The Washington National Cathedral this week added a stunning acquisition to its roster of treasures: a high-tech reproduction of a 1,150-page, 2-foot-by-3-foot hand-lettered Bible.
The St. John’s Bible, some 15 years in the making, also has more than 160 hand illuminations and special text treatments emphasizing various passages of Scripture. It’s believed to be the first handwritten, illuminated Bible completed since the end of the 15th century.
The set received by the cathedral on Sunday is not an original but the highest of high-tech reproductions. The cathedral received one of 12 copies of the “Apostle’s Edition” of the Bible, produced on 100% cotton paper using what its creators say is “lightfast ultraviolet ink” that dries “instantly on the press” before another color is applied. Gold and silver foils are used for page accents.
“It is absolutely incredible, and there are only 12 of them in the world,” the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, the cathedral’s dean, or chief cleric, said in a telephone interview. “The fact that we received one from an anonymous donor is amazing, and we’re honored to have it. It’s seven volumes, each volume weighing about 20 pounds, exquisitely bound and exact copies of the original of the one and only and it’s deeply impressive.”
Asked about the importance of a hand-lettered Bible in an age when the Scriptures can be accessed via smartphones, Mr. Hollerith said the St. John’s Bible “is kind of like this cathedral, whose construction began in 1917 and was completed in 1988.
“Why in the 20th century build an incredibly complex and immense Gothic cathedral? There aren’t many in the 20th century,” he said. “And it’s all because of the fact that with this kind of art, and perfectionism, seeing through it and the beautiful painting, it’s all honoring God, it’s all just a way to point to something transcendent, something more than we are.”
The artistic volumes are a way “for the Bible to echo the sacredness of that text through the love and attention” given to the presentation, he added.
One other “Apostle’s Edition” is in the District, a set presented to the Library of Congress. The set presented to the cathedral was given by the Catharine Elizabeth Laney Trust “because of the Cathedral’s importance and influence in the American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion,” an announcement stated.
St. John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota, commissioned the project and Donald Jackson, an internationally known calligrapher from Monmouth, Wales, in 1998. The text is based on the New Revised Standard Version, described as “a modern English translation with a strong literal tradition.”
The St. John’s Bible will be housed in the Virginia Mae Center, the cathedral’s public programming venue. The announcement said the volumes will be “included in specialty programming and events” at the center.
“I’ve already had some of the teachers here … reach out to bring their classes in to look at the Saint John’s Bible,” Mr. Hollerith said. “We’re excited for all the people that we might reach.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.