At The National Bible Bee, Christian Students Perfect the Art of Memory

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....