CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Mandy Helton Jones had planned to spend the next couple of months traveling to Asia and Australia with her new husband, Jon. But when she spotted a blog looking for couples to carry a handwritten Bible across America, their travel plans changed in a hurry.
“We thought it just sounded like such an amazing opportunity,” said Jones, a 23-year-old Christian youth camp river guide from northern California. “I think it’s going to be a spiritual experience for the people who participate in it.”
The experience started Tuesday (Sept. 29) as the first of 31,173 Americans each wrote a verse in America’s NIV, a handwritten Bible to be produced by Zondervan publishers.
The road-worthy Bible will be driven in a 42-foot RV by the Joneses and a Florida couple, Brooke and Tim Pancitz, to 90 cities in 44 states.
At each stop, they will set up a tent and invite locals to print one verse from Zondervan’s New International Version (NIV).
The cross-country tour celebrates the 30th anniversary of the NIV, the top-selling English-language Bible with more than 300 million copies in print.
Zondervan President Moe Girkins wrote the first verse, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth,” at company headquarters here on Tuesday.
The Bible Across America tour will cover more than 15,000 miles in five months, stopping at churches, stores, a NASCAR race and the U.S.
Capitol along the way.
Zondervan hopes it will attract families and farmers, teachers and preachers, Billy Graham and President Bush by the time it winds up in San Diego on Feb. 12.
Two original copies will be produced, one to be offered to the Smithsonian Institution and the second auctioned to benefit the International Bible Society, which holds the copyright to the NIV.
Zondervan will publish America’s NIV with an index of contributors.
The experience of writing — and possibly making mistakes — should humanize the Scriptures for people who may vaguely imagine the Bible “descended from heaven,” said Jeffery Weima, a New Testament scholar with Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Mich.
“The original manuscript did have to be copied, exactly the way this is doing here,” he said.
By Charles Honey
c. 2008 Religion News Service
(Charles Honey writes for the Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, Mich.)
Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted September 30, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Let’s hope no one elaves the “not” out of the adultery commandment, as happened in the infamous “Pornographic Bible”.
This seems to be a quaint and lovely gesture. But as with so many q & l gestures there is surely a hefty price tag. In these days of $3 to $4 per gallon of gas, this will be an expensive project for only and off/interesting return.
And once again, the Bible becomes a thing of reverence. It is the Word, not the words that are worthy of our attention. But we do love our quaint and lovely things.
posted September 30, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I’ve never heard of the “Pornographic Bible” jest can you explain?
posted September 30, 2008 at 8:28 pm
This almost guarantees that there will be even more mistakes in an already flawed book. However it might prove a point…that the “original” certainly didn’t drop from a “heavenly” place… it was written by people who tried to put down the stories they were told,and them just copied and messed up over time, just like this one will be.
If I were Mandy and Jon, I would have stuck with my original plans and headed for Asia and Australia.
Maybe the publishers figure with the publicity on this, they’ll sell more of the edition that comes out after this trip and writing is finished.
posted October 1, 2008 at 11:01 am
ck,
The Pornographic Bible is not nearly as interesting as it sounds. It is also called the “Wicked Bible”. In 1632 a Bible printer left out the word “not” from the 7th Commandment (the assumption is it was by accident), thereby giving license to all sorts of misbehavior to those who purchased a copy of this Bible. These were the days before product re-calls, so a few of them got into the public hands and remain in collections here and there.
But it is proof that even the most innocent mistakes in copying the Bible can lead to interesting problems.
posted October 1, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Ps you’re right Zondervan Publishers will make big money on this edition of the Bible. Wonder if they will donate this special Bible sale to Poverty around the world.