EXHIBIT OF BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 1023 



Hieroglyphic Bible. (See plate 4G.) Publislied by Joseph Avery, 

 Plymouth; printed by George Clark & Co., Charleston, 1820. — A num- 

 ber of hieroglyphic Bibles have been printed in America, the first being 

 that of Isaiah Thomas, at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1788. Words 

 in each verse are represented by pictures, the whole being designed 

 "to familiarize tender age in a pleasing and diverting manner with 

 early ideas of the Holy iScriptures."" 



Bishop Asuury's Testament, with hundreds of the texts for his 

 sermons marked in his own handwriting. — Francis Asbury, born in 

 Staffordshire 1745, died in Virginia ISIG, was the first bishop of the 

 Methodist Church ordained in America. He was sent as a missionary 

 by John Wesley in 1771, aifd in person organized the work of his 

 denomination in the entire eastern portion of the United States, per- 

 formed the first ordination in the Mississippi Valley, and in 1784 

 founded the first Methodist college. 



Thomas Jefferson's Bible, consisting of texts from the Evangel- 

 ists, historically arranged. — This book bears the title, " The life and 

 morals of Jesus of Nazareth, extracted textually from the gospels, in 

 Greek, Latin, French, and English." Four versions were employed. 

 The passages were cut out of printed copies and pasted in the book. 

 A concordance of the texts is given in the front and the sources of 

 the verses in the margins. The section of the Eoman law under which 

 Jeflerson supi)osed Christ to have been tried is also cited. All of these 

 annotations, as well as the title page and concordance, are in Jefferson's 

 own handwriting. Two maps, one of Palestine and another of the 

 ancient world, are pasted in the front. Jefierson long had the prej)a- 

 ration of this book in mind. On January 29, 1804, he wrote from 

 Washington to Dr. Priestley: "I had sent to Philadelphia to get two 

 Testaments (Greek) of the same edition, and two English, with a 

 design to cut out the morsels of morality and x)aste them on the leaves 

 of book." Nearly ten years later (October 13, 1813), in writing to John 

 Adams, he stated that he had for his own use cut up the gosj)els "verse 

 by verse" out of the printed book, arranging the matter which is 

 evidently His (Christ's). In the same letter he describes the book as 

 " the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been 

 offered to man." 



iThe American editions are not described in W. L. CTouston's splendid work on 

 Hieroglyphic Bibles. 



