Mysterious, Ancient Bible on Display

National Geographic editor’s video of the day: How do you care for one of the oldest copies of the bible in existence?

Sun (priceless artifact from the personal collection of Charles Freer) opposite Hades (antiques, ancient art, and other things from the distant past). Vesta (spiritual truth) sextile Poseidon (spirituality, enlightenment, illumination).

In the exquisite Peacock Room at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art, one of the oldest Bibles in existence recently went on display. This priceless artifact from the personal collection of Charles Freer contains a  passage not seen in any other biblical manuscript, in which Jesus proclaims the end of Satan's reign on Earth.

More than 100 years after they were first on view to the public in museum-founder Charles Lang Freer’s Detroit home, two rare antique biblical manuscripts returned to view at the Freer Gallery of Art Nov 16, 2013.

The Washington Codex—one of the oldest manuscripts of the four Gospels in the world—and an ancient parchment volume of Deuteronomy and Joshua was on view through Feb. 16, 2014, in the unexpected setting of James McNeill Whistler’s blue-and-gold Peacock Room.

 Source: National Geographic