E-Bible
by First Church
On a recent flight, I noticed in the airport and on my plane how many people are using electronic books. Kindles and i-Pads and Sony Readers are everywhere. Some friends are now extolling the virtues of having thousands of inexpensive books only seconds away from ordering and delivering and reading via internet transmission. As I looked at people reading books on screens the size of a printed page, I realized that I was looking at a machine capable of replacing my own theological library at the church, or at least most of it, assuming that some day theological texts, commentaries, and religious writings become available on e-readers. I thought, too, about the church library and whether that room dedicated in so many churches to resourcing church school teachers, parents, and general readers might some day be a thing of the past, a relic as quaint as the bridal dressing room or (dare we suggest it?) the church newsletter. I wondered as well, if some day the lectern in the sanctuary might be replaced by a large print Kindle to be used for scripture reading rather than the large bound copy of the Bible which sits there now, a Bible with ribbons of different colors to mark the readings for the day. Perhaps e-readers might become so inexpensive and so ubiquitous that they might replace the pew Bibles. I awoke from that reverie (nightmare?) as the plane’s wheels touched down at LaGuardia.
The next day, an article appeared in the New York Times describing a Torah scroll at Central Synagogue where my friend and colleague Peter Rubenstein is rabbi. The article describes how questions came to be raised about a scroll used by the synagogue which purportedly had been sneaked into Auschwitz and saved by a Polish priest after it had been entrusted to him by Jewish prisoners. But with questions about the authenticity of the Auschwitz scroll, a donor in the synagogue purchased a second scroll for the synagogue’s use whose authenticity is documented and undeniably traceable to the Holocaust. For Rabbi Rubenstein and his congregants, the Torah’s history adds to the veneration that the congregation feels about the scrolls’ contents.
What a contrast in the understanding of the value of the printed and hand written page are these two perspectives! With the exception of a rare manuscript such as the 1382 Wycliffe Bible or the 1450 Guttenberg Bible, Protestants don’t come close to veneration of a printed Bible, and none vested with the same emotional and spiritual power as a Holocaust scroll. Even so, call me sentimental or call me old fashioned, I think I am far more in the camp of my friends at Central Synagogue than I am those who are e-readers when it comes to Bibles. Not that there is any suggestion that we go to e-Bibles in worship, but for me there is something that adds to the value of scripture when it is printed on paper.
Besides, isn’t there something more valuable about inheriting a Bible from the family with worn pages that your mother or grandmother thumbed over the years and has now passed on to you? If my only choice were between a person not having a Bible to read at all and having an e-Bible, I would say take the e-Bible. But all in all I’d rather have the printed Bible. Maybe ten years from now I will read these words and laugh at how old fashioned I was a decade ago, but for the time being, having a Bible with a bit of a history and worn pages in hand beats magnetic dots any day.
Jon M. Walton
