How it works
- Pick what to read. The whole Bible, a testament, a section, or any one of the 66 books.
- Set your pace. Reading aloud, careful, average or quick. Average is 238 words a minute.
- Minutes a day, or a finish date. Slide to the minutes you have and see when you would finish, or pick the date you want to finish by and see the minutes it takes.
Where the numbers come from
We counted the words in the verse text of each translation, leaving out section headings, footnotes and chapter titles. The Berean Standard Bible comes to about 725,000 words and the King James to about 790,000. Dividing by a reading pace gives the time; dividing that by the minutes you have each day gives the number of days.
For the reading time of all 66 books in one table, see how long it takes to read the Bible. Once you know how much time you have, the reading plan generator turns it into a day-by-day list, balanced by length, that you can print or add to your calendar.
Questions
How long does it take to read the whole Bible?
About 50 h 44 min in the Berean Standard Bible and 55 h 18 min in the King James Version, at the average adult reading pace of 238 words a minute. That is under ten minutes a day for a year.
How long does it take to read the New Testament?
About 12 h 2 min in the Berean Standard Bible. The four Gospels alone take about 5 h 29 min.
How were the reading times worked out?
By counting every word of verse text in each translation, without section headings or footnotes, and dividing by a reading pace. 238 words a minute is the average silent reading rate for adults reading non-fiction, and 183 the average for reading aloud, both from a 2019 review of reading-speed studies by Marc Brysbaert.
Why is the King James Version longer?
Its older grammar uses more words ("he that believeth on him" against "whoever believes in Him"), and a few verses that modern translations move to footnotes are in its main text. Overall it is about 9% longer than the Berean Standard Bible.
Is my own reading time the same?
Treat the result as a minimum for attentive reading. Genealogies, unfamiliar names and dense passages go slower; stories go faster. If you stop to highlight or write notes, add more.