I used to go to a weekly trivia night. I thought I knew all the answers about the Bible. One night, the host asked, “About how many words in bible?” I buzzed in, sure I was right. “783,137!” I said. I was thinking of the King James Version I have at home. The host just smiled. He said, “Which Bible?” I was shocked. I thought it was a simple question with a simple answer.
That small moment at trivia night made me look deeper. I had to know the real answer to how many words in bible. I started to ask, “what about all the other versions I see at the store? There is no one easy answer. The number changes a lot. It depends on the version you choose. The reasons for this are tied to old history, how the text is translated, and different church ways.
So, you will not find one magic number. But if you want to know why the numbers are so different, you are in for a good story. It is a trip that shows how living and varied this old text truly is.
More in Bible Category
How Many Words Are in the KJV Bible
How Many Words Does the Bible Have
Why Do Different Bibles Have Different Word Counts?
The main reason you can’t get one answer is simple. Not all Bibles have the same books. This may seem strange, but it is true. This is the biggest and most key difference. You can see it when you check Protestant and Catholic Bibles. It is the top reason for the large gap in word counts.
How the Apocrypha Changes the Total Word Count in a Catholic Bible
If you grew up in a Protestant church in the USA, your Bible most likely has 66 books. This is the normal number for versions like the KJV, NIV, and ESV. It is split into 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.
But the Catholic Bible has 73 books. It has the same 27 New Testament books. Its Old Testament is longer. These extra seven books, and some new parts in other books like Daniel, are called the deuterocanonical books by Catholics. Protestants may call them the Apocrypha.
I remember this blowing my mind when I was a teen. A friend brought a Catholic Bible to our youth group. I spent the whole time just looking at these books I had not heard of, like Tobit and Judith. It felt like I found a secret part of a house I thought I knew well.
So How Many Words in Bible for a Complete Catholic Version?
Those extra books add a very large number of words. The Apocrypha by itself has more than 150,000 words! So, let’s do the math. Take a Protestant Bible with about 780,000 words. Add the Apocrypha’s word count. You get a Catholic Bible with more than 930,000 words.
This one change is the reason for the biggest jump in word counts. Before you even look at how a Bible is translated, the simple question of “what books are in it?” changes the answer by a huge amount. It is a very big deal, and the reasons go back deep into church history.
How Translation Style Changes How Many Words in Bible Versions
Even when Bibles have the same 66 books, the word count still changes. This is because of how they are translated, which is a key part of knowing how many words in bible. How do you take old words from Hebrew and Greek and make them into English? There are two main ways to do it. These two ways give us Bibles that are very different.
How Many Words in Bible Are in the King James Bible and Why Is It So High?
The King James Version is the king of word counts for Protestant Bibles. The classic KJV has about 783,137 words. For a long time, people saw this as the final answer.
The KJV was done in 1611. It was made with a “word-for-word” view. The goal was to stay very close to the old sentence style and words. This gives you a text that is very exact and poetic. It also means you get a higher word count Does the Bible Have?. The formal speech of that time used more words to say things.
I tried to read the KJV as my main Bible when I was a kid. I did this because it felt more “real.” But I had a hard time. The long sentences and old words were hard to read. It is a lovely translation. But it can feel like trying to read a play by Shakespeare. The thing that makes it so grand and exact also makes it longer. To see a deep look at the KJV, you can check out sites like the American Bible Society.
What Is the Word Count of the NIV and Why Is It Shorter?
Now, let’s look at a popular modern Bible. It is the New International Version (NIV). The NIV has about 727,969 words. That is more than 55,000 words less than the KJV. Why is it so much shorter?
The NIV was made using a different method. It is a “thought-for-thought” view. Instead of changing each word, the makers tried to catch the first meaning of the phrase. They asked, “What did the writer want to say?” Then they found the best way to say that in today’s English.
Think of it like changing a common phrase. If you change a Spanish phrase word for word, it might not make sense in English. A thought-for-thought change would be “he speaks his mind.” It uses new words but holds the first idea. The NIV does this all the time. This often leads to shorter, clearer sentences. For me, changing to the NIV for my daily reading was a big help. The text flowed more like a normal book.
An ESV vs. NLT Word Count Comparison for Daily Reading
The world of Bible versions is wide. Two other very popular Bibles show this well. They are the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New Living Translation (NLT).
The ESV has about 757,439 words. It lands right between the KJV and the NIV. Its makers call it an “essentially literal” version. It tries to be exact like the KJV but with new, modern words. It is used a lot for deep study because it stays close to the first text.
The New Living Translation (NLT) has about 746,316 words. The NLT is even more “thought-for-thought” than the NIV. It was made to be very easy to read. Its main goal is to be clear. It reads in a very smooth way, almost like a story book.
I have used both of these for my own reading. For a time, I tried to use the ESV in the morning. I thought being more exact would be better for study. But I must be honest, I found it hard to keep up. I changed to the NLT. I found I was reading more because it was just so easy to get into. It is a clear case of how the right Bible is a personal choice. There are great sites that explain these views, like those from a publisher such as Crossway, which makes the ESV.
Are There Other Reasons for Different Bible Word Counts?
The number of books and the translation style are the two main things. But a few other things can make counting words tricky. These do not change the official word count of the text. But they can change how it feels to read it.
Are Footnotes and Study Notes Included in the Official Word Count?
No, the official numbers you see only count the words in the Bible’s text. The notes, intros, and articles in a study Bible are not part of that number.
But if you think about the words in the book you hold, a study Bible can be huge. I have an ESV Study Bible on my shelf. It is almost 3,000 pages long. The Bible text is there. But on some pages, the notes at the bottom take up more space than the verses!
So, these extra words do not change the answer to “how many words in bible,” but they for sure change how many words you read. They add more facts and depth, but also more ink and paper.
How Do Original Hebrew and Greek Languages Impact English Word Counts?
This is where we can get very detailed, but it is neat. The Bible was not written in English. The Old Testament was in Hebrew and some Aramaic. The New Testament was in Greek. These old languages are not like English at all.
For example, Greek can pack a lot of meaning into one word by changing its end. One Greek word might need five or six English words to explain what it fully means. On the other hand, Hebrew can be very short and use fewer words than we do.
I went down a deep path on this one night. I just looked at how one verse was laid out in Greek and then in English. It was clear that a perfect one-to-one word count cannot be done. The job of a translator is to build a bridge from old languages to our own. That work always means they must make choices that change the final word count.
Your Quick Guide to Answering How Many Words in Bible
After all this, what should you say if someone asks you that trivia question? The best answer is a new question: “Which one?” But if you want to give them some solid numbers, it helps to have a short list ready.
A Quick Reference List of Word Counts by Bible Version
Here are the rough word counts for the most popular Bibles in the USA. If you need a fast answer for how many words in bible, these are great numbers to keep in your mind.
- King James Version (KJV): About 783,000 words
- English Standard Version (ESV): About 757,000 words
- New Living Translation (NLT): About 746,000 words
- New International Version (NIV): About 728,000 words
- Standard Catholic Bible (with Apocrypha): Over 930,000 words
As you can see, the range is very wide. The difference between an NIV and a Catholic Bible is more than 200,000 words.
Understanding Why There Is No Single “Correct” Word Count
In the end, the answer depends on what you are asking about. Do you want to know about the 66 books Protestants use? Or the 73 books Catholics use? Do you care about an exact, word-for-word version? Or a modern, thought-for-thought one?
Instead of just being a fun fact, the question opens up a better talk. We can talk about what the Bible is and how it came to us. For those who want to learn more about how the books were picked, a source like the Encyclopedia Britannica gives a great, fair look at the topic.
Conclusion on How Many Words in Bible
After that night at trivia, I spent weeks looking into this question. I counted words in parts of the book. I put verses next to each other to see the change. In the end, I saw that the numbers are neat, but they are not the main point.
Knowing the exact word count of the NIV or KJV is fun to know. But it does not change the power of the tales inside. The story of the Good Samaritan is just as strong if the chapter has 500 words or 550. The message of hope in Romans is just as clear.
The trip to find out the real story behind how many words in bible versions is really a trip into the heart of how we translate and our past. It shows us that the Bible is not one flat book. It is a rich and wide library of texts. And the real prize is not in counting the words, but in letting the words count.
FAQ – How Many Words in Bible
Is there a precise number of words in the Bible, or does it vary?
There is no exact, universally agreed-upon word count for the Bible because it varies depending on the version, the inclusion of books like the Apocrypha, and translation style. The counts are approximate and serve as helpful references rather than definitive numbers.
Why does the King James Bible have a higher word count than the NIV?
The King James Bible has a higher word count because it was translated with a formal, word-for-word approach which retains older sentence structures and vocabulary, leading to longer text. The NIV, on the other hand, uses a thought-for-thought approach, resulting in a more concise translation.
In what ways do translation styles affect the number of words in different Bible versions?
Translation styles such as ‘word-for-word’ (like the King James Version) and ‘thought-for-thought’ (like the NIV or NLT) influence the word count, with word-for-word translations generally being longer and more formal, and thought-for-thought translations being shorter and more fluid.
How does the inclusion of the Apocrypha influence the total word count in a Catholic Bible?
The inclusion of the Apocrypha, which comprises seven additional books, adds over 150,000 words to the Bible, making a Catholic Bible’s total word count significantly higher—more than 930,000 words—compared to Protestant versions.
Why do different Bible versions have different word counts?
Different Bible versions have different word counts mainly because they include different books, such as the Protestant 66 books versus the Catholic 73 books which include the deuterocanonical books. This significantly affects the total number of words in each Bible.
