Bible World

The Bible World is a permanent Bible Exhibition of the Bible Society of India located in the Head Quarters premises on M. G. Road. It welcomes visitors from all walks of life for a visit. Visitors get the opportunity to supplement their understanding and knowledge about the history of the Bible, translations of Bible into different languages. Research scholars doing their studies on Bible and language visit this exhibition for their research work as the source of information. Children find their area of interest about the Bible such as playing on the touch screen computers and looking at the postal stamps containing the Bible stories.

It has various sections relating to the Bible and history of the Bible:
How the Bible came to us,
History of the translation of the Bible from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages,
History of the formation of the Bible Society of India,
Antique Bibles,
Sayings about the Bible by prominent personalities of the world,
Bibles in different languages of India,
Bibles in different languages of the world,
The Bible on Stamps,
Touch screen computers with Bible stories, songs, and games for children,
Chart showing the chronology of the Bible,
Model of the Bible Land,
Bible in Media,
Artifacts,
Gospel in One Page and The Bible in One Page,
Dr. William Carey and his translations of the Bible,
Scriptures in Braille.

How the Bible came to us:

This section exhibits the history of the Bible i.e., how the Bible came to us. A chart showing the origin of the cuneiform writings and its expressions on clay is preserved. Picture of clay tablets inscribed with the text of the Babylonian chronicle of the chief events in the reigns of the kings who ruled over Babylon during BC 744-669 is shown.

The picture of a black stone pillar kept in the exhibition on which Hammurabic code (282 laws often compared with the Law of Moses) engraved on the black stone in cuneiform writing dating 2000 BC can be seen. This section contains an illustration of a Hebrew parchment scroll intended for the use in synagogue.

Antique Bibles:

One can see a number of antiques Bibles dating from 1560 onwards. One of these is the Bishops’ Bible. It is a large print pulpit size Bible. It was printed in London in 1585 by Christopher Baker and published by the Church of England. This Bible was used as the basis for the King James Version of the Bible completed in 1611. The Bishops’ Bible has numerous engraving pictures and it is considered as a landmark in printing achievement. It is considered as a rare piece of the printed Bible because today very few copies of this Bishops’ Bible are available in the world.

Pulpit-size Bible:

Bible in English language to be kept and for use on the pulpit printed in the year 1800 is exhibited in this exhibition hall. The full Bible is divided into six volumes (Old Testament in four volumes and New Testament in two volumes).

• Vol-I – Genesis to Deuteronomy
• Vol-II- Joshua to I Chronicles
• Vol-III- II Chronicles to Isaiah
• Vol-IV- Jeremiah to Malachi
• Vol-V- Matthew to John
• Vol-VI- Acts to Revelation.

Each volume weighing 12 kgs and of size measuring 18”X14”.
The Bible is embellished with engravings pictures and designs.

Bible Sacra- Polyglotta Bagsteriona:

It is the Parallel Bible in eight ancient languages kept in the exhibition hall. This Bible was printed and published in the year 1831. One can read the whole Bible having eight languages on each page of the Bible. The languages are; Hebrew, Anglican, Greek, Latin, German, Gallic, Italian, and Spanish. The beauty of this Bible is that this Bible was printed about 200 years before when the printing technology was not so developed as of today.

Bible in different languages of India:

The Bible Society of India has translated the Bible into many Indian languages for the people of India to read the Scripture in their own languages. There are 1652 languages and dialects spoken and read by the people in our country, India. Efforts have been made to translate the Bible in full, the New Testament and portions of the Bible into various Indian languages and dialects. One copy each of the Indian language Bibles have been displayed here for the visitors to see. Some of them are antique Bibles. Scholars doing research on language find the change in a particular language during a span of time.

Bible in different languages of the world :

Efforts have been made for several years to collect the Bibles of foreign languages and a copy of each of the Bible of more than 200 languages of the world have been exhibited here in this exhibition. Visitors from abroad and others who are interested in the foreign language Bibles are visiting regularly to read and supplement their understanding and knowledge about history of translation and history of the printed Bible. Out of all these Bibles, most of them are antique Bibles which are rarely available for reading purpose.

The Bible on Stamps :

It is one of the interesting sections in the Exhibition. Postal stamps on the stories of the Bible both from Old Testament, New Testament and General Events related to history of the Bible. Postal stamps released by various countries of the world based on the Bible are collected, developed with caption and Bible verse, laminated and exhibited in this exhibition. For example; the postal stamp with a title “In the beginning God…….” was issued by USA in commemoration of the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968. On this stamp one can have a view of the first photograph of the earth taken from deep space.

The country Guyana has released the postal stamp on the story of Joseph. It is so designed, that if 24 stamps are joined together, one can read the story of Joseph as mentioned in Genesis chapter 35-42. It creates interest among the children to read more stories from the Bible.

The State of Oman has released the postal stamp based on Mark chapter 14 verse 36 in which the picture of Jesus with the cup in Gethsemane has been portrayed.

The kingdom of Yemen has released several postal stamps with various stories of Jesus from the Bible. These postal stamps were released on 5th anniversary of Imam’s mission to Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem 1964-69 such as;

Jesus calls the first disciples. Luke 5:1-10.

Jesus walks on the water as mentioned in Mark 6:47-50

Gospel in one page :

The gospel according to St. Matthew and St. John can be read in one page each with or without the help of a magnifying lens are exhibited in this exhibition. These are imported from Hong Kong Bible Society, mounted and placed for visitors to have a look and reading purpose. These letters are so designed that the entire gospel has a look of the face of Jesus. Visitors visiting this exhibition are keen to read their own favourite verse from the gospel without the help of the magnifying glass.

One Page Book- The Bible :

Visitors, after seeing the “One Page Book-The Bible” have given their comments like “awesome”, “un-believable”, and fantastic”, etc. . The printed Bible which has the volume of minimum 1200 pages is available in this exhibition to read in one page. This one page includes the complete text of the Old and New Testaments in King James Version. The text in this document consists of 8,63,302 words including 35,21,097 individual letters. This one page Book is as much as an artwork as it is a readable document.

The Title Page of the first part of the Tamil New Testament (1714) translated by Ziegenbalg: :

Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg from Denmark came to India and started his work with the Tranquebar Mission in Tamilnadu in the year 1706. He worked hard for five years and the first part of the New Testament in Tamil language was published in the year 1714. The Royal monogram of the king of Denmark is seen in the picture.

The full New Testament in Tamil language was published in the year 1719. His Old Testament translation was completed by another missionary Benjamin Schultze in the year 1728.

The Tercentenary of Tranquebar Mission in India (1706-2006) was celebrated by Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church and a postal stamp in commemoration of this Tercentenary celebration was released by Government of India.

Hand-written Bible:

Hand-written Bible in various Indian languages is displayed here in this exhibition. The hand-written full Bible in Mizo language written by Mr. Thangmawia from Aizawl in the year 2001 can be seen. The full Bible written in beautiful hand-writing by Mr. Thangmawia without any mistake or over-writing.

The different texts of the full Bible in different Indian languages written by different persons have been displayed in this exhibition.

Tamil New Testament written by Mr. Immanuel Henry is also displayed in this exhibition.

After witnessing these hand-written Bibles, many visitors have been encouraged and motivated to start writing in their own mother tongue.

Diglot Bible:

Bible in two languages on each page has been published by different National Bible Societies. One copy of each publication have been collected and exhibited for the visitors to see and read.

The Bible Society of India has published Diglot Bible in four Indian languages with English as the corresponding language. These are:

English – Telugu
English – Tamil
English – Hindi
English - Malayalam

Any one visits this exhibition will get the opportunity to look at the rare variety of Bibles from all over the world under one roof.

One Language – Variety of Editions:

Bible has been translated into different Indian Languages. But one translated Indian language Bible has gone, during span of time, through many editions.

For example, Bible in Odia language, first, was translated by Dr. William Carey in the year 1811, but it has gone through several times of revision and variety of editions of the same Oriya language Bible have been published by the Bible Society of India. Odia Bible of 22 editions has been preserved in the exhibition for the visitors to see.

Model of Holy Land, Israel:

This model has attracted many visitors as it highlights the places of importance in the history of the Bible. Visitors can have a clear picture of the location of places relating to the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ

Touch Screen computers:

For children: Children, when they visit this exhibition, get excited to play with the touch screen computer meant for them. This kiosk contains the stories from the Bible, songs and music to learn, Bible games and quiz etc. It helps the children to enhance their Biblical knowledge. Number of children from different Sunday Schools and Vacation Bible Schools have already visited and benefited

For adults:

Here is another Kiosk meant for the adults which has animated Bible stories, Bible Atlas, Bible Encyclopedia, Time Travel etc.

Chronology of the Bible:

Another interesting exhibit for the visitor is a chart showing the chronology of the Bible from the Creation of the world to the Birth of Jesus Christ with events and dates.

William Carey and Bible Translation:

Dr. William Carey, one of the pioneers of Bible translators, came to India and felt the need of translation of Bible into different Indian languages. He, along with others, translated Bible into more than forty Indian languages. Visitors can go through all his hard work, his hand-written letters and photographs of his place of stay, his work place and Serampore College founded by him etc.

Hand-written Bibles:

We all are acquainted with printed Bibles, Bible in audio and electronic format. But here in this exhibition visitors can find hand-written Bibles in various Indian languages. One Bible in Mizo language written by Mr. R.Thangmawia and the Photostat copy of Tamil hand-written Bible by Mr. Immanuel Henry are exhibited here in this exhibition which has inspired many visitors and motivated them to start writing the Bible in their own languages.

Ancient documents relating to the Bible:

A Qumran fragment from the Book of Isaiah of 1st and 2nd century B.C. and some pages from Codex Sinaiticus of 4th century A.D. and many other ancient documents are displayed here in this exhibition for visitors to enlighten the knowledge about the history of the Bible.

I was able to get my friend to this museum and answer few of her questions: Question: How was the oldest form of Bible or Scriptures were written and how was it preserved?
The very old form of writing known to man was in the tablets called "Cuneiform script"

Cuneiform script, one of the earliest systems of writing, was invented by the Sumerians. It is distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus.



The other forms were like...

Papyrus: Papyrus is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge.
 Egyptian Papyrus is made from a plant that grows on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt.




Question: If Jesus Christ was born some 2k years and Christianity was born at that time, how can Christianity be a True Religion? Since there were many other religions before that?

It is True "Christianity" began from the birth of Jesus Christ, but to understand Christianity we need to understand two important things: History - Before Jesus' Birth and After Jesus' Birth. 

So, Jesus' Birth was predicted some 7,000 to millions of years before his birth. As it is also called as "protoevangelium" Genesis 3 15 - 

"it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel." 

This is a prophesy of what would happen in the future, when Jesus was on the cross relates to serpent biting heel and Resurrection - Jesus bruising the head of satan.

Even before that, God created Adam - "In the Image of God, he created both male and female".

Jesus: Was fully a man and fully God, His Birth was prophesied some 700 years before his Birth. The specification of the Place of Birth, To the Bloodline - To be born of the bloodline of King David to the Virgin Birth - Was prophesied by Isaiah the Prophet. No one can claim to be "The Son of God", "Messiah", "God" than Jesus - For which he was Crucified. But since he was and is the God, he is still Alive but Resurrection to live forevermore.

Question: Christianity in India   
If Britishers bought in Missionaries to share and spread Christianity in India how can we rely on this? as they might have just bought to spread in their agenda to conquer and rule

There is a mis-conception among many that "Christianity is a Western Religion" came along with Britishers and they bought only to Divide and Conquer for which they used "Evangelism" as a means. But, there are many things we need to understand here: 

First: Christianity was not only bought by the Missionaries at the time of British.
Second: Christian Missionaries not British (British East India Company) bought Christianity.

First: Christianity came to India roughly about the Time Jesus ascended to Heaven, as Jesus' own Disciple "Apostle Thomas" or also called as "Doubting Thomas" bought Christianity to India at about 50-70 AD. Proofs:

I have personally visited "St. Thomas Mount" near Ramapuram and "St. Thomas Cathedral Badilica near Marina Beach. Also, there are many historical evidences from several Churches that he founded in Kerala.

The Beauty of Holy Bible:
40 authors, 66 Books...

Gospels : Eyewitness account...


Bible and Quran...

Many have given their life to defend the Scripture... The Church history...

Tamil Bible...

William Carrey:

The story behind sing, I have decided to follow Jesus.
It was written by Simon Marak, from Jorhat, Assam. However, according to Dr P. Job, the lyrics are based on the last words of Nokseng, a Garo man, a tribe from Meghalaya which then was in Assam, who along with his family decided to follow Jesus Christ in the middle of the 19th century through the efforts of an American Baptist missionary. Called to renounce his faith by the village chief, the convert declared, "I have decided to follow Jesus." His two children were killed and in response to threats to his wife, he continued, "Though none go with me, still I will follow." His wife was killed, and he was executed while singing, "The cross before me, the world behind me." This display of faith is reported to have led to the conversion of the chief and others in the village.^[1] The fierce opposition is possible, as various tribes in that area were formerly renowned for head-hunting.


Life's 4 questions: Origin, Morality, Meaning/Purpose and Destiny

The Reliability of Scriptures:

Dead sea scrolls... Methods of Copying, Eyewitness Accounts...

Abraham and the Nation of Israel:

Jesus and other Old Testament People:

Jesus and Joseph...

Jesus and Moses...

Carnality Vs Spiritual Mind

carnalism, carnality. the practice of finding satisfaction in activities related to fleshly desires and appetites, especially the sexual. — carnal, adj.

Genesis 25:29-34 English Standard Version (ESV)
Esau Sells His Birthright
29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.[a]) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

The Bible tells us about this story of two brothers born for Issac the promised son. One of the questions of why God favored Jacob though he cheated is because of the Carnal Mind of Easy. Note though carnality was mainly related with sexual desires and appetites. Here Esau got nothing of that sort of ab act, but God looks at the fleshly desire of appetite for food the same way for sexual desires. The fruit that was looking good, that bought the sin to the world. The temptation of Jesus in wilderness, where satan asks Jesus to turn the stone into bread.

The Need for God's Word:

Ever since the first sin Adam committed, The separation of God and humans created a Way for Worship, Where Man started calling God by different Names and in many ways he thought to Worship and honor, this is well reflected in the first sacrifice that Man made to offer it to God. The Story of Cain & Able. But today we see that we are bombarded with knowledge, fact, information that we either take the Scripture very lightly or we ignore it completely. But we should understand the Fact that God still speaks to us through his Word, this Word has comforted many lives, people at the urge of committing sin, suicidal attempts and many who hear it at the time of need have benefited by its amazing Transforming Power, It is not in reciting or just reading it that we understand and realize its power, but by believing in it and Trusting it. The Word is referred to Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John, This Word was God in the Beginning of Creation, He was in the Creation process where every thing that is created is created by him and through him. He became Man, Communication to the point where we can realize and understand God's Love by his Nature. He gave up his "Status" to be called as "God" and became "A Carpenter's Son" his glory in heaven can't be compared when he hung on the Cross, where he was despised and rejected all these he went through is to share his Heart felt Love for his creation. The very Idea of all the intellects who thought "How can God become Man" was destroyed, the Power, the destiny and the death could not hold him, He Raised From the Death to show that he is Author and Finisher of Life, He has the power to lay down his life and to take it. This Word is the Need of The Hour. His Words are Heart Touching, Transforms the Hardened Heart to Soften, Bringing a Change that he only can bring through "His Words" which are filled with not only "Wise and Wisdom", but of Power and of Life.