Bible exhibition in Washington a feast for bibliophiles, biblicists

Published: 2006-11-13

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Washington exhibition of early Bibles is a feast for bibliophiles and biblicists alike. Titled "In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000," the exhibition runs through Jan. 7 in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall. It was organized by the Sackler; the Freer Gallery of Art, also part of the Smithsonian; and the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford in England. The word of God was preserved and transmitted in fragile vessels, copied by hand on papyrus and parchment, just text at first but later illuminated art. In the Sackler exhibit, about 70 examples from these ancient scrolls (bookrolls) and codices (books) are on display, many for the first time in the United States. The remarkable exhibition also explains how the Jewish and Christian Scriptures came to be gathered into the best-selling book of all time.

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