340-Year-Old Bible Found in Wisconsin Church

Epoch Times ^ | Jan 18, 2011 | Alex Johnston

[Diana in Wisconsin]

We’re Pack Rats up here. We hold on to EVERYTHING, LOL! :)

[Arrowhead1952]

I got an email from one of our church members about this. She also has some old Bibles. Here is her reply to me about the old Bible pictures.

---

Yep.....I can’t read them, and the Bible from 1589 has artwork I find creepy, but they are cool!

---

From the original email:

---

This was a great surprise! I have two Biblias that were part of my grandfather, Rev. John H. [last name removed] Bible collection. I have often wanted to share these with our church members, yet since their condition is so fragile haven’t brought them to church. I have attached a couple of pictures, in case anyone should be interested.

[AnalogReigns]

Does it contain the “deuterocanonical books”? (what protestants call the Apocrypha).

If it is a Lutheran bible (and in German too, as the photos show), it won't.

Here's an original Geneva Bible for sale on ebay from 1583. (ONLY $15,000!!!) The Geneva Bible translation was one of the first Study Bibles and had extensive marginal notes. The Puritan-written notes which were decidedly anti-Royal so annoyed King James, he had his own note-less translation done in 1611.

Interestingly enough the Pilgrims and Puritans were dedicated to the Geneva Bible, and had the same attitude toward the new King James Version which fundamentalist KJV-only Christians have toward any other translation today (ie. VERY EVIL!) (Considering that King James I was a cowardly homosexual who persecuted Puritans, tis no wonder...)

[AnalogReigns]

Interestingly enough, there are at least a couple dozen bibles for sale on eBay from the 1500s (over 400 years old), and many more from the 1600s.

Kind of exciting to find one stuffed in a cupboard in a church, but, in reality, not all that rare.

[rhema]

It appears to be LCMS. . . . Yes, it is.

That's a relief. It'll be safe from ELCA depredations.

[markomalley]

You all might enjoy some of these shots from our 1713 Luther Bible from Morgenweg in Hamburg. It's not in nearly as good a hands as the 1670 Luther Bible but some of the engravings are remarkable in it (the pictures are really large: if you click on the pictures, it will take you to them full size):

The title page

A better view of the facing engraving:

An engraving of Jerusalem:

An engraving of Daniel:

Hope you enjoy.

(In case you're wondering what a Catholic is doing with a Luther Bible, part of my family tree is Pennsylvania Dutch)