It is handwritten

As Donald Jackson and his scribes worked on a handwritten and “illuminated” Bible, they used an image unavailable to the monks of the Middle Ages: a view of Earth taken from outer space.

It’s one of the many modern touches in the St. John’s Bible, a massive project commissioned by a Minnesota monestary, from using computers to lay out pages to “virtual voice prints” of chanting monks, Buddhists and American Indians.

“It’s a work of art and spirituality for the new millennium,” says Tim Ternes, director of public programs and education for the St. John’s Bible. “It’s not a 12th-century Bible. It’s very modern.”

But this Bible — believed to be the first of its kind commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in 500 years — is still done the old-fashioned way, with every letter and illustration painstakingly drawn by hand.

Jackson and his team of artists in Monmouth, Wales, use quills cut from goose or swan feathers. Ancient inks are prepared using the yolks of eggs from free-range chickens near Jackson’s scriptorium. The words are written on large sheets of prepared vellum, or calfskin, which are then illuminated with gold, silver or platinum to form dazzling artwork.

“People just open a page and tears come into their eyes,” Jackson says.

The eight-year, $4 million project, funded by private donations, has reached the halfway point. Jackson and his artists have completed three volumes and have four to go. About 70 percent of the text has been written, and close to half of the illustrations are done.

When the Bible is finished, expected in 2007, the work will total about 1,150 pages. When open, the facing pages measure about 3 feet wide by 2 feet tall. Each volume will be bound separately and have a cover of white oak from Wales.

Ternes says the St. John’s Bible — stored in special cases in a vault at St. John’s University, about 70 miles northwest of Minneapolis — is intended for the ages.

“It’s being designed to last 4,000 years,” he says. The university hopes to eventually build a building on campus to house the Bible.

St. John’s Abbey — one of the largest Benedictine monasteries in the world with about 200 monks — and St. John’s University, founded by the abbey in 1857, commissioned Jackson to create the St. John’s Bible to celebrate the new millennium and the 150th anniversary of the monks’ arrival. The first words were written on Ash Wednesday 2000.

Writing the Bible is a demanding physical task, Jackson says. The most anyone can work is five and a half hours a day; lettering one page takes between seven and 11 hours.

“You can’t sit and say, ‘Oh, a page a day,’ ” he says.

The seven volumes are being done out of order, but eventually will be arranged in the order of a Roman Catholic Bible.

Gospel and Acts was the first volume completed, in May 2002.

To mark the project’s halfway point, Jackson and a delegation from the monastery and the university presented Pope John Paul II with a limited-edition, full-size reproduction of Gospel and Acts last month.

Next April, portions of the first three volumes, as well as sketches and tools, go on exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts before starting a national tour.

St. John’s also is working on a “coffee table” edition of Gospel and Acts as well as a fine-art print series that would be for sale. A book about the making of the St. John’s Bible also is in the works.

The text of The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, a modern English translation, is the version being used for the project. Its language is gender-inclusive when referring to men and women.

At St. John’s, a committee on illumination and text meets to discuss biblical interpretations. A mix of theologians and artists, the committee forwards its reflections to Jackson, who creates sketches and mock-ups of pages that are e-mailed back to the committee.

“One of the first things the committee said was, ‘We don’t want an illustrated Bible. We don’t want pictures of the life of Jesus or Moses tapping the rock or Adam eating the apple,’ ” says Brother Alan Reed, a committee member.

Jackson, who was raised Methodist, and his team have responded with a beautiful vision that runs from Greek iconography and Jewish and Islamic symbols to startling modern images, such as a seven-panel Creation that includes a painting from a satellite view of the delta of the Ganges River.

The last image in Gospel is a view of the universe taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. And to illustrate forgiveness, the parable of the Prodigal Son incorporates an image of the Twin Towers.

Jackson says using an image from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is apt.

“Everybody felt that rage on 9/11,” he says, “but on the other hand, when you read the story in the Bible, it’s telling you you can’t hate your way out of anything. You’ve got to love your way out.”