More than a thousand Bibles from hundreds of countries are on display in CaixaForum Madrid, Spain from June 27 to September 1.
Called “The Bible, a journey through the languages of the world,” the free exhibit of 1,600 Bibles highlights the rich languages in the world and the vital role the Bible plays in language conservation, reports Evangelical Focus.
Western civilization is built upon Christianity, and its foundations are the Bible. —Pere Roquet, Bible collector
The Bibles are owned by Andorran collector Pere Roquet who started his collection in 1995. The project started when a missionary in Kenya gave Roquet a New Testament written in Turkana, an Eastern Nilotic language spoken by almost one million people. Since then, for 25 years, Roquet was able to obtain 1,593 volumes of Bibles in more than 1,900 languages, including those written in extinct or endangered languages.
The Bible collector believes that, “Western civilization is built upon Christianity, and its foundations are the Bible.”
Roquet stressed the importance of the Bible as a vessel to keep a language alive. He explained that for some communities, “the Bible is sometimes the only printed record that a language has.” Even if the language is dead, the Bible is proof of the language’s existence. He said, “For 35% of these 1,900 languages, the Bible is their only book.”
Bibles written in endangered languages are included in the exhibit—a Bib