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The Gutenberg Bible Essay

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Created by Johannes Gutenberg, The Gutenberg Bible was the first mass produced book through the use of a moveable printer. Known for its artistic Latin writing, the Bible only has forty-nine copies remaining, one residing at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. The Gutenberg Bible exhibits religious qualities from the message, directly from God, and the original purpose of the creation of the Bible.
A vital component of The Gutenberg Bible is the origin of the divine message in the religious text. The basis of religion is when someone believes or follows something or someone devotedly. Therefore in Christianity, anyone who receives and lives by the word of God will be granted eternal life in heaven. In The Meditation …show more content…

The Gutenberg Bible’s purpose was to spread the message of God that can view through the mass production of the Bible for the first time in history. Due to the moveable printer, the Bible were more accessible to a larger audience. According to Mark 16:15, “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” the spreading of God’s Gospel is a message told by God for his followers to perform. Therefore, Johannes Gutenberg’s actions in producing the Bible was a sacred act through the following of God’s message. By following God’s message, the object that is used, The Gutenberg Bible, is then a religious item used for the religious act. Because of the newly invented Bible, the common man had an opportunity to have a material presence of God that wasn’t available to them beforehand. For the common man, The Gutenberg Bible represented the divine, as the book was the words of God and to the common man, God himself. Furthermore, The Gutenberg Bible’s aesthetic qualities are seen through the font of the Bible that serve to augment the religious qualities of the message sent by God. Just as mentioned in class, decorated text or calligraphy, the artistic qualities of the text brings the viewer into the text and entices them into the continual reading of the text. In the case of The

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