How Long Does It Take to Write the Bible by Hand?

Writing out the whole Bible by hand is a project some people take on over a year or more. Before you start, it helps to know how big it is.

How long is the Bible?

• 31,102 verses in the Protestant Bible, in 1,189 chapters.
• About 780,000 words in the King James Version. Modern translations are similar in length.
• The New Testament alone is 7,957 verses, and Psalms is 2,461.

How many hours?

Most adults copy text by hand at somewhere around 15 to 25 words a minute. At that pace, the whole Bible takes roughly 500 to 900 hours of writing. Your own speed depends on your handwriting, your pen, and how often you stop to think, which is part of the point.

What a one-year plan looks like

• The whole Bible in a year: about 85 verses a day, roughly one and a half to two and a half hours.
• The New Testament in a year: about 22 verses a day, around half an hour.
• Psalms in a year: about 7 verses a day, five to ten minutes.

Start smaller than you think

A plan you finish is worth more than a plan you abandon. If you are new to scripture writing, begin with one book, or a short plan of a few verses a day, and let the habit grow.

Penned Grace lets you write on iPhone or iPad with Apple Pencil or your finger, a few verses at a time, and keeps a calendar of every day you wrote.