We did not have our usual lectures again last week in my New Testament class. Instead, we had a Bible Manuscript Seminar. The seminar was about how the Bible came to be. It wasn't so much about the books of the Bible, rather, it was about how the Bible came as a large, hand-written book available only to the affluent to a smaller, machine-printed book that is available to everyone that it actually became the best selling book in history.

I learned that the early Bibles had their pages made from animal skins and some used parchment. Much has been done to preserve the Bible and to have the ordinary folks read it. The invention of the movable press by Johannes Gutenberg and the English translation of the Bible by John Wycliffe, among others, have helped accomplished this. Back then, these were very risky moves that if they got caught, they could be sentenced to death.

After the seminar, I have honestly a greater appreciation for the Bible. This was a book that people have sacrificed their life for just so the words of God will be made known to all the world.