Easiest Book of the Bible in Chinese
Answering: “easiest book of the Bible in Chinese”
Updated 2026-09-26 · plain text · JSON
"Easiest" needs a definition, so here is the one used: the share of a book's word tokens that fall in HSK 1-3, tie-broken by distinct characters per 1,000 characters of text. It is a vocabulary measure, not a judgement about theology or style, and it is computed from this site's own segmentation.
By that measure the top of the list is John (72.7%), Matthew (68.6%), Mark (68.4%), Luke (68.2%), 2 John (68%). The Gospels dominate because they are narrative with dialogue and a small recurring cast of words.
Length is a separate question, and for a first attempt it may matter more. The shortest books by distinct characters are 2 John (151), 3 John (171), Philemon (226), Obadiah (277) — 2 John can be read in an evening and uses fewer distinct characters than a news article.
| Rank | Book | HSK 1-3 tokens | Distinct characters | Reading time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John | 72.7% | 1,011 | 91 min |
| 2 | Matthew | 68.6% | 1,415 | 108 min |
| 3 | Mark | 68.4% | 1,227 | 67 min |
| 4 | Luke | 68.2% | 1,493 | 117 min |
| 5 | 2 John | 68% | 151 | 2 min |
| 6 | 1 John | 67.9% | 330 | 12 min |
| 7 | Revelation | 65.7% | 1,068 | 52 min |
| 8 | James | 65.3% | 635 | 12 min |
| 9 | Genesis | 65.1% | 1,502 | 172 min |
| 10 | 2 Corinthians | 64.4% | 827 | 31 min |
| 11 | Song of Solomon | 64.1% | 680 | 13 min |
| 12 | 2 Thessalonians | 64% | 361 | 5 min |
| 13 | Acts | 63.9% | 1,377 | 111 min |
| 14 | 3 John | 63.9% | 171 | 2 min |
| 15 | Ruth | 63.2% | 484 | 11 min |
Reading time assumes 260 characters a minute.
Questions
- Is the easiest book also the shortest?
- No. John has the simplest vocabulary; 2 John is the smallest, with 151 distinct characters in 393 characters of text.
- What about the hardest?
- Nahum (51.2%), 1 Chronicles (51.8%), Proverbs (52.9%) — genealogies and temple records, dense with names.
- Is there a deck for the book I choose?
- Every book has one, built from that book's own frequency list rather than a general word list.
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).