“In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000” is a landmark exhibition presented in association with the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, which is the principal lending institution for this exhibition and is one of the greatest repositories for early manuscripts in the world.
The Bible has been called the best-selling book of all time, though the term itself comes from biblia, Greek for a collection of books. The Bible developed gradually, over many centuries, as the result of cultural interaction and exchange among many different societies. Over time, some texts were accepted as part of the canon of belief, while others were excluded as apocryphal and heretical. Out of this rich diversity and cultural complexity emerged the modern Bible.
In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000 tells the story of this formative period. The exhibition brings together a rare assemblage of several important early Hebrew and Christian bibles-the first time many of these fragile treasures have been shown to the public.