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Australia's first Bible Museum is now open! Free entry to all, including guided tours. Please contact us first if you are making a long journey to visit us to ensure we will be open.
Our first window display - Illuminated Manuscripts
The museum contains more than 1000 Bibles, together with models and artefacts associated with the Bible message. There are educational displays of many types, including the history of the Bible in English.
The Bible collection has original Bibles that were printed 400 years ago, as well as the most recent modern editions. The collected age of the Bibles is about 15,000 years!
The majority of the Bibles are in English, but many other languages are included: there are Bibles from every continent, and many islands: Australian Aborigine, Eskimo, Hebrew, Greek, etc......
The Bibles range in size from large Victorian “Family” Bibles, to miniatures that require a magnifying glass to read them. Their bindings include covers made from vellum, velvet, olive wood, mother-of-pearl and tin, as well as the more common leathers. Some of the Bibles have brass buckles, many have gilt edges and many are beautifully illustrated.
Some of the Bibles were printed for specific readers, like Braille for the blind. Some were produced for various churches: Roman Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witnesses. Others were published for use by the military, fire fighters and police. There are Bibles for children and teens
The collection includes electronic forms of the Bible: records, tapes, CDs and DVDs.
Services provided by Ellen and Jean include information about Bible conservation and Bible study aids. There will be a library of aids, including Bible dictionaries, concordances, lexicons and atlases, as well as computers. Copying facilities will be available for pages from ancient books and manuscripts.
Community, school and church groups can make appointments for visits with specific themes. The inaugural display is 'Illuminated Manuscripts'.
Whether your interest is in books in general, or religion, we are sure that you will enjoy a visit to The Bible Museum.
St Arnaud is a historic town at the crossroads of the Sunraysia and Wimmera Highways. It is about an hour’s drive west of Bendigo, or north of Ballarat. Make an extended day trip from Melbourne, or stay overnight.
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