I love church history, and one of the tremendous blessings I was able to experience while on a missions trip to Germany this past summer, was to visit the Gutenberg Press monument in Frankfurt. There is not enough we can say about how God has used Johannes Gutenberg to enlighten humanity, and absolutely transform the course of human history because of his printing press invention. The information contained in Books have helped advance almost every facet of knowledge known to humanity. No book of course, has impacted the human race as much as the Bible.
In fact, did you know that there is no other book that has ever been written that even comes close to being printed as much as the Bible? In fact, all 9 other books on the top 10 most published books in human history (which include John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and John Foxe's Foxe's Book of Martyrs, along with the Qur'an, and the Book of Mormon), don't add up to even half of the Bible's publications. The Bible has been printed an estimated 5-6 billion times, and not only gets the title as the number one "best" seller in all of human history, but also the title as the most life-changing book ever written, by the most intelligent and influential Author of all-time (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Hebrews 4:12).
As I was writing this article, it came to my mind what the Apostle John wrote at the end of his Gospel in regards to Jesus. "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book... which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen" (John 20:30; 21:25). I point this out to say there are an estimated 10 billion or more books that have been published, just on the top 10 list alone. And yet, all of these books fit quite easily upon our planet. I am looking forward to hearing about all of the rest of the stories the Apostle John might share with us in eternity, in regards to the stories of Jesus he left out.
What inspired me to write this article is the fact that today, September 30, marks a very important day in Christian History, as it was on this day in the year 1452 that the first section of the Gutenberg Bible was finished in Mainz, Germany.
(copy from the University of Texas at Austin)
Some important facts about the Gutenberg Bible:
- Johannes Gutenberg only printed around 180 copies of his Bible during the early 1450's
- He didn't make any money off the Bibles
- During the Soviet occupation of Germany at the end of World War 2, the Red Army organized "Trophy Brigades" to seize priceless cultural artifacts from museums and libraries. One of the most prized trophies they took were 2 copies of the Gutenberg Bible. Interestingly, the Soviets denied any knowledge of the missing Bibles' whereabouts until the 1980's, when it was revealed that they were being held in libraries in Moscow. Since then, the German government has made several unsuccessful attempts to secure their return.
- In 1969, a man named Vido Aras tried to steal a Gutenberg Bible from Harvard Universities "Widener Library", by hiding in a bathroom until the building had closed. He succeeded in grabbing 2 volumes from their case by climbing down a rope through a window to the room where the copies were. But upon putting the copies, which weighed 70 pounds, into his backpack, he found it difficult to get back up the rope, which caused him to lose his grip and fall to the ground 6 stories down. He was found the next morning lying on the floor with a fractured skull.
- Out of the 180 original printed copies of the Gutenberg Bible, there are only four dozen (49) that remain with us today, and less than half of those volumes are actually complete, and some only consist of a single volume or a few scattered pages.
- Germany has the most Gutenberg Bibles in their possession with 14, while the United States has 10.
- The last time a complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible was sold was in 1978, when a copy was purchased for $2.2 million dollars. A lone volume later sold in 1987 for $5.4 million dollars. Experts estimate that if a complete copy were sold today, it would go for upwards of $35 million dollars at an auction.
