National Bible Week
At the beginning of World War II, a group of leaders in New York City searched for a way to inspire hope during that time of world conflict They agreed that the Bible was the greatest source of hope for any people and any nation. In 1941, leaders of the Laymen’s Bible Association were invited to the White House to announce the first National Bible Week to raise awareness about the Bible and encourage people to read it. (In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt went further, asking the nation to read the Bible not just for one week but for several weeks, specifically from Thanksgiving to Christmas.) Over the decades, this celebration has continued, being commemorated during Thanksgiving week. So, this week is National Bible Week!
Some of America’s early leaders took an active role in promoting the Bible and encouraging its reading. For example, Charles Thomson (secretary to the Continental Congress, whose name appeared on the Declaration of Independence when it was approved on July 4, 1776) spent twenty years translating the Greek Septuagint into English, resulting in the Thomson Bible. (A number of the signers of the Declaration and Constitution helped found Bible societies, or publish new versions of the Bible, so that all citizens would have immediate access to God’s Word and be able to understand it.) In fact, Noah Webster (author of the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary) printed the first modern-language Bible in 1833, updating English words that had changed in meaning or become obsolete.
Our Founding Fathers and other national leaders consistently acknowledged the importance of the Bible. Here are a few of the numerous pro-Bible quotes from our past leaders:
And may the associated distribution of the Bible proceed and prosper till the Lord shall have made “bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” [Isaiah 52:10]. (John Quincy Adams)
In short, were you to ask me to recommend the most valuable book in the world, I should fix on the Bible as the most instructive both to the wise and ignorant. Were you to ask me for one affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the inquiring mind, I should repeat, it is the Bible; and should you renew the inquiry for the best philosophy or the most interesting history, I should still urge you to look into your Bible. I would make it, in short, the Alpha and Omega of knowledge. (Elias Boudinot)
The Bible… is a book worth more than all the other books that were ever printed. (Patrick Henry)
By conveying the Bible to people . . . we certainly do them a most interesting act of kindness. (John Jay)
The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world. (Benjamin Rush)
We urge you to participate in National Bible Week, spending time reading the Bible from whichever version you can best understand and apply!
