Sections of the Bible Memory Game

Preparation

Download, print and cut up the Books of the Bible Cards.
There are 66 cards, corresponding to the 66 Books of the Bible.
We suggest printing these on white cards.

Download, print and cut up the Sections of the Bible Cards.
There are also 66 cards in this set, to match the 66 Books of the Bible.
We suggest printing these on any light-colored cards in order to easily distinguish this set from the Books of the Bible Cards.

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

The objective of the game is to collect as many matching pairs as possible.
Each matching pair comprises one Sections of the Bible Card and a corresponding Books of the Bible Card.

The cards are color coded to facilitate easy identification of matching pairs.
You may also refer to the Books of the Bible Chart provided.

Shuffle the Books of the Bible Cards and place them all face down in the play area.

Shuffle the Sections of the Bible Cards and deal three cards to each player.

Players should hold these cards in your hands.
(For younger players, place these cards face up in front of you.)

Place the remaining cards in one stack: this forms the draw pile.

The youngest player begins:
Turn over any three Books of the Bible Cards in the play area.
If any of these Books of the Bible Cards match any of the Sections of the Bible Cards in your hand, you can keep the matching pairs. Set them aside.

Note: You can only match one Sections of the Bible Card with one Books of the Bible Card to form a matching pair.
For Example: if you turn over both Genesis and Exodus (Books of the Bible Cards) during the same turn, you can only match either one of these to the Old Testament Law Card (Sections of the Bible Card) in your hand to form a matching pair.

Draw a new Sections of the Bible Card from the draw pile to replace each successfully matched Sections of the Bible Card.
Each player must have three Sections of the Bible Cards in your hand at the end of each turn.

The turn passes to the next player.

Continue playing until all Books of the Bible Cards have been collected.

The player with the most matching pairs wins.

Variation 1: Play with Fewer Cards

Playing with the full sets of 66 Books of the Bible Cards and 66 Sections of the Bible 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.
In another separate session, play with only the New Testament 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 two 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: Classic Memory Game Style

Shuffle the Books of the Bible Cards and place them all face down on the left side of the playing area.

Shuffle the Sections of the Bible Cards and place them all face down on the right side of the playing area.

The youngest player starts and turns over one Books of the Bible Card and one Sections of the Bible Card. (Players can turn over the cards in any order.)
If the Books of the Bible Card and the Sections of the Bible Card form a matching pair, 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.

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 with the corresponding Sections of the Bible Cards?
What was a quick way to know that you have a match?

Say
In addition to an image and the name of the book, each Books of the Bible Card states which section of the Bible the book belongs to, and has the same border color as its corresponding Sections of the Bible Card. This helps identify a match.

Let’s play a different game right now.
Instead of matching Books of the Bible Cards with their corresponding Sections of the Bible Cards, we will look for a specific Bible passage in our Bibles.
(Ensure that everyone has a hardcopy Bible.)
Let’s see who can be the first to locate 2 Timothy 3:16-17 in the Bible…

Discuss
3. (Ask the fastest person.) Tell us how you managed to find these verses so quickly?
4. (Ask a volunteer who struggled to locate these verses.) What can help you find these verses quicker the next time?

Say
The Bible is not one single book, but a collection of 66 smaller books that tell one unified story.
Just like the Books of the Bible Cards, 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

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

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

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

13. 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.