Pope receives handwritten Bible

2008-04-04 19:13

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI was presented on Friday with one of the limited editions of the St John's Bible, the first known handwritten Bible commissioned by a Benedictine monastery since the invention of the printing press over 500 years ago.

The "Wisdom Books," a limited edition reproduction of one of the Old Testament volumes of the 1 150 page-Bible - measuring more than half a metre tall and nearly one metre wide when open - was presented to the pope during a private audience. He will receive the remaining six volumes over the next four years.

"The pope's eyes lit up with joy and enthusiasm as he turned the pages," Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington DC, told reporters after attending the presentation.

The Bible's British artist, Donald Jackson, once scribe to Queen Elizabeth II, was also present at the audience.

Over the past 10 years, he and a team of calligraphy experts painstakingly painted every page on parchment, using goose feather quills, ancient inks and precious metals to illustrate the original handwritten text.

'A work for eternity'

"When the pope remarked that this Bible was 'a work for eternity,' he expressed what I feel a lot of the time," the artist said. Jackson said it would take another 22 months to complete the last two volumes of the seven-volume Bible.

The $4m project, funded by private donations, was commissioned by St John's Abbey in Minnesota, one of the largest Benedictine monasteries in the world. The Benedictines, whose order was founded in Italy by St Benedict around 530, have a long tradition of manuscript sharing and preservation.

The original manuscript of the new Bible is stored in special cases in a vault in the neighbouring St John's University run by the order.

If the methods used to illustrate St John's Bible are age old, the imagery is updated with such modern touches as views of Earth taken from outer-space for the Creation in the Old Testament, and an image of the Twin Towers to illustrate forgiveness in the Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son.

The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, a modern English translation, is the version being used for the text. Its language is gender inclusive when referring to men and women.

- AP