King James Bible Statistics

by Nic Kizziah

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Many books and websites list faulty statistics on the King James Bible.  Of course the number of books (66) and chapters (1,189) are fairly easy to count.  However when it comes to verses, words and letters, there are a wide variety of numbers floating around.  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 31,175 verses. 

Many use the latter number and then proceed to tell you the middle verse is Psalm 118:8.  It reads as follows: It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.  Wow, what a verse to be right in the middle of your Bible.  Then they tell you to count the words in this middle verse.  There are fourteen.  That's seven plus seven.  That's the number of completeness and spiritual perfection doubled.  Then they direct you to the middle two words and they read "the Lord".  So the King James Bible has the words "the Lord" right in the center of it. 

I have read this in numerous books and on several websites.  I have heard it on tapes.  I have also received e-mails informing me of this information.  On top of all this I have heard my two most favorite preachers proclaim it from the pulpit.  It's funny how people copy from one another.  Here's the problem.  They started off with a faulty statistic.  They were taught there were 31,175 verses in the King James Bible and that's not true.

Hey but it gets even worse.  If there were 31,175 verses the middle verse would not be Psalm 118:8.  It would be Psalm 104:16.  This is the 15,588th verse in the King James Bible.  It reads as follows: The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; - hey nothing very astounding there that jumps off the page and slaps you in the face and makes you say wow!  In order for Psalm 118:8 (the 15,968th verse in the KJB) to be the middle verse there would have to be 31,935 verses in the King James Bible, which is simply not the case. 

One thing that is real ironic about all this is that the New King James Version has kept this verse intact as it is written in the King James Bible.  Nevertheless they did not hesitate to tamper with the previous seven verses in Psalm 118.  Apparently some one on that committee was aware of all this stuff going on in the center of the Bible.  It makes me laugh just to think about it. 

The truth is there are 31,102 verses in the King James Bible.  Therefore there is no single middle verse.  You cannot have a middle verse with an even number of verses.  However there are two middle verses.  These would be verses 15,551 and 15,552 (Psalms 103:1-2.) 

PSALM 103

B

LESS the LORD, O my soul:  and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 

These are the middle two verses of the King James Bible.  Both verses start with "Bless the LORD, O my soul".  Verse 1 continues - and all that is within me, bless his holy name.  Verse 2 concludes with - and forget not all his benefits.  These are powerful words coming from the two center verses of the Book.  

Now let's count the words in these two middle verses.  There are twenty-eight.  That's twice as many as in the imaginary middle we discussed earlier.  That's seven quadrupled (7 times 4) instead of seven doubled (7 times 2.)  Here we have seven compounded twice as much.  The truth is always better than fiction.  Any one that knows their Bible knows that God loves the number seven. 

Now let's see if we can find some middle words in the center of God's middle verses.  Yes, I see four (bless his holy name.)  There are twelve words on one side of this phrase and twelve words on the other side.  So the King James Bible has bless his holy name right in the center of the two middle verses!  Once again that's twice as many words as in the imaginary center. 

This phrase also has exactly twice as many words (12) on each side of it.  God loves the number twelve also.  Next to the number seven, it is his favorite number.  He uses it a lot in his word.  For example there were twelve apostles and twelve tribes of Israel. There are twelve manner of fruits bared by the tree of life.  It is the number of authority and power.  What else would you expect in the center of God's Holy Bible?  Bless his holy name. 

In conclusion to all this middle of the King James Bible stuff consider this verse of scripture, PSALM 138:2...I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. 

We see here God thinks quite a bit about his holy name and his word has been magnified above it!  So if the Bible is the word of God, and it is, and the King James Bible is the Bible, and it is, then how do you think we should treat it?  The answer should be obvious: with honour and respect. 

Total Books in the King James Bible 66
Total Chapters in the King James Bible 1,189
Total verses in the King James Bible 31,102
Total Books in the Old Testament 39
Total Chapters in the Old Testament 929
Total verses in the Old Testament 23,145
Total Books in the New Testament 27
Total Chapters in the New Testament 260
Total verses in the New Testament 7,957
Middle Book in the King James Bible None – There are 2 – Micah & Nahum
Longest Book in the King James Bible Psalms
Shortest Book in the King James Bible 2 John (verses) & 3 John (words)
Middle Chapter in the King James Bible Psalm 117
Longest Chapter in the King James Bible Psalm 119
Shortest Chapter in the King James Bible Psalm 117
Middle verse in the King James Bible None – There are 2 – Psalm 103:1 & Psalm 103:2
Longest verse in the King James Bible Esther 8:9
Shortest verse in the King James Bible John 11:35

Note:  Total verses: 31,102.  3+1+1+0+2 = 7

(completeness, spiritual perfection, pure)

The following statistics apply to the 1769 edition of the 1611 King James Bible:

All word counts are the work of computer programmer Dave Whitinger. I have checked and doubled-checked his counts with a manual count in 10 of the 66 Books and they all match perfectly. Therefore I believe these word counts to be 100% accurate (I hope.) 

Old Testament

Book

Chapters

Verses

Words

1

Genesis

50

1,533

38,262

2

Exodus

40

1,213

32,685

3

Leviticus

27

859

24,541

4

Numbers

36

1,288

32,896

5

Deuteronomy

34

959

28,352

6

Joshua

24

658

18,854

7

Judges

21

618

18,966

8

Ruth

4

85

2,574

9

1 Samuel

31

810

25,048

10

2 Samuel

24

695

20,600

11

1 Kings

22

816

24,513

12

2 Kings

25

719

23,517

13

1 Chronicles

29

942

20,365

14

2 Chronicles

36

822

26,069

15

Ezra

10

280

7,440

16

Nehemiah

13

406

10,480

17

Esther

10

167

5,633

18

Job

42

1,070

18,098

19

Psalms

150

2,461

 *42,704

20

Proverbs

31

915

15,038

21

Ecclesiastes

12

222

5,579

22

Song of Solomon

8

117

2,658

23

Isaiah

66

1,292

37,036

24

Jeremiah

52

1,364

42,654

25

Lamentations

5

154

3,411

26

Ezekiel

48

1,273

39,401

27

Daniel

12

357

11,602

28

Hosea

14

197

5,174

29

Joel

3

73

2,033

30

Amos

9

146

4,216

31

Obadiah

1

21

 669

32

Jonah

4

48

1,320

33

Micah

7

105

3,152

34

Nahum

3

47

1,284

35

Habakkuk

3

56

1,475

36

Zephaniah

3

53

1,616

37

Haggai

2

38

1,130

38

Zechariah

14

211

6,443

39

Malachi

4

55

 1,781

New Testament

Book

Chapters

Verses

Words

40

Matthew

28

1,071

23,343

41

Mark

16

678

14,949

42

Luke

24

1,151

25,640

43

John

21

879

18,658

44

Acts

28

1,007

24,229

45

Romans

16

433

       *9,422

46

1 Corinthians

16

437

       *9,462

47

2 Corinthians

13

257

       *6,046

48

Galatians

6

149

       *3,084

49

Ephesians

6

155

       *3,022

50

Philippians

4

104

       *2,183

51

Colossians

4

95

       *1,979

52

1 Thessalonians

5

89

       *1,837

53

2 Thessalonians

3

47

       *1,022

54

1 Timothy

6

113

       *2,244

55

2 Timothy

4

83

       *1,666

56

Titus

3

46

          *896

57

Philemon

1

25

          *430

58

Hebrews

13

303

       *6,897

59

James

5

108

  2,304

60

1 Peter

5

105

 2,476

61

2 Peter

3

61

 1,553

62

1 John

5

105

2,517

63

2 John

1

13

  298

64

3 John

1

14

  294

65

Jude

1

25

   608

66

Revelation

22

404

 11,952

66

Bible Totals

1,189

31,102

788,280

* The book of Psalms has superscriptions under some of the Psalms (chapters.) These were not counted in this chart because they are not in the verses. Also Psalm 119 has the Hebrew Alphabet translated into English. Even though these words are not in the verses they were counted because they are scattered throughout this Psalm (Chapter.) 

* The fourteen epistles of Paul are sometimes accompanied by subscriptions at the end of each letter. These were not counted because they are not in the verses. They are credited to Euthalius, a bishop of the 5th Century. The wording has slightly been modified during the process of time. Some of them seem to disagree with the text. 

SUMMARY OF KING JAMES BIBLE STATISTICS:

Total Books - 66  Total Chapters  1,189 Total Verses...31,102

Total words in the 31,102 verses - 788,258 (not including the Hebrew Alphabet in Psalm 119 or the superscriptions listed in some of the Psalms)

Total words in the Hebrew Alphabet in Psalm 119 - 22

Total words on the cover - 2 (HOLY BIBLE)

Total words in the Book Titles - 85 (the full titles as written in the 1611 edition - 374)

Total times the word "CHAPTER" is listed - 1,034 (in 5 books the word is not listed because they only have one chapter)

Total times the word "PSALM" is listed - 150

Total words in superscriptions (sub-titles) of Psalms - 1,034

Total words in subscriptions (concluding remarks) in the epistles of Paul - 186

Total words in Testament dividers - 6 (The Old Testament, The New Testament)

Total words in Table of Contents - 94 (the Book Titles, the Testament dividers plus the phrase Table of Contents) If you use the full titles as in the 1611 edition - 383

Total words either on the cover or the first page explaining which Bible you have:

A)   Authorized Version - 2 or

B)   King James version - 3 or

C)   King James Bible -  

Can you see now why there are so many word counts floating around?