260 days
New Testament reading plan
One chapter each weekday. The New Testament has 260 chapters and a year has 260 weekdays, so it comes out even.
The New Testament contains 260 chapters. A year contains 52 weeks of five weekdays, which is also 260. That coincidence makes this the least demanding way to finish a major section of the Bible on a schedule: one chapter each weekday, nothing on weekends, and no arithmetic to keep track of.
Who this suits
- Readers who want a schedule they can hold for a full year
- Anyone returning to the Bible after a long gap
- Readers who found that three or four chapters a day was too much
What to expect
- One chapter a day is short enough that a missed day is easy to absorb.
- Weekends are deliberately empty. They are the built-in margin that keeps the plan workable.
- The four Gospels take the first 89 days. Acts follows, then the letters, then Revelation.
The full schedule
Every reading opens as a full chapter on this site. Days are numbered rather than dated, so day one is whichever day you begin. The time estimate above is an average — chapter lengths vary widely.
- Day 1Matthew 1
- Day 2Matthew 2
- Day 3Matthew 3
- Day 4Matthew 4
- Day 5Matthew 5
- Day 6Matthew 6
- Day 7Matthew 7
- Day 8Matthew 8
- Day 9Matthew 9
- Day 10Matthew 10
- Day 11Matthew 11
- Day 12Matthew 12
- Day 13Matthew 13
- Day 14Matthew 14
- Day 15Matthew 15
- Day 16Matthew 16
- Day 17Matthew 17
- Day 18Matthew 18
- Day 19Matthew 19
- Day 20Matthew 20
- Day 21Matthew 21
- Day 22Matthew 22
- Day 23Matthew 23
- Day 24Matthew 24
- Day 25Matthew 25
- Day 26Matthew 26
- Day 27Matthew 27
- Day 28Matthew 28
- Day 29Mark 1
- Day 30Mark 2
- Day 31Mark 3
- Day 32Mark 4
- Day 33Mark 5
- Day 34Mark 6
- Day 35Mark 7
- Day 36Mark 8
- Day 37Mark 9
- Day 38Mark 10
- Day 39Mark 11
- Day 40Mark 12
- Day 41Mark 13
- Day 42Mark 14
- Day 43Mark 15
- Day 44Mark 16
- Day 45Luke 1
- Day 46Luke 2
- Day 47Luke 3
- Day 48Luke 4
- Day 49Luke 5
- Day 50Luke 6
- Day 51Luke 7
- Day 52Luke 8
- Day 53Luke 9
- Day 54Luke 10
- Day 55Luke 11
- Day 56Luke 12
- Day 57Luke 13
- Day 58Luke 14
- Day 59Luke 15
- Day 60Luke 16
- Day 61Luke 17
- Day 62Luke 18
- Day 63Luke 19
- Day 64Luke 20
- Day 65Luke 21
- Day 66Luke 22
- Day 67Luke 23
- Day 68Luke 24
- Day 69John 1
- Day 70John 2
- Day 71John 3
- Day 72John 4
- Day 73John 5
- Day 74John 6
- Day 75John 7
- Day 76John 8
- Day 77John 9
- Day 78John 10
- Day 79John 11
- Day 80John 12
- Day 81John 13
- Day 82John 14
- Day 83John 15
- Day 84John 16
- Day 85John 17
- Day 86John 18
- Day 87John 19
- Day 88John 20
- Day 89John 21
- Day 90Acts 1
- Day 91Acts 2
- Day 92Acts 3
- Day 93Acts 4
- Day 94Acts 5
- Day 95Acts 6
- Day 96Acts 7
- Day 97Acts 8
- Day 98Acts 9
- Day 99Acts 10
- Day 100Acts 11
- Day 101Acts 12
- Day 102Acts 13
- Day 103Acts 14
- Day 104Acts 15
- Day 105Acts 16
- Day 106Acts 17
- Day 107Acts 18
- Day 108Acts 19
- Day 109Acts 20
- Day 110Acts 21
- Day 111Acts 22
- Day 112Acts 23
- Day 113Acts 24
- Day 114Acts 25
- Day 115Acts 26
- Day 116Acts 27
- Day 117Acts 28
- Day 118Romans 1
- Day 119Romans 2
- Day 120Romans 3
- Day 121Romans 4
- Day 122Romans 5
- Day 123Romans 6
- Day 124Romans 7
- Day 125Romans 8
- Day 126Romans 9
- Day 127Romans 10
- Day 128Romans 11
- Day 129Romans 12
- Day 130Romans 13
- Day 131Romans 14
- Day 132Romans 15
- Day 133Romans 16
- Day 1341 Corinthians 1
- Day 1351 Corinthians 2
- Day 1361 Corinthians 3
- Day 1371 Corinthians 4
- Day 1381 Corinthians 5
- Day 1391 Corinthians 6
- Day 1401 Corinthians 7
- Day 1411 Corinthians 8
- Day 1421 Corinthians 9
- Day 1431 Corinthians 10
- Day 1441 Corinthians 11
- Day 1451 Corinthians 12
- Day 1461 Corinthians 13
- Day 1471 Corinthians 14
- Day 1481 Corinthians 15
- Day 1491 Corinthians 16
- Day 1502 Corinthians 1
- Day 1512 Corinthians 2
- Day 1522 Corinthians 3
- Day 1532 Corinthians 4
- Day 1542 Corinthians 5
- Day 1552 Corinthians 6
- Day 1562 Corinthians 7
- Day 1572 Corinthians 8
- Day 1582 Corinthians 9
- Day 1592 Corinthians 10
- Day 1602 Corinthians 11
- Day 1612 Corinthians 12
- Day 1622 Corinthians 13
- Day 163Galatians 1
- Day 164Galatians 2
- Day 165Galatians 3
- Day 166Galatians 4
- Day 167Galatians 5
- Day 168Galatians 6
- Day 169Ephesians 1
- Day 170Ephesians 2
- Day 171Ephesians 3
- Day 172Ephesians 4
- Day 173Ephesians 5
- Day 174Ephesians 6
- Day 175Philippians 1
- Day 176Philippians 2
- Day 177Philippians 3
- Day 178Philippians 4
- Day 179Colossians 1
- Day 180Colossians 2
- Day 181Colossians 3
- Day 182Colossians 4
- Day 1831 Thessalonians 1
- Day 1841 Thessalonians 2
- Day 1851 Thessalonians 3
- Day 1861 Thessalonians 4
- Day 1871 Thessalonians 5
- Day 1882 Thessalonians 1
- Day 1892 Thessalonians 2
- Day 1902 Thessalonians 3
- Day 1911 Timothy 1
- Day 1921 Timothy 2
- Day 1931 Timothy 3
- Day 1941 Timothy 4
- Day 1951 Timothy 5
- Day 1961 Timothy 6
- Day 1972 Timothy 1
- Day 1982 Timothy 2
- Day 1992 Timothy 3
- Day 2002 Timothy 4
- Day 201Titus 1
- Day 202Titus 2
- Day 203Titus 3
- Day 204Philemon 1
- Day 205Hebrews 1
- Day 206Hebrews 2
- Day 207Hebrews 3
- Day 208Hebrews 4
- Day 209Hebrews 5
- Day 210Hebrews 6
- Day 211Hebrews 7
- Day 212Hebrews 8
- Day 213Hebrews 9
- Day 214Hebrews 10
- Day 215Hebrews 11
- Day 216Hebrews 12
- Day 217Hebrews 13
- Day 218James 1
- Day 219James 2
- Day 220James 3
- Day 221James 4
- Day 222James 5
- Day 2231 Peter 1
- Day 2241 Peter 2
- Day 2251 Peter 3
- Day 2261 Peter 4
- Day 2271 Peter 5
- Day 2282 Peter 1
- Day 2292 Peter 2
- Day 2302 Peter 3
- Day 2311 John 1
- Day 2321 John 2
- Day 2331 John 3
- Day 2341 John 4
- Day 2351 John 5
- Day 2362 John 1
- Day 2373 John 1
- Day 238Jude 1
- Day 239Revelation 1
- Day 240Revelation 2
- Day 241Revelation 3
- Day 242Revelation 4
- Day 243Revelation 5
- Day 244Revelation 6
- Day 245Revelation 7
- Day 246Revelation 8
- Day 247Revelation 9
- Day 248Revelation 10
- Day 249Revelation 11
- Day 250Revelation 12
- Day 251Revelation 13
- Day 252Revelation 14
- Day 253Revelation 15
- Day 254Revelation 16
- Day 255Revelation 17
- Day 256Revelation 18
- Day 257Revelation 19
- Day 258Revelation 20
- Day 259Revelation 21
- Day 260Revelation 22
If you fall behind
Missing a day is ordinary, and it is not a spiritual failure. The most common reason people abandon a reading plan is that a missed day becomes a backlog, the backlog becomes a chore, and the chore ends the reading. Pick up at the next day rather than reading double to catch up.
Finishing a plan is a good thing to want, but it is not a way to earn anything from God. Reading Scripture is worth doing at whatever pace you can actually sustain.
Questions
Why weekdays instead of every day?
Because the numbers happen to line up: 52 weeks times five weekdays is 260, and the New Testament has 260 chapters. Reading every day would finish it in about eight and a half months instead, which is also fine — the schedule below is numbered, so you can move through it at whatever pace you keep.
Is the New Testament enough on its own?
The New Testament quotes and depends on the Old Testament constantly, so reading it alone leaves a lot unexplained. It is a reasonable place to start, not a replacement for the rest. The one-year plan on this site covers the whole Bible when you are ready for it.
Where should I start if the Gospels feel repetitive?
Matthew, Mark, and Luke do cover much of the same ground, and reading them back to back makes that obvious. That overlap is worth noticing rather than skipping — the differences between the accounts are part of what each writer is drawing attention to.