200 Year old Bible

Recently I have come into posession of a 200 year old bible, written in Swedish, and NOT the King James Version.

Since it is not a King James, and has NOT been edited on the English translation, we really think it's got some insane truths that weren't brought over on the English translation. at least, this is what Ive heard from many places.

Additionally it is much wider than the present bible, with much longer pages of text. I imagine this can only come to the conclusion that there is more content within the book.

All text is FULLY legible,.. does anyone know swedish?

I just wanted to post here and see what you guys think. Worth value? Not worth the wood & leather it's bound in? Any Christian secrets within? I've put it on ebay in the meanwhile and i'll let you guys know what ebay people think.


Pic 1

Pic 2



[edit on 2-5-2008 by blowfishdl]

What are you on :-?

There are mahy, many editions of the Bible. The KJV is just one amongst many. It happens to be the one approved by the English Church. We still have free access to editions from before and after that, and the KJV is not a "source" of all subsequent Bibles in any sense, except possibly other editions published within the tradition of the English Church:

en.wikipedia.org...

There were many editions before and since the KJV, and in many differnet languages, all quite independant. They are not hidden or lost. Like any editing project, they all take slightly different approaches to translation and selection of the source texts.

en.wikipedia.org...

Your edition is just one of many. Still, it might of interest to book a colectors if it is in good condition.

Best wishes.

I have a Bible on my lap as I speak in Hungarian that is 348 years old (1660).
No Im not reading it for casual reading.

I pulled it out to check the date once I read your post.
Its written in old Hungarian.
Looks like one of the books Gandalf would pull out from a library.

I will try to take a pic or two and put a link for those who want to see.
Its all readable, a bit 'beat up', it was in my wifes grandmothers house and got 'wet' on the cover.

Peace

dAlen

Well I brought my wife over here and she helped me out.
It was printed, based on the original Transylvanian/Hungarian 1660 version.
This was printed in Budapest in 1805 (date written in Roman numerals).

The back page has the first person in her family owning it in 1853.

So the Bible is 203 years old - same age practically as the O.P.s. :-)

I took pics and will now try to upload them to my flickr account then link to them here for you guys to check out if you want.

[edit on 2-5-2008 by dAlen]

p.s. - wanted to add that both of our 200 year old Bibles are probably based on the King James version... It was printed, I believe in 1611, and my translation is based off of 1660 after the official King James.

[edit on 2-5-2008 by dAlen]

Here is the link to the pics.

Peace

dAlen

Originally posted by blowfishdl
Additionally it is much wider than the present bible, with much longer pages of text. I imagine this can only come to the conclusion that there is more content within the book.

[edit on 2-5-2008 by blowfishdl]

Nope. I've heard that people have printed the entire bible on a microchip. Just because the book is thicker doesn't necessarily mean it has more in it.


I would imagine the page thickness is significantly thicker than standard pages are today. Not to mention that Swedish and English are two different languages, so common words used in the bible may use more letters(and thus, space) in Swedish than in English. And I would probably bet that the size of the letters are much larger. Also, is the book illustrated in anyway(big fancy letters, etc.)? If so, then that's another factor.

What I'm trying to say is that there are so many other factors to the thickness of a book(especially a 200 year old one, written in a different language) than textual content.


BTW, it's a shame that you're selling it on Ebay, regardless of religious significance it's a very cool link to the past.

reply to post by Core90


I agree it is very very cool, especially to people interested in history, ancient worlds, etc. I just can't read it or else I would keep it and read it through.

Originally posted by blowfishdl
Since it is not a King James, and has NOT been edited on the English translation, we really think it's got some insane truths that weren't brought over on the English translation. at least, this is what Ive heard from many places.
[...]
All text is FULLY legible,.. does anyone know swedish?

I read Swedish, but the book couldn't interest me less. Today's translations are far better than the old bibles we find. The source texts are still the same. The bible wasn't translated from Swedish to English, the KJV was basically a translation of the Latin Vulgata with some Geneva influence.

You wouldn't find anything in your bible that isn't contained in a modern bible. Still the only way to study the bible's inner meanings is to read the Greek and Hebrew texts the book is written in originally.

reply to post by blowfishdl


Odds are you either have a Catholic or Luther Bible, there. And the extra thickness is probably because it doesn't have the tissue-paper pages that most modern bibles do.

I have a bible from 1738 here. It's apparently lost its cover at some point, and was replaced by hardwood faces which then had an opossum pelt (of all things!) secured to them. So I have this great big heavy furry bible that's older than the country.

The chance of this bible being a catholic one is very slim indeed. First off the Swedish church is protestant and catholics didn't translate bibles from the official Latin Vulgata. Besides only priests and monks were allowed to read it.

Hello. I'm new to ATS, so forgive me if I step on any toes here, but this thread really got my attention. I don't believe anything a preacher or doctorine tells me, I believe what I've learned on my own, what the book says itself.

I live in Kansas City, right smack in the middle of the USA. Just last year we had the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' make an appearance at Union Station. It's not an old European bible, it's the oldest known copies of scriptures availible that I know of. The only thing that wasn't found from the old testement was the book of Ester. And yes, the book of Macabees (usually only in the catholic bible) was found as well.

When I saw those ancient parchements that were translated and say basicly the same thing that my bibles say at home it blew me away. I have several english translations that I've studied, and no they DON'T all have the same verses (the KJV leaves alot out if you were to compare it to say, the NIV or TLB).

If you really want proof that the bible is real, find out where the Dead sea scrolls are and go see them.

reply to post by blowfishdl


hi iv recently come into the possetion of an old bible and i am trying to find out the age of it it use to be a family bible the first entry in it dates back to 1878 if someone can tell me how to find out that would be great

reply to post by blowfishdl


Personally I think you should keep it. It would be such a cool thing to keep around I reckon. Even if you cant read it lol.

-fm

I just wanted to say to the members who have found these Bibles that it might be worth checking out websites from the Historical Societies or Historical Museums to see if they might be interested in purchasing them.

Societies and Museums might have the funds to give a better purchase price. All three Bibles are considered relics and antiques. I can't imagine getting any decent price on E-Bay. Since it is the Bible, as long as pages aren't missing they could also afford to refurbish the condition of these books if they desired to.

Just a thought!

Do you know the history behind that bible.

Birth records and lineage were often put in those books. A person's family tree. If it was lost somehow?