Posted on 12/22/2013 7:11:35 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
SURAT: With the countdown to Christmas on, Surat's CNI Church has begun preparations for the forthcoming festivities. Even as decorative stars and runners are being set up, Timothybhai, the Church peon, has unlocked a vault in the storage section to bring out a couple of rare, antique Bibles to "air them out".
On Christmas day, psalms from these holy books will be read out. One of them - a 17-inch-tall religious book that weighs a whopping 15 kg is intact in its original leather binding and comprises over 1,000 pages. "This is a 1611 Roman Catholic, King James-authorized version. This 402-year-old book includes the word of god. It contains the Apocrypha statements and has all the chapters from Genesis to Malakhan," said Duncan John Mogera, a scholar of Bibles.
Another 300-year-old Bible (KJV 1716), which weighs eight kilograms, is also a part of the collection here. These Bibles were brought in by the British, preserved by the Church, and are now part of Surat's history. But neither the museum nor the Surat Municipal Corporation have any available record of them. While the floods in 2006 washed away all the historical books at Andrews Library, which is a stone's throw away from the CNI Church at Chowk, these Bibles were fortunately safeguarded.
"They were the first things that we shifted to the building's terrace. Although humidity is now beginning to affect these well-maintained holy books, both are in readable condition and can be leafed through," said Father Cecil David of CNI Church.
Sandeep D'souza, who voluntarily decorates the CNI Church for Christmas every year, said, "This year we will be putting up the town's biggest 12-feet-high star along with several new decorative pieces on the X'mas tree, but the prayers on Christmas eve, and on the 25th, will be in traditional style and the ancient Bible will be read out."
Yeah, well, nice try.
Well, better late than never I guess, lol.
??? what do you mean?
Not much on history are you.
The Catholic Church doesn’t recognize the King James version. The Catholic contemporary version is the Douay–Rheims translation.
The 1611 edition of the KJV contains the apocrypha (which includes books not part of the Catholic deuterocanon), and this may have led to confusion over in India.
King James is not Catholic. Similar to saying a Catholic Book of Mormon. Or a Catholic Koran.
King James & Catholic?
King James & Catholic? Heresy I say!
Perhaps author Ashleshaa Khurana is not a Christian, but it very nice that she wrote this article. Only 2.4% of the Indian population is Christian.
The KJV is not to the Catholic Bible what the Koran or the Book of Mormon is to any Christian Bible. In fact, the Catholic Church does not in any way impede the reading of the KJV or any other “Protestant” Bible. I read the NIV about 4 times before I decided to read the New American Bible which I’m doing now. The main difference is that Calvin and Luther decided to take some of the books out because they didn’t think that they fit with their theology.
I feel very lucky to be spending Christmas in India this year. It is much more focused on Christ and less on the commercialism.
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