People who attended Sunday school as children: Were you required to memorize the books of the Bible

In My Humble Opinion
1

When I was a boy, regularly forced to attend Sunday school in a Pentecostal church, we were required to memorize the books of both the old and new testament’s and to be able to recite them in order for the congregation, as well as be able to recite various important Bible verses and to choose versus of our own. Part of the indoctrination.

It is not my intent to debate whether this practice was wise, abusive, or anything else; if it were, I would have opened this thread in Great Debates. I am simply wondering whether this level of study is typical of other Christian denominations.

2

I attended a Lutheran Sunday school, nothing like that was required, but the order of the 4 gospels was repeated in a way that most learned that order. Most knew the order as:

Genesis,
rest of the OT,
Matt,
Mark,
Luke,
John,
middle of the NT,
Revelation

In a Episcopal middle and high school no such thing was stressed or required and we normally focused on one book a semester or multiple shorter ones.

Just to add that I noticed you used the word forced to attend, do you also consider you attending ‘regular’ school as being forced :confused:

3

We memorized Bible verses, but not the books. I doubt I could recite the books of the Old or New Testament in order to this day. In the OT I bog down somewhere around Nehemiah, and in the New I can get to Galatians-Ephesians-Philippians-Colossians (Go Eat Pop Corn) and then start floundering. I know there are three epistles from John and two from Peter, Titus and Philemon (Philemon is the one about the runaway slave), and eventually we get to Revelations. Also, Jude and Hebrews.

And the OT has all those Habakkuks and Joels and whatnot amid the Jeremiahs and Isaiahs. Also, Haggai and Zephaniah. Malachi is the last book of the OT.

So I could probably name most of the books, but in order? Forget it.

Regards,
Shodan

ETA - lifelong Lutheran.

4

We did this for Vacation Bible School when I was about 10 years old (Lutheran). We learned the New Testament books by singing them to the tune “Ten Little Indians”. To this day that’s the only way I can recite them.

I see there are several videos on YouTube using songs to teach both the Old and New Testaments if you need to brush up on them…

5

I was raised in Christian Science. Required? No. But I do remember a Sunday School teacher encouraging it. She would devote time during each Sunday School class for all of us to take a turn reciting as many books as we remembered in order, and she promised a prize if we memorized all the books. Only one girl did, and I think the prize was a bookmark, so after I discovered what the prize was I wasn’t particularly motivated anymore.

6

We were required to memorize all of the books at one point. I haven’t been to church for 30 years but here’s what I can recall now:

Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehamia, Ester, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philipians, Collosians, Thesolonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, Peter 1, Peter 2, John 1, John 2, John 3, Jude, Revelations.

7

Sunday School, Church Of The Nazarene. Memorizing the books was definitely required, and I think I remember doing it to some tune.

8

Going to a Lutheran day school, I learned all the books at one point. I don’t know why. It either had to have been for a test or else it was optional work.

9

I memorized the books of the New Testament, but I don’t remember whether it was required or “extra credit.”

(The Sunday School teachers I had one year had a “point system,” where kids could earn various amounts of points for doing things like reading a book of the Bible, memorizing a Bible verse, reading a book from the church library, etc. I don’t remember what objectives or rewards were involved, nor whether memorizing the books of the New Testament was one of the things done for points, but it might well have been.)

10

LDS there were scriptures we were expected to memorize and we would compete to see who could find a particular verse the fastest, there were also children’s hymns with the names of all the books, but i wouldn’t say that I ever memorized the names of all the books in the bible. If you named one i could probably tell you if it was old or new testament and roughly were it would fall in the book.

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11

As teacher of Confirmation Class I expected the students to learn the books. Its much easier to find a citation if you have an idea where the books are found.
(approx 14 years old and 2 years to get it done) Incidently, those who spoke if Revelations show how little they learned - the book as a whole is one revelation .

12

Presbyterian…we had flash cards; small, business-card sized, with the verse on one side and the reference on the other. I had a 6-inch stack of 'em to memorize.

The only one I remember now was John 3:16, but I may have memorized that from seeing it at football games.

13

Concerning the Book of Revelation: Did you teach a historicistic, preteristic or futuristic interpretation?

14

Raised Russian Orthodox-OR and then Roman Catholic to a small degree; no. About the only ones where we knew the Order were the Gospels and then that was more by the concentration on those books than a specific task to remember it. Our branch of the Orthodox church was odd compared to most Catholic denominations I came into contact with. More Asian in the respect that you were taught how the teachings could be applied to life than memorizing words or phrases. In my current ELCA language we were more about the over-all voice of God through the whole thing than we were chapter-and-verse. That was for the clergy and we were clearly taught that that wasn’t us.

15

Catholic Sunday School was called Cathecism. We never had to memorize a single bible verse! We had to memorize prayers and the sacraments. I guess we mostly were told ABOUT the different bible verses in more of a story fashion.

16

Congregationalist. Yes, we were required to learn the books of the bible. We had a broach we received for learning a certain portion. As we progressed, we added more pieces to the broach.

17

I went to Lutheran Sunday school and don’t remember learning the books of the Bible there. In Confirmation class (as a teen) we had to memorize them I think but mainly for the reason **svd678 **says - it was easier for us to discuss the Bible if we knew where to find stuff. There was no test or performance involved.

18

Not in sunday school but in public elementary, no less. We learned to sing them in order in 4th grade.

** wonders how much of that stuck **

spoiler 'cuz who cares?

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
I Samuel
II Samuel
I Kings
II Kings
I Chronicles
II Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
umm Isaiah?
uhh… Joel? Job?

Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Epistles to the Romans
I something or other
II something or other, Phillippians?
something
something
Corinthians?
bleah

19

When I hung out with the Evangelicals for a few years in college, verse memorization was a big thing, in part so that you had a selection of verses memorized to use during evangelism. I had a set of such verse cards, and probably had 20 or 30 verses committed to memory at that point.

I grew up Catholic, and attended Catholic grade schools and high school. Memorizing the names of the books of the Bible was something that I remember some kids doing, but I don’t remember it ever being required in our religion classes.

20

I was raised Catholic and the answer is no.