The 40 Easiest Bible Chapters in Chinese
Answering: “easiest Bible chapters in Chinese”
Updated 2026-09-26 · plain text · JSON
Choosing a chapter is a better first decision than choosing a book: a chapter is one sitting. All 1,189 chapters are ranked by the same formula used for books — share of word tokens at HSK 1-3, tie-broken by distinct words per 1,000 characters.
Short chapters rise to the top for two reasons, one real and one an artefact: they genuinely repeat common vocabulary, and a small sample swings further. The table therefore shows each chapter's length, so a 4-verse psalm is not mistaken for an easy hour of reading.
Every row opens the chapter in the parallel reader, with the Chinese text, pinyin and your own language side by side, and with each word tappable for its meaning and HSK level.
| Rank | Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Psalms 131 | 83.1% | 3 | 84 |
| 2 | John 14 | 78.8% | 31 | 940 |
| 3 | Matthew 25 | 78.8% | 46 | 1,187 |
| 4 | John 9 | 76.7% | 41 | 1,092 |
| 5 | John 15 | 76.2% | 27 | 790 |
| 6 | Matthew 20 | 76.2% | 34 | 842 |
| 7 | Ezekiel 2 | 76.2% | 10 | 325 |
| 8 | John 17 | 75.6% | 26 | 807 |
| 9 | John 16 | 75.1% | 33 | 970 |
| 10 | John 5 | 74.8% | 46 | 1,147 |
| 11 | John 21 | 74.2% | 25 | 830 |
| 12 | John 10 | 74% | 42 | 986 |
| 13 | Psalms 100 | 74% | 5 | 109 |
| 14 | John 8 | 73.9% | 59 | 1,730 |
| 15 | John 4 | 73.8% | 54 | 1,343 |
| 16 | John 13 | 73.6% | 38 | 1,043 |
| 17 | John 6 | 73.5% | 71 | 1,774 |
| 18 | John 20 | 73.4% | 31 | 913 |
| 19 | Luke 10 | 72.8% | 42 | 1,211 |
| 20 | Genesis 45 | 72.7% | 28 | 925 |
| 21 | Genesis 42 | 72.6% | 38 | 1,299 |
| 22 | Mark 4 | 72.3% | 41 | 975 |
| 23 | John 2 | 72.3% | 25 | 623 |
| 24 | Psalms 28 | 72.2% | 9 | 273 |
| 25 | Zechariah 5 | 72.1% | 11 | 345 |
| 26 | Joshua 2 | 72% | 24 | 893 |
| 27 | Matthew 18 | 71.6% | 34 | 972 |
| 28 | Judges 19 | 71.5% | 30 | 1,067 |
| 29 | Luke 24 | 71.5% | 53 | 1,288 |
| 30 | John 1 | 71.3% | 51 | 1,284 |
| 31 | Genesis 20 | 71.3% | 18 | 618 |
| 32 | Genesis 24 | 71.2% | 66 | 2,098 |
| 33 | John 18 | 71.2% | 40 | 1,197 |
| 34 | Acts 22 | 71.2% | 30 | 917 |
| 35 | Luke 17 | 71.1% | 36 | 854 |
| 36 | John 7 | 71% | 52 | 1,299 |
| 37 | Matthew 10 | 71% | 42 | 1,125 |
| 38 | Genesis 27 | 70.9% | 46 | 1,407 |
| 39 | Mark 8 | 70.9% | 38 | 957 |
| 40 | Mark 5 | 70.9% | 43 | 1,093 |
Out of 1,189 chapters.
Questions
- Is a short chapter really easier?
- It is shorter, which is not the same thing. The table shows length next to the score so you can weigh both.
- Which famous chapters are easy?
- John 3 (66.9% HSK 1-3, rank 149); Psalms 23 (64.5% HSK 1-3, rank 280); Matthew 5 (66.9% HSK 1-3, rank 146); 1 Corinthians 13 (59.7% HSK 1-3, rank 671).
- Can I practise the words from one chapter?
- Yes — each chapter page lists the words worth learning first, and they can be saved and exported as a deck.
Related reference pages
Take it further
- 97 ready-made vocabulary decks — by HSK level, by book or by topic, exportable to Anki, Pleco or Quizlet.
- Printable 田字格 worksheets — passages with pinyin, meanings and tracing rows.
- The parallel reader — Chinese, pinyin and your own language side by side, every word tappable.
- The dataset behind these numbers — plain JSON, free to reuse with attribution.
How these numbers were produced
- Text: 和合本 (Chinese Union Version), simplified script — public domain — 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,021 verses.
- Words: forward maximum matching against CC-CEDICT (this site's own segmentation). A different segmenter gives slightly different word counts; character counts are unaffected.
- HSK levels: HSK 3.0 levels from the complete-hsk-vocabulary list; band 7 covers HSK 7-9.
- Reading times: 260 characters a minute — an assumption about a fluent adult reader, not a measurement.
- Computed: 2026-09-26, from the text on this site.
These are counts anyone can reproduce from the published dataset. They are not a peer-reviewed linguistic study, and the difficulty rankings are one stated formula rather than a validated readability score.
Definitions: CC-CEDICT, licensed CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). If you share this file onward, keep this notice and share alike. Character data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License / LGPL).