# All 66 Bible Books Ranked by Difficulty

> All 66 books of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) ranked by the share of their word tokens at HSK 1-3, from John at 72.3% down to 1 Chronicles at 49.7%.

Question: Bible books ranked by Chinese difficulty
Answer: 66 books ranked
Page: https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/books-ranked-by-difficulty

One table, every book, with the numbers behind the ordering. The formula is fixed and printed here so the ranking can be checked or disagreed with: share of word tokens at HSK 1-3, tie-broken by distinct characters per 1,000 characters of text.

Read it as a reading order rather than a verdict. Working down from the top means meeting new vocabulary at the slowest rate; the spread between the easiest and hardest book is 22.6 percentage points, which in practice is the difference between one unknown word a verse and three.

Each row links to that book's own profile, which adds its distinct-word count, its reading time, its most frequent words and the words that occur in it and nowhere else.

## All 66 books, easiest first

| Rank | Book | HSK 1-3 | Characters | Distinct chars | Distinct words | Minutes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | John | 72.3% | 23,643 | 1,011 | 1,647 | 91 |
| 2 | Matthew | 68.1% | 27,983 | 1,415 | 2,475 | 108 |
| 3 | 2 John | 67.9% | 393 | 151 | 138 | 2 |
| 4 | Mark | 67.8% | 17,497 | 1,227 | 1,933 | 67 |
| 5 | 1 John | 67.8% | 3,218 | 330 | 395 | 12 |
| 6 | Luke | 67.7% | 30,495 | 1,493 | 2,749 | 117 |
| 7 | Revelation | 65.1% | 13,487 | 1,068 | 1,555 | 52 |
| 8 | James | 64.9% | 3,072 | 635 | 707 | 12 |
| 9 | 2 Corinthians | 64.3% | 8,057 | 827 | 1,165 | 31 |
| 10 | 2 Thessalonians | 63.8% | 1,415 | 361 | 360 | 5 |
| 11 | Genesis | 63.7% | 44,626 | 1,502 | 2,781 | 172 |
| 12 | Song of Solomon | 63.7% | 3,426 | 680 | 741 | 13 |
| 13 | 3 John | 63.7% | 419 | 171 | 160 | 2 |
| 14 | Acts | 63.2% | 28,933 | 1,377 | 2,628 | 111 |
| 15 | 1 Corinthians | 62.9% | 12,262 | 954 | 1,453 | 47 |
| 16 | 1 Thessalonians | 61.9% | 2,623 | 483 | 534 | 10 |
| 17 | Philemon | 61.8% | 601 | 226 | 210 | 2 |
| 18 | Galatians | 61.7% | 4,182 | 605 | 757 | 16 |
| 19 | Ruth | 61.7% | 2,956 | 484 | 554 | 11 |
| 20 | Exodus | 61.5% | 35,177 | 1,415 | 2,395 | 135 |
| 21 | Jonah | 61.5% | 1,450 | 411 | 393 | 6 |
| 22 | Psalms | 61.4% | 53,904 | 1,747 | 3,490 | 207 |
| 23 | Deuteronomy | 61.2% | 31,448 | 1,441 | 2,385 | 121 |
| 24 | Ecclesiastes | 61.2% | 6,156 | 841 | 1,137 | 24 |
| 25 | Colossians | 61.2% | 2,835 | 558 | 628 | 11 |
| 26 | Philippians | 61.1% | 2,970 | 549 | 642 | 11 |
| 27 | Hebrews | 60.5% | 8,926 | 976 | 1,440 | 34 |
| 28 | Ezekiel | 60.3% | 42,983 | 1,594 | 2,874 | 165 |
| 29 | Job | 59.7% | 20,857 | 1,574 | 2,722 | 80 |
| 30 | Ephesians | 59.5% | 3,938 | 645 | 800 | 15 |
| 31 | Judges | 59.2% | 21,662 | 1,242 | 1,911 | 83 |
| 32 | Romans | 59.1% | 12,252 | 971 | 1,504 | 47 |
| 33 | Lamentations | 59% | 4,081 | 797 | 903 | 16 |
| 34 | Leviticus | 58.9% | 25,598 | 1,094 | 1,626 | 98 |
| 35 | 2 Timothy | 58.8% | 2,280 | 569 | 615 | 9 |
| 36 | Jude | 58.6% | 897 | 357 | 317 | 3 |
| 37 | 2 Peter | 58.5% | 2,070 | 515 | 572 | 8 |
| 38 | Jeremiah | 58.3% | 50,586 | 1,678 | 3,139 | 195 |
| 39 | Zechariah | 58.1% | 7,158 | 926 | 1,162 | 28 |
| 40 | Numbers | 57.9% | 36,709 | 1,302 | 2,169 | 141 |
| 41 | Joshua | 57.7% | 22,629 | 1,026 | 1,583 | 87 |
| 42 | 1 Samuel | 57.7% | 28,433 | 1,328 | 2,215 | 109 |
| 43 | Malachi | 57.6% | 2,310 | 508 | 499 | 9 |
| 44 | 1 Kings | 57.1% | 26,860 | 1,312 | 2,182 | 103 |
| 45 | Isaiah | 56.9% | 43,651 | 1,904 | 3,754 | 168 |
| 46 | Daniel | 56.8% | 12,539 | 1,093 | 1,629 | 48 |
| 47 | Haggai | 56.8% | 1,285 | 331 | 312 | 5 |
| 48 | 1 Timothy | 56.7% | 3,075 | 629 | 761 | 12 |
| 49 | 2 Samuel | 56.2% | 23,411 | 1,332 | 2,157 | 90 |
| 50 | Titus | 56.1% | 1,299 | 416 | 423 | 5 |
| 51 | 1 Peter | 56% | 3,315 | 653 | 757 | 13 |
| 52 | Joel | 55.5% | 2,259 | 582 | 588 | 9 |
| 53 | 2 Kings | 55.3% | 26,180 | 1,283 | 2,095 | 101 |
| 54 | Micah | 54.9% | 3,712 | 786 | 890 | 14 |
| 55 | Esther | 54.8% | 5,858 | 724 | 907 | 23 |
| 56 | Amos | 54.5% | 4,809 | 860 | 982 | 18 |
| 57 | Habakkuk | 54.5% | 1,657 | 572 | 562 | 6 |
| 58 | Nehemiah | 54.4% | 12,713 | 1,039 | 1,483 | 49 |
| 59 | Hosea | 53.7% | 6,389 | 949 | 1,167 | 25 |
| 60 | Zephaniah | 53.7% | 1,939 | 532 | 514 | 7 |
| 61 | Proverbs | 52.5% | 16,973 | 1,441 | 2,335 | 65 |
| 62 | 2 Chronicles | 51.7% | 29,469 | 1,379 | 2,371 | 113 |
| 63 | Obadiah | 51.4% | 748 | 277 | 241 | 3 |
| 64 | Nahum | 51.3% | 1,486 | 569 | 537 | 6 |
| 65 | Ezra | 50.8% | 8,754 | 847 | 1,144 | 34 |
| 66 | 1 Chronicles | 49.7% | 26,171 | 1,193 | 1,864 | 101 |


## Questions

**Is this a readability score?**

No. It is one stated formula over vocabulary frequency, not a validated readability index, and it says nothing about grammar or subject matter.

**Would a different HSK band change the order?**

Somewhat. The ordering uses HSK 1-3; a reader at HSK 6 would find the differences smaller, since HSK 6 covers 71.4% of the text overall.

**Can I sort by length instead?**

The character column does that: the shortest books are 2 John, 3 John, Philemon.

## Method

- Text: 和合本 (Chinese Union Version), simplified script — public domain
- Words: forward maximum matching against CC-CEDICT (this site's own segmentation)
- 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)
- Computed: 2026-09-22

These are reproducible counts over a public-domain text, not a peer-reviewed study. Difficulty ranks are one stated formula, not a validated readability score.


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- 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).
- Bible text: public domain — 和合本 · World English Bible · Louis Segond 1910.
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