What Is The Shortest Book In The Bible? Bible Wisdom Facts For Kids

Oluniyi Akande
Oct 13, 2023 By Oluniyi Akande
Originally Published on Oct 28, 2021
Holy bible on white background

Did you know that the Bible is the most widely read and purchased book in the whole world?

Approximately 100 million copies of the sacred book about God are sold each year. It has been partially translated into more than 2000 languages and fully translated into 500 languages.

The Old Testament was written over a period of about 1000 years while the New Testament was written over 50-70 years. The Bible is the sacred religious book of the Christians about God that contains the history of the Earth from the beginning to the widespread adoption of Christianity around the first century A.D.

After you have read about the ancient holy book that the majority of the world lives by, do read more about Bible facts and the longest book in the Bible.

Is 2 John the shortest book in the Bible?

As we discussed earlier, the Bible is a collection of different works and consists of two Testaments and a variety of different scriptures about God. Are you curious to know which book is the shortest of the lot?

2 John is one of the shortest books in the Bible if we compare these books by their number of verses. 2 John has only 13 verses in total.

However, if we compare the books in the Bible by their word count, 2 John is no longer the shortest book. It is in fact the second shortest book with 245 words. The shortest book by word is 3 John.

The shortest book, 3 John, contains only 219 words, spread over 21 verses. The shortest book of John 3 contains the letter to Gaius, telling about Diotrephes and Demetrius

The Bible has a large number of stories, which have some moral meanings behind them. One of the shortest stories of the Bible is in the first book of Chronicles, it's just 299 words and is the story of a man named Jabez.

The name Jabez means “he will cause pain”. He was named this because he caused his mother great pain while being born, though despite his dreadful name he was the most honorable among his brothers.

He called upon the God of Israel and asked God to enlarge his territory, bless him and keep him from evil so that he may cause no harm to anyone. Whereas the longest story in the Bible belongs to the Hebrew version.

What book has only 13 verses?

As we discovered above, one of the shortest books in the Bible by verse and the second shortest book in the Bible by word count is 2 John,which has just 14 verses in the form of a letter with a word count of 245.

In this shortest book epistle, John warns the receiver about the false teachers who have entered the  Christian Church and are spreading false messages. He advises the devoted church members not to heed their advice or spend time accompanying these false teachers.

Although the Bible consists of many different books, there are five main books of the Hebrew version of the Bible also known as the five books of Moses.

These books are considered very sacred as they are seen as the divine dictation of Moses and the oldest section of the Bible.

They are called 'Pentateuch' which means five books of the Torah, the books that together make up the Torah are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, in the English translation, which is a translation of the original Greek names.

How many books are in the original Bible?

The Bible is 1000 years old and has been modified and changed throughout this period in order to maintain relevance to the contemporary world. The Bible contains a number of sections now, but was this number always the same?

There were 783,137 words in the original Bible. After 1611,  the text in the original Bible were translated from Latin to English. Originally, the Bible contained a total number of 80 books along with 14 books, which have now been excluded from the Bible by the Vatican. These 14 volumes were composed in  Old Testament and formed its ending.

What are the two main divisions in the Bible?

The Bible is a very unique book with many different compositions and collections which are sometimes contradictory, but the Bible is mainly divided into two different testaments, namely the Old Testament and the New Testament

New Testament: The gospel contains about 27 volumes and has a vocabulary of 4,800 words count, it mainly focuses on the life journey of Jesus Christ, his brothers James and Jude, and the records of the teachings of the Christian Church. It was written over a period of 75 years and is slightly different than the Old Testament.

Old Testament:  The old testament differs for different believers of Christianity like there are 39 sets of books of the old testament of the protestants, 51 books in the old testaments of the Catholics, 55 books are mentioned and contained in the Orthodox Bible and about 57 books are mentioned in the old testament of the Coptic Bible.

The Old Testament contains the longest and the most detailed stories of the creation of the universe and the Holy Spirit, the Exodus, and the Ten Commandments given to Moses by the Lord.

The New Testament is made up of 260 chapters, which tell us about the entire biography of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Church, along with the right way to conduct oneself. So, if you’re wondering about the lesson with the shortest length mentioned in the Bible, we have an answer for you.

The shortest of the 260 chapters both by word count and the number of verses is Psalm 117 in Hebrew that contains only two verses and seventeen words in total; it falls in the middle of all of the Bible chapters.

This shortest part is based on worship and tells the believer to love and worship the Lord because of his greatness and ever-enduring faithfulness.

In comparison, one of the longest chapters is also included in the same book and is known as Psalm 119.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy!

If you liked our suggestions for what is the shortest book in the Bible, Bible wisdom facts for kids, then why not take a look at what color is garnet, types of this beautiful stone you must know or what sugar is found in DNA, basic kids biology facts simplified?

 

Editorial credit: joshimerbin / Shutterstock.com

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Written by Oluniyi Akande

Doctorate specializing in Veterinary Medicine

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Oluniyi AkandeDoctorate specializing in Veterinary Medicine

With an accomplished background as a Veterinarian, SEO content writer, and public speaker, Oluniyi brings a wealth of skills and experience to his work. Holding a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Ibadan, he provides exceptional consulting services to pet owners, animal farms, and agricultural establishments. Oluniyi's impressive writing career spans over five years, during which he has produced over 5000 high-quality short- and long-form pieces of content. His versatility shines through as he tackles a diverse array of topics, including pets, real estate, sports, games, technology, landscaping, healthcare, cosmetics, personal loans, debt management, construction, and agriculture.

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