The Bible class I’m involved in on Sunday mornings meets in a conference room that has bookshelves in it. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, I poked around the bookshelves. I was most interested to see some over-sized Bibles.
The biggest one was freakishly heavy. I think the covers were made of blocks of wood. There was no copyright date inside.
Big book.
The next Bible was smaller and lighter, but was still much bigger than a regular Bible.
Some wear and tear.
There was an inscription inside this Bible. It’s was donated in 1938 in memory of someone who died when she was 44.
Emmanuel is spelled with an E because they spoke English, not German.
The next Bible was a little more tattered. It was also the smallest of the three.
Old looking.
This Bible didn’t have an inscription, but it did have a copyright page. It says 1849. That’s 165 years ago!
Can that be correct? That’s a long time ago.
It looks like you have some real treasures there!
Holy cow, Kim’s right. That last one is particularly amazing – 165 years? I am also intrigued by the possibility of wood in the cover. They might warp if they were just planks, so did they have plywood long ago? Maybe they wouldn’t warp. Dang it. Off to Google.
…. it’s taking too long. Will you just open up that cover and look for me? Thanks. 😉
Are the Bibles inside each other, like nesting dolls?
Wow!! That Bible from 1849 is amazing! I just love old books!
(Maybe you could slip a piece of paper inside with your name & the date. Maybe some day, someone will look inside and say, “Wow, this guy was looking at this book all the way back in 2014!)
What are you/they going to do with them? We have a small built in display case in the narthex/fellowship hall that has old communion ware, old books, history books, etc. in it. I think it is locked, but I’ve never really looked or needed to get into it.
You’re bringing to my mind the library at Zion Lutheran downtown; they have some excellent old editions of Scripture auf Deutsch und Englisch, as I recall. Very cool stuff.