Church displays Elvis Presley’s Bible to mark 100th anniversary

A church is marking its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that features a Bible once owned by Elvis Presley, the king of rock ‘n’ roll, who was a devout Christian known for traveling with a Bible among his belongings. 

The Needham Market Evangelical Church in Suffolk, England, is hosting the Bible exhibition that will run through Friday, according to a post on the church’s Facebook page. 

Gary Stevens, the church’s pastor, said that he asked the Museum of the Book in London if the church could borrow Presley’s Bible after learning from a friend that the museum had it on display, according to the BBC. 

The museum, renowned for its collection of centuries-old, printed Bibles written in dozens of languages, agreed to lend the church Presley’s Bible for the exhibition. It’s among several Bibles featured in the display, which includes a Bible translated into English by the 16th century scholar William Tyndale during the time of King Henry VIII.

Among the notable attributes of Presley’s Bible is that it contains several handwritten notes.

“Under Psalm 11, he has written, ‘In the Lord I have placed my trust and he will guide me’,” Stevens said. “Under another Psalm he’s written, ‘Lord send me light to guide me,’ and other things we have like, ‘Deliver me for I am nothing without you.’” 

Psalm 11, believed to have been written by David, can be interpreted to mean that one should trust in God as a refuge and protector, even when surrounded by enemies or faced with trying circumstances. 

Presley received the Bible as a Christmas present in 1957 from his aunt and uncle, Stevens told the BBC, and the pair verified its authenticity. Growing up in Mississippi, Presley was raised in a devout Christian household.

Before his death in 1977, Presley received 14 Grammy nominations and won three, according to Grammy.com. The musician’s version of the Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art” brought him his first Grammy win in 1967 for Best Sacred Performance. As Grammy.com also reported, all three of Presley’s Grammy wins were in Gospel categories. 

In 2022, Presley’s stepbrother, Billy Stanley, published The Faith of Elvis: A Story Only a Brother Can Tell to shine a light on the role that faith played in his late stepsibling’s life. 

During a 2022 interview with CBN’s Faithwire, Stanley stated that not many people know that Presley was a Christian. The singer’s stepbrother described him as a “Bible-carrying Christian” and “wherever he went, he took the Bible with him.”

While working with his stepbrother on tour, Stanley said that he was tasked with carrying the star’s Bible, and that he often observed Presley on his knees, praying. According to the performer’s stepbrother, Presley “read the Bible every day,” and he would frequently pray for “God’s mercy.” 

Stanley acknowledged the price that fame took on his stepbrother, who struggled with an addiction to drugs that are believed to have played a part in his death. 

“Nobody can really imagine the position Elvis was in. … Here you have a man that really changed culture,” Stanley said. “I always thought … he had the devil on one side, and he’s got God on the other side, and there was a constant battle going on inside of his head.”

“[Elvis] did his best … whenever he was in trouble, he would always turn to God,” he added. 

Two days before the singer died at his home in Memphis, Stanley remembered his stepbrother asking him, “‘Do you believe God forgives us for all our sins?’”

“I said, ‘Yes,’” the singer’s stepbrother recalled. “He kind of took me off guard with that question. I said, ‘Yes, we’ve read about it many times, and you’ve told me this too, and this is what I’ve learned in church.’ He said, ‘Good. I just want to make sure you know that.’”

The performer then assured his stepbrother that one day, he would fall in love with a girl who would “change [his] whole life.” According to Stanley, everything that Presley told him that day has happened.