PRECIOUS BIBLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 185, 8 August 1927, Page 9

PRECIOUS BIBLE.

"AUTHORISED VERSION."

COPY HELD IN AKAAOA.

rnOPERTY OF M ANOXIC LODGE

il*.v T'l.xr.iph

-Oivii < orrespondent.)

< HHISTC HIRCH, this dav.

An amentia 1 . possession of every Masonic lodge, states th<> "Church News," in a copy of the Holy Bible, known among Freemasons as 'The Volume of the Sacred Law." Ir, a lodge at Akaroa, Lodge Phoenix, which rose from the "nshos" of the original Lodge Akaroa \". l«rtrt, EC, founded in 1876, there is ii very pr.viotis Volume of the Sacred Law, no l lS s than a very early copy of tli<- Authorised Version. It was pre<ntfd to tlio Phoenix Masonic Lodge by Mr. W. Sawtell, of Christchurch, on November Iβ, 1882.

The possession of thin volume has been traced back through five generations of the Sawtell family. Several years ago a member of the British Museum Library Htaff visited Lodge Phoenix, and after very careful examination stated that this copy was one of the second edition of the translation of tlie Bible made and published in A.D. Kill. This edition was issued in the year 1613, and was by command of King James I. limited to fifty copu-H only, of which this is one. The. librarian also stated that in London this volume would be valued at from €1000 to £1500. The book is kept in a «afe and insured for £300, but it is nlwiiys laid orcn upon the masters pedestal when the lodge is at work.