It was an ordinary day. Cleaning out a drawer in my office when I discovered something I don't remember ever seeing before. How could it have gotten in the drawer? Well, no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't figure it out. So, I thought I might just as well enjoy it. The item was about 7 inches high and 4 inches wide. The half-inch thick book had a dark leather cover with no printing on it whatsoever. I opened it and had to be careful with the tattered pages, less I pull the entire book apart. I found the front of the book and inside it read, "The New Testament Of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Newly Translated out of the Original Greek; And with the former Translations Diligently Compared and Reviled." At the bottom of the cover it read LANCASTER, Printed by Bailey and W. Dickson, in Kingftreet, M,DCC,XCIII. WOW! No, make that double WOW! This little Bible was printed on King Street in Lancaster in 1813! On the end sheet of the book was written: Peter Rock his New Testament 1813. A bit further down the inside cover read "his Testimonial 1816 by Ruben Henry" with a few other words I couldn't understand at the bottom of the page. Wow! This Bible is 209 years old!! And, to top that off, at the rear of the last section of the sewn Bible is an additional loose section printed in half English and half German. Well, I was so fascinated by what I was holding in my hand that I knew I had to find out a bit more about this piece of history. My wife looked at me and said, "I'll bet the Historical Society could help you find out a bit more about it." So, I headed to the Historical Society where I am a member, to find out a bit more about my latest find. Check out the last part of my story sometime in the near future as to what I discovered at the Historical Society. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment