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 - 3