Most people know a Bible verse or two. Tom Meyer can recite whole books of holy writ from memory.

And not only dramatic parts like Genesis 1 and Revelation. Also the long-winded “begats” and Levitical laws.
It’s his crusade to revive the historic tradition of public oration — the tradition of Shakespeare and Dickens — a heritage he says has been lost in the last century.

“I want them to hear the beauty of the ancient text,” says Meyer, of Lombard, Ill., part of Wordsower Ministries. “On a page, it’s flat. When it’s spoken, it’s almost 3-D. It comes alive.”

Meyer, 35, will recite Revelation at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Westgate Baptist Church, 901 N. Hiatus Road, Plantation. He’ll then go to Broadview Baptist Church in Pompano Beach on Sunday.

At Broadview, he’ll recite Genesis 1-11 at the 11 a.m. service, then Revelation at 7 p.m. The church is at 1640 SW 61st Ave., Pompano Beach.

But he doesn’t just recite: YouTube videos show him pacing, gesturing, using vocal inflections. When he recites the story of Jonah, he occasionally shouts: “The waters compassed me about, even to the SOUL! . . . I went DOWN to the BOTTOM of the MOUNTAINS!”

Surprisingly, it doesn’t take as long as it may sound. Even in a measured, “conversational” speed, Meyer says he can finish Jonah in eight minutes, the Genesis passage in 35, all of Revelation in an hour.

He’s been doing it eight years and trying to keep up with demand: He says he has spoken in 24 states just in the past six months. This year he plans to visit 75 churches in 20-25 states. He says he’s booked through the fall.

He works on an offering basis for Wordsowers, a charitable organization in Salem, Ore., which supports schools and orphanages and widows’ programs in Haiti, India, Ghana and Liberia.

Growing up in Lombard, a suburb of Chicago, Meyer was better at memorizing baseball cards than Bible verses. After high school, he worked for five years in his father’s asphalt company, but then felt the call to fulltime ministry.

A pastor suggested he learn Matthew 6, in which Jesus reassures his followers that God cares for them. That encouraged Meyer to learn whole books: Jonah, Genesis 1-11, most of the so-called minor prophets.

He refined his methods during four years in Jerusalem, earning master’s degrees at Hebrew University and Jerusalem University College. He gleaned 60 traditional techniques, then boiled them down to hearing, reading, writing and oral repetition. The latter is the most important to keep from forgetting, he says.

Revelation is his most recent book; he learned it just in time to recite it during 2012. “Everyone is talking about the end time, blah blah blah,” Meyer says. “It’s good for churches to hear what God has to say.”

But he stresses that his performances are not just shows, but meant to inspire people to start memorizing scriptures themselves. “The Bible says God blesses people who meditate on it.”