August 2018
the active age
Page 21
Museum that’s not in museum district By Rick Khol It may not be in the museum district by the river or with the prestigious museums in Old Town, but the Leaves of Tyme Bible Museum in a basement has a lot to offer those who have an interest in history or the word of God. One thousand years of Bible history come alive in a private collection that is open to the public. The museum is in the home of Rick Khol, a retired Wichita school teacher and former missionary in South America. A small church meets in his house Sunday mornings, so the museum is usually opened for viewing from 2-5 p.m. Sunday afternoons. Those interested in visiting it can make an appointment for a guided tour during the week; there’s no admission charge. The oldest piece in the museum is a manuscript written in the Coptic language that dates back to the 11th Century. It came from a monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. Other medieval scriptures on display were hand-written on parchment, papyrus and vellum. The invention of the printing press in 1455 ushered in a proliferation of the printed word of God. A leaf from Leviticus from a 1489 copy of the Latin Vulgate demonstrates the “incunable” period of the early movable type press. Examples of Bible pages from translations by Erasmus, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, Myles Coverdale and John Rogers are on display. Also presented are examples of the Great Bible, Geneva Bible, Bishops Bible and early King James versions. The Geneva Bible is the Bible the Pilgrims brought to America; Shake-
Courtesy photos
11th Century Coptic manuscri
speare quoted from it more than 2,000 times. Besides the really old items, four other sections appear in the museum. The American Collection contains a framed Bible page from every major Bible translation printed in North America. The rarest piece in the exhibit is the title page from Proverbs that came from the first book printed in the New World, the John Eliot Indian Bible published in 1663. War Bibles presents the history of holy books taken into battle. It begins with a pamphlet containing prayers and verses that were distributed to Oliver Cromwell’s troops during the English Civil War (1642-1651). Bible and scripture portions from every U.S. war from the American
coming to the Crystal Bible which has a surface area of 1/6 square inch for 1,200 pages of the King James Bible. There is also a facsimile of the Nano Bible which is 0.008 square inches. The first of two copies were presented by the former president of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, A leaf from Leviticus, 1489 copy of Latin Vulgate to Pope Benedict Revolution to Afghanistan and Iraq XVI during his visit to Israel in 2009. can be seen with memorabilia from The last part of this collection is each engagement. Swords, guns, cana library containing dozens of foreign non balls, buttons, hats and helmets language Bibles and approximately 100 catalogue the conflicts that caused men English translations and paraphrases. to search God’s word for peace. They are available for people to study The Quest for the Smallest Bible or just skim through. presents a 180-year journey of people To schedule a visit to the Bible Museseeking the bragging rights to the um, call Rick at 316-733-5402. To learn smallest scriptural portion. more, go to the Grace Fellowship website, Starting with an 1831 Thumb Bible, gracefellowshipks.com. the adventures continue along with progressively smaller scriptures, until
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Contact Rick Khol at rickkhol@gmail.com.