One day, this past September, our library received a letter asking if we were interested in an old family Bible. Given our limited space, we only accept books on a selective basis, so we asked for a photo of the book. We received a photo of the cover only, with a beautiful old handwritten note attached, reading: “The first printed edition of the Armenian Bible (Job-Rev.) Printed in Amsterdam, (Holland) Oct. 13, 1668, Used many years as Church Bible in the Gregorian Armenian Church, Aintab, Turkey.”

This photo sparked a strong intuition that this might be a book we had long dreamed of adding to our collection. Less than a week later, we received the Bible. The moment we saw it in person was indescribable: it was exactly the book we had long hoped for—the first Armenian Bible printed by Voskan Yerevantsi in Amsterdam more than 350 years ago. Accompanying this treasure was another book written by the Bible’s previous owner, Rev. Haig Adadourian, titled New Salem Pictures (1913).

This is the story of the 300-year journey of a remarkable book to our library. 

Please click here to learn more about this awe-inspiring story.