learning Bible verses, suggestions?

I started a bible memory program this past year which was written by evangelist Jerry Sivinsky. So far I have done pretty well and have learned 65 verses. The plan includes a good deal of repetition and review which is essential for long term memory. I don't have it in front of me right now, but I can try to get you the information in a day or so.

 

I was in a Bible quiz program as a teen. For me, the best way to memorize is to repeat the first phrase of verse one to myself. Then add another phrase and quote up to the end of the phrase. Keep going until you get the whole verse. Then start on verse two, breaking it down into phrases and quoting phrases and adding new phrases until you get the whole thing. Then quote verse one and two.

Keep going until you have the whole chapter. As a teen, this process can take several hours to do the averaged-sized chapter.

Another method is to just try to memorize one verse until you can quote it, and then just go on to the next. This was my method to get a chapter 'roughed in' if I had an hour to study before a practice Bible Quiz tournament. I'd have a lot of the material in my short-term memory but i couldn't answer quotation questions. Then, when I went back and really memorized it, it was easier, becaused I had an idea of what each verse said.

Putting in several hours a week, the teens in the program could memorize a chapter a week. We did go for a few weeks for review now and then. For the year we did about 30 chapters, whether it was one book or several small epistles. We needed to have it memorized after about 7 or 8 months so we could quiz on the whole book.

The human mind has a great capability to memorize. I have read that in Jesus' day, the Judean boys on the lower rung of the educational ladder studied the first 5 books of the Torah. they memorized them, in Hebrew! This memorization probably helped them learn Hebrew if they were Aramaic speakers. They started with Leviticus, which was good for some of the same reasons we would think it's difficult. The repetition of phrases helped with memorization and the language. They learned the books over the course of 5 years.

The Bible says 'Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against Thee...' Memorizing scripture is important.

 

I never have been good at memorization unless I do it in a different language ...

Even John 1: 1 - I often translate back from Greek ...

sometimes I think that will be my first question when I get to heaven, "God what were you thinking when You wired my brain?

 

Hey Mr. Messy,

The way I started learning verses is picking a certain number of verses per week. Write those down on small sheets of paper and keep them in your pocket. I started a thread like this myself. This is what someone told me to do and I did memorize some. Even the ones I forget sometimes I can go right back and find. I recommend you try this. It helped me alot.

In Christ,

Brooks

 

When I turned 40, I was concerned about my memory because details didn't stick in my mind the way they once did. I used methods like those described by Link and untangled to memorize Matthew's account of the sermon on the mount. It was a lot of work for me, but was gratifying. Of course, when an adult memorizes something, it still doesn't stick as well as it would with a child. I would take hours of review for me to be able to quote those passages of scripture again.

BTW: KJV verses are easier to retain than modern version verses.

Roy

 

Check out the Navigator's Topical Memory System.
Memorizing scripture is the #1 thing they have always been known for.

http://www.navpress.com/Store/Product/990073369X.html

And while you are at it, read the bio of the Navigators founder, Dawson Trotman. It is entitled "Daws" and was written by Betty Skinner.
It will encourage you and exhort you in verse memorization.

I did the TMS back in '84 in college. It's 65 categorized verses. At the time the version choices (for the printed cards) were KJV, RSV, NIV and the Living Bible. I have done all my memorization in the RSV (no longer in vogue.) I think the choices now are KJV, NASB, NIV and NKJV.)