Well, in this episode of five minutes in church history, we are going to pay a visit to Louisville,

Kentucky and visit the campus of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to talk a little bit

about the rich history of this seminary.

We should also talk about the campus itself.

There are many treasures here and the campus is certainly one.

It's a beautiful campus with many red brick buildings with

white spires and white columns. The design, the landscape design was done by one of the

most famous landscape architects of all time, especially of the

19th century Frederick Law Olmstead.

He designed Central Park and many other parks, many of the parks in Louisville and also the campus of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

In addition to the campus itself, it houses a lot of treasures.

One of the treasures I've been able to handle there and look at is a

Codex. It is from the 11th century. It is a manuscript of the four

Gospels. It's a cursive manuscript and it is on vellum. It is called the Codex Robert Sonianus.

It is named for A.T. Robertson. Remember him? We did an episode on him, a few back here on five minutes in church history.

He was the great New Testament professor at Southern, a Greek scholar.

He was here from the time of his graduation in 1888 right up to the time of his death in 1934.

He loved the Greek text and so this manuscript was up for auction and he purchased it and he bequeathed it to

his beloved seminary and it is housed in one of the vaults here and I've been able

to see it and handle it and see the scribes work this wonderful 11th century manuscript.

There's also a rich legacy here of presidents going back to the first president who founded Southern seminary, James Pettigrew Boyce.

He founded the seminary in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, and then came the Civil War.

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