Antique Bibles
As part of the Graduation Commencement on Saturday, May 24, 2008 A.D., the WATS library was presented with a set of antique Bibles and Christian books. This unusual gift has been given to West Africa Theological Seminary as a collection of ancient Bibles and other Christian books. WATS is already home to one of the best theological libraries in Africa, and this collection will add much to the attraction of this growing institution. These precious Bibles and books were officially handed over to WATS on May 24. The collection will eventually be placed in a specially-built Scriptorium on the WATS campus, and with the addition of first edition African translations of the Bible will be at the center of celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, in 2011.
The items in this incredible donation include the following:
- A leaf from the Gutenberg Bible (1455). It is not only from the first Bible ever printed, but it is from the first book ever printed! The text is in Latin. It was produced by the inventor of the movable-type printing press, John Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany. It is beautifully accented in red and blue inks, with black text of 42 lines in two columns.
- Wycliffe New Testament Reproduction (1848, originally produced in the 1380s). The first hand-written English language manuscripts were produced in the 1380s by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, scholar and theologian. This is the only reproduction in this collection, but it is over 150 years old.
- Erasmus Greek/Latin New Testament (1519). The burden of Desiderius Erasmus (a late medieval classical scholar) was to correct the corrupt Latin Vulgate translation that prevailed throughout the Middle Ages, and therefore in 1516 he published a Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament. The Latin part was not the corrupt Vulgate, but his own fresh rendering of the text from the more accurate and reliable Greek, which he had collated from a half-dozen partial old Greek New Testament manuscripts he had acquired. This was the first non-Latin Vulgate text of the scripture to be produced in over 1,000 years, and the first ever to come off a printing press.
- Mathew-Tyndale Bible (1537). This is the first complete printing of an English language Bible that was translated directly from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek into English. "Thomas Matthew", (whose real name was John Rogers), completed the translation work of Tyndale, and produced a complete English Bible within a year of Tyndale's execution. Scholars often consider this the first "true and legitimate" translation of the Bible into English though it is technically the second printing of an English language complete Bible. This is because in October of 1535, another of Tyndale´s friends, Myles Coverdale, actually printed the very first English language complete Bible, but it was a "translation of a translation" making use of source texts from Latin and German as well. For many historians, that sort of disqualifies Coverdale´s Bible as the "First English Printed Bible Translation," a title perhaps more deserved by this 1537 volume.
- Geneva Pulpit Bible (1562). This is the "Bible of the Protestant Reformation", and the Bible of the Puritans and Pilgrims. It was the first Bible taken to America, brought over on the Mayflower. We can imagine that most early American colonists, who were fleeing the religious oppression of the Anglican Church (Church of England), wanted nothing to do with the King James Bible of the Anglican Church! Textually, the Geneva Bible offered a number of radical never-before-seen changes: It was the first Bible in English to add numbered verses to each chapter of scripture. Also, the Geneva was the first Bible to introduce easier-to-read "Roman Style Typeface" rather than the "Gothic Blackletter Style Typeface" which had been used exclusively in earlier Bibles. Another curious innovation; the Geneva was the first "Study Bible" with extensive commentary notes in the margins. Also called the "Breeches Bible", the Geneva Bible is the only Bible ever able to outsell and exceed the popularity of the King James Bible, as it did in the early 1600s until its printing ceased in 1644. Most Protestants have never even heard of the Bible of their own heritage: the Geneva Bible. It was produced by John Calvin, John Knox, Myles Coverdale, John Foxe, and other English refugees in ever-neutral Geneva, Switzerland, fleeing the persecution of Roman Catholic Queen "Bloody" Mary in England. Mary would not tolerate the Protestant Geneva Bible, which proclaimed the Pope an "antichrist" in its commentary notes.
- Foxe´s Book of Martyrs (1597) 2 volumes. Written by John Foxe, it may be the most important Christian work ever printed outside of the Bible. It is an account of the persecutions of Protestants, mainly in England, but also from other groups in earlier centuries who were considered to be forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. To this day this is the only exhaustive reference work on the persecution and martyrdom of Early Christians and Protestants from the first century up to the mid-16th century. The second edition of the book was in two volumes, and ran to a total of 2,300 pages. When it was produced it was the largest publishing project undertaken in England up to that time.
- John Calvin on Genesis (1594). John Calvin, one of the great Reformation leaders, is known for his excellent methods of interpretation and exposition. There is no introduction to this work, though a very interesting dedication is made by Calvin to Prince Henry of Vendome, future king of France. The comments themselves draw out the important aspects of divine covenant, God´s plans for humanity and the awesome nature of God´s being. This commentary is a fine example of Calvin´s thought and theology.
- First Edition King James Pulpit Bible (printed in 1611) 2 volumes. This is from the first press run of the original King James Bible: printed in 1611 in London - i.e. nearly 400 years ago. The King James Bible remains the greatest book in the English language, and the best-selling book of all time—the only book that has sold over one billion copies. Each page is a unique piece of ancient artwork, carefully produced one-at-a-time by the King´s printers using a movable-type press, and later bound together into whole Bibles, and chained to every church pulpit in England.
- First Edition King James Study Bible (1613). The first King James Bibles, printed in 1611, were huge pulpit Bibles. In 1612 printing began on the earliest normal-size printings of the King James Bible, produced so individuals could have their own personal copy of the Bible.
- Geneva Small Pulpit Bible (1616). The Geneva Bible was first published in 1560. It was the first Bible to add numbered verses to the chapters. William Shakespeare quotes hundreds of times in his plays from the Geneva translation of the Bible, and the Geneva Bible became the Bible of choice for over 100 years by English speaking Christians. Examination of the 1611 King James Bible shows clearly that its translators were influenced much more by the Geneva Bible than by any other source. The Geneva holds the honor of being the first Bible taken to America, and the Bible of the Puritans and Pilgrims.
- Primitive Christianity, by William Cave (1672). Cave was an English divine who served various Church of England parishes and who was also chaplain to King Charles II. The subtitle of this book is "The Religion of the Ancient Christians in the First Ages of the Gospel." The reading of this book made great impact for several generations, including on the life of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.
- First Edition, The Pilgrim´s Progress From This World to That Which is to Come (1792). John Bunyan began this work while imprisoned for his faith, and it has become the most widely read book in the English language outside the Bible, with translations into more than 200 languages. It has never been out of print. It is an allegory of the journey of Pilgrim from the "City of Destruction" (earth) to the "Celestial City" (heaven).
- Hebrew Torah Scroll. This is a complete ancient Hebrew Torah Scroll of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament). It is hand-written, and a one-of-a-kind piece, and is approximately 300 – 400 years old. It was produced in the world´s oldest continually operating scriptorium, a 2,400-year-old scriptorium in South Yemen, about 1,000 miles south of Israel. This is the same type of "Bible" Jesus read, and quite possibly from the same scriptorium. The scrolls vary in size and length, as each is a unique manuscript, but most are 18 to 23 inches tall, and usually around 100 feet long.
Library Tour
The following slideshow shares current developments at the WATS library:
TIP: Hover your mouse over the picture to pause the show.
The Next Christendom
In 2001 Philip Jenkins (Pennsylvania State University Distinguished Professor) published The Next Christendom, which permanently changed the way many people in the US think about the future of Christianity. In that volume, Jenkins called the world's attention to the little noticed fact that Christianity's center of gravity was moving steadily and inexorably southward, to the point that Africa may soon be home to the world's largest Christian population.
In 2006 Professor Jenkins published a second book, in which he took a closer look at Christianity in the global south. This book, entitled The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South, explains the fact that the faith of the South including Africa is first and foremost a Biblical faith. Jenkins documents the fact that the written word of God is generally more highly regarded in Africa than it is in North America. Africans are very visibly in love with the Bible. For one thing, African Christians generally identify much more readily with the world portrayed in both the Old and New Testaments than do North Americans - a largely agricultural world marked by famine, plague, poverty and exile. In Africa, as in the Biblical world, belief in spirits and witchcraft are part of the basic worldview, and in many places (including Nigeria) Christians are persecuted much as they were in the early days of Christianity. For these and many other reasons the Bible speaks to the global South with a vividness and authenticity simply unavailable to most believers in the industrialized North.