Comments on: Logos.com hawks luxury Bibles while the world starves for God’s Word

By: Peter Kirk

Peter Kirk — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:27:39 +0000

Davis, I suppose Codex Palatinus was made for a king or similar. I didn’t say there was no such thing as a luxury Bible. But I dispute that all Bibles were luxuries. Sure, they weren’t cheap. But some were probably made as cheaply as possibly, e.g. those using reused waste parchment (palimpsests). And I would strongly object to the suggestion that possession of the word of God, in a basic edition however expensive that might be, is a luxury in the sense of being unnecessary or a waste of money.

By: Davis

Davis — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:06:14 +0000

But that still doesn’t explain mss like codex Palatinus that has silver letters written on purple-died vellum. But I think the main difference between pre-Guttenburg and now is that all copies were luxury Bibles, there was just simply no way to make a cheap Bible.

By: Peter Kirk

Peter Kirk — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:07:31 +0000

Bear in mind that the 360 animals would surely have been killed anyway for their meat, and that their skins would have been waste products if not used for making parchment or similar products. Of course the demand for parchment was sufficient that the skins came to command a high price, but that doesn’t mean that any animals were harmed just “for making the folios of this codex”.

By: R. Mansfield

R. Mansfield — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:03:32 +0000

Well, I couldn’t find it in Britannica.

By: David

David — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:56:41 +0000

I can’t believe you’ve joined us on the Dark Side.

By: R. Mansfield

R. Mansfield — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:04:31 +0000

WAIT: I just looked it up. From the fount of all knowledge (the Wikipedia) comes this little tidbit:

“It is estimated that about 360 animals were slaughtered for making the folios of this codex, assuming all animals yielded a good enough skin. As for the cost of the material, time of scribes and binding, it equals the life time wages of one individual at the time.”

Seems like luxury Bibles have been around for a while and it used to have been much worse!

By: R. Mansfield

R. Mansfield — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:56:41 +0000

I wonder how many sheepskins were used in the production of Sinaiticus?

By: Gentle Wisdom» Blog Archive » The electronic Bible shouldn’t only be for a privileged few

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:56:37 +0000

[...] in their income from donations, or from selling at a large profit the kinds of luxury Bibles which make David want to puke. There are also complex issues of the independence of national societies: the United Bible [...]

By: David

David — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:47:45 +0000

Currently we have high speed Internet but no running water. So I can download large files off the Internet when I’m not carrying buckets of water to the bathrooms!

By: Simon

Simon — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:18:24 +0000

“Your high speed internet connection is a luxury, the time you spend blogging is a luxury”

Actually its not. In Africa and around the world, large portions of their population (especially the tech savvy youth like in US) have internet cafes and spend time online. Everybody has extra time when they’re not working to use these normal things.

Computers, the internet, and time are not luxuries. The poorest of the poor do not have access to these things, but a good portion of the world does.

By: David

David — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:05:18 +0000

Yeah, you’ve got a point there.

By: Chaka

Chaka — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:39:50 +0000

David, I understand and sympathize with the goal of hijacking English Bible publishers’ PR campaigns to draw attention to communities where the Word is scarce. Keep doing that.

But whence the fury? You and every commenter on this thread are the rich man to Lazarus. We all have luxurious lives of privilege. Your high speed internet connection is a luxury, the time you spend blogging is a luxury (you know, the people who support you thought they were giving money to something holy)–but I don’t think you should be ashamed of those luxuries.