Chapter 1: “The Anabaptist and His Book” – The Bible Makes Us Baptists by Mary E. Bamford

In this first chapter of The Bible Makes Us Baptists, listeners are introduced to young Editha and her cousin Stephen, children living in a time when relics and traditions held great influence. Fascinated by the mysterious artifacts in a nearby Catholic church—such as an angelic spear fragment and “the Blessed Bottle of Hales,” said to contain Christ’s blood—Editha is drawn into stories passed down by her mother. Yet these tales trouble her father, who has quietly begun to seek truth elsewhere.

We follow Editha and her father as they visit an elderly neighbor, John Eld, who owns a rare treasure for their day: a copy of the New Testament. As Mr. Eld reads aloud, Scripture begins to shape their thinking in contrast to the superstition around them. But danger stirs when a priest enters Mr. Eld’s home in his absence. After that day, Editha never sees him again.

This opening chapter closes with a seed of curiosity planted in Editha’s heart as she hears her father speak the word “Anabaptist”—a name she does not understand, but one that hints at deeper truths yet to unfold.

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