Bible Monument ‘heralds a more just society’

By Miriam López Guevara, Bible Society of Mexico

 

The Monument to the Bible unveiled by the Bible Society of Mexico on January 29, 2005, in the historic centre of Mexico City. This is the work of sculptress Tosia Malamud. Photo: BSMexico (MEX05DJ-12.JPG)

MEXICO — Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. Revelation 1:3 (NIV)

The Bible Society of Mexico has unveiled a specially commissioned sculpture of granite, marble and bronze bearing this Bible verse in a street in the historic heart of Mexico City.

‘Someone was guiding my hand’ – sculptress The Bible monument, measuring four by three metres, is more than two metres high and is carved from Italian granite and Mexican marble. At the top, reached by means of the three marble steps, is a bronze cast depicting, on the left, a scroll bearing the text of Revelation 1:3 in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. At the right-hand side of the texts, the paper of the scroll becomes the right- hand page of an open book, on which the text is repeated in Spanish and Náhuatl.     “My work on the Bible monument was different from my other work – more emotional,” said Tosia Malamud. “Because at times I felt as though someone was guiding my hand. I’m pleased with the work which I did and I hope I interpreted the idea which those who trusted in me to do it had in mind.”

In his address at the unveiling, the Rev Abner López, General Secretary of the Bible Society, said that although for the capital’s politicians – let alone the federal government – a monument to the Bible might be of little importance, “that is not true for 15 million evangelicals in our country.”

Unveiling

“This unveiling,” he said, “should not be seen merely as a religious act, but as a symbol of the growing plurality of politics and religion which Mexico is experiencing.”

In some parts of Mexico, notably the state of Chiapas (see World Report 366/21, 376/5 and 381/18), recent years have seen sometimes violent social and religious division and the oppression of evangelicals, in particular. It was this situation which led the Bible Society to produce its booklet entitled The Bible and Human Rights, which is still being translated into the country’s indigenous languages (see Purepécha story).

But the Bible monument, said Mr López, confirmed that Mexico was living in a new era, a time of plurality and democracy which would undoubtedly give way to a more just and egalitarian society and a time of greater harmony between its peoples.

That was a view with which one of the guests at the unveiling, Alejando Encinas, Governor of Mexico’s Federal District (around the capital Mexico City), was keen to concur.

Mexico City, he said, was a melting pot in which the most diverse cultural expressions, including different religions, blended together. And in the squares, gardens, streets and boulevards there breathed a climate of tolerance and plurality.

Historic

Describing the street where the monument stands, La Calle de Gante, as one of the most beautiful avenues of the city’s historic centre, he reminded his hearers that it took its name from Fr Pedro de Gante, a sixteenth century Franciscan missionary, originally from Flanders, who was a great defender of the Indians and founded the first school for Indians in Mexico City.

“[This street ] is a legacy,” he said, “of men and women who made possible our identity; it is a space open to ideas.”

Fifteen church denominations collaborated with the Bible Society on the monument project and consequently many religious – as well as political – dignitaries were present.