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Christianity Today, October (Web-only), 2008 |

36,000 Are Writing the Bible, One Verse at a Time

Bible Across America tour will produce two handwritten copies.

Charles Honey, Religion News Service | posted 10/01/2008 09:05AM

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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, Michigan.

"The original manuscript did have to be copied, exactly the way this is doing here," he said.

Charles Honey writes for the Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where a version of this article first appeared.

Related Elsewhere:

BibleAcrossAmerica.com offers information and updates on the tour.

USA Today also covered the tour this week.

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Brad Cooper

Posted: October 10, 2008 8:51 AM

Why is CT so eager to quote the misleading statement of a liberal (or liberal/deist sympathizer)?: "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, Michigan." (quoted from the article) Yes, the Bible is a human book. It was written down by humans. But more importantly, it is a divine book: given by the Holy Spirit and preserved by him. This is the witness of the Bible itself. It is fully human and fully divine, just as Jesus is. Fully human and yet perfect. Even as Jesus said that he spoke only the words given to him by the Father, so it is with the Scripture. This is Jesus' testimony about the Scripture. This is the apostles' testimony. Such statements as Weima's are akin to Satan's original strategy for creating doubt what God has said: "Did God really say that?" (Gen. 3).

Jake	Posted: October 07, 2008 12:01 PM

I like anything that draws attention to the Bible. I also hope that it increases the reading and application of the scriptures. However, it sounds to me like some are hoping it can be used to cast doubt on the inspired scriptures we have because people do make mistakes when they copy something. (Especially those who were socially passed through school and had teachers who could not write or spell themselves.) So the point I would like to make is that the Bible was copied many times by Monks and Scribes who were trained to COPY. If they made the smallest mistake, they had to destroy the entire page or manuscript. They were extremely careful as the Dead Sea Scrolls atest. Some people believed they would be entirely different from the Bibles we use, but we discovered they were almost identical word for word. (Except for those produced by heretics that went to the desert after being expelled from some Christian congregations. Many of these were later drawn from by Muslims.)

Debo O

Posted: October 07, 2008 3:55 AM


What sometimes baffles me with some of this blogs is why Christians take such a strident tone with each other. As parts of the same body, surely we can still relate to each other with a little more respect, even if we don't agree with one another other. Wouldn't it be just great to find a way to reflect the humility and fruit of the Spirit when we disagree?

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