Sixty-six books sounds like a lot until you notice they fall into ten groups, each with a fixed size. The Protestant Bible has 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New, opening with Genesis and closing with Revelation; Catholic Bibles have 73. Knowing the order is useful in Bible study and a frequent question in Bible trivia. Here it is as a seven-day plan, one group a day, with the shape of the whole first.
The shape: 5–12–5–5–12 and 4–1–13–8–1
The Old Testament splits 5–12–5–5–12 and the New Testament 4–1–13–8–1. Once you know how many books a group holds, you notice when you have missed one.
Day 1: the Law (5)
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. These five are also called the Pentateuch.
Day 2: History (12)
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.
Learn them as a story: Joshua leads the people into the land, the Judges rule it, Ruth lives in that era, then Samuel anoints the first kings. Samuel, Kings and Chronicles each come as a 1 and 2, back to back.
Day 3: Poetry and Wisdom (5), then the Major Prophets (5)
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Then Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel.
“Major” and “minor” refer to the length of the books, not their importance.
Day 4: the Minor Prophets (12)
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. In the Hebrew tradition the twelve were a single scroll, called “the Twelve.”
Day 5: the Gospels and Acts (4 + 1)
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, then Acts, the New Testament’s one history book.
Day 6: the letters of Paul (13)
Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon.
They run roughly from longest to shortest: first the letters to churches (Romans to 2 Thessalonians), then those to individuals (1 Timothy to Philemon). Corinthians, Thessalonians and Timothy come in pairs.
Day 7: the general letters (8) and Revelation (1)
Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, and then Revelation. John has three letters, Peter two.
Singing the list a few times works better than reading it; many churches teach the books with a simple song.
What Catholic and Orthodox Bibles add
Catholic Bibles include seven more Old Testament books, called the deuterocanonical books: Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch, plus longer versions of Esther and Daniel. That brings the total to 73. Eastern Orthodox Bibles include a few more still, and the order of the Old Testament differs slightly between traditions. A trivia question asking “How many books are in the Bible?” should say which Bible it means; our Bible trivia explanation gives both numbers.
Shortest and middle
By number of words, 3 John is the shortest book in most English translations, with 2 John and Obadiah also very short. In the 66-book Protestant Bible, the 33rd and 34th books, Micah and Nahum, sit in the middle.