What is the shortest book of the Bible?
Answered from the commentary of Arend Remmers, Leslie M. Grant, Walter Scott and 4 others
No author here names one book as the shortest in the whole Bible. They do name the shortest in each Testament. Obadiah is the shortest book of the Old Testament, with only twenty-one verses. The Second and Third Epistles of John, 2 John and 3 John, are the shortest books of the New Testament. Of these two, 3 John has only fourteen verses. That is fewer than Obadiah's twenty-one. 2 John is likewise a letter of a very few verses, and the third is described as equally brief. Philemon is the shortest of Paul's letters. Because they are so short, these epistles are apt to be passed by as of minor importance. Yet the instruction they contain is of the greatest possible moment, and if it is ignored believers will cease to walk in the truth. Scriptural teaching would not be complete without them. If even the smallest part of the Book were missing, the Bible would be mutilated.
Verses: 3 John 1:1, 3 John 1:2, 3 John 1:3, 3 John 1:4, 3 John 1:5, 3 John 1:6, 3 John 1:7, 3 John 1:8, 3 John 1:9, 3 John 1:10, 3 John 1:11, 3 John 1:12, 3 John 1:13, 3 John 1:14, 2 John 1:1, 2 John 1:2, 2 John 1:3, 2 John 1:4, 2 John 1:5, 2 John 1:6, 2 John 1:7, 2 John 1:8, 2 John 1:9, 2 John 1:10, 2 John 1:11, 2 John 1:12, 2 John 1:13, Obadiah 1:1, Obadiah 1:2, Obadiah 1:3, Obadiah 1:4, Obadiah 1:5, Obadiah 1:6, Obadiah 1:7, Obadiah 1:8, Obadiah 1:9, Obadiah 1:10, Obadiah 1:11, Obadiah 1:12, Obadiah 1:13, Obadiah 1:14, Obadiah 1:15, Obadiah 1:16, Obadiah 1:17, Obadiah 1:18, Obadiah 1:19, Obadiah 1:20, Obadiah 1:21
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
We must not allow anything to hinder us from acting in the fervour and power of divine life and love, and these short epistles are given to us to encourage us to walk in the truth and to warn us against the things that might hinder us. They are the shortest books of the New Testament and so are apt to be passed by as of minor importance, but the instruction they contain is of the greatest possible moment to us, and is needed today more than ever before, and if we ignore it we shall cease to walk in the truth.
The book of the prophet Obadiah is the shortest book of the OT with 21 verses only. We do not know anything of the book’s author but his name (Obadiah = servant or worshipper of Jehovah). More than ten persons of the OT bear the same name but none of them is identical with the prophet. This fact makes it difficult to date the time of writing. This is why the scientists’ opinions regarding the time of writing vary greatly.
Obadiah ("Serving Jehovah") writes the shortest book of the Old Testament; and he prophesies entirely against Edom. This is, of course, the family of Esau, Jacob's brother. His hatred and violence against Israel was a dreadful result of pride and selfârighteousness, which could not bear his brother's receiving blessing from God.
Obadiah (servant of the Lord). This is the shortest of the prophetical books; and unless we regard Obadiah as an historian, writing after the capture and sack of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, 588 B.C. (actively assisted by the Edomites who exulted in Judah's overthrow), we must place him among the early prophets and discard the date of the accomplished chronologist Usher, viz., 587 B.C. The burden of this book is the doom of Edom, a people proverbial for their pride, wisdom, power; and whose rage against the people of Jehovah's choice found vent at the Chaldean destruction of Jerusalem. Alas! the Babylonians needed not the encouraging cry of the Edomite in wreaking their vengeance upon the poor Jew: "Rase it, rase it even to the foundation thereof" (Ps. 137:7).
The epistle to Philemon is the shortest of all the canonical letters of Paul. Conjoining Timothy with him in the salutation, as he had done to that addressed to all the Colossian saints, he here addresses, in company with Philemon and Apphia his wife, Archippus, a labourer in the Word, and the Church in Philemon's house, sending the letter, not by Tychicus, but most likely by the one who was most deeply and personally interested in its contents.
In the third Epistle of John, consisting of only fourteen verses, these names—Gaius, Diotrephes and Demetrius appear. Covering the whole Epistle, there is the exhortation to follow the good and refuse the evil. “He that does good, is of God; but he that does evil, has not seen God” (v. 11). We shall find this strikingly exemplified, as we examine what is said of these three men.
and the grief of all sober-minded Christian men and women. Let us turn to Scripture, and, deaf to the voices of men, learn what God says about this subject. There are twenty-seven books in the New Testament. In all but five of them there are very important allusions to the second return of our Lord Jesus Christ. A recent author has pointed out very clearly the reason of these exceptions. There are three, short, personal epistles in which we do not naturally look for the unfolding of much doctrine, and in them we do not find the second coming of the Lord Jesus mentioned at all. These exceptions are the apostle Paul’s short epistle to Philemon about Onesimus—a runaway slave; the second Epistle of John, addressed to a lady, and consisting of a very few verses; the third Epistle of John, written to Gaius, who had exercised hospitality towards the apostle, equally as brief as his second epistle.
The Second and Third Epistles of John are two very short books addressed to individuals.
On this note the Epistle ends. The writer speaks of it as "a word of exhortation," and such indeed it is. It is also "a letter … in few words." Though only two epistles exceed it in length yet it is indeed "in a few words" if we consider the magnitude and scope of its contents. If we have really taken in these "few words" we shall have received some knowledge of things which are so great that all eternity will not exhaust them.
It may be almost out of place to speak of memorizing the books of the Old and New Testaments in the order in which we find them in our Bibles. They should be so familiar to us that we should have no more difficulty in turning to one of the minor Prophets, Esther, the epistle of Jude, etc., than to any of the rest. It is also desirable to have a general idea of the length of all the various books as indicating, not exactly their importance, but the space which they occupy. Thus, the number of chapters in Haggai or Obadiah, Amos or Micah, will supply us with little pointers as to the place they occupy.
Verses
- 3 John 1:1–141The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. 2Beloved, I desire that in all things thou shouldest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers. 3For I rejoiced exceedingly when [the] brethren came and bore testimony to thy [holding fast the] truth, even as thou walkest in truth. 4I have no greater joy than these things that I hear of my children walking in the truth. 5Beloved, thou doest faithfully [in] whatever thou mayest have wrought towards the brethren and that strangers, 6(who have witnessed of thy love before [the] assembly,) in setting forward whom on their journey worthily of God, thou wilt do well; 7for for the name have they gone forth, taking nothing of those of the nations. 8We therefore ought to receive such, that we may be fellow-workers with the truth. 9I wrote something to the assembly; but Diotrephes, who loves to have the first place among them, receives us not. 10For this reason, if I come, I will bring to remembrance his works which he does, babbling against us with wicked words; and not content with these, neither does he himself receive the brethren; and those who would he prevents, and casts [them] out of the assembly. 11Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He that does good is of God. He that does evil has not seen God. 12Demetrius has witness borne to him by all, and by the truth itself; and we also bear witness, and thou knowest that our witness is true. 13I had many things to write to thee, but I will not with ink and pen write to thee; 14but I hope soon to see thee, and we will speak mouth to mouth. Peace [be] to thee. The friends greet thee. Greet the friends by name.