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Bible Trading Cards

How to Use

Purposes: The Discovery Bible Cards can be used for a variety of purposes, including:

  • Personal Bible study
  • Trading and collecting with friends and family
  • Home/family Bible study tool
  • Bible class resources for churches
  • Prizes/rewards for children/teens
  • Evangelism
  • Bible bookmarks
  • Flash cards
  • And much more!

We anticipate that some will create games that can be played with these cards. If you, your family, or your church creates a game that can be played with the Discovery Bible Cards, please share it with us and we will put it on the website for others to enjoy!

We believe that Discovery Bible Cards can be enjoyed by all ages, and that this can be an exciting thing for children, teens, adults, families, and churches. Please share how you have used the Discovery Bible Cards in your family or home congregation so that we can give others even more ideas!

If you have an idea or suggestion you would like to share with others, send us an email at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you.

GAME IDEAS FOR DISCOVERY BIBLE CARDS

  1. “OLD OR NEW?” [for younger children, submitted by Cheri Deaver] – Show the front of the card and ask the students if the person is in the Old or New Testament. Give one point for each correct answer. The student with the most points wins a trading card (or a pack of cards).
  2. “WHO AM I?” [for all ages, submitted by Cheri Deaver and Robin Evans] – Separate your students into teams. Take a card from the set and begin reading the “Fast Facts” on the back, one at a time. The team who guesses the name on the card first wins the card. The team with the most cards at the end of the game wins.
  3. “COMMON CARDS” [for older students, submitted by Cheri Deaver] – Show multiple cards that are connected by a common person, place, event, etc. The person/team who can tell you the common person, place, event, etc. gets a point. Example: Show “The Burning Bush,” “Pharaoh,” and “The Bronze Serpent.” The “common card” would be “Moses.”
  4. “BOOK ‘EM!” [a deck-building game for older players, submitted by Don Garey] 
    • Setup
      • Each player needs to build a deck of 40-60 cards
      • Each series within the player’s deck must have 3-7 cards
    • Objective
      • Be the first player to make 21 points worth of 3+ card “books,” “runs,” or “references” (1 point per card).
      • A “book” is made by collecting 3 cards that include a reference to the same book of the Bible and playing them together.
      • A “run” is made by collecting 3 cards of the same series and playing them together.
      • Each “set” (book or run) is limited to 7 cards (1 point per card).
      • A set is “booked” when it reaches 7 cards. Turn all seven cards sideways to help identify which cards can still be referenced.
      • A “reference” may be made after you’ve played your first set. To do so, play your own card that would belong to another player’s set (this card remains near your sets). This can be a defensive tactic, pushing another player’s set toward the 7-card limit. You may also reference your own sets by adding cards to them.
    • Gameplay
      • Once you have your deck prepared, the game begins with each player drawing a hand of 5 cards.
      • Once you discern who goes first, that player’s turn begins by drawing 2, playing up to three cards, and ends by discarding 1 card.
      • Each player has a NT discard pile and an OT discard pile (determined by the “Key Passage” on the card).
      • At the beginning of each player’s turn, they may choose to draw from the top of either of their discard piles and/or deck.
      • After playing their first set (book or run), a player may “reference” another player’s book or run by playing their own card that would belong to it (This can be a defensive tactic, pushing another player’s set toward the 7-card limit).
    • Additional Notes
      • Some runs all contain the same book of the Bible in their references. Any player can take advantage of this and play references on that set until it reaches 7 cards.
      • References, books, or runs may not be rearranged to form other sets after they have been played.
    • Variations
      • Quick Game – Each player had a 24+ card deck. The first player to get 7 points wins.
      • One-Deck Game – The deck size should be 25 cards per player if playing to 7 points, and 40 cards per player if playing to 21 points. All players share the same draw and discard piles. No series limitations in deck building.
  5. TIME TRAVEL [submitted by John Evans]
    • Suitable for middle school through adult, may be played solo, between individuals, or teams. If played solo, you try to improve your time to complete each game. Otherwise, play to complete the timeline before the other team.
    • Deal out an equal number of cards to each team, no fewer than 10 cards per team, face down. If playing solo, deal out 10 cards, face down, to yourself.
    • Each player may have a copy of Scripture in front of them, paper or digital. If digital, however, the person may not use any AI feature, or digital help, beyond the copy of Scripture itself.
    • Arrange the cards on the table in front of you, bottom to top, arranging each person, artifact, or event, from the earliest appearance in Scripture, to the last. For example, if you have Eve, the ark of the covenant, and the apostle John turned up, Eve would go on the bottom, the ark above it, and John above that.
    • The session ends when a team successfully arranges each card, bottom to top, in the correct order. Again, if playing solo, race against your previous time.
    • The teacher checks the correctness of the order.
    • Important Note:  Some people, places, and events are contemporaneous with each other. These cards should be placed SIDE-BY-SIDE. Again, the correct order is determined by first appearances in Scripture.
      • Variation 1 – Advanced Time Travel Game #1: Only PAPER copies of Scripture are allowed to be used by participants. The search engines on digital Bibles sometimes give an unfair advantage. Also, thumbing through paper copies of Scripture helps to reinforce the location of people and events in the Bible. There’s something about a physical copy that assists learning.
      • Variation 2 – Advanced Time Travel Game #2: This one is tough. NO copy of the Bible is allowed to be used by participants. Students work from memory and knowledge of Scripture only. Again, you’re ordering cards according to the first time the subject appears in the Bible. Using this variation encourages active discussion among the participants, and the winner is the team with the fewest mistakes.
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