The Crossway Fujimura Bible Project

I have a passion for illuminated manuscripts.  I studied them in college extensively, and then visited the actual Book of Kells at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.  I am an artist and I am a Christian.  Illuminations of the Bible, for me, are an overwhelmingly beautiful fusion of my two loves.   

To illuminate something, literally, is to fill it with light.  The goal of filling a book of the Bible with artwork, is to "fill it with light" and beauty; to illuminate it.--Not that the Word of God needs illumination.  It doesn't need artwork or pictures to make it anymore profound.  The illuminations are simply beautiful for the sake of beauty.

The Book of Kells is probably the best example of original medieval illuminations.  In medieval times, illuminations of the Bible, or of prayer books, were done not on paper, but on stretched and dried skins of sheep or young cows.  It took approximately 30 sheep to make one collection of illuminated gospels or one large prayer book.  Only royalty, or the very wealthy could own even a single book at that time in history.

This page of the Book of Kells contains the Chi Rho monogram. 

 Chi and Rho are the first two letters of the word Christ in Greek.

photo credit: Britanica

Makoto Fujimura is an inspirational and extremely talented Japanese Christian painter. In 2011 he created The Four Holy Gospels: an exquisitely designed edition of the four canonical Gospels in the English Standard Version, published in commemoration of the 400^th anniversary of the King James Version (KJV) Bible in 1611. 

The finished product is breathtaking.

Fujimura has taken his unique artistic talent and created a modern illuminated manuscript of  the four gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Exquisite. 

 To learn more about the Crossway Fujimura Bible Project, you can visit the website here.