Hieroglyphic Bibles

Hieroglyphic Bibles

Amongst the often sizeable Bibles housed in the Dunedin Public Libraries’ Reed Collections can be found two small hieroglyphic Bibles for children, dated 1796 and 1815.

Based on the principle of the rebus, the hieroglyphic Bible is a type of illustrated Bible for children which became popular in late eighteenth century England. At a time when Sunday schools were beginning to emerge, hieroglyphic Bibles were utilised as a means of teaching Bible stories to children from poor or working-class families of the Industrial Revolution.

Despite their youthful audience, hieroglyphic Bibles did not escape the circumlocutory titles fashionable in those times. The 1796 edition is cumbersomely entitled A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible, or, Select Passages in the Old and New Testaments, Represented with Emblematical Figures, for the Amusement of Youth: Designed Chiefly to Familiarize Tender Age, in a Pleasing and Diverting Manner, with Early Ideas of the Holy Scriptures.

Based on an early eighteenth century German book, A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible was originally published by Thomas Hodgson in 1780 and was the first English language version of a hieroglyphic Bible. Its stated aim was to teach children “with a Design to give them an early Taste for the Holy Scriptures, and to engage them, as they may advance in Years, more earnestly and seriously in the Study of the Sacred Books of the Old and New Testaments.”

Hieroglyphic Bibles introduced children to brief biblical passages with an intriguing combination of image and word – a puzzle to be solved and holy text to be read, understood and memorised. Numerous editions of hieroglyphic Bibles of varying quality were issued until the mid-nineteenth century. The Library’s 1815 edition is a later coloured version by Robert Harrild of London.