Table of Words
in the Bible
Raymond Brown wrote
concerning the synoptic problem: "Mark has 661 verses (vv.);
Matt has 1,068, and Luke has 1,149."These numbers are close to
the ones used here and the larger difference between Mark (661 to 678)
probably stems from this table's inclusion of te longer ending.
The above statistics
were researched by Felix Just who based them on the "Analytical
Greek New Testament" (AGNT) (via the "Bibloi" program
from Silver Mountain Software). Mr. Just had the number of chapters
and verses per chapter as well. Since chapter divisions were not part
of the original writing process I have excised them. Mr. Just included
the following provisio, "Due to the large number of textual
variations in the surviving biblical manuscripts, the exact
number of words is slightly different in each ancient and medieval
Greek manuscript."
The words per book
numbers do not include the following verses found suspect by textual
scholars from Medieval Bibles: Matt 17:21; 23:14; Mark 7:16; 9:44, 46;
11:26; 15:28; Luke 17:36; 23:17; John 5:4; Acts 8:37; 15:34; 24:7; 28:29;
and Rom 16:24. The pericope de adultera (John 7:53-8:11),
though likely a later interpolation, is included in the count.
The total number
of words becomes important in some lists of Pauline writings, which
seem to be enumerated on the basis of longest to shortest.