I recently spent about sixteen months memorizing 1 Corinthians and then recited it as a sermon to my church (Vimeo):
I just wrote two posts for The Gospel Coalition that share some lessons I’ve learned along the way regarding both why and how to memorize an entire book of the Bible:
- Why? 14 Reasons to Memorize an Entire Book of the Bible
- How? 11 Steps to Memorizing an Entire Book of the Bible
Update (5/28/2017): I recited Romans to my church.
Update (1/2/2019): You Can Memorize Scripture This Year
I also used Davis’ method several years ago to throw down a few small books. I’ve fallen off the wagon of review and regret it. Anyway, Andy, when you do the phrasing bit, I assume that you are memorizing off of a print out and not the actual unversed page?
Yes, I memorize what I’ve phrased either by looking at my MacBook screen, my iPhone screen, or what I’ve printed on paper.
Dear Andy, thank you for being such an inspiration and a blessing. I have listened straight through. Is your commentary part of a new series?
Yes, it’s called the ESV Bible Expository Commentary (12 vols.; Crossway).
Listened to your reading of 1 Corinthians earlier.
Extremely well done and certainly different to reading for oneself.
I’m sure if it was done more often the impact on listeners would be profound.
Lovely interpretive recitation. Really enjoyed listening to this!
Good to see you again too, Andy, even if it is through a video. Its been a long time since Dr. Minnick’s Romans class. Great times!
Thanks for sharing the fruit of your work with the rest of us; listening straight through was helpful to me, and I plan to do it several more times. Encouraged to tackle a (smaller) book myself as well. Thanks again.
Out of curiosity, have you considered using a spaced repetition tool – e.g. Anki – to aid long-term retention of the book? (I personally find it helpful for Christian theology, evidences, and so on, among other things.)
No. I hadn’t heard of that. Thanks.
For those who know Greek and/or Hebrew, do you recommend memorizing texts in their original languages? Why or why not? This is something I continue to agonize over. The vast majority of my memorization has been done in English and I continue to memorize some passages in English, but I always feel like I’m “not doing as good as I could be doing” if I’m not memorizing in the original languages.
Also, thanks for writing your thoughts on memorizing chapter and verse divisions. That had been another stumbling block for me in my continued memorization efforts. I find your reasoning compelling, although I am still impressed by those who can get the chapter and verse references into their head too.
Yes, if you can. Listen to NT scholar Murray Harris: “There is no better way to become proficient in Greek … than the regular memorization of the Greek text.”
Thanks!
This is a great encouragement, Andy! Phil. 2:16. And I’m looking forward to your commentary in 1 Corinthians.