How to memorize the books of the Bible in a week, section by section

The fastest way to memorize the books of the Bible is to stop treating them as one 66-item list. Learn them as 10 sections: Law (5), History (12), Poetry (5), Major Prophets (5), Minor Prophets (12), Gospels (4), Acts (1), Paul's letters (13), General letters (8) and Revelation (1). Learn one or two sections a day, recite them aloud, and quiz yourself until each group comes out in order.

Most people who "can't remember the books" actually know a few clusters already. Genesis, Exodus. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. The trouble starts in the long runs, like the twelve minor prophets or Paul's letters after Ephesians. Sections fix that, because you only ever have to hold five to twelve names at a time.

This guide gives you the section map, a memory hook for each group, a 7-day plan, and a few quiz games that make the list stick for good.

The 10 sections of the Bible at a glance

Here is the whole Bible as ten groups. Learn the section names first (it takes five minutes), then fill in each section. When you forget a book later, the section name is the hook that pulls it back.

Notice the symmetry: the Old Testament has 5 sections (5, 12, 5, 5, 12 books) and the New Testament has 5 sections (4, 1, 13, 8, 1). Some people remember the Old Testament shape as "5, 12, 5, 5, 12", which already tells you where the long stretches are.

"Major" and "minor" describe length, not importance. Isaiah has 66 chapters; Obadiah has one. You can see the size differences for every book on our Bible books overview.

If you'd like to see these books as a clickable list while you learn, the app's Bible reader opens every one of them, offline.

Old Testament: memory hooks for each section

A memory hook is a short phrase whose first letters match the books. It feels silly for a day, then it becomes automatic. Say each one out loud three times, then say the real names.

Law: "Get Every Little Note Down"

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. G, E, L, N, D. This is the easiest section because most people already know the first two. The story also flows: creation and the patriarchs, the escape from Egypt, the priestly law, the wilderness census, and Moses' farewell speeches.

History: three singles, three pairs, three singles

The 12 history books have a shape you can see: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, then three pairs (1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, 1–2 Chronicles), then Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.

• First three: "J, J, R" (Joshua leads Israel in, Judges falls apart, Ruth is the bright spot in that dark time; see Ruth 1:1).
• The pairs: Samuel anoints the kings, Kings tells their story, Chronicles retells it. Say "Samuel, Kings, Chronicles" like a chant, then double each.
• Last three: "Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther" (E, N, E). These are the return from exile and life under Persia.

Poetry and Wisdom: "Just Pray, Pray, Every Song"

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Two P books sit together in the middle, which makes this group easy. One naming note: the KJV calls the last one "The Song of Solomon"; many modern Bibles call it "Song of Songs". It's the same book.

Major Prophets: "I Just Love Eating Doughnuts"

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel. Lamentations sits right after Jeremiah because tradition links it to him, and its five poems mourn the fall of Jerusalem that Jeremiah warned about.

Minor Prophets: split the 12 into 6, 3 and 3

Twelve unfamiliar names in a row is where most people quit. Break them up:

1. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah. Hook: "He Just Ate Over-Jumbo Meals."
2. Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. Hook: "Nine Happy Zebras." Nahum announces the fall of Nineveh (Nahum 1:1), Habakkuk wrestles with Babylon, and Zephaniah preached in the days of King Josiah (Zephaniah 1:1).
3. Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Hook: "Have Zeal, Mate." These three come after the exile; Haggai and Zechariah both date their messages to the reign of Darius (Haggai 1:1, Zechariah 1:1).

Learn group 1 until it is solid before you touch groups 2 and 3. And if Obadiah keeps slipping, remember it's the single-chapter book in the middle of the first six.

New Testament: memory hooks for each section

The New Testament is shorter (27 books) and more familiar, so it usually takes half the time.

Gospels and Acts: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts"

Most people already say these as a rhythm. Keep Acts attached to the Gospels: it's Luke's second volume (compare Luke 1:1-4 with Acts 1:1), so it belongs right after them.

Paul's letters: Romans, Corinthians, then "General Electric Power Company"

Paul's 13 letters are where people get stuck between Galatians and Philemon. Break them into four mini-groups:

There's a logic here: Paul's letters to churches come first and his letters to individuals come last, and inside each group they run roughly from longer to shorter. "Roughly" is the honest word. By our count of the KJV text, 1 Corinthians (9,480 words) is actually a little longer than Romans (9,438), and Ephesians (3,030) is a little shorter than Galatians (3,090). The pattern is close enough to help, so use it.

Philippians and Philemon confuse everyone. Philippians is a church letter in the middle; Philemon is the one-chapter personal letter that closes Paul's collection.

General letters: "1 H, 1 J, 2 P, 3 J, 1 J"

Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, Jude. Read the hook as "one Hebrews, one James, two Peters, three Johns, one Jude." The numbers 1-1-2-3-1 do most of the work. The author of Hebrews isn't named in the letter, and Christians have discussed who wrote it since the early church, which is why most lists group it with the general letters rather than with Paul.

Revelation

The last book stands alone. A tip that saves a lot of red ink in Bible quizzes: it's "Revelation", singular. Its own first verse calls it "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1:1).

A 7-day plan to learn all 66 books

Give it 10 to 15 minutes a day. Each day starts with a review of everything you already know, because recalling old sections is what keeps them.

On day 7, time yourself. Once you know them, saying all 66 books out loud at a natural pace takes only a minute or two. If you hesitate, note where, and drill only that section tomorrow.

After the first week, review on a widening schedule: day 8, day 10, day 14, then once a month. That's the idea behind spaced repetition for Bible memory, and it works just as well for book lists as for verses.

Quick quiz: Obadiah

Against which people is the whole prophecy of Obadiah directed?

MoabEdomAmmonAssyria

Against whom did Edom commit the violence that brings it shame, according to Obadiah?

Its neighbor MoabIts ally AmmonIts brother JacobIts master Assyria

From which patriarch does Edom descend?

IshmaelLotLabanEsau

Continue the quiz

There are many more questions like these in Bible Academy, each with its explanation and verse. Start free, no card needed.

Quiz games that make it stick

Rereading a list feels productive, but testing yourself is what builds recall. Here are five quick games, alone or with a friend or small group.

1. What comes next? Someone says a book; you say the next one. "Micah?" "Nahum." Then play it backward: "What comes before Philemon?"
2. Name the section. Call out a random book; the other person names its section. Habakkuk? Minor Prophets. Jude? General letters.
3. Fill the gap. Write a section with one book missing ("Galatians, ___, Philippians, Colossians") and fill it in.
4. Speed run. Recite one section against a timer. Then all 39 Old Testament books. Then all 66.
5. Sword drill. One person calls a book; everyone opens a printed Bible to it. The section map is what makes you fast, because you know roughly where to open.

A good next step is to attach one fact to each book. Learning that Obadiah has a single chapter, or that Psalms has 150, turns names into places you know. Our guide on how many chapters and verses are in the Bible has the full per-book table, and the shortest book in the Bible is a fun one to start with.

If you want questions that check whether you know what is inside each book (not just its name), the app's quiz path does that, and every answer shows the verse it comes from.

What about a books of the Bible song?

Songs work because melody carries order. Many churches and Sunday schools teach the books with a song, and if you learned one as a child, it's still in there: sing it once and you'll be surprised how much comes back.

If you never learned one, you don't need to hunt for the "right" song. Take any simple tune you already know and sing one section per line. Short sections (the five Law books, the four Gospels) fit almost any melody. For the twelve minor prophets, sing them in the three groups from this guide, with a pause between groups. The pauses matter more than the tune.

Songs have one weakness: you often can't start in the middle. If you have to sing from Genesis to find Ezekiel, add the "what comes next?" game so you can enter the list anywhere.

Common mix-ups and how to fix them

Why other Bibles have a different list

This guide follows the 66-book Protestant order found in the KJV and most English Bibles. Other traditions arrange things differently, and it helps to know why your friend's Bible looks different.

• Jewish Bibles (the Tanakh) contain the same books as the Protestant Old Testament, but group and count them differently: Torah (Law), Prophets, and Writings, often counted as 24 books, ending with Chronicles.
• Catholic Bibles have 73 books. They include books such as Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, and Sirach, plus additions to Esther and Daniel.
• Eastern Orthodox Bibles include those books and a few more.

If you memorize the Protestant order first, adding a tradition's extra books later is easy, because they slot into sections you already know.

Turn the list into knowledge

Knowing the order is the first step, not the goal. The real payoff comes when "Habakkuk" stops being a word and becomes a book you have read. Once you can recite all 66, pick one short book a week and read it: Ruth, Jonah, Philippians and James each take well under an hour. Our guide to what order to read the Bible in suggests good sequences, and the Bible quiz hub has a quiz for every book so you can check what you remember. A tiny one is the Obadiah quiz.

For memorizing verses rather than book names, the same principles apply: small chunks, recall out loud, and review on a schedule. Our guide on how to memorize Scripture walks through it step by step. As the psalmist puts it:

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to memorize the books of the Bible?

At 10 to 15 minutes a day, a week is a realistic target for all 66 books, as long as you learn them in sections and review daily. The key is not the first week but the review afterward: recite the list again after a few days, then after two weeks, then monthly, so it stays.

What is the easiest way to remember the books of the Bible?

Learn ten sections instead of one long list: Law, History, Poetry, Major Prophets and Minor Prophets in the Old Testament; Gospels, Acts, Paul's letters, General letters and Revelation in the New. Then give each section a short memory phrase, like "Get Every Little Note Down" for Genesis through Deuteronomy.

How many books are in the Old and New Testaments?

The Protestant Bible has 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Catholic Bibles have 73 books because they include seven more in the Old Testament, and Eastern Orthodox Bibles include a few beyond that. Jewish Bibles contain the same books as the Protestant Old Testament but count them as 24.

What is a good mnemonic for the minor prophets?

Split the twelve into three groups. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah ("He Just Ate Over-Jumbo Meals"); Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah ("Nine Happy Zebras"); and Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi ("Have Zeal, Mate"). The last three are the prophets after the return from exile.

Should I memorize the books of the Bible in order?

Yes. The order is what makes a Bible easy to use: if you know Micah comes before Nahum, you can find Nahum in seconds. The order also carries meaning, moving from creation and law through Israel's history, poetry and prophets, to Jesus, the church and the new creation in Revelation.