The pages are made of calfskin, the ink is 500 years old, the letters each perfectly inscribed with quills. And yet for all the antiquity the St John’s Bible embraces, there are decidedly modern signs too — images of terrorist attacks like 9/11, urban buildings, even cheering sports fans.This is more than just another edition of the Bible.The text has been handwritten and illustrated at a master calligrapher’s studio in a converted shed in Wales, a remarkable convergence of past and present that includes everything from prehistoric cave paintings to satellite images from space.The work sends a message about the universality of faith through the ages. In a sense, it seeks to be all things to all people across the earth. “This is the yearning, the voices of people in different cultures and religions, voicing their yearning for closeness to God,” explained Donald Jackson, an Englishman who is the lead scribe on the project.Portions of the seven-volume Bible — expected to cost its sponsors about $7.8 million when it is done — are on display through next month at the Naples Museum of Art. Visitors see the artistic interpretations of passages. They are on pages nearly 2 feet high and 16 inches wide.They vary widely, from illustrations of butterflies, to one-of-a-kind portrayals, such as that of the creation story, which is represented in a panel of seven side-by-side strips depicting the initial chaos of the world’s birth, the emergence of human life and the divine day of rest.In Luke, the parable of the prodigal son includes renderings of simple rectangular towers — which a reader would identify as the World Trade Centre — representing the need for forgiveness and alternatives to revenge.The story of Adam and Eve features an African man and woman, whose likenesses were influenced by photographs of Ethiopian tribespeople.The Bible also aims at religious unity. In Psalms, for example, one large image is superimposed with digital voice prints — electronic images of sounds. They include not only St John’s monks’ chants, but a sacred song of Native Americans, the sound of a Jewish men’s chorus, Buddhist tantric harmonics, the Islamic call to prayer, Taoist temple music, a popular Hindu devotional and an Indian chant.“We wanted a sense of ecumenism and sort of all of humanity seeking God as an underlying characteristic, though it’s in a Bible that is specifically Christian,” said Rev Eric Hollas, a Benedictine monk at St John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, which commissioned the Bible.
