Books of the Bible: 66 vs 73 Full Lists in Order

Pick up any two different Bibles and you might open them to completely different page counts. That’s not a printing error — it’s a centuries-old divide. The difference comes down to a handful of books in the Old Testament, and understanding why reveals as much about church history as it does about scripture itself.

Protestant Bible total: 66 books · Catholic Bible total: 73 books · Deuterocanonical books: 7

What is the order of the 66 books of the Bible?

The Protestant canon contains exactly 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Both traditions share those same 27 New Testament books, so the entire difference comes down to seven books in the Old Testament.

Old Testament order

The Protestant Old Testament follows the Hebrew canon order, typically organized into four sections:

• The Pentateuch (5 books): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
• Historical Books (17 books): Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
• Wisdom Literature (5 books): Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
• Prophetic Books (12 books): Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

New Testament order

The New Testament arranges 27 books by genre and chronological order:

• Historical (5 books): Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts
• Pauline Epistles (13 letters): Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon
• General Epistles (8 books): Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
• Prophetic (1 book): Revelation

The implication: the Protestant canon excludes the deuterocanonical books entirely, making the total count 66 rather than 73.

What are the 73 books in the Bible?

The Catholic Bible contains 73 books total: 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Those 27 New Testament books are identical to the Protestant New Testament, so the seven-book difference lies entirely in the Old Testament.

Catholic Old Testament additions

The Catholic Old Testament includes seven deuterocanonical books that Protestant Bibles exclude:

• Tobit
• Judith
• 1 Maccabees
• 2 Maccabees
• Wisdom (of Solomon)
• Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)
• Baruch

Additionally, Catholic Bibles include longer versions of two books found in both traditions: expanded additions to Daniel and Esther that do not appear in Protestant translations.

Full Catholic canon

The Catholic canon follows this structure, inserting deuterocanonical books into the traditional order:

• Pentateuch (5 books): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
• Historical Books (17 + 7 deuterocanonical = 24 books): Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther (with additions), 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees
• Wisdom Books (5 + 2 deuterocanonical = 7 books): Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Wisdom, Sirach
• Prophetic Books (17 + Baruch + additions to Daniel = 19 books): Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel (with additions), Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
• New Testament (27 books): Same as Protestant — Matthew through Revelation

The Catholic canon does not add “new” books in any theological sense — it maintains the broader canon that the early church councils ratified over several centuries.

The Council of Trent in 1546 reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s position, while Martin Luther removed the seven books from his Bible translation in the 16th century. The Protestant canon was not finalized until the 1800s — until then, many Protestant Bibles actually contained 80 books, including some apocryphal texts.

Are there 73 or 66 books in the Bible?

Both numbers are correct — they simply reflect different Christian traditions. The Protestant Bible has 66 books. The Catholic Bible has 73 books. Both share the same 27 New Testament books, meaning the entire seven-book difference lies in how each tradition handles the Old Testament.

Protestant vs Catholic canons

The Protestant and Catholic canons diverge on seven books that both traditions call by different names:

Historically, the canon was not settled until approximately 400 AD. The Church Council of Rome formally approved the 73-book canon in 382 AD under Pope Damasus I. The Council of Hippo ratified it in 393 AD, and the Council of Carthage reaffirmed it in 397 AD. Pope Innocent I sent letters reaffirming the canon in 405 AD and again in 414 AD.

In 1566, Roman Catholic theologian Sixtus of Sienna coined the term “Deuterocanonical” to describe these seven disputed books — a term that means “second in time of reception,” not “second in authority.”

St. Athanasius compiled the first known list of 73 books around 367 AD, establishing a precedent that would shape Christian canon for centuries to come.

Why do Catholics have 73 books in the Bible?

Catholics have 73 books because the Catholic Church maintains the broader canon that early church councils ratified — a canon that includes the deuterocanonical books found in the Greek Septuagint but not in the narrower Hebrew Bible that the Jewish tradition preserves.

Deuterocanonical history

Around 367 AD, St. Athanasius compiled a list of 73 books believed to be divinely inspired. Pope Damasus I approved the 73-book canon in 382 AD. The Council of Hippo ratified it in 393 AD, and the Council of Carthage did so again in 397 AD.

The 6th Council of Carthage reaffirmed the canon in 419 AD with Pope Boniface’s agreement. Pope Gelasius I ratified the canon in 495 AD. The ecumenical Council of Florence in the mid-1400s reaffirmed the inclusion of deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament canon.

The Council of Trent in 1546 made the final formal declaration for Catholic tradition, though this was a reaffirmation — not an addition — of what had been accepted since the 300s.

Council of Trent

The Council of Trent is often misunderstood as the moment when the Catholic Church “added” seven books to the Bible in response to Martin Luther. In reality, the council reaffirmed the existing canon. Catholics and Protestants had been using the same Bible for over 1,100 years before the Reformation.

The Catholic Church did not add seven books at the Council of Trent in response to Luther’s Reformation — it reaffirmed books already in the canon. Deuterocanonical books were consistently included in the canon from the 300s through the 1400s.

What are the 17 books of the Bible?

The “17 books” refers to the historical books of the Old Testament — texts that trace the narrative of Israel from creation through the post-exile period. Both the Protestant and Catholic Old Testaments include these 17 historical books, though the Catholic version adds additional deuterocanonical texts among them.

Historical books list

The 17 historical books in order are:

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

Wait — that’s actually 17 books listed above. Let me clarify the count: the first five (Genesis through Deuteronomy) are the Pentateuch, followed by 12 additional historical books (Joshua through Esther). The Pentateuch forms its own section in most Bibles, but if we’re counting “historical books” broadly, Genesis joins the historical narrative rather than being purely legal or priestly material.

More precisely:

• Pentateuch (5 books): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
• Former Prophets (6 books): Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings
• Latter Prophets (3 books): 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah
• Writings (3 books): Esther

Actually, let me get this straight. The Hebrew Bible organizes these differently, but in Christian Bibles, the historical books are typically counted as 17 total: Genesis through Esther. In Protestant Bibles, this section is 17 books. In Catholic Bibles, this section swells to 24 books because it incorporates the deuterocanonical historical texts (Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees) into the same section.

Protestant reader, the question is whether to accept the Hebrew canon as the sole standard; for a Catholic reader, the question is whether the Septuagint tradition carries equal or greater authority than the later Hebrew manuscript tradition.

66 vs 73: Side-by-Side Comparison

These two tables summarize the key differences between Protestant and Catholic biblical canonicity.

The trade-off: Catholic readers have access to additional deuterocanonical texts that provide historical context and theological reflection from the intertestamental period. Protestant readers use a canon that aligns more closely with the Hebrew Bible maintained by Jewish tradition — though this narrower canon was not finalized until the 1800s.

Neither canon is simply “correct.” Both have deep historical roots. The Council of Trent in 1546 and the 16th-century Protestant Reformation represent the formal split, though both traditions trace their positions back to earlier manuscripts, councils, and church fathers. Understanding this context helps readers see the “66 vs 73” debate not as a question of one tradition being right and the other wrong, but as a question of which historical precedents carry greater theological weight.

Related reading: Books of the Bible: Protestant 66 vs Catholic 73 in Order

Frequently asked questions