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Tips for Memorization (Books)
These are some thoughts I've had in helping with your own personal Bible study, take or leave whatever you feel will be helpful to you.
Outline of Contents:
(1) Memorize the number of books in the Bible (Complete, Old Testament, New Testament)
(2) Memorize the books of the Bible in order. This will help you in finding what you want.
(3) Memorize the number of chapters in each book. This further helps you find what you want and gives you an idea of the size of each book.
Tips on how to memorize:
(1) There are 66 books in the Bible. 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament. I trust you can figure out how to memorize that.
(2) To memorize the books of the Bible in order, first break them up:
Old Testament
5 Law, 12 History, 5 Poetry/Wisdom, 5 Major Prophets, 12 Minor Prophets
New Testament
5 Gospels/Acts, 14 Pauline Epistles (including Hebrews), 8 General Epistles (including Revelation)
Then memorize each section by themselves, repeat them alot until you've got them. Say what you've memorized throughout the day. Here's some useful tips to memorizing them:
Old Testament
5 Law:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (Just repeat them until you've figured it out)12 History:
Break into 3 groups of 3. Memorize 3 at a time. (Combine the books that make up two books.)Joshua, Judges, Ruth (begins with 2 'J's)1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles (notice that they are reverse alphabetical)Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (begins and ends with an 'E')5 Poetry/Wisdom:
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (remember that the last 3 of these are written by Solomon, which shouldn't be too hard to remember as his name is in the title of the last one. Memorize the first 2, then memorize the last 3, then you've got it.)5 Major Prophets:
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel (Notice that the first three are alphabetical and the last two are reverse alphabetical; i.e. I, J, L...E, D.)12 Minor Prophets:
Break them in 3 groups of 4. Memorize them 4 at a time.Hosea, Joel (notice the dual vowels: "ea" & "oe"), Amos, Obadiah (they both have an "o")Jonah, Micah (they both have an "AH" at the end), Habbukuk, Nahum (they both have an "U" at the end)Zepheniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (1, 2, 1, 2... meaning: Z, i, Z, i... meaning: Zepheniah [starts with a 'Z'], Haggai [ends with an 'i'], Zechariah [starts with a 'Z'], Malachi [ends with an 'i'])I've found that the hardest group of books to memorize is the Minor Prophets.New Testament
4 Gospels and History:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts (reverse alphabetical, starts with 2 'M's just repeat until you've memorized them)13 Pauline Epistles & Hebrews:
Break these down further by separting them into 2 groups of 7.Romans, 1 & 2 CorinthiansGalatians, Ephesians, Philipians, Colossians1 & 2 Thesselonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, (alphabetical; they all start with a "T"; the first 2 are 2 books each)Philemon, Hebrews7 General Epistles and Revelation:
James, 1 & 2 Peter1 & 2 & 3 JohnJude, RevelationRemember to memorize them by their sections first, then once you think you've gotten it, repeat the the books of the entire Bible by memory and repeat it throughout the day whenever it comes to mind.
(3) To memorize the number of chapters, just think to yourself everytime the thought comes to mind how many chapters are in a certain book (like before you read something out of a certain book, say to yourself, "how many chapters are in this book?" and answer it, if you're not sure, just check. You're bound to get it "down" one of these days).
