Ask a Researcher

The Library’s Research staff had heard this rumor over the years but like many rumors that come to us for authentication, we’d found no concrete evidence one way or another. Then, in the November 17, 2008 issue of The New Yorker, an article reviewed the work of the photographer William Eggleston. The accompanying illustration, called "Untitled" and taken in 1984, was a photograph in the living room at Graceland, showing an Eggleston photograph of Presley reflected in a mirror above a dresser. On the dresser was a pile of books—and the top book on that pile was a copy of Science and Health. Click here to see the photo.

We called the staff of Graceland, Presley’s home in Memphis, and spoke to researchers there, who were able to confirm that there was a copy of Science and Health in Presley’s personal library. It was placed in his living room for the photo shoot.

The researchers at Graceland suggested that the book had been a gift from Presley’s spiritual advisor, Larry Geller. Geller, a hairdresser, became a friend and confidant of Presley’s after a chance discussion during a haircut. He often brought Presley books to read and the two discussed many different outlooks on spiritual philosophy.

Geller later wrote a book about his time with Presley called Elvis’s Search for God. In it, he discusses Presley’s deep spirituality and includes one chapter titled "The Healer." Clearly, religion was deeply important to Presley, who had started his career as a Gospel singer and continued to record popular hymns throughout his life.

We were able to get in contact with Geller, who confirmed that he did give Presley the copy of Science and Health that is still at Graceland today. He said that though Presley had been raised in a fundamentalist home, he searched for new spiritual ideas throughout his life, and that he and Presley had many conversations about Mary Baker Eddy’s ideas. Several others from Presley’s household have spoken about his spiritual search, including a nursemaid who was a Christian Scientist. Geller spoke of his own lifelong interest in Christian Science, and of how much he had enjoyed his own visit to The Mother Church years ago.

To best answer this question, we have prepared a chronology of this By-Law's development. To read the full text please download the PDF.

The references in the Christian Science Quarterly followed the Revised Version during that periodical’s first year, 1890. This translation continued to be used for both the Golden Text and Responsive Reading from time to time during and shortly after Eddy's lifetime, up until 1914.

In his reminiscence, Irving Tomlinson wrote that the change from the continuous use of the Revised Version in the Quarterly to the King James Version was "undoubtedly at Mrs. Eddy’s direction" and mistakenly reported that the King James Version was "permanently substituted" (203b). It should be noted that at the time the change was made in 1890, Tomlinson was not a member of the Bible Lesson Committee, and when Eddy later appointed Tomlinson to the Committee, he oversaw many instances in which the Revised Version was used in the Quarterly.

A number of supporters of the exclusive use of the King James Version of the Bible in Christian Science church services have quoted a single sentence from an editorial by Annie Knott in the April 12, 1913 Christian Science Sentinel. The sentence reads: "Many years ago Mrs. Eddy decided that the Authorized Version of the Bible, known as the King James Version, should be used at all our services because it expressed the truth with sufficient clarity to enable every earnest student to demonstrate its power."

Our collections give no evidence that Eddy made any such decision. However, we’ve also found that a reading of Knott’s editorial [PDF download] in its entirety does not support the contention that Knott believed other translations should never be used in English church services. In fact, it shows that to some extent she supported the use of other translations.

In the paragraph from which the above quote is taken, Knott goes on to say that the Revised Version, because of advancing scholarship, gives a clearer sense of the meaning of certain passages than does the King James, but that it agrees with the King James "in the majority of cases." She sums up by saying that versions which differ from the King James and Revised Versions are "of very uncertain value, even for private study" unless they are among the "few which adhere very closely to the original text."

A reading of Knott’s editorial in its entirety explains why she, as a member of the Bible Lesson Committee, decided to make use of the Revised Version for the Golden Text in the Lesson-Sermon of February 1, 1914 (the last time a non-King James Version translation was used in an English Bible Lesson before 2008). It’s also interesting to note that in the second paragraph of the editorial, Knott supports a point she is making by quoting from the Revised Version instead of the King James.

Mary Baker Eddy did not mandate that the King James Version of the Bible be used in services in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and its branches. It is the Bible, not a particular version, which she named with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, to be the Pastor.

The King James Version was Eddy’s own personal favorite, as we know from her correspondence. However, Eddy did not hesitate to use other translations if she felt they were clearer. She chose to use the wording from a marginal note in the Revised Version for the Cross and Crown emblem rather than use the wording from the King James Version. The Christian Science Monitor’s motto is from the American Standard Version of the Bible.

In her exegeses of the scriptures in Science and Health, Eddy quotes exclusively from the King James Version. When Eddy was revising Science and Health in 1885, she was assisted by Rev. James Henry Wiggin, a former Unitarian minister turned copy editor/indexer. In a letter written during his first year assisting her, Eddy asked him to use the King James Version so that all Scriptural quotations in Science and Health would conform to the same standard. As she emphasized: "My notes on Genesis were upon the [King James] version. It changes the uniformity to go off on another one" (L02166).

We have been asked if this request by Eddy could also be taken as a mandate that the King James be the only version of the Bible used by Christian Scientists. This does not appear to be the case; again, the letter makes no mention of church services, and was written years before the Bible and Science and Health became pastor for Christian Science services.

While the Bible passages in the body of the Lesson-Sermon have always been taken from the King James Version, occasionally in Eddy's day the Golden Text or Responsive Reading published in the Christian Science Quarterly for use in church services was taken from a version other than the King James.

In addition, readers of Science and Health will notice that in some instances Eddy herself has utilized other translations, in order to ensure the clarity of the Bible message. She quotes twice from the New Testament as translated by George R. Noyes (313:19, 360:22) and once from the Icelandic translation (525:12). Also note her statement on page 16 of the textbook:

In the phrase, "Deliver us from evil," the original properly reads, "Deliver us from the evil one." This reading strengthens our scientific apprehension of the petition, for Christian Science teaches us that "the evil one," or one evil, is but another name for the first lie and all liars.