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Zirconia
Guest
Well, some of it might have to do with the approach taken by some Protestants…
For example, as children in Sunday school, one of the first assignments was to memorize the 23rd Psalm, and recite it to the teacher. It was posted on the wall, and if you made a mistake, you were sent back to it for further study.
Once you had done that, the “prize” was to memorize all of the books of the (Protestant) Old Testament, and recite them to the teacher in order. If you made a mistake, you were sent back to that list, also posted on the wall. Then you were allowed to go on to the next list, of all the books of the New Testament and do the same thing. Next came Psalm 121.
Usually there would be several people at each “station” with everyone else in line waiting to recite. At VBS, we would memorize more, and sing songs that set key verses to music, and nearly a decade later I can still sing one of them. During weekly services, there were readings from both the Old and the New Testament, sometimes made by people from the congregation. Once I was asked to do this; the reading was from 2 Corinthians 5.
I also did Bible quizzing as a young adult, in which a book (or two) of the New Testament was selected for extensive study. Memorizing specific verses was necessary, plus knowing the gist of a certain set of chapters (for example, Hebrews 1-7).
There would be a table set up with buzzers (five to a side), and a moderator to ask the questions (such as: quote Hebrews 2:1, or what is a double-edged sword?). If you knew the answer, you would “buzz in” and the first responder would have a chance to answer the question. Correct answers were worth ten points, with twenty total questions. We would compete against the teams from other churches in the area. During the years I participated in this, we studied the books of Matthew, John, James, Hebrews, and 1 and 2 Peter. I liked it and learned a lot.
Zirconia