Daniel Chew’s hobbies include baking cookies and “steel challenge,” a sport that involves shooting a series of steel discs as quickly and accurately as possible. But lately, the 9-year-old from Sugar Land, Texas, has been spending most of his free time memorizing Bible verses.
On Thursday morning under spotlights on a stage in Orlando, Fla., Daniel smoothly recited 19 verses from the New Testament book of Romans to win the finals for his age group at the 16th annual National Bible Bee.
“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,” Daniel began, reciting the 350-word passage from Romans 12.
He was one of about 360 children and teenagers assembled this week for a competition whose slogan is “To know God’s Word and make Him known.”
The Bee has achieved a quiet kind of celebrity status in some Christian circles, and video clips of its young competitors sometimes circulate beyond those communities on social media. The competition demands astonishing feats of memorization that make the televised National Spelling Bee look like a game of tic-tac-toe. Competitors at Daniel’s level memorized more than 570 verses, which they were expected to be able to recite on command.
At the senior level, ages 15 to 18, participants memorize 938 Bible verses, adding up to more than 20,000 words. In some rounds of competition, making even a single error in a long passage — an errant plural or wrong verb tense — leads to elimination.
Parents and children devote considerable time and resources to the Bee, and find meaning and life lessons that go beyond the thrill of competition.
“This is a family commitment,” said Diego Urrego, 43, whose daughter, Cyan, 10, placed third in her age group this year.
Mr. Urrego and his wife, Claudia, maintain a spreadsheet with the competition’s hundreds of passages, sticking to a monthslong daily memorization plan for Cyan and her older brother. In the run-up to the Bee, the children paused soccer practices and games, studying several hours every night except Sundays. A family mantra: “No time to waste.”
(The Bee is not typically open to outsiders, but a reporter from The New York Times was allowed to attend on the condition that she spoke only with attendees who had given their approval to organizers in advance. The Bee’s executive director, Brian Mullins, said he did not want to distract or alarm families in a high-pressure atmosphere where they did not expect journalists to be present.)
The event’s official T-shirt this year read, “Truth over everything.”
And the Urregos, who live in Southern California, see the Bible Bee as an anchor for their children in a society where, they said, “truth” is contested by artificial intelligence and pluralism.
“This is the truth, especially in a culture where we don’t even know what the truth is anymore,” Mr. Urrego said. “Everybody wants to have their own truth.”
Memorization of sacred texts is embedded in many religious traditions. For conservative Protestants in particular, memorizing Bible verses has long played a role in Sunday school classes and church youth clubs like Awana.
But memorization seems to be having a resurgence, through events like the Bible Bee and ScriptureFest, a series of regional performances. The rise coincides with a broader emphasis on recitation in many home-school and classical school curriculums, which have shaped many Bible Bee competitors.
Participation has grown significantly since its first gathering in 2009, and it has doubled since 2021, according to Mr. Mullins. This year, almost 13,000 young people took part in the summer training program that feeds into the competition, a record “by far,” he said.
“Memorization speaks not only to the mind but also to the soul,” said Michael P. Farris, the chair of the Shelby Kennedy Foundation, the producer of the Bible Bee. Mr. Farris, a high-profile conservative lawyer, recalled his childhood Sunday school teacher promising a reward of a hamburger, milkshake and fries for any child who could memorize and recite 1 Corinthians 13. (In his recollection, he was the only child who did so.)
The prizes at the Bible Bee are considerably more valuable. This year’s senior winner, Maret Haab of Jenison, Mich., 18, will take home $50,000. Daniel Chew earned $10,000 for winning the primary level, ages 7 to 10, and his older sister, Abby, 14, won $20,000 for winning at the junior level, ages 11 to 14.
The contest is particularly popular among home-schooling families like the Chews, who first heard about it a decade ago through the Home School Legal Defense Association, an advocacy group founded by Mr. Farris. The organization’s partners include prominent conservative Christian groups including the Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom and Patrick Henry College.
But word of mouth, and, as Mr. Mullins described it, an increasing interest in intense Bible study has expanded the Bee’s base in recent years.
With sweeping spotlights, dramatic music and celebrity hosts, the Bee’s production values resemble “The Voice” more than a church basement.
Yet the competitors themselves represent a kind of demure poise and wholesomeness for which many Americans are nostalgic. The contestants called adults “ma’am” and “sir.” The boys onstage had tucked in their shirts; almost every girl wore her hair and hemlines long. At one point in the final, Abby Chew raised her hand to inform the judges that she had been mistakenly awarded points for an incorrect answer. In the audience, rows of younger siblings sat still for hours in almost miraculous silence.
Boys and girls seem to excel equally at the competition. But it is otherwise a space that celebrates traditional gender roles.
“I desire to be a wife and mother and raise a godly home-schooling family,” one finalist in the junior level told the judges when asked about her goals.
Competitors opt to memorize in one of five popular translations, including the King James Version and the English Standard Version. Many passages are complex, dense with the names of ancient kings and tribes.
Selections this year included verses like, “Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces.”
In other parts of the competition, competitors also answer questions on general Bible knowledge, such as “According to Jeremiah 52, who was King Nebuchadnezzar’s captain/commander that set fire to Jerusalem?”
The answer was Nebuzaradan, which three of five contestants answered correctly.
Many families see Bible memorization as a path to instill discipline, organizational skills and comfort with public speaking. But it is more than just an intellectual or practical pursuit.
The children who compete are “going to go out into the culture and have a tremendous impact for the kingdom of God,” said Heidi St. John, a co-host, during the event’s final day. “Your kids are ready for this fight.”
In an interview backstage, Ms. St. John, a home-schooling advocate in Washington State who ran for Congress in 2022, and her co-hosts, David and Jason Benham, identical twin entrepreneurs, agreed that the Bee’s training would have an influence both in American culture and in the families who participate.
“Think about children today, right now, struggling with anxiety, suicide, depression at an all-time high, fentanyl abuse, all of this,” David Benham said. He quoted a verse in the gospel of John, in which Jesus promises his followers the gift of peace.
“This is a gift that social media is not going to give you,” he said. “This is a gift that money is not going to give you, or illicit sex is not going to give you, or switching your gender is not going to give you.”
On Thursday evening, after the competition was over, many competitors and their families gathered in a lobby outside the hotel ballroom for an informal social.
There was barely a cellphone to be seen. Younger children passed the time playing Uno, arm-wrestling and signing one another’s autograph books. Hundreds of teenagers, and a few parents, assembled in rows to dance the Virginia reel to music piped from a portable speaker. They looked relaxed and happy as they swung their partners, arm-in-arm and in unison.
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