More Seminary Library Books Relating to the Synod of Dordt – The Staten Bible and the Dutch Annotations on the Whole Bible

Throughout this year and into next year we are highlighting the 400th anniversary of the “great” Synod of Dordt (1618-1619), which begins this year and will continue into next year.

In our initial post we called attention to some general things and in our last post we started to call attention to some special (and rare) books connected to that Synod and its work.

Title page of the 1637 Staten Bible

In this post we call attention to the two more special books related to the work of Dordt. Both relate to the special Bible translation commissioned by the Synod, a new Dutch translation that came to be called the “Staten Bible” (or Bijbel, in Dutch) or the Statenvertaling (States translation). It was first published in 1637 and the PRC seminary has several first edition copies, one of which is enclosed in a special case in the library (cf. the image below; the other is placed in the rare book case). To see one such rare edition, visit this page where one was for sale.

One of the seminary library’s copies of a 1st edition Statenvertaling Bible

 

The second book (or set of books actually) related to Dordt’s work also is connected to this Dutch Bible, the Statenvertaling. The first edition included annotations on the text of the Scripture (in Dutch), that is, special notes or comments about the meaning and application of the passage. Later these annotations were published separately as well, as the title page above indicates. The editor and translator was Theodore Haak and this work was published first in London in 1657 – in English (which you may also find online here).

While the PRC seminary library does not have a first edition of this book of annotations, we do have the 5 volumes that were reprinted by Inheritance Publications and edited by Roelof Janssen (cf. title page above and the five volumes on the shelf below).

Roelof J. recently stopped by the seminary and spoke to us about his publications (old and new). In the course of the conversation we mentioned that he ought to finish this reprint and get the rest of the volumes completed. He is hoping to do so, if he can generate enough cash flow. Something to think about, if you are so inclined (by purchasing books from Inheritance Publications you are also helping this cause!).

For now, notice the quality and beauty of the initial volumes (image of volume 1 above). But, of course, the content of these books makes for fascinating reading.