Dunham Bible Museum

First Lunar Bible

Christmas Eve, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, James Lovell, Frank Borman, and Bill Anders, became the first humans to orbit the moon.  The crew focused their camera on the lunar landscape and broadcast a message on TV back to “all the people of the Earth.”  Each member of the crew read a portion of Genesis 1:1-10, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas; and God saw that it was good.”  As the Apollo 8 crew circled the moon, they took brilliant photos of planet Earth, as well as the moon’s surface.  On Christmas day, they took the famous photo of the Earthrise over the Moon.

Christmas Eve Bible Reading from the Moon

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first to land and walk on the moon.

After the Eagle, the lunar module, landed on the moon’s surface, Buzz Aldrin held a private communion service and read Jesus’ words from John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

The astronauts left an American flag on the moon and a silicon disk with messages from 74 global leaders.  Pope Paul VI’s message included a quote from Psalm 8, which Aldrin also quoted on his return trip to earth: “When I look at the sky, which you have made, the moon and the stars which you set in their places – what is man that you think of him?”

Bible and the First Lunar Landing – Apollo XI

The smallest Bible in the Dunham’s collection is a microfilmed Bible taken to the Moon and back by Apollo 14 in February 1971.  This is one of 101 copies taken to the moon by Astronaut Edgar Mitchell during his nine hour and seventeen minute moonwalk.  The microfilm Bible contains all 1,245 pages of the King James Bible edition 715 published by World Publishing.  It can be read with 200x magnification.  Members of the Apollo Prayer League commissioned the special first lunar Bible.  Bible Societies in 57 different countries united in participating in this project, as well as commercial Bible publishers.

This was not the first time the Bible was in space, however. Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to orbit the Moon. On Christmas Eve, 1968, Apollo 8’s crew of Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders sent a message to “all the people on Earth.”

Out of this World: The Bible on the Moon!

education standards