The Protestant Bible contains 66 books — 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament — arranged by genre rather than by date of composition. Catholic Bibles count 73, adding seven deuterocanonical texts. The order printed in your table of contents is not the order these texts were written.
That second fact is where most book lists stop and this one begins. Below you will find the complete canonical order of all 66 books, the counts for each testament and each tradition, and the composition-order sequence that scholars use to trace how biblical ideas actually developed. The gap between those two arrangements is small on the page and large in meaning.
All 66 Books of the Bible, Grouped by Section
The 66 books fall into two testaments and a handful of genre groupings. The Old Testament’s 39 books were composed in Hebrew (with a few Aramaic passages) across more than 600 years. The New Testament’s 27 books were composed in Greek within a single century. Neither testament is arranged by date — both are organized so that narrative comes first and everything else follows.
Here is the structure at a glance before the detailed lists below.
| Testament | Section | Books | Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Testament | Law (Torah / Pentateuch) | Genesis–Deuteronomy | 5 |
| Old Testament | History | Joshua–Esther | 12 |
| Old Testament | Poetry & Wisdom | Job–Song of Solomon | 5 |
| Old Testament | Prophets | Isaiah–Malachi | 17 |
| New Testament | Gospels | Matthew–John | 4 |
| New Testament | History | Acts | 1 |
| New Testament | Pauline Epistles | Romans–Philemon | 13 |
| New Testament | General Epistles | Hebrews–Jude | 8 |
| New Testament | Apocalypse | Revelation | 1 |
These groupings are not neutral containers. Placing the Law first presents the Torah as the foundation and the prophets as commentary on it. Placing the Gospels first presents the story of Jesus as the framework that Paul’s letters comment upon. In both cases the canonical order tells the reader what to treat as origin and what to treat as response — and in both cases, as the composition dates further down will show, the historical sequence runs the other way.
Old Testament Books in Order (39 Books)
The Old Testament contains 39 books in the Protestant tradition, arranged in four sections: Law, History, Poetry and Wisdom, and Prophets. This is the sequence found in nearly every English-language Bible, and it follows the genre-based order that early Christian tradition imposed on the older Hebrew collection.
The table lists all 39 books in canonical order alongside the approximate date scholars assign to each text’s composition or final form.
| # | Book | Section | Approx. Composition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Genesis | Law (Torah) | ~400 BCE (final form) |
| 2 | Exodus | Law (Torah) | ~400 BCE (final form) |
| 3 | Leviticus | Law (Torah) | ~400 BCE (final form) |
| 4 | Numbers | Law (Torah) | ~400 BCE (final form) |
| 5 | Deuteronomy | Law (Torah) | ~620s BCE (core) |
| 6 | Joshua | History | ~550-400 BCE |
| 7 | Judges | History | ~550-400 BCE |
| 8 | Ruth | History | ~450-400 BCE |
| 9 | 1 Samuel | History | ~550-400 BCE |
| 10 | 2 Samuel | History | ~550-400 BCE |
| 11 | 1 Kings | History | ~550-400 BCE |
| 12 | 2 Kings | History | ~550-400 BCE |
| 13 | 1 Chronicles | History | ~350-300 BCE |
| 14 | 2 Chronicles | History | ~350-300 BCE |
| 15 | Ezra | History | ~400-350 BCE |
| 16 | Nehemiah | History | ~400-350 BCE |
| 17 | Esther | History | ~400-200 BCE |
| 18 | Job | Poetry/Wisdom | ~500-400 BCE |
| 19 | Psalms | Poetry/Wisdom | ~400-300 BCE (compilation) |
| 20 | Proverbs | Poetry/Wisdom | ~450-400 BCE (final form) |
| 21 | Ecclesiastes | Poetry/Wisdom | ~300-200 BCE |
| 22 | Song of Solomon | Poetry/Wisdom | ~300s BCE |
| 23 | Isaiah | Prophets | ~740-450 BCE (multiple authors) |
| 24 | Jeremiah | Prophets | ~626-580 BCE |
| 25 | Lamentations | Prophets | ~586-550 BCE |
| 26 | Ezekiel | Prophets | ~593-571 BCE |
| 27 | Daniel | Prophets | ~165 BCE |
| 28 | Hosea | Prophets | ~750-720 BCE |
| 29 | Joel | Prophets | ~600-500 BCE |
| 30 | Amos | Prophets | ~760-750 BCE |
| 31 | Obadiah | Prophets | ~586-550 BCE |
| 32 | Jonah | Prophets | ~450-350 BCE |
| 33 | Micah | Prophets | ~735-700 BCE |
| 34 | Nahum | Prophets | ~612 BCE |
| 35 | Habakkuk | Prophets | ~600 BCE |
| 36 | Zephaniah | Prophets | ~630-620 BCE |
| 37 | Haggai | Prophets | ~520 BCE |
| 38 | Zechariah | Prophets | ~520-300s BCE (multiple authors) |
| 39 | Malachi | Prophets | ~500-450 BCE |
A few of the section labels reward a second look. The five books of the Law — Genesis through Deuteronomy, also called the Pentateuch — open the canon but were not the first Hebrew texts composed; see First Five Books of the Bible for how those five came together. The History books cover Joshua through Esther. The Poetry and Wisdom section holds Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. The Prophets divide into the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel — “major” meaning longer, not more important) and the twelve minor prophets, Hosea through Malachi, which were traditionally collected on a single scroll.
Notice Daniel at number 27. It sits among the classical prophets in Christian Bibles, but scholars date it to roughly 165 BCE, during the Maccabean crisis — making it one of the last books of the Old Testament composed, centuries after the prophets it stands beside. The Hebrew Bible reflects this by placing Daniel not among the Prophets but in the Writings.
How Many Books Are in the Old Testament?
The number 39 is the Protestant count. It is not the only one.
The Catholic Old Testament contains 46 books, adding seven deuterocanonical texts composed during the Second Temple period: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, and 1-2 Maccabees. Catholic Bibles also include longer versions of Daniel and Esther. These texts were part of the Septuagint — the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that served as the Bible of the early, largely Greek-speaking church — but they were not part of the narrower Hebrew collection that rabbinic Judaism consolidated around. During the Reformation, Martin Luther and other reformers returned to the Hebrew Bible as their standard and set these seven texts apart; the Catholic Church affirmed them as fully canonical at the Council of Trent in 1546 CE. That single decision is why a Protestant Old Testament counts 39 and a Catholic one counts 46. For the texts themselves, see The Deuterocanonical Books.
The Eastern Orthodox canons go further, counting roughly 49 to 51 books depending on jurisdiction, and the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition — one of the oldest continuous Christian communities — has the broadest canon of any church, including works like 1 Enoch and Jubilees.
The count you land on is really an answer to a different question: which ancient collection did your tradition inherit, and which texts did it judge authoritative enough to bind between the covers. For the story of how those boundaries were drawn, see Who Decided What’s in the Bible?
The Hebrew Bible Arranges the Same Books Differently
The Protestant Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible contain the same material, but the Hebrew Bible — the Tanakh — counts it as 24 books and arranges them in three parts rather than four: Torah (Teaching), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). The lower count comes from combining texts that Christian Bibles split, such as 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings, and from grouping the twelve minor prophets as one scroll.
This three-part structure is not merely organizational. It reflects the historical stages by which sections gained authority: the Torah first, likely by the 5th century BCE; the Prophets next; and the Writings last, still generating rabbinic debate into the 2nd century CE. The two arrangements also end differently. The Hebrew Bible closes with 2 Chronicles and Cyrus of Persia’s call to “go up” to Jerusalem, while the Christian Old Testament closes with Malachi’s promise of a coming messenger — a bridge toward the New Testament. Same books, different final word, different implied story. For a closer look at that distinction, see Old Testament vs. Torah.
New Testament Books in Order (27 Books)
The New Testament contains 27 books, arranged in four groupings: the Gospels and Acts, the letters attributed to Paul (roughly longest to shortest), the General Epistles, and Revelation. The table lists all 27 in canonical order with approximate composition dates.
| # | Book | Section | Approx. Composition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | Matthew | Gospels | ~80-90 CE |
| 41 | Mark | Gospels | ~65-70 CE |
| 42 | Luke | Gospels | ~80-90 CE |
| 43 | John | Gospels | ~90-100 CE |
| 44 | Acts | History | ~80-90 CE |
| 45 | Romans | Pauline Letters | ~55-58 CE |
| 46 | 1 Corinthians | Pauline Letters | ~53-55 CE |
| 47 | 2 Corinthians | Pauline Letters | ~55-56 CE |
| 48 | Galatians | Pauline Letters | ~50-55 CE |
| 49 | Ephesians | Pauline Letters | ~80-90 CE |
| 50 | Philippians | Pauline Letters | ~54-62 CE |
| 51 | Colossians | Pauline Letters | ~60-80 CE |
| 52 | 1 Thessalonians | Pauline Letters | ~50-51 CE |
| 53 | 2 Thessalonians | Pauline Letters | ~51-52 or ~80-100 CE |
| 54 | 1 Timothy | Pastoral Letters | ~90-110 CE |
| 55 | 2 Timothy | Pastoral Letters | ~90-110 CE |
| 56 | Titus | Pastoral Letters | ~90-110 CE |
| 57 | Philemon | Pauline Letters | ~54-62 CE |
| 58 | Hebrews | General Epistles | ~60-90 CE |
| 59 | James | General Epistles | ~60-100 CE |
| 60 | 1 Peter | General Epistles | ~70-90 CE |
| 61 | 2 Peter | General Epistles | ~100-120 CE |
| 62 | 1 John | General Epistles | ~85-100 CE |
| 63 | 2 John | General Epistles | ~85-100 CE |
| 64 | 3 John | General Epistles | ~85-100 CE |
| 65 | Jude | General Epistles | ~65-90 CE |
| 66 | Revelation | Apocalyptic | ~90-95 CE |
The Gospels — the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, and the Gospel of John — are narrative accounts of Jesus’s life and teaching. (These are book titles, not confirmed authors; most scholars consider the Gospels originally anonymous, with the names attached by tradition in the 2nd century CE.) Acts continues Luke’s account into the story of the early church. The Pauline Epistles, Romans through Philemon, are letters attributed to Paul, arranged roughly from longest to shortest rather than by date. The General Epistles — Hebrews, James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, and Jude — address broad audiences rather than named congregations. Revelation closes the canon as its single work of apocalyptic literature.
Unlike the Old Testament, the New Testament count does not vary by tradition. All 27 books appear in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Bibles alike. That consensus was slow: the letter of Athanasius in 367 CE is the first known list matching the modern 27 exactly, and books including Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, and Revelation remained disputed well into the 4th century. For that fuller story, see How Many Books Are in the New Testament?
Paul Wrote Before the Gospels
The most consequential gap between canon and chronology sits in this section. The Gospels appear first, but they are not the earliest Christian texts. Paul’s letter of 1 Thessalonians (~50-51 CE) predates the Gospel of Mark (~65-70 CE) by roughly 15 years — meaning Paul was writing theology and pastoral guidance to scattered congregations before anyone had composed a narrative of Jesus’s life.
Paul’s undisputed letters contain no birth narrative, no Sermon on the Mount, and no parables. He writes about the risen Christ and the meaning of the crucifixion without the biographical framework the Gospel authors would later build. Dale Martin, in his 2009 Yale Open Course on the New Testament, notes that reading Paul first — as composition order requires — means encountering early Christian theology on its own terms, before the Gospel narratives supply the context most modern readers assume.
Scholars also distinguish Paul’s seven undisputed letters (Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon) from six whose authorship is debated. The Pastoral Letters — 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus (~90-110 CE) — are considered pseudepigraphic (composed in Paul’s name after his death) by most New Testament scholars. The canonical order files these letters right alongside the undisputed ones, which is exactly what composition order pulls apart. For more on who wrote what, see Who Wrote the Bible?
Books of the Bible in Chronological Order
The canonical order is not the order the books were written. Arranged by composition date instead, the Bible opens not with Genesis but with the prophecy of Amos, a Judahite sheep-breeder writing around 760-750 BCE, and closes not with Revelation but with 2 Peter, composed around 100-120 CE. Between those two points lies nearly 900 years of writing.
Arranging texts this way requires editorial judgment, and scholars are candid that many dates are ranges rather than fixed points. Confidence comes from the convergence of several independent methods. Linguistic analysis tracks how Hebrew and Greek shifted over time; Avi Hurvitz, in linguistic dating studies beginning in 1982, has shown that late texts like Chronicles and Esther carry distinctive features — Persian loanwords, Aramaic influence — absent from earlier compositions. Historical references provide anchors: when Daniel describes the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes precisely up to 164 BCE and then turns vague, scholars date the text to around that year. Literary dependence reveals relative sequence, as when Chronicles visibly revises and reworks the earlier books of Kings.
The composition dates surface patterns the canonical order conceals.
The prophets came before the Torah. Amos (~760-750 BCE) and Hosea (~750-720 BCE) were composed roughly three centuries before Genesis reached its final form (~400 BCE). As Julius Wellhausen argued in his Documentary Hypothesis, first articulated in 1878, the Torah was assembled from several older sources by editors working in the Persian period — building a national narrative for a community that already had generations of prophetic tradition behind it. And in the New Testament, Bart D. Ehrman, in The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, has emphasized that Paul’s letters predating every Gospel changes how readers hear both: Paul’s silence on the birth story and the parables becomes meaningful once you realize he was writing first, not summarizing accounts he had read.
This selection marks the major milestones of the composition sequence.
| Book | Approx. Composition Date | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Amos | ~760-750 BCE | Pre-Exilic Prophets |
| Hosea | ~750-720 BCE | Pre-Exilic Prophets |
| Isaiah 1-39 | ~740-700 BCE | Pre-Exilic Prophets |
| Deuteronomy (core) | ~620s BCE | Late Pre-Exilic |
| Jeremiah | ~626-580 BCE | Late Pre-Exilic |
| Ezekiel | ~593-571 BCE | Exilic |
| Isaiah 40-55 | ~545-539 BCE | Exilic |
| Genesis (final form) | ~400 BCE | Late Post-Exilic |
| Psalms (compilation) | ~400-300 BCE | Late Post-Exilic |
| Ecclesiastes | ~300-200 BCE | Hellenistic |
| Daniel | ~165 BCE | Hellenistic |
| 1 Thessalonians | ~50-51 CE | Undisputed Paul |
| Romans | ~55-58 CE | Undisputed Paul |
| Mark | ~65-70 CE | Synoptics & Early Catholic |
| Matthew | ~80-90 CE | Synoptics & Early Catholic |
| Luke | ~80-90 CE | Synoptics & Early Catholic |
| John | ~90-100 CE | Late First Century |
| Revelation | ~90-95 CE | Turn of Century |
| 2 Peter | ~100-120 CE | Turn of Century |
The gaps in that column carry their own meaning. More than 600 years separate Amos from Daniel across the Old Testament, while the entire New Testament was produced in a compressed burst of roughly 100 years. Read in this order, ideas that look like fixed premises in the canonical arrangement become visible as developments — you can watch Israelite religion move from acknowledging other divine beings (Psalm 82, Deuteronomy 32) toward the emphatic monotheism of Second Isaiah (~540s BCE), rather than meeting it as a given on page one.
The canonical order groups books by genre and tradition. Uncanon arranges the same texts by composition date instead, so you read each one alongside what came before it. For the full sequence with historical context before every passage, see the Chronological Bible Reading Plan.
Two very different tools both get called “reading the Bible chronologically.” One interleaves passages by when their events supposedly happened, reconstructing a single timeline from creation forward. The other — composition order — keeps each text whole and sequences the texts themselves by when they were written, tracing who was writing, when, and what they were responding to. Devotional reading plans almost always mean the first. Uncanon means the second, and it is the distinction that most book lists never mention.
Sixty-six books, one table of contents — and roughly eight centuries of writing folded flat behind that single sequence. Reading them in composition order unfolds it again: prophets before the law they seem to comment on, Paul’s letters before the Gospels that frame them. The Chronological Bible Reading Plan lays out that full sequence with setting, scholarly context, and things to notice before each passage, and leaves the reading itself to you.