by Steffanie Lindgren ’10

In spring 2009, Mike Holmes was named University Professor of Biblical Studies and Early Christianity. He is just the second faculty member to receive the prestigious designation of University Professor. Holmes gave a lecture, as University Professor, entitled “From Scrolls to Scrolling: Scripture, Technology, and the Word of God” on October 23 in the Bethel University Library.

The University Professor Award honors faculty members in the College of Arts & Sciences, College of Adult & Professional Studies, and Graduate School who are recognized for their sustained excellence in scholarship, teaching, research, or creative activity in their discipline. These faculty members have provided outstanding service to the university, their profession, or the public through professional activity. Individuals receiving the University Professor Award are intellectual leaders, agents of change, and scholars who have made a significant impact on their academic disciplines and on Bethel University.

While chairing a large department, serving on more than 50 committees, and teaching a full schedule, Holmes has been a prolific scholar. Altogether, he has published eight books; 16 chapters in books; 19 articles, most in top-level journals; 21 papers; and more than 200 book reviews in more than 20 journals, including 49 in the past four years alone. The third edition of his Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations has been hailed as a “landmark edition.”

Holmes is on the board of directors for The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, which has as a primary goal the making of digital photographs of Greek New Testament manuscripts so that such images can be preserved, duplicated without deterioration, and accessed by scholars doing textual research.

President Jay Barnes introduced Holmes at the University Professor lecture. “Tonight will be an example of one of the many remarkable projects he has done,” said Barnes. “We know him as an exceptional teacher, servant, and scholar.”

In “From Scrolls to Scrolling: Scripture, Technology, and the Word of God,” Holmes explored the ways that form and material have changed throughout biblical history. The earliest Hebrew Scriptures were carved on stone or written on papyrus and animal skin. The Jewish Bible was a large collection of around 29 scrolls.

Then the codex, a notebook-like written form that eventually replaced scrolls, appeared. An early codex consisted of stone or ivory that had been hollowed and filled with wax. Around the time of the rise of Christianity came the rise of a codex made of parchment.

Because binding technology was not yet developed, three or four books were needed to make up a New Testament written on parchment. As such, the Greek word for Bible, “Biblia,” is plural. In the mid-fourth century, binding technology evolved, making it possible to bind all the books of the Bible in a single volume. “We can now for the first time speak of a Bible,” said Holmes.

Codex Vaticanus, a Greek Bible, is one of the two earliest examples of a one-volume Bible. “It is arguably the most influential single Greek text that we have,” said Holmes. A facsimile of the Codex Vaticanus is now on exhibit just inside the Bethel University Library doors. “It reminds us of the centrality of The Book to everything we do at Bethel,” said Holmes of the exhibit.

Recently, the digital revolution has brought sweeping changes in the form and materials of the Bible. The codex columnar form was replaced by individual Bible verses on the web and the return of scrolling, this time on a webpage. Screens and electrons replaced ink and paper. With iPhones and Blackberries, the digital age has made the Bible accessible whenever and wherever. It has also added advertising, extensive maps, theological interpretations, and other extras that appear alongside digital Bibles.

These digital developments raise the key questions with which Holmes closed his lecture: “How does the form in which we encounter Scripture affect the way we read Scripture? How will the change in technology, from codex to digital, affect the way we relate to Scripture, to God’s Word?”