From the Editors August 5, 2013 Issue

The Bible holds its own

The Editors

The opening in March of the History Channel’s 10-hour television miniseries The Bible was seen by 13.1 million American viewers, the largest cable TV audience of the year so far, and will be shown in the United Kingdom in the fall. The production is selling well as a DVD, and is also being marketed as a “novel.”

Although it’s impossible to obtain exact figures, there is no doubt that the Bible is the world’s best-selling and most widely distributed book, with recent estimates at more than five billion copies.

None of this will come as a surprise to Sentinel readers, many of whom cherish the Bible in much the same way as the founder of this magazine, Mary Baker Eddy, did. Mrs. Eddy loved the Bible, describing it as her sole teacher, and expressed her desire that people should view it as “the chart of life, where the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed out” (see Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. viii, 24). She readily acknowledged its key role in her elucidation of the Science of the Christ, and in the success of her Church’s mission.