PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Illuminated Manuscript - Christ on the Water

In previous centuries, Bible were often sources of fine art as artists (often monks) painted dramatic scenes from the book for the benefit of those who were illiterate in their flock.  This is an example of such an "illuminated" manuscript.

BIBLE FACTOID: How many manuscripts of the Bible exist?

In ancient times, there were no scanners or copy machines.  If someone had a book and needed another copy...  someone had to sit down and write it out by hand.  It was an incredibly labor-intensive process.  This made ancient books very valuable and rare.  And the more copies you have available to you, the easier it is to trace back to what the original looked like.  

So, how many manuscripts of the Bible have survived?

• There are presently 5,686 Greek manuscripts in existence today for the New Testament.If we were to compare the number of New Testament manuscripts to other ancient writings, the next highest is 643 copies of Homer(Iliad)
• In addition to the Greek copies there are over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages.  The total supporting New Testament manuscript base is over 24,000

PHOTO: Illuminated Manuscript (Bible)