Bible Memorization (Children)

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lesterb
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by lesterb »

I wonder how much of the NT that our churches could reproduce from memory?

They say that the Waldensians could have reproduced the entire NT by memory.
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Wayne in Maine
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by Wayne in Maine »

lesterb wrote:I wonder how much of the NT that our churches could reproduce from memory?

They say that the Waldensians could have reproduced the entire NT by memory.
An in Latin at that!
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temporal1
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by temporal1 »

Wayne in Maine wrote:
lesterb wrote:I wonder how much of the NT that our churches could reproduce from memory?

They say that the Waldensians could have reproduced the entire NT by memory.
[And] in Latin at that!
i envy my elders for their memory work, i'm sad that passages of scriptures are no longer widely used for penmanship lessons.

my husband's family valued memory work, often remembering one of their elders who could "still" recite any passage from scriptures on her death bed!

when i was in public school, memory work was forbidden, it was all about "writing, and/or understanding, in our own words, for the (higher) purpose of proving we were thinking about and understanding what we were reading or being told.

to this day, i wonder how much of what i was taught impacts my fear of memorizing anything?
i could not say "The Lord's Prayer," until i was .. 40?? i still panic a bit that i may forget some words. to add to my panic, words in The Lord's Prayer vary, according to church choice.

in former times, tho, it's well to recall, the Bible was "communications central" for many, and, for many, if there was one book in their home, it was likely the Bible. many learned to read by reading scriptures, the book available.

going back further, before the printing press, memory and reciting were imperative.
some accounts of what people could remember is mind-boggling in today's "no memory" world.

so. obviously, "we" are capable of far more memory than is prevailing thought!

i most appreciate a healthy combination of memory work with ability to "put into one's own words." i believe both are important. i'm glad my granddaughter is taught good measures of both.
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RZehr
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by RZehr »

I was reading Luke 4 this morning and there Jesus quotes scripture to the devil. Jesus remembered what the Bible had to say regarding the issue at hand. To me this is a good reason to read the Bible and remember what is said.
Memorization enables remembering, being able to recall knowledge. What is the point of learning something if you aren't going to remember it? Why even read the Bible if you aren't going to remember what you read?
You don't need to be able to quote perfectly for memorization to be useful.

I'm not for putting the KJV 2 Timothy 2:15 on school bulletin boards. This kind of out of context marinating in the Word isn't good.
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temporal1
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by temporal1 »

RZehr wrote:I was reading Luke 4 this morning and there Jesus quotes scripture to the devil.
Jesus remembered what the Bible had to say regarding the issue at hand.
To me this is a good reason to read the Bible and remember what is said.

Memorization enables remembering, being able to recall knowledge. What is the point of learning something if you aren't going to remember it? Why even read the Bible if you aren't going to remember what you read?

You don't need to be able to quote perfectly for memorization to be useful.

I'm not for putting the KJV 2 Timothy 2:15 on school bulletin boards. This kind of out of context marinating in the Word isn't good.
i like what you're saying here, most decidedly, memorization was highly esteemed prior to the printing press; Jesus recited God's Word, He is God's Word, the first Bibles were not compiled while Jesus was living on earth.

if only we could truly grasp what it was like, how folks remembered and shared, before the printing press! we can learn about how early followers, possibly before being labeled "Christians," drew and painted on cave walls, to share the Word, most being illiterate for a long time after Jesus's death.

we are so comfortable, and dependent, on the written word!
at least for myself, i fear i just can't really "get" how folks lived and learned, while illiterate.
but.they.did. God's design. nothing without His power.
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Josh
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by Josh »

ken_sylvania wrote:
Josh wrote:What is your exegesis to connect "thy word have I hid in mine heart" to mean modern day memorization specifically?
What do you mean be modern day memorization? I'm honestly curious. Would you say that memorization is done differently nowadays compared with a century ago?
Modern-day memorisation tends to be of a single verse, or of a few verses put together. Conservative Anabaptists sometimes try to memorise a whole chapter or passage.

Historically, people memorised things like the Bible because books were rare/expensive, and because there wasn't as much else competing for their attention. Nowadays we tend to memorise whole passages of other things, like myself and my friends who can quote dialogue from movies at each other word-for-word.

But our scripture memorisation tends to be done as some kind of chore, and it's easier to just memorise one verse, so that's what we've focused on. I think that Bible verses on their own are not particularly useful and aren't really what the Bible is about.
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Josh
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by Josh »

temporal1 wrote:if only we could truly grasp what it was like, how folks remembered and shared, before the printing press! we can learn about how early followers, possibly before being labeled "Christians," drew and painted on cave walls, to share the Word, most being illiterate for a long time after Jesus's death.

we are so comfortable, and dependent, on the written word!
at least for myself, i fear i just can't really "get" how folks lived and learned, while illiterate.
but.they.did. God's design. nothing without His power.
They relied on someone else who was learned to read and interpret the Bible for them. If they were illiterate, they probably didn't understand Greek or Latin either.

Priests were educated enough that they could read passages of scripture and then deliver homilies in local dialect, and illiterate churchgoers trusted the church and the priests to interpret and explain scripture for them.

Anabaptism and the Reformation arose after many more people were learned and could read the Bible for themselves, and it was much cheaper to get access to a Bible to read it. It continues to bother me to this day that much of our high esteem of the Bible is only possible due to technology like the printing press. We don't give the church from 1st to 16th century much credit for a Christianity that existed without needing cheap copies of the Bible in everyone's pocket.
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temporal1
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by temporal1 »

in the past, people would memorize all sorts of lengthy works and information, news, to share.
not everyone memorized, but, certain ones would, then they would travel to share. people would gather to hear. story-telling was important.

so, i believe, this method of communication was in place before Jesus, but, certainly, was used and useful during His life, and after.

i love that scriptures have been shared all over the world, in all languages!

but, we can also be assured, it's the Holy Spirit that gives Life to scriptures, and, in absence of scriptures, the Holy Spirit is well-able to do God's work. no banning, or book-burning will destroy the Holy Spirit. Praise God for His mercy.
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by ken_sylvania »

Josh wrote:Modern-day memorisation tends to be of a single verse, or of a few verses put together. Conservative Anabaptists sometimes try to memorise a whole chapter or passage.
I really like the concept of more memorization being an entire passage, certainly at least the entire thought paragraph.
Josh wrote:Historically, people memorised things like the Bible because books were rare/expensive, and because there wasn't as much else competing for their attention. Nowadays we tend to memorise whole passages of other things, like myself and my friends who can quote dialogue from movies at each other word-for-word.
If God's Word is as precious to us as we say it is, why wouldn't we memorize whole passages from it rather than other secular things. We will be filling our minds with something, why not choose the best material available.
Josh wrote:But our scripture memorisation tends to be done as some kind of chore, and it's easier to just memorise one verse, so that's what we've focused on. I think that Bible verses on their own are not particularly useful and aren't really what the Bible is about.
I think parents have a great influence on how their children will see Bible memorization. If children see that memorization is important to their parents, they are more likely to buy into the idea. I would shy away from requiring a child to memorize or copy Bible verses as punishment.
I think individual Bible verses are a good way to begin the memorization process with younger children. While an individual verse can be taken out of context or might have less meaning in isolation, that doesn't make it worthless. Sometimes memorizing the key verse or verses from a longer passage can be a way of saving the basic thought of that passage in our minds to be considered as we go about our daily work. If I was choosing a phrase to be put on a wall hanging or motto, I'd a whole lot rather have a well chosen phrase from Scripture than a secular saying.
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by Bootstrap »

ken_sylvania wrote:I think individual Bible verses are a good way to begin the memorization process with younger children. While an individual verse can be taken out of context or might have less meaning in isolation, that doesn't make it worthless. Sometimes memorizing the key verse or verses from a longer passage can be a way of saving the basic thought of that passage in our minds to be considered as we go about our daily work. If I was choosing a phrase to be put on a wall hanging or motto, I'd a whole lot rather have a well chosen phrase from Scripture than a secular saying.
Sure.

The problem is that people sometimes memorize lists of "proof texts" out of context, and with an understanding that the context does not support. For instance, as a child I memorized a text that said my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and we were taught that this had something to do with eating sensibly and getting enough sleep and exercise. They didn't teach us about temple prostitution and the need to avoid fornication when they taught that verse. So memorizing that verse became a kind of scripture twisting. As an adult, I have had to reexamine a lot of verses I memorized in context and untwist them, rejecting some of the understandings I had once associated with them.

If you memorize the same verses after understanding the original context, it reinforces the context instead of rejecting it.

That said, I think children can memorize longer passages, and I'd rather have them memorize one 8 verse passage than 8 single verses out of context.
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