Types of Scripture Memory

Why verbatim isn't all there is when it comes to Scripture Memory

I’ve memorized a decent amount of scripture, word for word. Though I regret a thing, I do wish I knew what I know now when I started.

I would have done things differently.

Let’s start by asking, what’s an advantage of memorizing verbatim? For me, it’s given me confidence and has allowed for me to recall scriptures when I really needed it. For example, when I was judging a drug addict shivering one early winter morning, the word of Jesus came to my mind.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

Matthew 5:38-42

Here I was, thinking poorly about the drug addict. How it was his fault that he’d gotten himself into the position he was in and how if he’d done the right thing and not done what was evil then he wouldn’t be shivering outside of a gas station at 3:30 in the morning on a 28 °F day. But then it clicked. At the begging of that passage Jesus starts off by saying that he knows these people are evil. He knows. But Jesus says that regardless, that as a follower of him, that I am supposed to repay evil for good. In my truck I had an extra jacket—that’s all that matters. I gave the man the coat.

I’ve had countless experiences like this, all because memorization leads to meditation. For me, and many others I’ve talked with, I have found that without the scripture in my head I can’t meditate on them and meditation leads to good works.

But there are some downsides to verbatim scripture memory. Big ones.

First, the language of the scriptures are clunky. Ever repeated a huge section of scripture to someone to make a point? It comes across as unnatural and kills rapport. It can also come across as arrogant and, sometimes, it is rooted in arrogance. For the most part I only quote scripture to people to make fun of how uncomfortable quoting scripture in certain contexts can be. When I’m sharing the Bible with an unbeliever, I always paraphrase.

Another problems is the maintenance. Verbatim memorization requires massive amounts of maintenance to maintain. The review process eventually overwhelms the memorization process and it becomes harder and harder to learn new verses. You may think you’re going to memorize a certain passage in a set amount of time but what you’ll find is that it may take twice as long? So what do to? Forget what you’ve learned? Let it go? Or take the slow road and review for an hour or so a day? It’s a tough choice.

It also takes a long time to memorize verbatim. You could have the feel of a passage down but there’s that one phrase that keeps killing you. No matter what you do it won’t stick and you can’t get past 95 % accuracy. And for what? Why get to 100 %? You can’t share it with anyone and meditation works just fine with 95 %. It’s a challenge.

The other problem is, though you can do a deep dive on a book, it limits your ability to contemplate the entirety scripture. The amount of time and energy it takes to study the entire bible along with memorize a chapter is difficult for me to maintain, and I love doing this stuff. Give me the goal of just reading the Bible and I go like a madman, getting the entire thing done in two weeks (which I did this year right before Easter). Give me the goal of memorizing a chapter and I’ll go like a madman, memorizing it as fast as I can. Tell me to do both and I fall flat on my face.

There’s a better way.

First, let’s let go of verbatim for a while.

Let it go.

Can you tell the story of Jesus without getting all the words right? What’s the difference between a parable of Jesus told in my own words, with no missing details, and a verbatim recital. Nothing of content, but my version is more conversational and easier to remember. I’m not saying don’t memorize verbatim. I love it. But let go of the need to.

Second, let’s focus on memorizing the entire Bible first. I mean that literally, though I don’t mean verbatim. Larry Dinkins, for example, memorized a chapter summary for each chapter of the Bible, all 1,189 chapters, and has worked to make almost all the stories of the Bible memorized so he can say them in his own words.

Is it verbatim? No. But you can ask that guy what Ezekiel 39 says and he can answer you. If he bumps into someone on the street and has a chance to share a Bible story with them he has hundreds at his disposal.

That’s powerful.

I know how Larry did it. After watching his video on Bible memory goal I reached out and emailed him. He gave me enough detail to guide me in how to do it. The way I’m going to do it is not the way he did it, but it’s very similar.

What I want to do it take you through my journey and give you my plan for memorizing the scriptures in a way you may never have seen. Along the way I’ll give you pointers, lessons learned, and any resources I put together. You’ll get a step by step walk through and all of the “axe sharpening” I put together. And if you want to join along, you’ll have a huge head-start when compared to where I am now.

In the next post, we need to look at numbers as something strange—people, actions, and objects.