Why Psalm 118.8 Is Not the Center of the Bible

Web sites, e-mails, and sorrowfully even some Bibles1 assert that Psalm 118.8 is the middle verse of the entire Bible. But as demonstrated below, the claim is incontestably false. Such serves to show how our failure as Christians to exercise the prudent care exemplified by the Bereans (Acts 17.10-11) and charged of the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 5.21) lends to the inroads of false doctrine and traditions of men into our lives and the local church. This paper2 is a reproof of our negligence. It is a call to diligence.

The claim begins,

WHAT IS THE SHORTEST CHAPTER IN THE BIBLE? (ANSWER – PSALMS 117)

That statement is true. Psalm 117 contains two verses.

The claim continues,

WHAT IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER IN THE BIBLE? (ANSWER – PSALMS 119)

That statement is true. Psalm 119 contains 176 verses.

The claim continues,

WHICH CHAPTER IS IN THE CENTER OF THE BIBLE? (ANSWER – PSALMS 118)

That statement is false. The modern-day Protestant canon (over against the longer Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons) contains 1,189 chapters. The middle chapter of the modern-day Protestant canon is Psalm 117.

The claim continues,

FACT: THERE ARE 594 CHAPTERS BEFORE PSALMS 118

That statement is false. In the modern-day Protestant canon 595 chapters precede Psalm 118.

The claim continues,

FACT: THERE ARE 594 CHAPTERS AFTER PSALMS 118

That statement is false. In the modern-day Protestant canon 593 chapters follow Psalm 118.

The claim continues,

ADD THESE NUMBERS UP AND YOU GET 1188

That statement is true.

The claim ends,

WHAT IS THE CENTER VERSE IN THE BIBLE? (ANSWER - PSALMS 118:8)

That statement is false. Modern-day Protestant English Bibles contain between 31,084 and 31,103 verses with content.3 Textual criticism is the principal ground for the disagreement. Factoring in the blank/empty/omitted verses,4 most modern-day Protestant English Bibles contain 31,102 verses.5 In the strictest sense, then, there is no middle verse. Genesis 1.1 through Psalm 103.1 completes the first 15,551 verses; Psalm 103.2 through Revelation 22.21 completes the latter.

Based on these 31,102 verses, the middle verse of the Protestant Old Testament (23,145 verses) is 2 Chronicles 18.30; that of the New Testament (7,957 verses) is Acts 7.7.

But virtually no modern-day Protestant English Bible follows either the book order or verse order of the traditional Hebrew text (i.e., the Judaic canon).6 Moreover, chapter and verse divisions in the New Testament canon were not introduced until after a millennium of the autographs.7 Therefore, the calculated midpoints above are trifle if not meaningless.

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1. This writer e-mailed the compiler of The Evidence Bible more than once about this error since its publication in 2003. For another example, see Henry M. Morris, The New Defender's Study Bible (Nashville: World Publishing, Inc., 2006), 924.

2. The author's calculations within this paper have been double-checked for accuracy. He is wholly responsible for any miscalculation(s).

3. These numbers are verifiable with BibleWorks 8, DVD-ROM (BibleWorks, LLC, 2008).

4. English Bibles such as the ESV, GWN, NET, NIV, NIrV, NLT, and TNIV contain up to 19 blank/empty or omitted verses (Matthew 17.21; Mark 9.44, 46; Luke 17.36; John 5.4; Acts 8.37; Romans 16.24, etc.). Such verses are bracketed by the HCSB and the NASB and identified in the center-column notes in the NKJV. Consult Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994) for technical explanations on the side of such omissions from the NT.

5. Verifiable with BibleWorks 8.

6. An exception is David H. Stern, Complete Jewish Bible (Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1998). Another (though outdated) is Ferrar Fenton, The Holy Bible in Modern English (1903; repr., Merrimac, MA: Destiny Publishers, 1966).

7. See Johann Jakob Herzog, Philip Schaff, and Albert Hauck, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, ed. Samuel Macauley Jackson, Charles Colebrook Sherman, and George William Gilmore (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1908), 2:113-14; John M'Clintock and James Strong, Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881), 10:756-62.


The author implores checking his commentary against Scripture using the tools of biblical interpretation. Please be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker having no cause or need to be ashamed, handling the word of truth accurately.

Copyright © 2002-2010 by Thomas John Dexter. All rights reserved. This labor may be reproduced for distribution but not sold. The author's commentary is subject to change as he grows in his understanding of the word of God.

Last updated July 11, 2010.