Which Gospel to read first (and what to read after the Gospels)
Which Gospel should you read first? Mark, Matthew, Luke and John compared by length and reading time, four reading orders, a 30-day plan and what to read next.
The short answer
Start with Mark if you want the story of Jesus at speed. It is the shortest Gospel, 16 chapters and about an hour of reading, and most scholars think it was the first written. Start with John, 21 chapters and about 80 minutes, if you want to know what the story means. Matthew, which links back to the Old Testament, and Luke, the fullest account, are just as good a start. When you finish, read Acts, Luke's sequel, and then a short letter such as Philippians.
In this guide
- Which Gospel should I read first?
- The four Gospels compared
- Which Gospel is the longest, and which is the shortest?
- Which Gospel was written first?
- What order to read the Gospels in
- Read the Gospels in 30 days
- A Gospel of John reading plan: 21 days
- What to read after the Gospels
- Reading the Gospels side by side
- Questions people ask
- Sources
The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, are the accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that open the New Testament. Every Christian Bible has the same four, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and Ethiopian alike, and together they come to 89 chapters: a third of the New Testament’s chapters and, by our count, nearly half of its words. Which Gospel to read first matters less than reading one all the way through, but the four do differ, and once you can see how, the choice is easy.
- 89chapters in the four Gospels
- 5½ hoursto read all four, silently
- 1 hourMark, the shortest
- 11 mina day reads all four in 30 days
Which Gospel should I read first?
Read Mark first if you want the whole story quickly, and John first if you want to know what it means. Matthew and Luke are just as good a place to begin, though, and each of the four suits a different reader.
- Mark, for the story at speed. The shortest Gospel, about an hour of reading. It has no birth story: Jesus is baptized in the ninth verse, and by our count the word “immediately” appears 42 times in Mark in the World English Bible, more than twice as often as in any other Gospel. Most scholars think it was the first written.
- John, for what it means. Twenty-one chapters, about 80 minutes. It tells fewer events and stays longer with each, and near its end it says plainly why it was written: “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). Billy Graham’s published advice to a new Christian begins here.
- Matthew, for the link to the Old Testament. It opens with a genealogy that runs from Abraham through David, and it keeps pointing back to the prophets: by our count the words “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken” appear eight times in Matthew in the World English Bible, and in no other Gospel. The Sermon on the Mount fills chapters 5 to 7.
- Luke, for the fullest account. The longest Gospel by words. It holds the shepherds at Jesus’ birth (chapter 2), the good Samaritan (chapter 10), the father and his two sons, often called the prodigal son (chapter 15), and the road to Emmaus (chapter 24). It also has a sequel, Acts.
If you still cannot choose, start with Mark. It is one evening’s reading, and whichever Gospel you read next will look different for having it behind you.
The four Gospels compared
The four Gospels tell one life, and they differ most in length, in where they begin and in what they linger over. Here they are as BibleRing describes them, with the time each takes to read silently at 238 words a minute, the adult average in a 2019 review of reading-rate research:
| Book | Chapters | Reading time | What it’s known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew | 28 | 1 hour 36 min | The Sermon on the Mount |
| Mark | 16 | 1 hour | The fastest gospel — everything happens 'immediately' |
| Luke | 24 | 1 hour 43 min | The prodigal son and the good Samaritan |
| John | 21 | 1 hour 19 min | “In the beginning was the Word” |
Words are our own count of the World English Bible, a public-domain modern translation. Reading time is silent reading at 238 words a minute, the adult average.
Where each one starts and stops says a good deal about it:
| Gospel | Opens with | Ends with |
|---|---|---|
| Matthew | A genealogy from Abraham to Jesus (1:1–17) | The risen Jesus: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (28:19) |
| Mark | Isaiah’s prophecy, John baptizing in the wilderness, and Jesus baptized (1:1–9) | The women fleeing the empty tomb, afraid (16:8), followed in most manuscripts by verses 9–20 |
| Luke | A preface to “most excellent Theophilus,” then two births, John the Baptist’s and Jesus’ | Jesus “carried up into heaven” (24:51) |
| John | “In the beginning was the Word” (1:1) | Breakfast by the sea, and “Feed my sheep” (21:17) |
Your Bible may set off Mark 16:9–20 with brackets or a note. The earliest Greek manuscripts end at verse 8, which most recent scholars take to be the original ending. The longer ending is in the great majority of manuscripts, and critical editions of the Greek text print it in brackets.
Which Gospel is the longest, and which is the shortest?
Luke is the longest Gospel by words and by verses, Matthew has the most chapters, and Mark is the shortest by every measure. We counted verses and words in two public-domain translations, the King James Version and the modern World English Bible (WEB):
| Gospel | Chapters | Verses | Words (WEB) | Words (KJV) | Words per chapter (WEB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew | 28 | 1,071 | 22,831 | 23,684 | 815 |
| Mark | 16 | 678 | 14,275 | 15,166 | 892 |
| Luke | 24 | 1,151 | 24,411 | 25,939 | 1,017 |
| John | 21 | 879 | 18,696 | 19,094 | 890 |
| All four | 89 | 3,779 | 80,213 | 83,883 | 901 |
Matthew’s 28 chapters are shorter on average than Luke’s 24, and Luke’s chapters, at about 1,017 words each, are by our count the longest of any book in the New Testament. So in the WEB Luke runs about 7 percent longer than Matthew, and Mark is a little under three fifths of Luke. The longest single chapter in the four is Matthew 26, the Last Supper, Gethsemane and the arrest, at about six and a half minutes; Mark 14 covers the same events at almost the same length. For every book of the Bible ranked this way, see the longest and shortest books of the Bible.
Which Gospel was written first?
Mark, according to most scholars: the view that Mark came first and that Matthew and Luke used it as a source has been the majority position since the late 19th century. Mark is usually dated to around AD 70, Matthew and Luke to around AD 80 to 90, and John to between AD 90 and 100. The older tradition, set down by Augustine of Hippo, was Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the order the Gospels are still printed in.
Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic Gospels, from the Greek synopsis, “seeing all together,” because they share so much. One count, by the New Testament scholar Robert H. Stein, finds a parallel in Matthew for 97 percent of the words in Mark, and in Luke for 88 percent. John is largely its own: it is built around seven “signs,” ending with the raising of Lazarus, and where the other three mostly give Jesus’ words as short sayings, John gives long speeches.
For a reader, that has one practical effect. Read Mark, Matthew and Luke back to back and you will meet many scenes three times, often in close to the same words. Some readers like that, because the differences stand out; others break the run with John. Dates for all four are estimates, and our guide to the books of the Bible in the order they were written sets out the traditional and critical views side by side.
What order to read the Gospels in
Any order works: each Gospel is a complete book, and none needs another read before it. Four routes are worth knowing, each with its own reason.
| Route | Order | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| As printed | Matthew, Mark, Luke, John | The order of every Bible. Matthew’s genealogy carries you over from the Old Testament. |
| As written | Mark, Matthew, Luke, John | The earliest account first, then what Matthew and Luke add to it, and John, usually dated last, at the end. |
| John first | John, then Mark, Matthew, Luke | Begins with the Gospel written “that you may believe,” then fills in the events John leaves out. |
| Luke last | Mark, Matthew, John, Luke, then Acts | Breaks up the three similar Gospels, and lets Acts carry straight on from its first volume. |
The 30-day plan below uses the second, which also puts the shortest Gospel first.
The Sunday Gospel from Advent 2026
Roman Catholic parishes, and the many churches that use the Revised Common Lectionary, read the Gospels on a three-year Sunday cycle: Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B and Luke in Year C, with John read throughout the Easter season and at other times of year. Year B begins on the first Sunday of Advent, November 29, 2026, so from then until Advent 2027 the Sunday readings keep returning to Mark.
Read the Gospels in 30 days
Reading all four Gospels in 30 days takes about three chapters, or 11 minutes, a day: 89 chapters and about 80,000 words. This plan goes Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and splits the days by length rather than by chapter count, so no day runs longer than about 14 minutes or shorter than about 9. Times are silent reading at 238 words a minute; at a relaxed pace, add about a fifth.
| Day | Reading | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark 1–4 | 13 |
| 2 | Mark 5–7 | 12 |
| 3 | Mark 8–10 | 13 |
| 4 | Mark 11–13 | 10 |
| 5 | Mark 14–16 | 12 |
| 6 | Matthew 1–5 | 13 |
| 7 | Matthew 6–9 | 12 |
| 8 | Matthew 10–12 | 11 |
| 9 | Matthew 13–15 | 12 |
| 10 | Matthew 16–19 | 12 |
| 11 | Matthew 20–22 | 11 |
| 12 | Matthew 23–25 | 12 |
| 13 | Matthew 26–28 | 14 |
| 14 | Luke 1–2 | 11 |
| 15 | Luke 3–5 | 11 |
| 16 | Luke 6–7 | 10 |
| 17 | Luke 8–9 | 11 |
| 18 | Luke 10–11 | 9 |
| 19 | Luke 12–14 | 12 |
| 20 | Luke 15–17 | 9 |
| 21 | Luke 18–20 | 11 |
| 22 | Luke 21–22 | 9 |
| 23 | Luke 23–24 | 9 |
| 24 | John 1–4 | 14 |
| 25 | John 5–6 | 10 |
| 26 | John 7–8 | 9 |
| 27 | John 9–11 | 12 |
| 28 | John 12–14 | 11 |
| 29 | John 15–18 | 12 |
| 30 | John 19–21 | 10 |
If a day goes unread, take the next one when you come back. The plan finishes a day later, and nothing is lost.
In 40 days, or at a chapter a day
Forty days, the length of Lent, is a little over two chapters a day and about 8½ minutes on average, with no day longer than 11. Each Gospel takes the days below, one reading per day, in order:
| Days | Gospel | One day’s reading each |
|---|---|---|
| 1–8 | Mark | 1–3 · 4–5 · 6–7 · 8–9 · 10–11 · 12–13 · 14 · 15–16 |
| 9–20 | Matthew | 1–4 · 5–6 · 7–9 · 10–11 · 12–13 · 14–16 · 17–19 · 20–21 · 22–23 · 24–25 · 26 · 27–28 |
| 21–31 | Luke | 1–2 · 3–4 · 5–6 · 7–8 · 9–10 · 11–12 · 13–15 · 16–18 · 19–20 · 21–22 · 23–24 |
| 32–40 | John | 1–3 · 4–5 · 6–7 · 8–9 · 10–11 · 12–13 · 14–16 · 17–18 · 19–21 |
Our Lent Bible reading plan sets the season out by date. At one chapter a day the four Gospels take 89 days, about three months, at under four minutes a day on average.
A Gospel of John reading plan: 21 days
John has 21 chapters, so a chapter a day reads it in three weeks, at between two and six minutes a day and about 80 minutes in all. It is where Billy Graham’s answer starts a new reader, and its chapters fall into clear scenes:
| Day | Chapter | What happens | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John 1 | “In the beginning was the Word”; John the Baptist; the first disciples | 4 |
| 2 | John 2 | Water into wine at Cana; the temple cleared | 2 |
| 3 | John 3 | Nicodemus comes by night; “For God so loved the world” | 3 |
| 4 | John 4 | The woman at the well in Samaria; a nobleman’s son healed | 5 |
| 5 | John 5 | A man healed at the pool of Bethesda | 4 |
| 6 | John 6 | Five thousand fed; walking on the sea; “I am the bread of life” | 6 |
| 7 | John 7 | The Feast of Booths; “rivers of living water” | 4 |
| 8 | John 8 | A woman brought before Jesus; “I am the light of the world” | 5 |
| 9 | John 9 | A man blind from birth washes and sees | 3 |
| 10 | John 10 | “I am the good shepherd” | 3 |
| 11 | John 11 | Lazarus raised | 5 |
| 12 | John 12 | Mary anoints Jesus; palm branches in Jerusalem | 4 |
| 13 | John 13 | Jesus washes the disciples’ feet | 3 |
| 14 | John 14 | “I am the way, the truth, and the life” | 3 |
| 15 | John 15 | The vine and the branches | 3 |
| 16 | John 16 | The Counselor promised; sorrow turned into joy | 3 |
| 17 | John 17 | Jesus prays for his disciples, and for those who will believe | 3 |
| 18 | John 18 | The arrest; Peter’s denials; before Pilate | 4 |
| 19 | John 19 | The crucifixion and the burial | 4 |
| 20 | John 20 | The empty tomb; Mary Magdalene; Thomas | 3 |
| 21 | John 21 | Breakfast by the sea; “Feed my sheep” | 3 |
Chapters 13 to 17 are one evening, Jesus’ last with his disciples, so they read well together if you have a longer day. At two chapters a day, John takes 11 days.
What to read after the Gospels
Acts is the natural next book, because it presents itself as the second volume of Luke. Luke writes “to you in order, most excellent Theophilus” (Luke 1:3), and Acts opens by addressing the same reader:
The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach,
Acts 1:1, World English Bible
Acts is 28 chapters, about an hour and 40 minutes, and runs from Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost (chapters 1 and 2) to Paul in Rome, where he “stayed two whole years in his own rented house” (Acts 28:30). Luke and Acts together are 52 chapters and, by our count, more than a quarter of the New Testament’s words, longer than the thirteen letters that carry Paul’s name put together. After Acts, a few good next steps:
- A short letter. Philippians (4 chapters, about 9 minutes), James (5, about 9 minutes) or 1 John (5, about 10) can each be read in one sitting. Billy Graham’s answer goes from Acts to the letters of John and Philippians.
- Romans. Sixteen chapters, about 40 minutes, and the next step in the same answer, which describes it as setting out what Paul taught.
- Genesis. Fifty chapters, about two and a half hours, for the story the Gospels keep pointing back to.
- Another Gospel. If you have read only one, a second shows the same life from another side. After John, Mark is the quickest way to the events John leaves out.
To keep going through the rest of the New Testament, our guide to how long it takes to read the New Testament has the times and paces for all 27 books, and where to start reading the Bible maps out the first month for a new reader.
Reading the Gospels side by side
You can also read the four together, which is what a harmony does: it weaves the Gospels into a single account, while a synopsis sets them out in parallel columns, one per Gospel. The idea is old. Tatian’s Diatessaron, from about AD 160, is perhaps the first harmony, and it cut the Gospels from about 3,780 verses to 2,769.
Chronological reading plans do the same day by day. The chronological plan published on ESV.org, for example, gives one day to Matthew 12:1–21, Mark 3 and Luke 6, three tellings of the same stretch of Jesus’ ministry. That shows clearly what each Gospel adds and leaves out. What it loses is each book’s own shape: Mark’s pace, Matthew’s long sermons, John’s slow conversations. Reading each Gospel whole first, and side by side afterward, gives you both. Our guide to reading the Bible chronologically compares the plans that work this way.
Whichever Gospel you open first, read it as a whole book, a few chapters at a time, and the next one will read differently for it.
Questions people ask
Which Gospel was written first?
Most scholars hold that Mark was written first, around AD 70, and that Matthew and Luke used it as a source; that view has been the majority one since the late 19th century. Matthew and Luke are usually dated to around AD 80 to 90, and John to between AD 90 and 100. The older tradition, set down by Augustine of Hippo, ran Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the order the Gospels are still printed in.
Which Gospel is the longest?
Luke, by words and by verses. It has 1,151 verses and about 24,400 words in the World English Bible, roughly an hour and three quarters of silent reading. Matthew has more chapters, 28 to Luke's 24, but they are shorter, so Matthew comes second, at about an hour and 35 minutes. Mark is the shortest Gospel on every measure.
How long does it take to read all four Gospels?
About 5 hours 40 minutes of silent reading at the average adult pace of 238 words a minute, or about 6 hours 40 minutes at a relaxed 200. The four Gospels are 89 chapters and about 80,000 words. Three chapters a day reads them in 30 days, and one chapter a day in 89 days, about three months.
Should I read the Gospels in order?
You can, but you do not have to. Each Gospel is a complete book. The printed order, Matthew to John, works well, and so does Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, roughly the order most scholars think they were written in. Reading Luke last has one advantage of its own, because Acts, its second volume, can follow straight on.
What should I read after the Gospel of John?
Acts is the usual next step, as in Billy Graham's published advice, which goes from John to Acts and then to the letters of John and Philippians. The three letters of John are seven chapters together, about 13 minutes. If you would rather stay with the Gospels, Mark is the quickest way to the many events John leaves out.
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
- Markan priority, Wikipedia
- Gospel of Mark, Wikipedia
- Gospel of Matthew, Wikipedia
- Gospel of Luke, Wikipedia
- Gospel of John, Wikipedia
- Synoptic Gospels, Wikipedia
- Gospel harmony, Wikipedia
- Lectionary, Wikipedia
- Revised Common Lectionary, Wikipedia
- Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Where should I begin in my Bible reading?
- ESV Chronological Bible reading plan (Back to the Bible), Crossway
