Heritage Bible Display

Yesterday on my way to work I dropped by the Heritage Bible Display in Parramatta. They have a nice collection of Bibles there and I thought I’d share some info (and photos!) of the ones that particularly caught my interest. They had numerous Bibles on display, most of them English translations and several foreign language translations. Regardless most of these Bibles are 100 years old if not older (the Vulgate on display was from the late 15th century for example) and that is what catches my attention. I’m drawn to things from ages past, and it’s a bonus when it happens to be related to Christianity :)
The

Authorized 1611 King James Bible

This is the Pulpit Edition (in other words it’s massive in size) of the original printing of the KJV. It was amazing to look at especially since according to what I knew, there was no complete editions of the 1611 left, but apparently not. It’s probably hard to see in the picture I got (because the quality sucks; I used my iPhone) but the written English is very different to our English today.

Namely, the spelling isn’t standardized by this point in history so you see “fear” spelt as “feare” and “prophesy” spelt like “prophesse”. Also noticeable is it appears to use some letters that don’t exist in current English. For example the letter “s” in “goodness” and the first “s” in “Psalms” uses a letter that looks life it’s an “f” but without the horizontal line. Also those words are spelt differently as well when compared to modern English.

What I found cool as well was the fact that what I presumed to be more of a modern invention was the pericopes at the top of the page. These basically give a summary of the content on the page. Also, on the inner and outer columns you will notice small writing, this writing is in fact translators notes. It’s amazing because they read exactly like modern translators notes. Lastly, and this is purely artistically speaking the styling of the first letter of every chapter looks really well done. I’ve always liked the look of these stylized letters.

The Saxon Gospels

The Saxon Gospels are written in Saxon (obviously :P) which is basically an early form of English. The text is probably too small to read (feel free to shoot me an email if you want the bigger pictures) but this is unreadable to the modern English speaker. I have as much luck reading French or German as I do reading this. Admittedly, I can read some of it but it’s mostly incomprehensible to me. This is made even more difficult by using characters that we no longer use in English today.

It’s really amazing how much English has changed in the last 1000 years. At least early English translations like the Tyndale, Geneva and the KJV are still readable to some degree but this is beyond a joke. I think that the few hundred years that passed from this form of English to that of the Reformers would have been incomprehensible to them as it is to us. I think this shows the importance of updating our translations continually otherwise what was the common translation all could read becomes the translation only the elite read (i.e. Latin Vulgate).

Anyways, moving from that rant I also wanted to point out that there is an English translation of the text in the outer columns if I’m not mistaken :)

The Geneva Bible

This Bible is not only awesome because it’s the Bible of the Puritans and of the early English settlers in North America but this particular Bible that is on display is supposedly the former Bible of a Mr. William Shakespeare. The influence of the Geneva Bible is seen in some of his plays and there is no doubt that this was the translations he used during his prolific years. There is debate as to whether or not this is a genuine copy of his Bible but there are a few reasons that would push one to consider it genuine.

Firstly, there is the initials “W.S” inscribed on the front cover and a (illegible) signature in the front pages. The Bible is littered with his initials alongside many verses as well as notes and commentary written alongside some that bear likeness to his handwriting, if it is a forgery it is a cleverly done one. Lastly, the Bible was given to the Bible society through an individual who got if off one of Shakespeare’s ancestors (via his sister). With this all in mind it seems quite likely to be his Bible. Nevertheless it’s still breathtaking to me to see something so old so well preserved, regardless of whether or not it was truly Shakespeare’s Bible.

The Polygot Bible

I’ve saved my favorite one until last. The Polygot Bible is a Bible that consists of numerous translations of scripture, including the original languages. It came in several volumes and the first volume is here for display. The languages contained in this edition are: Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Persian, Latin and Samaritan. All of the languages are accompanied with a Latin translation of the text. I found the Hebrew, Syriac, Latin and Persian fairly easy to read. The Greek and Latin was too small for me to really read it properly and the Samaritan was in between those extremes.

Though I have a limited grasp of these languages it nevertheless puts me in awe looking at this historic text and see the amount of diligent work put into writing it. It was all done by hand and you can see the care put into trying to make it as readable as possible. Funnily enough, the curator told me that if you look further into the book you can see the author getting tired and therefore a bit more sloppy with his margins :)

Conclusions

Today is the last day there, and after this I’m on my way to check them out again. I’d encourage you to check them out if you get a chance (they’ll be going  back to Canberra I believe after this) and stand in awe of our Christian history. Feel free to ask any questions  you may have and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability. Also, feel free to email and request the photos (I’ll be taking hopefully better ones today). God bless and take care until next week,

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