While the National Spelling Bee has received accolades for the intense memorization its participants must have to recite seemingly impossible words, the National Bible Bee is boasting thousands of Bible verses memorized by its participants. The Bible Bee was started in 2009 by the Shelby Kennedy Foundation, to honor Shelby Kennedy, who died from cancer in 2005. To date, the Bee has given away three million dollars in prize money. The competition features three age divisions: Primary for ages 7-10, Junior for 11-14, and Senior for 15-18. The competition lasts over four days and has been hosted in numerous locales, including Answers in Genesis’s Ark Encounter.

Despite the monetary benefits, those involved with the competition want the real focus to be on the Word of God. “It’s not just memorizing Scripture. It’s studying Scripture and being able to dive in deep and understand what God has to say in His Word,” said Hannah Leary, the winner at the first National Bible Bee Game Show. “Out of the hundreds of National Bible Bee participants that I’ve met, every one of them has agreed that the National Bible Bee has really helped them deepen their relationship with Christ and know him more,” said Febah Mathew, a finalist on the Bible Bee Game Show in 2022. Actor Kirk Cameron has served as a host for the show.

In 2019, the Bible Bee stated participants had memorized over 1 million Bible verses. The New York Times wrote that the memorization feats of the program’s participants, “make the National Spelling Bee look like a game of tic-tac-toe.” Got Questions calls Bible memorization “the single most crucial element to spiritual growth and victory over sin.” “When we memorize the Word of God, several things happen. Psalm 119:11 tells us the psalmist hid God’s Word in his heart so that he would not sin against Him. Not only did he hear and read the Word, but he internalized it and laid it up in his mind and memory for future use,” the site affirms. “The Word of God is the believer’s only truly potent weapon against sin, and when placed in the mind through Bible memorization, it is a strong influence for godliness and righteous living. Hebrews 4:12 tells us the Word of God is ‘living and active,’ meaning that it has supernatural power to mold us into Christ-likeness when we meditate upon it, and there is no better way to meditate on the Word than to have it in our minds and memories.”