Donated Bible a rare first edition

[HeyLeroy]

Donated Bible a rare first edition

Scholars at the University of Manitoba and Canadian Mennonite University have discovered that an old Bible donated to St. John’s College in 1897 is actually an original first edition of the King James Bible.



“We could never prove until now that it was a first edition, first printing,” says Dr. Shelley Sweeney, head of archives and special collections in the University of Manitoba Libraries. “This is a nice Christmas present for us, to hear that we have such a very special item in our collection.”

 

[Kopji]

The scanned image looks more like the title page of the New Testament section rather than the outside cover as indicated.

 

[HeyLeroy]

I just think it's cool. I'm an atheist, but if I had the cash, I'd collect old, rare bibles. And cars.

 

[Kopji]

I have an old 1855 family bible, it's awesome. There's a note from the publisher between testaments that gives a biblical timeline from the creation of the world until "the present day". It concludes with this comment:

Then the whole sum and number of years, from the beginning of the world unto the end of the year of our Lord God 1850, are 5824 years, 6 months, and the said odd ten days.
pg 577 (publishers: moore, wilstach, keys, & overend 1855)

The said odd ten days part is special.

It even has an old sunday school "lesson leaf" from September 1878 that was accidentally bound into it after it was damaged in a fire.

Sunday school these days ain't nothing like it used to be, those lessons were tough:

Home work for youthful Breans...
Q: How much money was given by the Good Samaratan?








A: "about twenty seven cents, the wages of for two days among the Jews".

 

[HeyLeroy]

That's pretty cool. I'd like to punch those numbers into some sort of calendar calculator so we could all know exactly the date the world was created. Give or take the odd ten days, of course.

 

[Genesius]

That's pretty cool. I'd like to punch those numbers into some sort of calendar calculator so we could all know exactly the date the world was created. Give or take the odd ten days, of course.

Why duplicate work that's already been done?

The following excerpt from Andrew D. White's book A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (D. Appleton and Co., 1897, p. 9) identifies the culprit as Sir John Lightfoot:

...the general conclusion arrived at by an overwhelming majority of the most competent students of the biblical accounts was that the date of creation was, in round numbers, four thousand years before our era; and in the seventeenth century, in his great work, Dr. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and one of the most eminent Hebrew scholars of his time, declared, as the result of his most profound and exhaustive study of the Scriptures, that "heaven and earth, centre and circumference, were created all together, in the same instant, and clouds full of water," and that "this work took place and man was created by the Trinity on October 23, 4004 B.C., at nine o'clock in the morning."
​

from http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/ussher.htm
​

 

[ceo_esq]

Why duplicate work that's already been done?

...

from http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/ussher.htm

White may have been be correct on this specific point, but as a general matter I would take anything in A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (or in any source that cites it as authority) with a grain of salt. It contains multitudes of historical inaccuracies and is widely reviled by scholars today (discussed here, here, and here, among other places).

 

[HeyLeroy]

Sure, but remember, we're discussing mythology here.

 

[Kopji]

For the record. (I presume that "3928" below means BC, not sure why it is omitted)

In a brief work entitled A Few and New Observations upon the Book of Genesis... (London, 1642), Lightfoot comments on Genesis, verse by verse. Apropos of chapter one, verse two he says "Heaven and earth centre and circumference, were created together in the same instant; and clouds full of water (not such as we see made by evaporation, but such as are called the 'windows' or 'cataracts of heaven') were created in the same instant with them" (pp. 1-2) Two pages later, he comments on verse twenty six of chapter one as follows: "Man created by the Trinity about the third hour of the day, or nine of the clock in the morning" (p. 4) There is no mention of October 23, 4004; nor are the words "this work took place and" found in Lightfoot.
In another work, The Harmony of the Four Evangelists: Among Themselves and With the Old Testament... (London, 1644), Lightfoot gives his chronology which is quite different from that of Ussher. In an unpaginated Prolegomena, he says that the world was created at the equinox in September of 3928. For him that meant September 12 as he made clear in an undated sermon, The Sabbath Hallowed, which can be found in The Whole Works of the Rev. John Lightfoot, D.D. (London, 1822. See volume VII, pp. 372-373.) White repeats this misinformation on page 256 of volume one of his work and here he compounds the confusion by adding a footnote referring the reader to the wrong work of Lightfoot: The Prologomena of The Harmony of the Four Evangelists..., rather than to A Few and New Observations upon the Book of Genesis...

For the record, Lightfoot believed that the world was created on Sunday, September 12, 3928 and that man was created on Friday, September 17, 3928, at nine a.m..

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reference
Early English Books, 1641-1700 [microfilm] A Few and New Observations... is found on reel 23l, item no. 1, section 30.
Lightfoot, John, (1602-1675) The harmony, chronicle and order of the New Testament : The text of the four Evangelists methodized. Story of the Acts of the apostles analyzed. Order of the epistles manifested. Times of the Revelation observed. All illustrated, with variety of observations upon the chiefest difficulties textuall & talmudicall: for clearing of their sense and language. With an additional discourse concerning the fall of Jerusalem and the condition of the Jews in that land afterward. London : printed by A.M. for Simon Miller at the Starre in St Pauls Church-yard., M.DC.LV (Physical Desc.:[16], 195, [1] p ; fol)
Lightfoot, John, (1602-1675) The whole works of the Rev. John Lightfoot : master of Catharine Hall, Cambridge. edited by John Rogers Pitman. London : Printed by J.F. Dove, 1822-1825 [Physical Desc.: 13v : ill ; 23 cm]

We are indebted to Charles H. Leighton, Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Humanities at the University of New Hampshire, for kindly providing this information.
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/ussher/lightfoot.html

The printed notes in the family bible (that side of the family were all Quaker's.) are 'helps' from the publisher, so not a big deal except maybe as a reflection on changing interpretations of dates.

Unfortunately the damage from the fire is mostly water damage, it was rebound in the 1890's. There are some wonderful lithographs.

 

[Moliere]

"man was created by the Trinity on October 23, 4004 B.C., at nine o'clock in the morning."

Was that 9am GMT or local Israel? Was god on Daylight Savings? Apparently he decided to start Creation after a Denny's breakfast. I've had that feeling myself after their Grand slam meal deal. Yummy!

 

[HeyLeroy]

I believe that would've been Newfoundland time.