How long does it take to read the Bible?
About 64¾ hours at a comfortable 200 words a minute. Darby’s translation is 775,647 words: 49¾ hours for the Old Testament and 15 hours for the New.
What that means each day
- 3 months43 mina day, or 60 on weekdays only
- 6 months21 mina day, or 30 on weekdays only
- 1 year11 mina day, or 15 on weekdays only
- 2 years5 mina day, or 7 on weekdays only
Some books, start to finish
| Book | Words | Reading time |
|---|---|---|
| Philemon | 441 | 2 minutes |
| Ruth | 2,520 | 13 minutes |
| Romans | 9,451 | 47 minutes |
| Revelation | 11,918 | 1 hour |
| John | 19,204 | 1 hour 36 minutes |
| Matthew | 23,432 | 1 hour 57 minutes |
| Isaiah | 36,200 | 3 hours 1 minute |
| Genesis | 37,924 | 3 hours 10 minutes |
| Psalms | 42,575 | 3 hours 33 minutes |
Why chapters make a poor measure
Most plans give you a fixed number of chapters a day. But chapters vary hugely: Psalm 117 is two verses, Psalm 119 is 176. Three chapters can be a few minutes one day and several times that the next. Balancing each day by words keeps every reading about the same length, so the plan feels steady and your finish date stays realistic.
Your own pace may be faster or slower than 200 words a minute. Ribbon starts there, then learns your pace as you read and shows each day’s time in your minutes.
Pick the length that suits you
Make a free plan for any finish date, or let Ribbon set it up and keep your place.
Figures are for J.N. Darby’s New Translation (1890), counted word by word.