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.

 

 

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