What is the background of the Logo on the Classic Lectionary home page?
The beautiful Logo was scanned from an 18th century Hebrew Bible. The word is “Bereshit,” or, “In the beginning,” the first word of the Torah. The first letter, Bet, is formed into a border around the rest. It is a clever design, since that letter normally has a dot in the middle to distinguish it from a similar one, and the rest of the word makes up the dot. When our library was developing this home page, we wanted to use an element that underscored the connection between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. “In the beginning” is also the first phrase of the first verse of the Gospel of John. The continuity of God’s presence and the communication of it through “the word” seemed an appropriate element to highlight for the Lectionary. In addition, our library has enjoyed a long connection with the Jewish community and its tradition, exemplified by our outstanding Judaica collection. The use of the Hebrew word accentuates that bond for the Vanderbilt Divinity Library. We also were str
