Last week, we covered a technical feature of The Preacher’s Bible – 22k gold gilding. Today we are demonstrating a functional feature that is completely unique to The Preacher’s Bible, but first, a little history needs to be given.
In the late 1800’s, an American man named Louis Klopsch owned and operated a British weekly called The Christian Herald. One of his editors was the well-known T. DeWitt Talmage. In 1899, Mr. Klopsch came across the verse Luke 22:20 – “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” After meditating on the symbolism of blood, he asked Dr. Talmage if Christ’s words could not be printed in red. His mentor replied: “It could do no harm and it most certainly could do much good.” In 1901, the first Red-Letter Edition of the entire Bible was produced. In it, the words of Christ in the New Testament were printed red; however, Mr. Klopsch also originally designed the Old Testament verses that Jesus quoted to be red, as well as any Old Testament story that Jesus referenced. A few years later, he ceased to print the Old Testament verses in red, and the Red-Letter Edition of the Bible (New Testament only) was settled as the edition that we know today.
We obtained one of the original Red Letter Bibles that Mr. Klopsch published. Smith and Jones Bible Publishers is the first Bible publisher (that we are aware of) that has produced a Bible with Christ’s quoted words in the Old Testament printed in red (we decided against printing the Old Testament stories referenced by Jesus in red). While reading or preaching through the Old Testament, it will be helpful to be able to see, at a glance, what verses were quoted by Jesus as he taught.
Attached are three pictures of our 1901 copy of the Red Letter Bible
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