The New Testament book with the fewest verses is 2 John, which contains 13 verses.
Second John is one of the New Testament’s three brief Catholic, or general, epistles traditionally associated with the apostle John. It is addressed to “the elect lady and her children,” wording that has been understood either literally or as a symbolic reference to a Christian community.
Its brevity does not make it unimportant. The letter emphasizes love, obedience to Christian teaching, and caution toward teachers who deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Readers sometimes confuse the shortest book by verses with the shortest by word count, because translations and counting methods can produce slightly different rankings. Second John is also shorter than 3 John, Jude, and Philemon in its canonical verse total.