Reading the New Testament takes about 12 hours, assuming a silent reading pace of 250 words a minute. Listening takes about 19.3 hours at Berean's measured narration pace of roughly 155 words a minute. Both estimates use the 179,273 words in the bundled ESV New Testament. They cover time moving through the text, without extra time for questions, notes, or rereading.
In short
The bundled ESV New Testament contains 179,273 words, giving an estimated 11.95 hours at an assumed 250 words a minute.
Listening at about 155 words a minute takes 19.28 hours before additional pauses or replay.
Across 30 days, allow about 24 minutes of reading or 39 minutes of listening each day.
The New Testament has 260 chapters. A chapter a day takes 260 days, but chapter counts do not give exact daily reading times.
How do you calculate the reading time?
The calculation is word count divided by words per minute. Dividing 179,273 words by 250 gives about 717 minutes. Divide those minutes by 60, and the result is 11.95 hours, or about 12 hours in round numbers.
The important assumption is the pace. Here, 250 words a minute is a planning estimate for silent reading, not a measurement of how you read. You may move faster through a familiar passage and slow down when a sentence needs another look.
This figure also belongs to a particular text: the ESV bundled in Berean. It is not an exact time for every translation or edition.
Think of the total as the reading portion of your schedule. If you want to write notes or compare passages, leave room beyond it. For the same calculation across both Testaments, see how long it takes to read the whole Bible.
How much time should you allow each day?
Divide the total minutes by the number of reading days you want to use. The table below assumes you read or listen every scheduled day, at the same pace throughout.
| Schedule | Silent reading per day | Listening per day |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 23.9 minutes | 38.6 minutes |
| 60 days | 12.0 minutes | 19.3 minutes |
| 90 days | 8.0 minutes | 12.9 minutes |
Daily averages from 179,273 words, assuming silent reading at 250 words a minute or narration at 155 words a minute, rounded to one decimal place.
These are averages, not daily assignments. A 30-day schedule means dividing the text into roughly equal amounts of reading time. It does not mean that any selection of chapters will fit into 24 minutes.
If your available time is about 10 minutes a day, the same arithmetic gives roughly 72 reading sessions or 116 listening sessions. Those totals round up to include the final, shorter session and assume no time for pauses.
Choose the schedule that leaves some room around the text. If you have exactly enough time for the estimate, a question or interruption can make the session feel hurried. You can also schedule fewer reading days and leave open days for returning to a passage.
Would a chapter a day work?
Adding the supplied chapter counts gives 260 New Testament chapters. At a chapter a day, that means 260 reading days. At two chapters a day, it means 130 reading days.
Here is how those chapters divide into groups:
| Books | Chapters |
|---|---|
| Matthew through John | 89 |
| Acts | 28 |
| Romans through Philemon | 87 |
| Hebrews through Jude | 34 |
| Revelation | 22 |
| Total | 260 |
Chapter totals calculated by adding the supplied counts for each New Testament book.
A chapter-based schedule gives you a clear stopping point without counting words. It does not give you an equal amount of reading each day. The supplied figures include a total New Testament word count, not word counts for individual chapters, so they cannot support exact chapter-by-chapter timing.
You can choose either a time target or a chapter target. Read until the end of a chapter when your day allows it. When time is tight, stop at a paragraph and mark your place. There is no need to make a tidy schedule more important than following the passage.
How long does listening take?
Berean's narration runs at about 155 words a minute, measured from its own audio. At that rate, the calculation is 179,273 divided by 155, giving 1,156.6 minutes. That is 19.28 hours, or about 19.3 hours.
This is a word-count estimate using the measured narration pace, not a promise of an exact playback duration. Extra pauses, replaying a section, or stopping to ask a question add time.
Under these assumptions, listening takes longer than silent reading. But the shorter total is not always the more useful choice. You might have a stretch of time for audio when reading from a screen would not fit.
You can also alternate between Read and Listen. Continue from the same place rather than treating them as separate projects. If you read along with the narration, use the listening estimate for your schedule, since the audio sets the pace.
What does Luke's opening suggest about attention?
Before choosing how quickly to read, consider the opening of Luke. In Luke 1:1-4, the writer describes earlier narratives, testimony from eyewitnesses, and his decision to write in an orderly way for Theophilus. He connects that writing with certainty about what Theophilus has learned.
1Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us,
2just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,
3it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
4that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
Those verses do not prescribe a reading speed or a daily chapter count. They introduce writing that deserves attention to its order and purpose. A timer can help you make space for that attention, but it cannot measure it.
You might begin a session by reading the passage through, then return to the sentence that raised a question. In Luke 1:1-4, for example, you could notice whom the writer addresses and why he says he is writing. That gives you something concrete to look for without requiring a long note.
Keep the distinction between reading through and studying closely. You can make progress through a book while keeping questions for later. You can also spend a whole session on a short passage. Neither choice needs to match the average pace in the table.
How should you choose your first schedule?
Start with the time you can set aside, then choose whether to measure your sessions in minutes or chapters. Try the schedule before treating its end date as fixed.
- Choose Read, Listen, or a mix of both.
- Mark your stopping place so the next session has a clear beginning.
- Keep a short note of anything you want to revisit.
- Adjust the amount if the estimate leaves no room to pause.
If choosing the next book feels harder than finding the time, see what order to read the Bible in.
About 12 hours of reading or 19.3 hours of listening gives you a useful starting estimate. Your actual schedule can leave room for an ordinary day, an unfinished question, and another look at the passage.