Psalm 118:8 is NOT the Center Verse of the Bible
 

Note: the following is an "Urban Legend."  It is Not true:

Q. What is the shortest Chapter in the Bible?

A. Psalm 117

Q. What is the longest Chapter in the Bible?

A. Psalm 119

Q. Which Chapter is in the exact center of the Bible?

A. Psalm 118

   Fact: There are 594 Chapters before Psalm 118. (Not true.)

Fact: There are 594 Chapters after Psalm 118. (Not true.)

...Add these Chapters together and the total is: 1188.

Q. What is the Center Verse in the Bible?

A. Psalm 118:8 (Psalm 118:8 is Not the "Center Verse" of the Bible.)

Q. Does this Verse say something significant about God's Perfect Will for our lives?  

A. The next time someone says they would like to find God's Perfect Will for their life, and that they want to be in the Center of His Will...just send them to Psalm 118:8!

"It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." 

 -Psalm 118:8

Note: the actual Chapter count totals are:

Genesis

50

 

Exodus

40

 

Leviticus

27

 

Numbers

36

 

Deuteronomy

34

 

Joshua

24

 

Judges

21

 

Ruth

4

 

1 Samuel

31

 

2 Samuel

24

 

1 Kings

22

 

2 Kings

25

 

1 Chronicles

29

 

2 Chronicles

36

 

Ezra

10

 

Nehemiah

13

 

Esther

10

 

Job

42

 

Psalms 1-117
                        

      117

Total: 595 Chapters

Psalms 119-150

32

 

Proverbs

31

 

Ecclesiastes

12

 

Song of Solomon

8

 

Isaiah

66

 

Jeremiah

52

 

Lamentations

5

 

Ezekiel

48

 

Daniel

12

 

Hosea

14

 

Joel

3

 

Amos

9

 

Obadiah

1

 

Jonah

4

 

Micah

7

 

Nahum

3

 

Habakkuk

3

 

Zephaniah

3

 

Haggai

2

 

Zechariah

14

 

Malachi

4

 

Matthew

28

 

Mark

16

 

Luke

24

 

John

21

 

Acts

28

 

Romans

16

 

1 Corinthians

16

 

2 Corinthians

13

 

Galatians

6

 

Ephesians

6

 

Philippians

4

 

Colossians

4

 

1 Thessalonians

5

 

2 Thessalonians

3

 

1 Timothy

6

 

2 Timothy

4

 

Titus

3

 

Philemon

1

 

Hebrews

13

 

James

5

 

1 Peter

5

 

2 Peter

3

 

1 John

5

 

2 John

1

 

3 John

1

 

Jude

1

 

Revelation

22

 

Total: 593 Chapters

Note: As you can see, Psalm 118 is therefore not the center chapter of the Bible.  There are 594 chapters up to (and including) Psalm 116, and 594 Chapters from 118 on (including Psalm 118).

This makes Psalm 117, (not Psalm 118) the center chapter of the Bible.

Psalm 117 is the shortest Psalm.  It has only two verses, and therefore no "center" verse.                              ___________________________________

Psalm 117:

     1. O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him all ye people.                  

     2. For his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever.  Praise ye the Lord.

   ___________________________________

  • There is in fact No Center Verse of the Bible--the KJV Bible has an Even Number of verses.

The King James Bible has 31,174 verses — an even number — so there is no one "center" verse: the center would be a combination of the 15,587th and the 15,588th verses, which do fall within Psalm 118 (Psalm 118:8-9, to be exact).

But what about the Bible in other Language translations?  What about the Hebrew Old Testament, the Septuagint, The Vulgate, the Coverdale Bible? What about the "original autographs" --- the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts?

  • The Hebrew text of the Old Testament, as well as the Greek New Testament, originally had NO Verse or Chapter Divisions (these were added to the Bible between 1205 A.D. and 1565 A.D. --- over 1,000 years after the time of Christ), so it's really a moot point.

(Historical  explanation below by: Daniel P. Fuller)

The present chapter divisions in our Bibles were invented in 1205 by Stephen Langton, a professor in Paris (he later became Archbishop of Canterbury), who put these into a Vulgate edition of the Bible. These chapter divisions were first used by the Jews in 1330 for the Hebrew Old Testament in a manuscript and for a printed edition in 1516.  This system of chapter divisions likewise came into the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 1400s.

It was Robert Stephanus, a Parisian book printer, whose versification of the Bible has prevailed to the present.  He took over the verse divisions already indicated in the Hebrew Bible by the soph pasuq and assigned numbers to them within the chapter divisions already assigned by Stephan Langton.  While riding on horseback from Paris to Lyons he affixed his own verse divisions to the New Testament and numbered them within Langton's chapter divisions.

But through Stephanus the versification of the Old Testament found its way into the Hebrew Bible printed first in 1571.  Then Theodor Beza's use of Stephanus' verse and chapter divisions in his edition of the textus receptus of the New Testament (1565) assured them the permanence that they enjoy in our Bibles today.