The First Bible Printed in New Jersey

Since the Wonders of the Bible collection is now located in the great state of New Jersey, I thought it would be only proper to start off my first NJ post with that of the first Holy Bible ever printed in the state: the 1791 Isaac Collins Bible.

In the year 1791, George Washington was President, John Adams was Vice President, and Thomas Jefferson was Secretary of State.

It was in this year that Trenton, New Jersey printer Isaac Collins printed his now-famous "family Bible" ... a version of the King James Bible. For the era, it was one of the most accurately printed Bibles ever produced up until that time. It contained only two errors: one was a misplaced punctuation mark, and the other was a broken letter made by a faulty piece of lead type.

This 1791 Bible was the first to replace the "Dedicated to King James" at the front of all King James translations with "To the Reader". This introduction was written by John Whitherspoon, a signer of the Delcaration of Independence.

The page (leaf) that is in the Wonders of the Bible collection is from I Samuel, and covers the account of David and Goliath.

I'll be exhibiting this piece of American and state of New Jersey history at my Wonders of the Bible presentations ... whenever they will be able to start up again. Hopefully soon. And, of course, Lord willing.

Now that I live in New Jersey, I am looking forward to meeting many Bible history enthusiasts.

We are both retired -- and in our new home at the Jersey shore...

Welcome to December 2020. You may (or may not) have been wondering where we have been since our last post back in September. Well, it is a very long story. The short version is that Deb has retired ... so we are both fully retired now.

We have purchased a home in a senior retirement community at the Jersey shore.

After living in Allentown, Pennsylvania (Lehigh Valley) for 41 years, I have now moved back to the home state of my birth: New Jersey. Deb grew up in New Jersey (Belmawr), and we both lived in New Jersey for a couple of years after getting married in 1977 (Barrington -- right by Edmund Scientifics), before making our way to Allentown, PA in 1979.

I had my laser and holography studio/lab in Allentown from 1983 through 2017.

We are located a few miles inland from the ocean and beach, which will (hopefully) provide somewhat of a buffer during coastal storms.

As of December 1st (and this post), we are living here full-time. Everything is in place (mostly). I still have to set up my recording equipment for my WOTB podcast, all in due time. I even have the space to set up a small holography area. Many of you know that I have lasers and holograms in my blood!

I hope everyone is doing well, and, Lord willing, I hope to be able to once again feature collection items that will be of interest and inspiration to you, my dear readers. -- Frank (and Deb) DeFreitas