Sacred Anchor, Evolving Artifact – Daniel N. Gullotta

Yet, as Yale Divinity School scholar Bruce Gordon and author of The Bible: A Global History, might argue, the Bible has never stopped being the book of the moment. Gordon’s book, released last year, is an ambitious and masterfully crafted exploration of the Bible’s transformation from a collection of ancient texts into a world-shaping force, deeply interwoven with the cultures and traditions it encounters. Through vibrant storytelling and carefully selected images, Gordon traces how this “book of books” has evolved through translation, interpretation, and adaptation, not only shaping the world but being shaped by it in turn. Gordon brings to life the dedication of monks in Northumbria, nuns in Gaul, and Jesuit missionaries in China, illustrating the profound reverence that has historically defined the creation of Scripture. He underscores the Bible’s enduring dual role as both a sacred text and a masterpiece of artistic expression, reflecting the devotion, creativity, and cultural diversity of those who brought it to life across the centuries.

As he illustrates, there is scarcely a people who have not been touched by the Bible, nor a people who have failed to leave their own distinctive imprint upon it. Enslaved Africans in the Americas saw in the Exodus story a profound symbol of their liberation; European reformers like Martin Luther wielded the scriptures to challenge and reshape religious authority; and indigenous peoples, such as the Māori of New Zealand, reinterpreted its teachings to resist colonialism and assert their cultural identity. Spanning centuries and continents, the Bible’s influence has been as vast as has been varied. By the end of his sweeping 400-page study, Gordon leaves no doubt that encounters with the Bible are as diverse and boundless as humanity itself. 

But he also underscores the Bible’s paradoxical role as both a unifying and divisive force, used for both liberation and oppression. Gordon highlights how the Bible, while inspiring movements for freedom such as the abolition of slavery, was also invoked to justify slavery itself. Similarly, while it served as a moral compass for some, some European missionaries used it to enforce submission and cultural erasure among indigenous populations. The Bible was also marshaled during the Crusades, with its stories and symbols used to rally warriors under the banner of “holy war,” leading to violence against Muslims and Jews alike. In more recent history, certain Christian factions in Nazi Germany twisted scripture to support their antisemitic atrocities. Gordon weaves a compelling historical narrative of the Bible as both a sacred anchor and an ever-evolving artifact, reflecting humanity’s enduring quest for meaning and connection with the divine across millennia and continents.

The actual production of the Bible is another topic Gordon explores. Many books before his have done so with a focus on the creation of the King James Version, but Gordon’s approach is both broader and deeper. He not only investigates the arduous process of manufacturing the biblical text—marked by grueling scribal labor, inevitable errors, and heated debates over translation—but also considers the Bible as a physical and artistic object. He vividly brings to life the craftsmanship that transformed the Bible into a work of art, from the first illuminated scenes nestled in its pages to the jewel-encrusted covers of its most opulent editions. 

Gordon delves into the painstaking processes behind creating the parchment and ink of some of history’s most iconic Bibles, including the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of Kells, and the modern masterpiece, the Saint John’s Bible. Despite Gordon’s efforts to present a global history, the narrative leans heavily toward the West. For example, while Gutenberg’s Bible receives meticulous attention, accounts of Bible production and translations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America feel like bonus content.

There is also no shortage of drama in The Bible: A Global History. One of the most captivating stories Gordon recounts reads like an Indiana Jones adventure: the discovery of the fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus (one of the earliest complete copies of the New Testament and significant portions of the Old Testament) by Constantin von Tischendorf at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Desert. This tale, steeped in colonial intrigue, involves Tischendorf’s controversial claim that monks were burning ancient manuscripts for heat (a narrative later disputed as a misrepresentation of their practices). Under the pretense of preservation, Tischendorf smuggled fragments to Leipzig and later arranged, under disputed circumstances, the codex’s transfer to Russia. The monks denied knowingly relinquishing it, and its 1933 sale to the British Museum adds to its saga of contested ownership. Gordon invites readers to ponder these thorny ethical questions, highlighting the uneasy relationship between academic discovery and imperial appropriation.

Equally dramatic is the story of the Codex Vaticanus, a fourth-century Greek manuscript of the Bible (one of the oldest and most significant), which was swept up in the turmoil of Napoleon’s 1809 looting of the Vatican’s treasures. Its journey through war, restoration, and years of restricted access reflects the precarious and contested nature of preserving such invaluable relics. Gordon’s writing underscores the enduring tensions between scholarship and the sacred, power and politics.

While these historical adventures are thrilling, the life-and-death stakes tied to the Bible’s story are starkly real. Gordon recounts the fourth-century persecutions under Roman Emperor Diocletian, in which Christians chose martyrdom rather than surrender their sacred texts, demonstrating the early church’s deep devotion to scripture. The Protestant Reformation brings another chapter of peril, with translators like William Tyndale and their supporters enduring torture and execution for striving to make the Bible accessible to ordinary people and challenging the Catholic Church’s monopoly on interpretation. Jesuit missionaries like Matteo Ricci highlight the global dimensions of these risks, as they courageously worked to translate the Bible and adapt Christian theology to Chinese cultural and religious frameworks, often at great personal cost. In the colonial and antebellum United States, enslaved black Americans often risked brutal punishment to read or hear the Bible, seeking spiritual liberation even as their white oppressors distorted scripture to justify slavery. Even so, the sheer breadth of Gordon’s narrative can be dizzying. He moves swiftly across centuries and continents, sometimes within a few paragraphs, making it both informative to read and difficult to follow. While his command of this vast history is impressive, readers may find themselves struggling to keep pace if they aren’t careful.

Gordon brings these narratives into the present, highlighting how such perils persist today. In modern China, for example, the Communist government tightly controls Bible distribution through state-approved channels, punishing unauthorized translations or dissemination with imprisonment or worse.

Beyond the intrigue, The Bible: A Global History is humbling and enlightening, both for its vivid reminder of the Bible’s enduring significance as a cultural artifact to the entire world and for its deeper resonance as a spiritual cornerstone of the Christian tradition. As a Christian, I found myself reflecting on the extraordinary devotion and sacrifice that has gone into preserving and transmitting the Bible across millennia—displayed by the monks who labored in solitude, the translators who risked their lives, and the countless believers who found courage and solace in its pages.