Horrifying Discoveries Found Inside the Devil's Bible

I wanted to read all the Christian Scriptures and learn all the history. He had to know how to read and write in three different languages. This is a difficult task even with modern education, let alone the inconsistent schools and universities of the Middle Ages. Here comes Saint Jerome, who set out to translate all of these scriptures into Latin, the language of the Roman Empire and, therefore, of much of the Western world. In 405 AD, Jerome completed the first version of his translation and called it the Vulgate. He continued to modify and improve it throughout the rest of his life, but in its various forms it became arguably the most important Bible translation in history, even more important than the King James Version, which translated the Scriptures into English.

Unofficially, the Roman Catholic Church relied on this version of the Bible for centuries, as it now meant that people only needed to understand Latin to access the full history of Christianity. More than 1,000 years later, the Roman Catholic Church finally made it the official translation of the Church, a position the Vulgate would hold until 1979. So the Codex Gigas has chosen the right horse in terms of biblical translations. . His version is slightly different from others. The books of the Bible are organized in a different order than usual and uses a combination of different iterations of St. Jerome's translations, but the most interesting thing is that there is much more to those 620 pages than just the Bible.

The Codex Gigas is so important to us historically today because it acts as a sort of compendium of the knowledge of the time. Between its two covers is a vast and varied account of much of the knowledge of bohemian society of the time. This collection tells us what people knew, or thought they knew, about the world around them and, as a result, gives us enormous insight into their lives. Take as an example the encyclopedia Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville. In this book, Isidore does his best to tell all of human knowledge about mathematics, canon law, philosophy, the human body, geography, shipbuilding, weights and measures, rhetoric, and much more.

One of the most fascinating and entertaining parts of this book comes in the zoology section, where Isidore confidently explains that hedgehogs feed their young by climbing vines and stringing grapes on their thorns and then handing them to their waiting children, with complete illustrations. This entire encyclopedia is included in the Codex Gigas, as is Josephus' 20-volume history of the Jewish people and his writings on the Jewish war. In addition to this, there are several books on medicine, all of which would have been incredibly useful at the time, as well as a history of the Czech lands up to that time.

There are prayer books, instructions on how to celebrate the Eucharist, a calendar containing a list of notable deaths, and a set of magical formulas. This book is extensive in every sense of the word, not just the physical one. The author had wanted to include everything possible to capture the people's knowledge of him in a cohesive book that would stand the test of time. Today, it is the equivalent of printing out the entire Wikipedia to place in a library where any future civilization can access it. Actually, it's more amazing than that, it's like writing Wikipedia by hand and drawing all the illustrations yourself.

We have been talking all this time about a singular author. Most historians coming to a text like this would expect it to be the work of an entire team of writers and illustrators. This is how books of this size can invariably be produced. There is so much work to do that there is no way one person can do it all themselves. But this is where we get to the most fascinating part of the Codex Gigas, which ties all of this into the mythology surrounding the book. Writing experts who analyze the text from the first page of the book to the last page cannot help but conclude one thing.

Is the same. The handwriting in Codex Gigas is incredibly smooth, almost impossible. One person wrote it all. But not only did one person write it, he wrote it with incredibly consistent quality throughout his entire life. It is estimated that the text of the Codex Gigas alone, ignoring all illuminations and illustrations, took 20 years to write. It's not 20 years of writing 8 hours a day and sleeping well at night, it's 20 years of writing without pause and without breaks. This was not just the work of a monk, it was the work and purpose of his entire life. They would have had to start writing when they were young or even teenagers, and continued until what was probably the end of their lives, given the mortality rates of the time.

And yet, there are still more things that will impress us. One of the most notable things about the book, according to scholars, is its incredible coherence. We mentioned that the writing comes uniformly from the same person, but consistency also applies to the quality of the work. If you sat down and wrote a 3,000-word essay by hand, chances are your handwriting would look noticeably worse in the last sentence than it did in the first. Your hand gets tired, your attention wanders, your brain becomes foggy and you become lazier. That's over the course of a day. Now expand that to the course of your life.

Your writing can get better over time with practice, it can get worse as you get older and start to lose your sight. Your hands may hurt from RSI, become paralyzed from arthritis, or shake from Parkinson's. All of these things affect your writing, making it more sloppy and erratic. That doesn't happen in Codex   Gigas. This author, this inspired individual, somehow maintains the same level of detail, precision, and creativity throughout the entire book. The level of artistry they demonstrate as teenagers or young adults is consistent with their skill as veterans after decades of work. As we said, it's almost impossible.

How could one person do all this by themselves? Which brings us back to the legend surrounding this book and the reason it was given the name "Devil's Bible" in the first place. In the middle of the book is adorned the most striking and best-made illustration of the entire book. It's a double page. On one side is an illustration of Heaven. On the other is the

devil

himself. At 50 cm (20 inches) high, it takes up more than half of the available page, which was left practically empty around it. He crouches over the page, seemingly ready to pounce. His arms are raised above his head, with four clawed fingers on each hand.

Along his waist he wears a loincloth made of what are believed to be ermine skins, a common symbol of royalty. He is Satan, king of demons. His expression is between a smile and a snarl. Madness fills his eyes, sharp teeth line his mouth, and two tongues snake out of his mouth, forked from somewhere deep within his mouth. All pages surrounding this are faded and worn. For centuries, people have come to this book and immediately flipped through this exact page. And it is from this illustration that the legend of Hermann the Recluse arose. How could one man, even throughout his entire life, produce a work so grand, so complete, so intricate, and so consistent?

He could not. It wasn't made by a man at all, it was made by the Devil. That's why there is such a large, detailed illustration of Satan in the middle of all this. Legend has it that Hermann the Recluse was scheduled to be executed by confinement. Desperate to be freed from his fate, he had one night to perform a work sufficient to earn his redemption. Out of fear, he prayed to the

devil

in the dead of night and the devil answered. Satan himself finished the book for Herman. That's why he was so perfectly coherent, but as payment he demanded that Herman include a large illustration in his honor in the center.

That and Herman gave her his soul. Today we can look at this book and know that it is totally harmless. There is no dark witchcraft at play, nor satanic influence. It is just a book, an encyclopedia of 13th century Bohemia written by a single man. But as you stare into Satan's eyes halfway through the book, you'll notice that his gaze follows you around the room. But it's all totally harmless... right? Now check out “What the Bible Really Says About the Devil.” Or check this out instead!