Eliana Selmer, 65, is a Seventh-day Adventist living in Castro, Paraná, in southern Brazil. Although she had been reading the Bible every day, she had a hard time memorizing some passages. This led her to look for a different method to read and study the Scriptures.
“Just reading the Bible was not a very efficient way for me. At the time, I heard about how people who transcribed the Scriptures in the past had so much respect for this work and for the Word of God that they even changed their pens to write God’s name. This caught my attention, and I felt the desire to start writing, doing the same,” she shared.
It was 2006. At the time, Selmer (now retired) worked as a nurse. She started a new routine, which was to write a page of the Bible a day as soon as she woke up, at 5:00 a.m., before leaving for work. The reading and transcription time lasted about 45 minutes.
During four and a half years she wrote nearly 2,500 sheets of binder paper, which were divided into four volumes. To fill these pages, Selmer used 35 pens. The colors she used to write were black, gold (for the name and words of God), and red (for the words of Jesus). “They were such wonderful moments that, even when I was on vacation, I took my binder with me, and I made a habit of not getting out of bed until I had written my page,” she shared.
Selmer’s handwritten Bible was ready in 2011. When invited by her son to speak to the youth about this experience nine years later, she decided to give it to him as a gift. She then began a second copy, this time with the intention of giving her daughter a gift. The only difference from the first version was that the words of Jesus were in green. The gift was ready at the end of 2024.
Inspiration for Others
The initiative impacted Castro Central Seventh-day Adventist Church, the congregation Selmer attends. Some women followed suit and decided to also write copies of Scripture. The story reached the ears of Luiz Francisco Ferreira Junior, local church pastor, who had recently arrived in the district. Excited by the idea, he suggested a collective writing of God’s Word. More than 140 volunteers committed to the initiative, and each one received at least one chapter, or about 10 pages, to transcribe. Selver organized, coordinated, and reviewed the whole process.
The handwritten Bible of the Castro church took five months to complete. However, some pages were left blank because of the division of chapters. In order not to leave “empty” spaces and to give a visual edge to the copy, participants decided to include illustrations, mixing the idea of collective writing with the art of drawing and painting the Bible.
Members created the drawings related to each topic, and they voted on which ones to use in the handwritten Bible, which is still ongoing. According to Ferreira, the initiative led participants to get closer to the Bible. “It was the result we wanted: to bring the Bible closer to people . . . not to be just a meditation book or a book used in moments of worship, but to become part of their daily routine,” he said.
The original version of this story was posted on the South American Division Portuguese-language news site.