most expensive bible in the world

Bible

With so many versions and beliefs surrounding the Bible, one rarely thinks about how much one costs. People instead tend to think about the meanings and stories within the Holy book. But a Bible that is currently being displayed at Saint John’s Abbey and University is changing the way one thinks about Bibles.

Copies of the Bible were once written by hand in calligraphy but that had all changed with the invention of the printing press. The press made it easier and faster to mass-produce copies and doing so by hand was no longer required. However, an artist by the name of Donald Jackson still had the dream of writing a Bible out by hand using calligraphy and so, Saint John’s hired him to do just that.

The Saint John’s Bible as it’s known, is huge in everything from how it was produced to its actual size. It stands two feet tall and is three feet tall and is over one thousand pages in length. The book is bound in seven different volumes. The calligraphy was written on vellum and the quills that were used as writing instruments were dipped in inks and pigments that were all handmade. The Saint John’s Bible has also been coated in gold and silver leaf.

Many important decisions had to be made with the creation of this Bible but the hardest was deciding what version of the Bible would be used. It was finally decided that because the New Revised Standard Version was the version most accepted by Christian churches and so this was the version used. With a sale price of $130,000, this is truly the most expensive Bible in the world.