Books of the Bible Memory Game

Preparation

Download, print and cut up 2 sets of the Books of the Bible Cards.
There are 66 cards in each set, corresponding to the 66 Books of the Bible.

You may also like to download and print the following optional resources for your reference during the game or for your discussion thereafter.
Books of the Bible Chart

Sections of the Bible Overview

How to Play

You may want to play this game on the floor as a fairly large playing area is required.
Alternatively, if there are space constraints, consider the variations below.

Shuffle both sets of Books of the Bible Cards together and place them all facing down.

The youngest player starts and turns over two cards.
If the two cards match, he/she keeps the cards and turns over another two cards.
If the cards don’t match, he/she turns them back face down and the turn passes to the next player.

Continue playing until all the cards have been collected.

The player with the most matching pairs wins.

Variation 1: Play with Fewer Cards

Playing with the full 2 sets of 66 cards can be challenging and perhaps discouraging for some players.

Consider playing with Old Testament and New Testament cards separately:
In one session, you can play with only the Old Testament cards (2 sets of 39 cards).
In another separate session, play with only the New Testament cards (2 sets of 27 cards).

Variation 2: Play with Even Fewer Cards

For younger children, you may like to play with even fewer cards.
For each session of play, you can play with cards belonging to only one or more of these sections of the Bible:
1. Old Testament: Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy)
2. Old Testament: History (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther)
3. Old Testament: Poetry (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs)
4. Old Testament: Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel)
5. Old Testament: Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi)
6. New Testament: Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)
7. New Testament: History (Acts)
8. New Testament: Letters from Paul (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon)
9. New Testament: General Letters (Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John and Jude)
10. New Testament: Prophecy (Revelation)

Variation 3: Match Cards Belonging to the Same Section of the Bible

Instead of matching two identical cards, allow the matching of any two cards as long as they belong to the same section of the Bible.

For example, you can match “Genesis” with any card from the Old Testament Law Section, i.e. “Genesis”, “Exodus”, “Leviticus”, “Numbers” or “Deuteronomy”.

You can play this variation with the full 2 sets of 66 cards, or with fewer cards as in Variations 1 and 2 above.

Bible Lesson – Books and Sections of the Bible

Discuss
1. Did you enjoy this game?
2. Was it easy to match the Books of the Bible Cards?

Say
The Bible is not one single book, but a collection of 66 smaller books that tell one unified story.
These 66 books of the Bible are organized into sections.
Being familiar with how the Bible is organized helps us quickly find specific passages in the Bible.

Discuss
3. The Bible is divided into two main parts. What are the names of these parts?
4. What are some differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament?

5. How are the 39 books of the Old Testament organized?
6. What are the 5 sections of the Old Testament called?
7. How would you describe each of these 5 sections?

8. How are the 27 books of the New Testament organized?
9. What are these 5 sections called?
10. How would you describe each of these 5 sections?

11. How important is it for us to know the organization of the Bible into the various sections that we have just discussed?

Conclude
Being familiar with the 66 books of the Bible and how they are organized helps us more quickly locate specific passages in the Bible. More importantly, knowing which section of the Bible a passage is taken from gives us an idea of its genre and helps us understand the passage better.