Does Google Help or Hinder Your Bible Recall?

[Andyintheuk]

Back in the 1980s and 90s I used to be a sales rep covering the whole of the UK. I had a really good sense of direction and geographical knowledge. I could find my way to virtually any town in the UK, pull up at a petrol station and buy an A-Z Street Map to find the actual street. Then they invented satnav, then they invented Google maps. Now I can’t find my way out of a department store without one!

Back in the 80s and 90s I had a concordance called Crudens. If you could recall a few words of a text you were looking for, or even one 'irregular word' from that you could find the chapter and verse. The only downside was that you had to know what the words were in the old KJV. Nowadays I tap those words into Google and up comes the chapter and verse, any version.

But I’ve noticed recently that when I look through a Bible without my handy iPad I seem to struggle more than I used to to find a passage that I’m looking for. Is that an age thing or is it a bit like the satnav?

What tools or books, online or paper, do you use to help your Bible study?

 

[Tessa]

Hi Andy, I still use Cruden's concordance, I
bought it in the 70's when I lived in Australia. I also use Gateway on the internet. I don't always find what I'm looking for and think I don't remember the correct words.

 

[Michael74]

I have never been a stellar navigator, so GPS is a real help to me. Also, Google street views. If I am going to an unfamiliar place, I like to check out the street views at turns before setting out. Helps a lot when I recognize landmarks near the turns. Much better for me than searching for street numbers.

When studying the Bible, I learn it better by meaning, rather than which number it is near. The Internet and concordances are a help to me when I am trying to find something to relate it to others.

Depends on your personal gifts and talents. People learn things best in different ways.

 

[JohnDB]

I have two different exhaustive concordances. I have strongest Strong's and the NIV one. Then there's a short different kind in the back of my study Bible.
Back in the early '80's/late '70's I got my first NIV. It was hard bound and had not even red letters. But it was @ $20-30 at the time. My parents whined about the cost.

But I then started blending my KJV knowledge with the NIV. And I was in a Christian High School...had to know it backwards and forwards to keep up. Had to recite it off the top of my head.

When I got away from home...I bought a brand new NIV study Bible. (Mid '80's).
It still was one of the first ones out on the market. (NIV has gone through several revisions since)
All leather bound with gold leaf edges...I had my name stamped in more gold leaf on the front.
I plowed through it for several years.

Then God and I got into a disagreement of sorts...
I didn't crack the cover for a while.

Then after my son was born...I seen the error of my ways and made sure that my son was raised in Church. I started studying even more hard core than ever before. I used to be buried in books around the table. NIV study Bible all the way. (But I also acquired more Bibles... different translation and original language)

Then I finally got some software. (NIV based) I researched it a lot before settling on the one I wanted. (It's really difficult to get the denomination's theology out of translations, history, geography, and anthropology...the heathen actually do a better job)
It was very expensive...still is considered expensive by today's standards of expenses. But I need old computers to run it on because the newer windows platforms won't and the Bible platform quit updating it with patches etc. But I still used my NIV.

My Bible is worn out after all these years. 30 years of heavy use. Gold leaf edges is pretty much gone.

Just because Google is my concordance doesn't mean that I have forgotten how to use a bound one.

What's interesting is how anyone can look up a verse.
What's even funnier is when our pastor calls out the wrong chapter and verse he is going to preach from and after a few lines I find have the correct passage he is reading with the "wrong" book, chapter, and verse numbers showing clearly.
His gaffs are funny. And he uses the NASB.

 

[Andyintheuk]

Hi Andy, I still use Cruden's concordance, I
bought it in the 70's when I lived in Australia. I also use Gateway on the internet. I don't always find what I'm looking for and think I don't remember the correct words.

Sadly my copy of Crudens didn’t make it on one of my house moves, but this thread has inspired me to repurchase through Amazon so I’m looking forward to seeing how many times the word n appears in the Bible.

My favourite version of the Bible is You Version, on the tablet. It’s an amazing little app, press a button and up comes that passage in any one of 20 or 30 different translations. Must have taken hundreds of hours. I love it, got it on my phone to.

 

[Edward]

Back in the 1980s and 90s I used to be a sales rep covering the whole of the UK. I had a really good sense of direction and geographical knowledge. I could find my way to virtually any town in the UK, pull up at a petrol station and buy an A-Z Street Map to find the actual street. Then they invented satnav, then they invented Google maps. Now I can’t find my way out of a department store without one!

Back in the 80s and 90s I had a concordance called Crudens. If you could recall a few words of a text you were looking for, or even one 'irregular word' from that you could find the chapter and verse. The only downside was that you had to know what the words were in the old KJV. Nowadays I tap those words into Google and up comes the chapter and verse, any version.

But I’ve noticed recently that when I look through a Bible without my handy iPad I seem to struggle more than I used to to find a passage that I’m looking for. Is that an age thing or is it a bit like the satnav?

What tools or books, online or paper, do you use to help your Bible study?

I think Google helps my recall. It is makes it so fast to pull up a scripture that I don't remember. I use BibleGateway a lot. They have zillions of different versions and it will read to me too. I do this reading plan with them and read it as it talks it. I think that helps recall quite a bit. I also use the BlueLetterBible.com, it is a concordance and click click click, you're back in the original language!

 

[Tessa]

Both You Version and BlueLetterBible sound good.

 

[for_his_glory]

In the Opened Bible KJV there is a very good concordance to look up words and the scriptures. This is my second one as I wore out the first one. I also have the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, an online Bible I use to copy and paste from and also use The Jerusalem Bible. I will use the search engine to look up certain phrases I am looking for when I can't find them by one word. I also use it to look up Biblical histories of the time period and the scriptures I need for that.

 

[Razeontherock]

Back in the 1980s and 90s I used to be a sales rep covering the whole of the UK. I had a really good sense of direction and geographical knowledge. I could find my way to virtually any town in the UK, pull up at a petrol station and buy an A-Z Street Map to find the actual street. Then they invented satnav, then they invented Google maps. Now I can’t find my way out of a department store without one!

Back in the 80s and 90s I had a concordance called Crudens. If you could recall a few words of a text you were looking for, or even one 'irregular word' from that you could find the chapter and verse. The only downside was that you had to know what the words were in the old KJV. Nowadays I tap those words into Google and up comes the chapter and verse, any version.

But I’ve noticed recently that when I look through a Bible without my handy iPad I seem to struggle more than I used to to find a passage that I’m looking for. Is that an age thing or is it a bit like the satnav?

What tools or books, online or paper, do you use to help your Bible study?

I never knew Google could do that?

I use blueletterbible, and specifically the older version, blbclassic because the search function is so much better.

Currently I'm looking at getting the Orthodox study Bible, and perhaps a translation from Aramaic.

 

[Razeontherock]

Sadly my copy of Crudens didn’t make it on one of my house moves, but this thread has inspired me to repurchase through Amazon so I’m looking forward to seeing how many times the word n appears in the Bible.

My favourite version of the Bible is You Version, on the tablet. It’s an amazing little app, press a button and up comes that passage in any one of 20 or 30 different translations. Must have taken hundreds of hours. I love it, got it on my phone to.

The apps I've looked at don't say anything about how much memory it takes up. Do you know about this one?

 

[Andyintheuk]

The apps I've looked at don't say anything about how much memory it takes up. Do you know about this one?

YouVersion Is brilliant. It takes 50 mb on my Samsung galaxy s7. I've got about 5 or 6 versions downloaded. Most of it's text which isn't so punishing oaphn memory as graphics. Give it a try, you can always uninstall. They also have some nice reading plans.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

 

[Truthfrees]

1. i use google to find the verse by quoting it the best i remember and then put nkjv at the end so google knows i want a bible verse

2. i play the nkjv on dvd all night while we sleep so that God's words go in our ears and spirit while we sleep - it takes 19 hours to go through the NT - this causes us to hear the NT 3x/wk - and be inspired continuously with new truth for each new day - and to be more familiar with scripture in context

3. i use theword.net free download and isa3 basic free download to use when i am not connected to the internet for the original greek and hebrew and the literal translation

4. i use biblegateway.com for a scripture in 40-50 translations as a comparison

5. i used to strongs concordance hardcover and youngs concordance hardcover to find scriptures -b ut it is a lot slower than google because i have to remember the kjv words and i haven't read kjv for so long because i prefer youngs literal - expanded - nkjv - holmans - and the original greek and hebrew

 

[Andyintheuk]

Having the Bible read to you all night long sounds idyllic. Not sure you'd get much sense out of me the next day, I think I'd be up all night listening to it, I'm a very light sleeper. But if it works for you I can see that would be a massive blessing for you.

There are all sorts of gadgets now to help our Bible study. But I've noticed that the more I use them, the easier it is, but days and weeks later try retracing that passage? Am I on my own in this or am I a grumpy old man blaming technology for the rigours of age? Lol

 

[Tessa]

Hi Andy, I have always had trouble remembering chapter verse, but now I'm old it's worse.
As long as I remember what it says I don't worry because I can search for it, especially with so many places to search on nowadays.

 

[Truthfrees]

imo remembering the words and understanding the message is way more important than the address

thank God google gives the address if we can remember a few of the words

 

[Garion]

Back in the 1980s and 90s I used to be a sales rep covering the whole of the UK. I had a really good sense of direction and geographical knowledge. I could find my way to virtually any town in the UK, pull up at a petrol station and buy an A-Z Street Map to find the actual street. Then they invented satnav, then they invented Google maps. Now I can’t find my way out of a department store without one!

Back in the 80s and 90s I had a concordance called Crudens. If you could recall a few words of a text you were looking for, or even one 'irregular word' from that you could find the chapter and verse. The only downside was that you had to know what the words were in the old KJV. Nowadays I tap those words into Google and up comes the chapter and verse, any version.

But I’ve noticed recently that when I look through a Bible without my handy iPad I seem to struggle more than I used to to find a passage that I’m looking for. Is that an age thing or is it a bit like the satnav?

What tools or books, online or paper, do you use to help your Bible study?

I'm 43 and I'll tell ya that it is probably a aging thing. God bless

 

[Christ_empowered]

Google has been the best thing ever with Bible verses. I've never been all that great about addresses, but I remember chunks of verses and then -bam-, Google brings it up, without fail. Also...I learned a lot of Bible verses thru a Pentecostal program. Great people, good program, but...they had 12 months to drill stuff into us, so I missed out on context, nuance, etc. Using Google often brings up the whole verse, plus commentary, sometimes online devotionals, archived sermons, etc., so...that's -tremendously- helpful.