Exhibit traces the Bible's history with classic texts

Artists, those studying Greek and Latin, and religious people hoping to confirm their faith are among those who have visited "From Papyri to King James," a historical exhibit created by the University Special Collections Library.

The exhibit displays texts from as early as the year 119. and traces the transmission of the English Bible to the King James version of 1611.

Religion and English Prof. Ralph Williams, who teaches a class on the Bible, spoke at the exhibit's opening Dec. 7, to a packed room of about 80 students, faculty and community members.

"People were especially interested in the motives involved in the creation of these texts and the visual representations that have accompanied them," Williams said.

Preserving more than 10,000 individual fragments of papyri texts, the University hosts the largest collection of early manuscripts written on papyrus in the Western Hemisphere and the fifth largest in the world. Papyrus is a plant found in the Middl

PAUL TALANIAN/Daily Holger Warzecha takes time out of his day to visit the University's bible exhibit, "From Papyri to King James," on the seventh floor of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate library.

e East that was used as paper before parchment.

"For me, (the exhibit's) great interest is in the presence here of singularly important material testimonies to the transmission of the (Biblical) text and the extent to which one can observe that development," Williams said.

Williams also said he hopes students appreciate the beauty of the earlier pieces on display, as they represent individual efforts as opposed to mass-produced works of later years.

The current exhibit displays only .1 percent of the entire collections' 10,000 pieces of papyrus.

"The bulk of the University's pieces are not sacred in nature, but documentary," said Kathryn Bean, curator of the Humanities Collections in the Special Collections Library and one of the exhibit's coordinators.

"The majority of our collection is census reports, recipes and descriptions of how to bury the dead," Bean said.

The collection also holds two copies of a donkey theft report, leaving modern historians to sort through the papyrus trail these ancient communities have left behind.

The papyri documents displayed in the current exhibit were chosen for the Biblical stories they tell and their corresponding detailed and colorful art work.

Valerie Krasny, a Michigan State University first-year student who stopped by to view the exhibit, said she was surprised by the artwork.

"The colors are really great," Krasny said. "I thought everything was in black and white back then."

Her father, Michael, also visited the exhibit, and said he hoped the texts would validate his religious beliefs.

"We think of so many things being lost in translation, but when you see texts from 119 A.D. you can have more confidence in the Bible of today," Michael Krasny said.

Brought back by popular demand, this annual exhibit has run with some changes and improvements since 1983.

The exhibit is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. through noon through Jan. 31 at the Special Collections Library, located on the seventh floor of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library.

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