The History, Features, and Teachings of the Holy Bible
The Gutenberg Bible and Its Preservation
The Ransom Center’s two-volume Gutenberg Bible is on permanent display in the lobby. Every three months the Center’s staff changes which page of the Bible is displayed, allowing us to share different pages with our visitors, and also protect the volumes from over exposure to light, stress on their bindings, and other preservation concerns. The process of turning the Gutenberg’s pages involves staff of the conservation department, exhibition services, the curator, and of course campus security. Each time we select a new opening we look for some unique or exemplary feature that will reveal the history of our copy or some unique feature absent from the other known copies of the Bible. In order to maximize preservation considerations, the staff alternates which volume is on display.
Regarding historical evidence, this spring we displayed volume one, leaf 40, which shows Exodus, Chapter 23–24. The page includes a printing error that has been corrected in red ink by an early scribe. This particular printing error is unique to the Ransom Center’s copy and not found in any other recorded example of the Gutenberg Bible, making it of special interest to early readers and later bibliographers. Textual integrity in the Bible is a capital concern, and here a scribe has dutifully indicated the correct reordering of the lines with the letters a, b, and c, and a red bracket.
Furthermore, the manuscript note in black ink at the foot of the page provides monastic instructions for which passages are to be read in the church and which are to be read in the refectory. These instructions are consistent with the practices of the Carthusian Order. This note, and other manuscript evidence elsewhere in the Ransom Center’s copy, tells us that the Bible was read and used in a monastery, very likely before the year 1600.
The Artistic Design of the Great Bible
The title-page of the Great Bible (1539), said to have been designed by the celebrated Hans Holbein, is curious and very interesting. The highest figure in the engraving represents the Lord Christ in the clouds of heaven. The king appears again as the most prominent of all the figures, seated on his throne: the royal arms and motto will be recognised at once. The king hands the word of God (Verbum Dei) to bishops and clergy on his right hand, to Cromwell and others of the laity on his left. It represents, with great faithfulness, a page of the history of the times.
Core Teachings of the Christian Faith
In the first part of John Chapter 14, the apostle writes that Jesus tells us that He is the only way to the Father. And that He is truth and life. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. By placing our faith in Jesus and being in a relationship with Him, we are also entitled to be in a relationship with His Father, the God of the Bible. Once a person accepts Jesus into their heart as their Savior, the Holy Spirit enters into their inner being.
The main roles of the Holy Spirit are to guide, teach, and counsel us and to empower us to be able to do God’s will. In Chapter 15 of the book of John, one of Jesus’ main instructions is for us to remain, or to abide, in Him. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5. When we live a godly, biblical life our life will bear fruit. We will experience the fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control.
Key Historical and Scriptural Data
- The Gutenberg Bible: Features unique rubrication and decoration, including monastic instructions consistent with the Carthusian Order.
- The Great Bible (1539): Includes a title-page by Hans Holbein depicting the King delivering the Word of God to the laity and clergy.
- Gospel of John (Ch. 14-15): Teaches that Jesus is the only way to heaven and emphasizes the necessity of abiding in Him to bear spiritual fruit.
- Genesis: Represents the first page of the Holy Bible and the Beginning of the biblical narrative.