or fruits of the Spirit?
Both translations write "fruit", singular, and then give the list. The same passage uses "works", plural, for the flesh: 17 of them in the King James Version.
Why do the lists differ between Bible versions?
The Greek has nine words, and translators choose different English for some of them. The King James "longsuffering" is "patience" in the World English Bible, "gentleness" (Greek chrēstotēs) becomes "kindness", "meekness" (prautēs) becomes "gentleness", and "temperance" becomes "self-control". So "gentleness" names a different Greek word in each translation.
Which fruit of the Spirit is mentioned most in the Bible?
Counting the exact word, peace appears 429 times in the King James Version, more than any other word on the list. Temperance appears 4 times, in 3 verses.
Sources
- The King James Version (1769) and the World English Bible, both public domain: every verse quoted and every count on this page, counted by scripts/build-bible-lists.mjs from the text at github.com/seven1m/open-bibles (read and counted 2026-10-24).
- Biblehub, Galatians 5 interlinear: the Greek word behind each fruit (read 2026-10-24).
More counts are on the Bible by the numbers. See the armor of God, another list from Paul's letters, or how many times any word is mentioned in the Bible.
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 2026-10-24.