A 300-year-old Dutch Bible has been given to the college because Hope is equipped to care for the centuries-old edition.
The 1702 "Dutch Staten General Bible," which includes the Old and New Testaments as well as the Apocrypha, has been donated to Hope by Gerald R. DeMaagd of Kentwood, Mich. The Bible had been in DeMaagd's family for most of the past century, starting with his paternal grandfather, Cornelius DeMaagd.
Interested in having the volume preserved for future generations, the family donated it to the college because the Van Wylen Library has climate-controlled storage space well suited to the preservation of rare books, according to DeMaagd. He presented the Bible to David Jensen, director of libraries, on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
Even though it was the college's state-of-the-art facility that earned the volume, DeMaagd does have a Hope connection. His mother, the late Gordelia (Kleinheksel) DeMaagd, was a 1927 graduate of Hope Preparatory School.