Scripture Memory Use in the New Testament

I'm often asked “Why should I memorize Bible verses?”

There are lots of good reasons. One is because the great men of the New Testament demonstrated some of the benefits of scripture memorization. Recently, I was reviewing a list of Old Testament passages as they are quoted in the New Testament. I used the list found at: www.ccel.org, but I'm confident any list you look at will be approximately the same.

WHAT'S IN THE NEW TESTAMENT?

An analysis of this list finds over 300 Old Testament passages referred to by New Testament authors and speakers. The most often quoted book is Psalms with 71 references, followed by Isaiah with 59 references, Deuteronomy with 38, Exodus with 33, Genesis with 22, and Jeremiah with eleven references. Twenty other Old Testament books are referenced less than ten times each. And 13 Old Testament books appear to not be referenced at all.

On the New Testament side, Paul quoted the Old Testament 60 times in Romans. Matthew makes 54 references, Hebrews 41, Acts 29, Mark 25, and Luke 24 references to the OT. Eight other New Testament books reference the Old Testament less than 20 times each. And 13 New Testament books appear to make no direct reference to the Old Testament.

As I meditated on these findings, I remembered all this took place centuries before Gutenberg invented the printing press. All books had to be copied by hand. Having a copy of the Old Testament books handy for quick reference was not an option. So these guys had to recite these passages from memory. And there is no evidence to suggest they only knew these few verses.

SCRIPTURE MEMORY IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES

In fact, the evidence would suggest otherwise. It's more likely they knew all the Old Testament scriptures by memory. At a very minimum they would have known the first five books by heart. This seems to coincide with the fact that a third of the Old Testament passages quoted came from these five books. Another 25 percent came from the Psalms. Together they made up the basis for 60 percent of the quotes.

These New Testament authors focused on the commands of God and their regular hymnal, the Psalms. Just like believers today! They would have learned the commands by choice, and the worship songs by repeated use.

Think about this. The first five books of the Old Testament contain 5,852 verses. Even though verses were not added to the Bible until a few centuries ago, they can still aid us in our understanding of the scripture memory prowess of New Testament authors. It would take almost 17 years to memorize all these if you memorized the equivalent of one verse a day. It would take another almost seven years to memorize the 2461 verses in Psalms. By the age of 30, you could master these six books of importance during New Testament times, if you started when you were 6 years old.

A quick review of Jewish culture at the time finds that boys memorized these five books between the ages of 6 and 10. An average of 1463 verses a year or about 4 verses a day. The better students went on to memorize the rest of the Old Testament, all the way to Malachi, by the age of 14. The four years from ages 10 to 14 found them memorizing the equivalent of about 12 verses a day.

So we find the Jewish people of New Testament times were serious about memorizing scripture and some folks were super serious about it.

WHY MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE TODAY?

Here's what I learned from looking at how and when these New Testament authors quoted the Old Testament scriptures. These attributes characterized their lives.

1. Confidence

These guys spoke with confidence. They were familiar with the scriptures. They were comfortable with what the scriptures said, what they meant and how they applied to the lives of men and women in their times.

We can have the same confidence. The more familiar we are with the scriptures, the more comfortable we will be applying them to our lives and helping other people apply them to their lives.

2. Conviction

The Old Testament authors had strong convictions about right and wrong. Most of them died for their convictions. They didn't hesitate to do the right thing, always. Why? Because they knew the scriptural truths behind every conviction they had. When times were hard, they had merely to recite these memorized scriptural truths to remind them of why they believed what they did. With their convictions confirmed, they could press ahead in obedience to their beliefs, trusting God for the results, even if the result was physical death!

3. Conversation

The quality of spiritual fellowship rises when the conversation revolves around what the Bible says. These New Testament guys were all familiar with what the scriptures said, so they could focus on understanding what the words meant and how they could be applied to life. They could engage in deep, meaningful discussions with each other. And Jesus could address them at a deeper level because of the basic understanding of the scriptures they possessed.

I often find the scriptural illiteracy of today's Christians makes it difficult to carry on deep, meaningful fellowship. Often I have to first convince them something they think they heard is in the Bible, really isn't. I've wasted hours explaining the Bible does not say “God helps those that help themselves.” or “People who commit suicide go to hell” or one of the many other false beliefs.

Not only could these guys talk about the scriptures among themselves, but they could talk about the scriptures with God. While they walked along, worked at their trades, laid in bed at night, or sat quietly watching the sunrise/sunset. Which brings me to . . .

4. Communion

The scriptures are the living, powerful words of God. When I have the living, powerful words of God hidden in my heart, God can reveal new truths to me at anytime, when I am anywhere, doing anything.

Life is short. I want to maximize my time with God on earth. If I constantly have to stop and look up something in my Bible, I lose valuable time. If I try to guess at what I think it says, I lose valuable insight. If I forget to look up the passage the next time I have the physical scriptures available to me, I lose valuable blessings from God.

During my few decades on earth, God has brought innumerable blessings, rebukes, truths and joy to me because of the verses I've chosen to commit to memory. This is by far the most important spiritual discipline I have done and still do.

And unlike the New Testament guys, I did not start when I was 6 or 10 or even 14. I didn't start until I was 20. You can start anytime at any age. Why not start today? In a few years, you can have a 1000 verses memorized. All you have to do is memorize them one at a time.

I've been doing it for a few decades. And you may be tempted to ask, “So how many verses have you memorized?”

To which I answer, as N.A. Woychuk, founder of Scripture Memory Fellowship would say, “That's the wrong question. the right question is 'What verse are you memorizing and meditating on right now?'”

And the answer to that question is John 8:12.

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