Two priceless copies of the Bible are now on display behind bulletproof glass at St Peter’s Church.The antique books were restored by the St George’s church in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.A special service to mark the anniversary was held Sunday at St Peter’s Church, believed to be the oldest continuously-used Anglican church in the Western HemisphereChurch rector Rev David Raths said he noticed the two books when he first came to Bermuda to take up the position six years ago.“The Geneva Bible was open to Genesis 3, verse 7,” said Rev Raths. “This version of the Geneva Bible is known as the ‘breeches’ Bible, because it says of Adam and Eve: ‘then the eyes of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed figge tree leaves together and then breeches’.“Later versions say ‘aprons’ instead of breeches. It is a very significant Bible in the whole development of the English Bible.”The title page of the Geneva Bible carries a well-known typo. It states that it was printed in 1495, when it was actually printed in 1594.Rev Raths was surprised to discovered that the Geneva Bible was propped up by a King James Bible printed around 1640.The Geneva Bible was older, but the King James Bible was probably more valuable.“In 1936 someone had the Geneva Bible rebound to look like what they thought was an old Bible,” Rev Raths said. “Unfortunately, it was trimmed during the process.”This trimming probably reduced the value, he explained.“The King James Bible was probably much more interesting because it has the Book of Common Prayer, as well as genealogies from the Bible.“The most interesting thing is that it is still in the original binding. At the back of it is the whole Book of Psalms needed for singing.”The antique King James Bible benefited from what appears to be benign neglect and escaped the cutting board and the clumsy rebinding efforts of the 1930s.Last winter, St Peters had both books properly restored in Boston. A high-tech display cabinet was also designed for the books, that puts them behind bulletproof glass, further protected with an alarm.“We spent $6,000 restoring the Geneva Bible and $13,000 restoring the King James Bible,” said Rev Raths. “The conservators had to completely take it apart, treat every page, and reassemble it“They replaced the spine, but you would swear it is from 1640. They did a beautiful job. They discovered a couple pages, places where there were other things written, but we couldn’t decipher what it was.”Both Bibles are significant artefacts from the history of the Anglican church.The Geneva Bible goes back to the time of Queen Mary, who was known as “Bloody Mary”. It was printed from 1560 to 1644, during what is known as “the reformation period”.“Before the reformation period, most people in church would not have understood a word of the Bible, as it was written entirely in Latin,” said Rev Raths. “During the reformation, those who didn’t want to be staunch Latin-speaking Catholics had to flee England.“They went to Geneva. It was there that William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale produced the first English Bible in 1535. Basically, an emphasis of the reformation was to put the Bible into the language of the people.”The Geneva Bible became very popular, because it was the first to have commentaries, sidebars, footnotes, maps and readers’ aids.However, these commentaries irritated King James I who became King of England in 1603.“Unfortunately, a lot of the commentary in the Geneva Bible was very bellicose and aggravating and not politically correct,” said Rev Raths. “It was sort of ‘down with the Pope’. It was theologically slanted. King James said he wanted a Bible without that.”As a result, the King James Bible was printed without any sidebars or commentary, and it is still widely used today.One of the interesting things about St Peter’s copy of the King James Bible is that it contains handwriting on several pages. On the inside page is written: “Robert Gill, His Book 1704.”On another page, under some handwritten musical scores, is written: “Robart Gill, 1703.”The reason for the change in spelling is unknown.“The tunes he wrote here were new in 1703,” said Rev Raths. “Here he has written ‘proper tune for 100 psalm’. We now call that ‘old 100’. This was a new tune for him in 1703.”In another part of the book is written “Robert Gill” and what looks like “June 1748”.It was common for people to note important bits of information in the Bible, such as birth dates.The date suggests that several generations of Gills might have owned the book, which would have been very precious and coveted in the 1700s. Rev Raths would like to think that Robert Gill was a singing clerk at St Peter’s Church, but he has found little information about him.“The singing clerk, standing at the lower level of the three-decker pulpit, led the people’s responses to what the minister said and also led the congregation in singing the Psalms, line by line,” said Rev Raths. “There are still some old, very conservative Presbyterian Scots who do this. This 1640 copy of The King James Bible contained everything a singing clerk needed: The Book of Common Prayer, The Bible, and The Book of Psalms, put into rhymes and meters for singing.“It has not been possible to determine whether he was the singing clerk in this church or whether a later singing clerk used his book here. The singing clerk probably would have some theological training or musical training. He was also, at times, the parish clerk.”The Royal Gazette did a cursory search for Robert Gill using a genealogy website called ‘ancestry.com’. It was a common name at the time, but British baptismal records available on the website turned up a line of Robert Gills from Kirkby Overblow, North Yorkshire, who fit the bill.No occupations are given in these records, so it is impossible to tell if any of them were singing clerks.However, the baptismal records show that there was a Robert Gill born 1684 in Kirkby Overblow.Kirkby Overblow is a small village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire. Kirkby refers to a church and Overblow refers to the town’s original industry of iron mongering.Mr Gill married Jane More in 1706 in Knaresborough, not long after the inscriptions were made in the King James Bible owned by St Peter’s Church. They had a son, also Robert Gill, baptised May 1710 in Kirby Overblow.This son and his wife Mary had another son Robert, baptised June 30, 1748, which somewhat matches the date written in the Bible. Grandfather Gill died in 1717 in Kirkby Overblow. These three generations appear to have been firmly ensconced in Yorkshire. If this line of Gills were the original owners, it would suggest the book was brought to Bermuda later than 1748.To ponder the mysteries yourself visit St Peter’s Church and have a look at the antique Bibles now on display in the church.Also, you can see a short youtube video about St Peter’s Church at www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQXS-xXxCgc made by Bermuda4u.com.Local filmmaker Lucinda Spurling of Afflare Films has also made a documentary about St Peter’s available at the church office for $25. For more information contact the church on 297-2459.