A Pleasantly Short Answer
The short answer to the short question, “What is the shortest book in the Bible?” is 3 John. But there is more understanding to offer.
Deciding Can Be Complicated
When considering the length of the books of the Bible, counting the number of words makes the most sense, as that is how the original authors wrote. There is another view, that of counting the number of verses, or maybe doing a chapter count – we’ll do it all here.
The entire Bible is translated into just about all of the languages that exist today, and no translation is word-for-word exact, as the original manuscripts. Most of the Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language, with a smattering of Aramaic. The Greek language is what the New Testament was written in, but the Old Testament was also translated into Greek some two to three hundred years before Christ, in a translation called the Septuagint. Language specification needs to be taken into account when looking at these different books and asking this question.
When considering the original languages, six books in the New Testament don’t break the 1,000-word ceiling, and even though it may not feel like it, there are also six books in the Old Testament that don’t cross that threshold either.
The Race to Find the Shortest Book
In the entire Bible, there are only two books with 200 words. With the shortest word count, 3 John (in America, this book is typically pronounced as, ‘Third John’, while in Europe, it is often referred to as, ‘Three John’), clocks in at 219 Greek words. Of the shortest books of the Bible, John’s earlier letter, 2 John, is the only other book in the Bible within the 200-word count range, landing at 245.
There is only one book that has a word count of 300: Philemon. As the third-shortest book of the Bible, it crosses the finish line with 335 words in the original Greek language. The shortest book of the Old Testament ranks fourth place overall – the book of Obadiah lands with 440 Hebrew words. We then go back to the New Testament in order to round out the 5-Under-500, as Jude finishes with 461 words.
We shift back to the Old Testament with Haggai, who gives us 520 Hebrew words, followed immediately by Zephaniah with 588.
Entering into the 600-word range, the OT gives us Nahum with 657 Hebrew words followed immediately by Habakkuk with 658, then Titus has a photo-finish of 659 Greek words. We then roll back to the OT for Jonah, who ends the OT’s showing with a concise 688 words.
There are no books in the Bible with a word count within the 700 range, and only one with 800: 2 Thessalonians has 823 Greek words. And without a single book within the 900-word range, we conclude the race of shortest books in the Bible, having listed twelve.
There Are Other Ways to Evaluate “Shortness”
Another way of looking at the length of the books of the Bible is not the number of words, but instead the number of chapters and verses. Not part of the original writing, chapters showed up in the 13th Century AD, while verses came later; taking another century or two to appear.
That being said, there is one short book of the Old Testament, Obadiah, with a single chapter, while there are four books in the New Testament with that same claim-to-fame: Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude.
Out of those five books, 2nd John wins the prize for being the shortest, as it has a verse count of 13, while 3rd John has 15 verses. Obadiah, with its 21 verses, comes in third, while both Philemon and Jude tie for fourth with 25 verses each.
The Short Answer Redux
Third John wins the prize for being the shortest book, when the focus is on word count, as it has a solid twenty-six fewer words than its closest competitor. Second John, however, wins that same prize of being the shortest book of the Bible if counting verses instead, with a slim margin of two fewer verses than 3 John. And so, whether the shortest or the second shortest book of the Bible, the Apostle John wins the race for succinctness in his formal letters.
Interesting Things About the Author of 3 John
The Apostle John also wrote the Gospel of John – for those new to Bible study, this picture of Jesus is a great place to start. John was part of Jesus’ inner circle and was the only apostle who was not martyred. Instead, the Romans exiled him to a remote island with little to no resources, where he wrote one of the most well-known prophetic books of the Bible, Revelation. This prophecy is as interesting as the Old Testament book of Daniel and contains about the same number of words, just shy of 12,000.
Bible Brevity Bonus
What about the shortest chapter in the Bible? That would be Psalm 117, which clocks in with a mere 33 Hebrew words, lasting only two verses. It is concise, with one of the most powerful messages within the whole of the Bible. It starts with a clear focus and ends with a straightforward command, as it offers a concise reminder of who God is, in the middle.
What about the length of verses? The shortest verse, the most direct one in the whole of Scripture, is John 11:35. The English Standard Version (ESV) translates that as “Jesus wept.” The focus here is powerful, showing how much death grieves, even angers, our Lord and Savior.
More Information for the Curious
Remember where we identified the Septuagint above? That is a fun rabbit trail to explore, and we can do a little of that here.
Most of the Jewish people had stopped speaking the Hebrew language by the time the third century BC rolled around, having been assimilated into the cultures to which God handed them over. The Persians ruled Israel from 539 BC, and they spoke the languages of old Persian and Aramaic. Then came Alexander the Great in 332 BC, who unified the conquered world, in part, through the Greek language. Last in line were the Romans from 63 BC, and they spoke Latin. In short, the Hebrew language had slipped into disuse, with only the Hebrew scholars keeping it alive over the course of a couple hundred years or more. The everyday Jewish citizen spoke primarily Greek from about 300 BC onward. As they saw the need for their Scriptures to be translated into the common tongue, the Jewish scholars got to work on making the Greek translation of the Bible.
But they did more than simply translate the Old Testament. They also translated some other texts that were important to their culture, which they did not consider canon. This is where those other books of the Bible come into play. The Roman Catholics call those books pseudo-canonical, meaning outside of the canon. Those books include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.
Rejected But Not Forgotten
Also translated, but not on par with even the pseudo-canonical books, referred to as ‘false writing,’ is the Book of Enoch. Other books in that same category are the Book of Jubilees, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Assumption of Moses, the Life of Adam and Eve, and the Apocalypse of Baruch. While no Bible teacher ever placed them on the level with Scripture, these were important writings to the culture, much like we have Shakespeare.
The Book of Enoch
The Book of Enoch seems to have been written in the language of Ge’ez, that is a South Semitic language. It was spoken in Ethiopia from roughly the fourth century BC until about the Medieval times. The Dead Sea Scrolls have some of the Book of Enoch written in Aramaic, so there is a question about which language came first regarding this book.
Either way, whether in the Ge’ez language or in the Aramaic one, the Book of Enoch is not one of the small books. In fact, it is in the range of tens of thousands of words in whatever language, with over 37,000 words in its English translation. If it was part of God’s Word, it would instead win the prize for being the longest book of the Bible.
The Longest Texts
It makes sense to identify the longest books of the Bible when considering the shortest, in order to put them all into context. The book of Jeremiah contains the most words, with 33,002 original Hebrew language words, while the book of Psalms isn’t even second. Genesis gets the silver medal with 32,046 words, then the book of Psalms clocks in with 30,147 Hebrew words, winning the bronze medal.
However, if we were to shift to chapter count, the book of Psalms wins handily with 150 chapters, while its nearest competitor, Isaiah, isn’t even close with only 66 chapters. To round out the top three, Jeremiah makes his appearance with 52 chapters.
The Book of Psalms is also unique in that it has the chapter with the most verses of the Bible. Psalm 119 has 176 verses, written as an acrostic of 22 stanzas, with each stanza containing eight verses. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, and the number 8 in Hebrew signifies renewal. And this Psalm is all about the sufficiency of God’s Word.
Final Word
I hope this deeper dive has been informative and helpful in your Bible studies. Please note that the word counts identified are based on the original manuscripts, as best as we have them. Variations do occur, however minimally, even as the textual criticism is sound.
