340-Year-Old Bible Found in Wisconsin Church

Epoch Times ^ | Jan 18, 2011 | Alex Johnston

[SJackson]

A340-year-old Bible was discovered in a Wisconsin church last week, according to local reports.

At the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Bonduel, Wisc., the Bible was discovered after being tucked away in a kitchen pantry that was rarely used and had stored away old books and texts for decades, WSAW Channel 7 reported. The book was stashed away in a safe in the pantry.

"We don't know how we got it. We don't know how it got into the safe. We've been asking some of our elderly folks and people in the nursing home and nobody seems to remember," Rev. Timothy Shoup from St. Paul Lutheran Church told the news station.

Last year, a teacher came across the Bible and showed it to Shoup. The reverend added up the Bible's Roman numerals to 1670, but he thought that he must have miscalculated.

The hand-pressed Bible is not from the United States but was printed in Nuremberg, Germany.

"It's amazing," Rev. Shoup told Channel 5. "I mean the pages are crisp. It's not like stuff is falling all apart. A couple of the pages are loose, but it's in nice condition."

The book does not only feature text but also detailed illustrations.

"Each time I see an illustration like this, I just think of how beautiful it looks and how much of a labor of love it must have been for the person who actually drew it," Lyle Buettner, a worker with the Special Collections at Concordia Seminary Library, told Fox Channel 11.

[Captain Beyond]

Just a cool find thought you might like to check it out.

[markomalley]

ping

[Former Fetus]

MDCLXX

[Textide]

Cool story. Nice pics at the Daily Mail version of the story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348386/340-year-old-Bible-teacher-school-safe-Wisconsin.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

[BipolarBob]

We've been asking some of our elderly folks and people in the nursing home and nobody seems to remember,"

340 years will play hell with a persons memory.

[Gapplega]

Does it contain the “deuterocanonical books”? (what protestants call the Apocrypha). It would be interesting to see.

[BerryDingle]

340 years will play hell with a persons memory.

LOL.
No, but that wedding cake you found in there, I put in there in 1962.

[WorkingClassFilth]

If this was an ELCA church, that’s probably the last Bible the former Pastors bought and used in church. It’s a wonder that the current Pastors even know what it is.

[Western Phil]

It appears to be LCMS.

[Charles Henrickson]

"Each time I see an illustration like this, I just think of how beautiful it looks and how much of a labor of love it must have been for the person who actually drew it," Lyle Buettner, a worker with the Special Collections at Concordia Seminary Library. . . .

Hey, I know Lyle. I even helped teach him Greek. And Concordia Seminary is my alma mater.

[Charles Henrickson]

It appears to be LCMS.

Yes, it is.

[blam]

[upsdriver]

http://www.stpaulbonduel.com/

It is. They have a link on the home page to the story.

[Domangart]

They aren’t talking to the geezers for nothing. Someone helped himself to the book just like that luminary was found a few years ago.

[upsdriver]

My ex-father in law is a LCMS pastor. I believe he went to Concordia in Springfield, IL. He served as vicar in some small town in Missouri and as pastor in ND and IA.

[lightman]

Lutheran Ping!

Christ is in our midst!

[RalphC.]

Doesn’t a bible have to be a King James version to be valid?

[lightman]

Does it contain the “deuterocanonical books”? (what protestants call the Apocrypha

Given the age, most likely, yes.

The Deuterocanonical books' disappearance from Protestant Bibles is an early 20th century phenomena.

[Tenniel2]

Not at all. See Wycliffe and Tyndall, from whom James's translators and editors cribbed a ton of seriously good stuff. And that's just the English version (voir aussi Douay-Rheims).