The Bible is a collection of 66 books. There are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. These books are as follows:

	Old Testament	New Testament
1	Genesis	Matthew
2	Exodus	Mark
3	Leviticus	Luke
4	Numbers	John
5	Deuteronomy	Acts
6	Joshua	Romans
7	Judges	1 Corinthians
8	Ruth	2 Corinthians
9	1 Samuel	Galatians
10	2 Samuel	Ephesians
11	1 Kings	Philippians
12	2 Kings	Colossians
13	1 Chronicles	1 Thessalonians
14	2 Chronicles	2 Thessalonians
15	Ezra	1 Timothy
16	Nehemiah	2 Timothy
17	Esther	Titus
18	Job	Philemon
19	Psalms	Hebrews
20	Proverbs	James
21	Ecclesiastes	1 Peter
22	Song of Solomon	2 Peter
23	Isaiah	1 John
24	Jeremiah	2 John
25	Lamentations	3 John
26	Ezekiel	Jude
27	Daniel	Revelation
28	Hosea
29	Joel
30	Amos
31	Obadiah
32	Jonah
33	Micah
34	Nahum
35	Habakkuk
36	Zephaniah
37	Haggai
38	Zechariah
39	Malachi

Why do Jewish Bibles have Fewer Books than the Christian Old Testament?

The Jewish Scriptures are organized differently, but consist of the same books. The Jewish Bible lists only 24 books rather than the 39 we list in the Old Testament, but that is because some of the books that Christians list separately are combined into one book in the Jewish Canon. Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles are each one book rather than two. Ezra and Nehemiah are also combined into one book. The prophets Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are grouped together as “The Twelve.” Thus, though we number them differently, we are actually describing the same set of Scriptures, as can be seen in the chart below:

	Jewish Scriptures	Old Testament
1	Genesis	Genesis	1
2	Exodus	Exodus	2
3	Leviticus	Leviticus	3
4	Numbers	Numbers	4
5	Deuteronomy	Deuteronomy	5
6	Joshua	Joshua	6
7	Judges	Judges	7
8	Ruth	Ruth	8
9	Samuel	1 Samuel	9
		2 Samuel	10
10	Kings	1 Kings	11
		2 Kings	12
11	Chronicles	1 Chronicles	13
		2 Chronicles	14
12	Ezra/Nehemiah	Ezra	15
		Nehemiah	16
13	Esther	Esther	17
14	Job	Job	18
15	Psalms	Psalms	19
16	Proverbs	Proverbs	20
17	Ecclesiastes	Ecclesiastes	21
18	Song of Solomon	Song of Solomon	22
19	Isaiah	Isaiah	23
20	Jeremiah	Jeremiah	24
21	Lamentations	Lamentations	25
22	Ezekiel	Ezekiel	26
23	Daniel	Daniel	27
24	The Twelve	Hosea	28
		Joel	29
		Amos	30
		Obadiah	31
		Jonah	32
		Micah	33
		Nahum	34
		Habakkuk	35
		Zephaniah	36
		Haggai	37
		Zechariah	38
		Malachi	39

 

Why do Roman Catholic Bibles have More Books in the Old Testament?

Roman Catholic Bibles have 73 books rather than 66. This is because Roman Catholics have 7 additional books in their Old Testament: Tobit, Judith, 1-2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Baruch. They also contain additional material that was added to the books of Daniel and Esther by later Greek interpreters. All of this together is what Catholics call “the Deuterocanonicals,” and is more popularly known as the Apocrypha. Eastern Orthodox Bibles have even more Apocryphal books like 3 Maccabees, 2 Esdras, and the Prayer of Manasseh. The Ethiopian Orthodox utilize still others like Enoch and Jubilees. These are all ancient Jewish writings from well after the time of the Old Testament which the Jews never intended or accepted as Scripture but which some ancient Gentile Christians mistook for part of the Jewish Canon. While some of this material has historical and cultural value for researchers, the Apocrypha are not genuine, inspired Scripture, and should not be included in the Bible. [See our articles on the Catholic Apocrypha HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE]ancient