Name all 66 books — from memory, against the clock.
Not multiple choice. Type them in any order and see how far you get before the minor prophets turn into a fog, which for most people happens somewhere around book twenty-two.
How many can you name from memory?
Type them in any order. Spelling is forgiving; abbreviations and alternate names count.
66 books. Most people get the first twenty in under a minute and then discover the minor prophets are a complete blank.
Why recall instead of multiple choice
Recognising a list is not the same as knowing it
Almost every books-of-the-Bible quiz online shows you options and asks you to pick. That tests recognition, which is a much weaker form of knowing — you can recognise Habakkuk on a page and have no ability whatever to produce the name from a standing start. This one makes you type them, which is a different exercise and a considerably harder one.
The pattern is remarkably consistent when people try it. The first twenty come fast: Genesis, Exodus, the Gospels, Acts, Revelation, Psalms, Proverbs. Then the pace collapses. The historical books blur together in the middle, the letters of Paul come out in a jumble, and the twelve minor prophets — Hosea through Malachi — turn out to be a fog for the majority of lifelong churchgoers.
That's not a failure worth feeling bad about. It's a map. If you can't produce Zephaniah's name, you almost certainly haven't read Zephaniah, and the gap in your recall is a fairly precise picture of the gap in your reading. Which makes this quiz a reasonable place to pick your next book from.
How it plays
Type them in any order, against the clock
A running timer
The clock starts when you do and stops when you finish. There's no penalty for being slow and no time limit — the timer is there so you have something to beat next time.
Forgiving matching
Case, spacing and punctuation are ignored, abbreviations count, and '1st Samuel', 'I Samuel' and '1 Sam' all work. Song of Songs, Canticles and Psalm are accepted, and so is 'Revelations' — nobody learns anything from being marked wrong on a plural.
Three scopes
All 66, or just one testament. The 27 New Testament books are a realistic first target; the 39 Old Testament books are where the actual difficulty lives.
If you want to learn them
The order, in the chunks people actually memorise
Nobody memorises 66 items as a flat list. They memorise five or six groups and then the contents of each.
The Law — 5 books
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Also called the Pentateuch or Torah. Almost everyone already has these.
History — 12 books
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, 1–2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. The paired books make this chunk far easier than its length suggests.
Wisdom & poetry — 5 books
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Five in a row, and they sit at the centre of the Old Testament.
The prophets — 17 books
Five major — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel — then twelve minor: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. This is the chunk that defeats people.
Gospels & Acts — 5 books
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. Universally known and worth banking early in a round.
The letters & Revelation — 22 books
Romans through Philemon are Paul's thirteen; then Hebrews, James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, Jude, and Revelation last. The three Johns and two Peters are the usual slip.
The one you couldn't name is the one to read.
Ask what any book is actually about and whether it's a good next read for where you are. It stays private; create an account to keep going.
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Questions people ask
About the books of the bible quiz
How many books are in the Bible?+
Sixty-six in the Protestant canon — 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. Catholic Bibles include seven additional books (the deuterocanon) and Orthodox Bibles more again, which is why you'll see totals of 73 or higher elsewhere. This quiz uses the 66-book Protestant canon.
What are the books of the Bible in order?+
Old Testament: the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy), history (Joshua to Esther), wisdom and poetry (Job to Song of Solomon), and the prophets (Isaiah to Malachi). New Testament: the Gospels and Acts, Paul's letters (Romans to Philemon), the general letters (Hebrews to Jude), and Revelation. The section above breaks them into memorisable chunks.
What are the 12 minor prophets?+
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. 'Minor' refers to length, not importance — in the Hebrew Bible they're a single scroll called the Book of the Twelve, which is why they're grouped.
What's the easiest way to memorise the books of the Bible?+
In groups rather than as one list. Nobody memorises 66 flat items; they memorise six chunks — Law, History, Wisdom, Prophets, Gospels and Acts, Letters — and then fill each one in. Getting the chunk boundaries first makes the rest far more tractable.
Does spelling count in this quiz?+
Barely. Case, spaces and punctuation are all ignored, and abbreviations work — '1 Sam', 'I Samuel' and 'first samuel' all match. Common alternate names are accepted too, including Song of Songs, Canticles, Psalm, and the very common 'Revelations'.
Is my score saved?+
No — everything runs in your browser and nothing is stored. If you want a record, use the share button when you finish; the score travels in the message rather than to a server.
Your blank spots are a reading list.
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