Bible reading plan 2027: the whole year, day by day
A dated 2027 Bible reading plan, January 1 to December 31, at 3 or 4 chapters a day. Five free printable plans, Protestant and Catholic, plus late-start help.
The short answer
To read the whole Bible in 2027, a year of 365 days that starts on Friday, January 1, read the 66-book Protestant Bible's 1,189 chapters at 3.26 a day. That is three chapters on most days and four on 94 of them, about 9 minutes at an average silent pace, or 11 allowing a relaxed 3.3 minutes a chapter. The 73-book Catholic Bible's 1,334 chapters come to 3.65 a day. A missed day can be skipped, and a plan can start on any date.
In this guide
A Bible reading plan for 2027 is a list of 365 dates, from Friday, January 1, to Friday, December 31, with a few chapters beside each one. Plenty of plans leave the dates off so they can start on any day, and many pages offer a long list of them to choose between. Here is the year itself, worked out from the same chapter counts the BibleRing app uses, in five versions you can print, along with the arithmetic for a late start or a missed week.
- 365days in 2027, from Friday, January 1
- 1,189chapters in the 66-book Protestant Bible
- 3 or 4chapters a day
- 11 mina day, at 3.3 minutes a chapter
Bible reading plan 2027 at a glance
To read the whole Bible in 2027, read three or four chapters a day. The Protestant Bible (66 books, 1,189 chapters) over 365 days is 3.26 chapters a day: three on 271 days and four on the other 94, spread evenly through the year. At the average adult’s silent reading pace for non-fiction, 238 words a minute, that is about 9 minutes a day, and allowing a relaxed 3.3 minutes a chapter, about 11.
Not every Christian tradition reads the same number of books, so here is the same year for each of the five Bibles BibleRing counts:
| Bible | Books | Chapters | Chapters a day | A typical 2027 day | Minutes a day, at 3.3 a chapter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protestant | 66 | 1,189 | 3.26 | 3 chapters, 4 on 94 days | about 11 |
| Catholic | 73 | 1,334 | 3.65 | 4 chapters, 3 on 126 days | about 12 |
| With Apocrypha | 76 | 1,360 | 3.73 | 4 chapters, 3 on 100 days | about 12 |
| Orthodox | 78 | 1,386 | 3.80 | 4 chapters, 3 on 74 days | about 12½ |
| Ethiopian | 80 | 1,564 | 4.28 | 4 chapters, 5 on 104 days | about 14 |
Beside the Protestant books, the Catholic Bible has Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and 1 and 2 Maccabees, with longer forms of Esther and Daniel; Catholics call these books deuterocanonical, and Protestants usually call them the Apocrypha. The Bible with the Apocrypha also has 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh, as Anglican Bibles print them. As we count them, the Orthodox Bible has 3 and 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151 as well, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Bible includes Enoch, Jubilees, 4 Baruch and the three books of Meqabyan, which stand in place of 1 and 2 Maccabees.
The printable plans below cover the Protestant and Catholic Bibles. For the other three, the reading plan calculator lays out a dated 2027 year in the same way and prints it.
The 2027 Bible reading calendar, month by month
Read from January 1, the start-to-finish plan spends more than nine months in the Old Testament and opens Matthew on October 13. Old and New together reads both testaments all year, so its New Testament column moves by a chapter on most days while the Old Testament moves by two or three. Here is where each month’s reading runs in the Protestant plans:
| Month | Start to finish | Old and New together: Old Testament | Old and New together: New Testament |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Genesis 1 to Leviticus 10 | Genesis 1 to Exodus 28 | Matthew 1 to 22 |
| February | Leviticus 11 to Joshua 5 | Exodus 29 to Numbers 33 | Matthew 23 to Mark 14 |
| March | Joshua 6 to 1 Kings 2 | Numbers 34 to Judges 18 | Mark 15 to Luke 20 |
| April | 1 Kings 3 to 2 Chronicles 23 | Judges 19 to 1 Kings 14 | Luke 21 to John 17 |
| May | 2 Chronicles 24 to Psalm 13 | 1 Kings 15 to 2 Chronicles 17 | John 18 to Acts 18 |
| June | Psalms 14 to 111 | 2 Chronicles 18 to Job 24 | Acts 19 to Romans 11 |
| July | Psalm 112 to Isaiah 11 | Job 25 to Psalm 61 | Romans 12 to 2 Corinthians 2 |
| August | Isaiah 12 to Jeremiah 46 | Psalms 62 to 140 | 2 Corinthians 3 to Ephesians 5 |
| September | Jeremiah 47 to Obadiah | Psalm 141 to Isaiah 15 | Ephesians 6 to 1 Timothy 4 |
| October | Jonah to Luke 17 | Isaiah 16 to Jeremiah 28 | 1 Timothy 5 to Hebrews 12 |
| November | Luke 18 to 2 Corinthians 10 | Jeremiah 29 to Ezekiel 48 | Hebrews 13 to 3 John |
| December | 2 Corinthians 11 to Revelation 22 | Daniel 1 to Malachi 4 | Jude to Revelation 22 |
In the start-to-finish year the harder stretches arrive on dates you can mark in advance: Leviticus on January 28, the census of Numbers on February 6, the genealogies of 1 Chronicles from April 15 to 17, and the Prophets from July 28. The Psalms, from May 28 to July 12, are the lightest weeks of the year. Our guide to reading the Bible in a year walks through each of them and what helps.
Free printable 2027 Bible reading plans (PDF)
There are five dated 2027 plans to print, each two pages long: January to June on the first page, July to December on the second, with a box, the date and that day’s chapters for every day of the year. Each comes in US Letter and A4, and each says at the top what it says here too: a missed day can simply be skipped.
The five plans differ in which Bible they read and the order they read it in:
| Plan | Chapters a day | Matthew begins | Revelation begins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protestant, start to finish | 3 or 4 | October 13 | December 25 |
| Protestant, Old and New together | 2 to 4 | January 2 | December 2 |
| Protestant, in the order written | 3 or 4 | November 7 (Mark on November 2) | December 25 |
| Catholic, start to finish | 3 or 4 | October 22 | December 26 |
| Catholic, Old and New together | 2 to 4 | January 2 | December 2 |
Protestant Bible, start to finish
Genesis 1 to 3 on January 1 and Revelation 19 to 22 on December 31, every book whole and in the order of a Protestant Bible’s contents page. It needs nothing beside the sheet but your own Bible. The New Testament comes late in the year: Matthew on October 13 and Revelation on Christmas Day.
2027 plan, Protestant Bible, start to finish (US Letter)PDF · 209 KB · 2 pages, a box for every day 2027 plan, Protestant Bible, start to finish (A4)PDF · 209 KB · 2 pages, a box for every dayProtestant Bible, Old and New together
Each testament is spread evenly over the whole year on its own, in proportion to its length: every day has two or three chapters of the Old Testament, and 260 of the 365 days also have one chapter of the New. Matthew starts on January 2, the four Gospels are finished on May 5, and both testaments end on December 31, with Malachi beside the last chapter of Revelation. Days run from two chapters (47 of them) to four (141).
2027 plan, Protestant Bible, Old and New together (US Letter)PDF · 211 KB · 2 pages, a box for every day 2027 plan, Protestant Bible, Old and New together (A4)PDF · 211 KB · 2 pages, a box for every dayProtestant Bible, in the order written
This plan reads whole books in roughly the order they were composed, the order BibleRing uses. Job comes first, from January 1 to 13, then Genesis on January 14. The Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs follow the story of David. After Kings come the prophets, from Obadiah on June 28 to Malachi on September 22, with Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah just before Malachi, and the Old Testament ends with Chronicles. The New Testament opens on October 13 with the letter of James, followed by Paul’s letters to the Galatians, Thessalonians, Corinthians and Romans; Mark arrives on November 2, before Matthew, and the year closes with John’s Gospel, his three letters and Revelation. Dates for many books are debated, so any such order is an approximation.
2027 plan, Protestant Bible, in the order written (US Letter)PDF · 211 KB · 2 pages, a box for every day 2027 plan, Protestant Bible, in the order written (A4)PDF · 211 KB · 2 pages, a box for every dayOrder written is not the same as chronological
Most plans called chronological follow the order the events happened, moving chapters and passages around so that many of the prophets sit beside the kings they spoke to. The order-written plan keeps every book whole and orders the books by when they were written. Over a year, both come to the same 1,189 chapters at 3.26 a day. Our guide to reading the Bible chronologically explains both ways.
Catholic Bible, start to finish
All 73 books of the Catholic Bible (1,334 chapters) in Catholic order, with Tobit and Judith after Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Maccabees after Esther, and Wisdom and Sirach after the Song of Songs. That is three chapters on 126 days and four on 239. Tobit begins on April 27, the Psalms on May 30, Sirach on July 29, Baruch on September 15 and Matthew on October 22.
2027 plan, Catholic Bible, start to finish (US Letter)PDF · 211 KB · 2 pages, a box for every day 2027 plan, Catholic Bible, start to finish (A4)PDF · 210 KB · 2 pages, a box for every dayCatholic Bible, Old and New together
The same New Testament as the Protestant version, with Matthew from January 2 and Revelation from December 2, beside the Catholic Old Testament’s 1,074 chapters at about three a day. Most days are four chapters (260 of them). For the 73 books at other paces, see our Catholic Bible reading plan.
2027 plan, Catholic Bible, Old and New together (US Letter)PDF · 212 KB · 2 pages, a box for every day 2027 plan, Catholic Bible, Old and New together (A4)PDF · 212 KB · 2 pages, a box for every dayA five-day Bible reading plan for 2027
A five-day plan reads on the 261 weekdays of 2027 and leaves the 104 weekend days open. The year is 52 weeks and one day, and that extra day is a Friday, December 31.
- The Protestant Bible over 261 weekdays is 4.56 chapters a day: four or five, about 15 minutes.
- The Catholic Bible is 5.1 chapters a weekday, about 17 minutes.
- The New Testament fits almost exactly: 260 chapters over 261 weekdays is one chapter each weekday, with a day to spare.
The printables above are seven-day plans, so a weekday-only reader will move through them more slowly than the dates. For a plan built around weekends off, and how to lay one out, see our guide to the five-day Bible reading plan.
Starting late: a 2027 plan from any date
A 2027 plan does not have to start on January 1, and there are two ways to begin later that both cover the whole Bible.
- Keep the full year. Start at the plan’s January 1 reading on the day you begin, and work down the sheet by row rather than by date. Each day stays the size the sheet gives it, and the last reading falls on your 365th day: a February 1 start finishes on January 31, 2028.
- Finish on December 31. Divide your Bible’s chapters by the days left, counting the first and last. The table gives the daily amount for some common starting points.
| Start in 2027 | Days to December 31 | Protestant, a day | Catholic, a day | Orthodox, a day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 1 | 334 | 3.56 | 3.99 | 4.15 |
| March 1 | 306 | 3.89 | 4.36 | 4.53 |
| Easter Sunday, March 28 | 279 | 4.26 | 4.78 | 4.97 |
| Orthodox Easter, May 2 | 244 | 4.87 | 5.47 | 5.68 |
| June 1 | 214 | 5.56 | 6.23 | 6.48 |
| July 1 | 184 | 6.46 | 7.25 | 7.53 |
| September 1 | 122 | 9.75 | 10.93 | 11.36 |
At 3.3 minutes a chapter, a February start is about 12 minutes a day for the Protestant Bible, an Easter start about 14 and a July start about 21. For any other date or finishing day, the same reading plan calculator works out the daily reading for all five Bibles and gives you a dated plan to print or download as a CSV file.
What to do when you miss a day
A missed day can simply be skipped: nothing about it has to be made up by reading double the next morning. What a missed day changes is only where its chapters go, and on a printed plan there are three easy ways to place them.
- Read on from where you stopped. Take the next unticked box rather than today’s date. Each missed day moves your finish one day later, and no day gets any longer.
- Move to today’s date and leave the box empty. The empty box shows exactly which chapters are waiting. A missed week is about 23 chapters, and the Psalms, which fill June in the start-to-finish plan, are the lightest weeks of the year to read them in.
- Spread them thin. A week’s 23 chapters, missed in March and spread over the 275 days from April 1, come to one extra chapter every 12 days.
Any of the three gets you through the whole Bible. Our guide for when you are behind on a Bible reading plan has more ways to catch up without starting over.
Keeping track through the year
A box beside a date can mean a date kept or chapters read, and the second is the more useful record, because it stays true after a missed week. A few things make a printed plan easier to keep for twelve months:
- Print both pages and keep them in your Bible at the day’s reading, so the bookmark and the plan are one thing.
- Tick the box when you have read the chapters, whatever the date, so the sheet shows what you read rather than what the calendar expected.
- Mark the date you start in the margin if it is not January 1, so the row you are on and the day you are on stay easy to tell apart.
By December 31 the sheet will hold every chapter you read in 2027, ticked one box at a time.
Questions people ask
Does a 2027 Bible reading plan have to start on January 1?
No. You can begin a dated plan on any day by starting at its January 1 reading and working down the list, which takes 365 days. To finish by December 31 instead, divide the chapters by the days left. From February 1 that is 3.56 chapters a day for the Protestant Bible, and from Easter Sunday, March 28, it is 4.26.
Is there a free printable Bible reading plan for 2027?
Yes. This page has five free dated plans, each running from January 1 to December 31, 2027, on two pages with a box for every day, in US Letter and A4. They cover the Protestant Bible start to finish, Old and New together or in the order written, and the Catholic Bible start to finish or Old and New together.
Which 2027 Bible reading plan is best for beginners?
Old and New together suits a first time through. Matthew begins on January 2 and the four Gospels are finished by May 5, while the Old Testament moves along beside them at two or three chapters a day, so no stretch of the Old Testament goes more than a day without some of the New. Start to finish is the simplest to follow from your own Bible.
Is there a chronological Bible reading plan for 2027?
None of the five printables here follows the order of events. The closest is the plan in the order written, which arranges whole books by roughly when they were composed, from Job and Genesis to John's letters and Revelation. A chronological plan follows the order the events happened instead, which puts many of the prophets beside the kings they spoke to. Over 2027, either comes to the Protestant Bible's 1,189 chapters at 3.26 a day.
How many chapters a day is a five-day Bible reading plan in 2027?
2027 has 261 weekdays, so the Protestant Bible's 1,189 chapters come to 4.56 a weekday, four or five chapters, or about 15 minutes. The Catholic Bible's 1,334 come to 5.1. The New Testament fits almost exactly, since 260 chapters over 261 weekdays is one chapter each weekday with a day to spare.
Sources
- Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, 104047.
- World English Bible, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org
- King James Version, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org
- Wikipedia: List of dates for Easter (Western and Orthodox Easter, 2027)
