Books of the Bible: List of Books of the Bible - Printable List of Bible Books

Books of the Bible List

This page provides a printable list of books of the Bible (list of bible books in order of Old Testament and New Testament) and other information about the Christian Bible. Information on the books of the apocrypha is also provided.

To view the list of books of the bible in a printable format, click here.

Old Testament

1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy
6. Joshua
7. Judges
8. Ruth
9. 1 Samuel
10. 2 Samuel
11. 1 Kings
12. 2 Kings
13. 1 Chronicles
14. 2 Chronicles
15. Ezra
16. Nehemiah
17. Esther
18. Job
19. Psalm
20. Proverbs
21. Ecclesiastes
22. Song of Solomon
23. Isaiah
24. Jeremiah
25. Lamentations
26. Ezekiel
27. Daniel
28. Hosea
29. Joel
30. Amos
31. Obadiah
32. Jonah
33. Micah
34. Nahum
35. Habakkuk
36. Zephaniah
37. Haggai
38. Zechariah
39. Malachi

Books of the Bible: List with Additional Information

"The Bible" can refer to a number of different things, but on this page, it will refer to the Protestant Christian Bible. The Bible, in this sense, is a collection of sixty-six texts written in different times, different places, by different people, to different audiences, in different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), for different purposes. This list of texts can be subdivided in different ways, depending upon one's religious orientation. I will group these texts into traditional Protestant Christian categories.

Torah (or "Pentateuch")

The first five books of the Christian Bible are actually the same as the first five books of the Jewish Bible. Jews refer to these books as "Torah" (Instruction), and have always held them in highest esteem. They serve as the absolute foundation for the Jewish faith, and thus, for Christianity (which began as a sect of Judaism). Christians typically refer to these five texts as the "Pentateuch", from a Greek word meaning "five books". These books have been traditionally ascribed to Moses. However, when I discuss authorship for any of the Bible texts, one must keep in mind that I'm referring to authorship as given in the Christian religious tradition. From a historical perspective, the authors of many or most of these texts are probably unknown. Also, if I give estimated dates of authorship, keep in mind that the dates I give will also be largely traditional, and are open to much debate. They are, for the most part, very rough estimates of dates that are often nearly impossible to ascertain with any kind of accuracy.

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy

Historical Books

In the Christian canon (a "canon" is a list of books that a religious sect has decided is authoritative), the following books are called "historical books". In the Jewish canon, however, some of these are categorized as Nevi'im (Prophets), and some as Ketuvim (Writings). After this point, I will no longer discuss the Jewish canon, but suffice it to say that it is quite different than the Christian canon in the way it groups the texts. The Jewish Bible is called the Tanakh, which is actually an acronym for the three groupings of the Jewish Bible: Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim yield "TaNaKh".

Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther

Wisdom Books

The wisdom books contain aphorisms, hymns, and miscellanea that doesn't quite fit within other categories. All but Job are traditionally attributed to Israel's two greatest kings, who ruled during the only period of a united Jewish monarchy (before Israel in the north and Judah in the south split into two separate kingdoms). These two kings were David, and his son Solomon. The Psalms were primarily attributed to David. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) were all traditionally ascribed to Solomon.

Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon

Major Prophets

The "major prophets" are distinguished from the "minor prophets" simply due to the greater length of the texts, not because they are considered more important than the "minor prophets".

Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel

Minor Prophets

Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi

The Gospels and Acts

"Gospels"--the word "gospel" means "good news"--are biographical accounts of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Here, the word "biography" should not call to mind the same things that one thinks of when one thinks of a modern biography. Ancient biographies were much less focused on providing factual information about their subjects' lives than are modern biographies. Authors of ancient biographies had limited and often unreliable sources to draw upon. Their books were meant to create a picture of their subjects' lives, much as a painter paints a portrait: with considerable artistic freedom. The goal was to capture the essence, as the author perceived it, of the subject's life, not the exact details.

There were many other Gospels written about Jesus of Nazareth besides the four books on this list. These four are listed because, after much deliberation at councils convened by early Christians, it was decided that only these four were to be considered authoritative for "orthodox" Christianity. The rest of the gospels, for one reason or another, did not make it into this collection of "authoritative" texts, and so have generally gone by the wayside. Presumably, there are many gospels which not only did not make it into the Bible, but which have no surviving copies, or have no surviving copies that we have yet discovered. So there are gospels which Christians accept as authoritative, gospels which are available to read but are not considered authoritative by most Christians, and gospels which have been altogether lost and forgotten.

Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts

Pauline Epistles

Although the following thirteen epistles (from the Greek word for "letters") each purport to have been written by the apostle Paul, many Bible scholars think that as few as 7 of them actually were. These are Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. Most scholars believe that Ephesians and Colossians were written by someone pretending to be Paul, and many think that 2 Thessalonians and several other "Pauline" letters were probably also forgeries in Paul's name.

Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon

General Epistles and The Revelation

Like the Pauline epistles, many of the general epistles are likely to have been penned by people other than those whose names have been associated with them in one way or another. For example, the styles of Greek vocabulary and grammar in 1 Peter and 2 Peter are so different that it is unlikely that the same author wrote both letters. Therefore, if Peter did, in fact, write one of the letters that bears his name, he almost certainly did not author the other. 

Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation

The Apocrypha

The texts of the so-called "apocrypha" (from a Greek word meaning "hidden away") were written throughout the period spanning between about 150 BCE and 150 CE. Protestants generally do not accept them as divinely inspired, so the Protestant Bibles which do include these books usually include them as a separate appendage, rather than weaving them into the rest of the Bible.

Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus
Tobit
I Esdras
I Maccabees
II Maccabees
Judith
Baruch
Letter of Jeremiah
II Esdras
Additions to Esther
Prayer of Azariah
Suzanna
Bel & the Dragon
Prayer of Manasseh

I hope that you have found this "books of the bible list" to be useful.