Luke 10:27 The Great Commandment
Wisdom Sirach 39:13-15
The illuminations are not illustrations. They are spiritual meditations on a text. It is a very Benedictine approach to Scriptures.”
"The depictions in the Saint John's Bible are the result of many people not only imagining the narrative line of the passage in question but also conceptualizing two, three, or four-dimensional interpretations of the same passage in form and color. Furthermore, the images are meant to inspire within the viewer ways of imagining the text in light of the experiences he or she has brought to the biblical encounter."
Michael Patella OSB, chair of the Committee on Illumination and Text
Saint John's University convened a Task force to develop a project plan: “Vision and Values” statement about the reason for the work:
To glorify God’s word
To give voice to the underprivileged
To ignite the imagination
To revive tradition
To discover history
To foster the arts
As part of the project a Committee on Illumination and Text (CIT) was formed. This group at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, worked with the Jackson team in Wales, by providing the exegetical and theological input for the project. The CIT was composed of an Old Testament and a New Testament exegete, an art historian, a church historian, a theologian, and two artists. This group chose the biblical passages and their degree of artistic treatment—full, half, or quarter page. The process produced a schema, which gave Donald Jackson, the master calligrapher and artistic director of the project, the ability to allot space and time to complete the pages.
The CIT also wrote a theological brief for each of the seven volumes of The Saint John’s Bible in order to provide the calligraphers and artists with the biblical and theological background to the texts in question. The different books from both the Old and New Testaments are connected to each other through themes, plots and vocabulary.
Isaiah 49: 1-4 Listen to Me