Most Expensive Bibles and Religious Books

Religious books and manuscripts are some of the first written records in history. Any that last to the modern day (in full or in part) are pretty valuable. 

These are the most expensive Bibles and religious books that have sold at auction to date. The top one might surprise you.

Year sold: 1987

Sold for: $5.4 million ($10.2 million today)

Bottom line: The Gutenberg Bible was the first mass-printed book and dates back to the 15th-century. There are 49 copies (full and in part) in existence. 

This particular bible was part of a 1987 auction by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It was once owed by philanthropist  Estelle Doheny and purchased by Maruzen, a Japanese bookseller, who resold it to Keio University for undisclosed sum in 1996. 

Year sold: 2021

Sold for: $8.3 million (8.7 million today)

Bottom line: This illustrated Hebrew prayerbook dates back to the late 13th and early 14th centuries and is believed to be from southern Germany. There are less than 20 that exist today. 

It tells the story of medieval European Jewish communities and their migration across the continent and contains the liturgy for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

It was sold by the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU), who had purchased it in 1870, to an anonymous buyer in 2021. 

Year sold: 2020

Sold for: $8.8 million ($9.3 million today)

Bottom line: The Timurid Quran (also known as the Aqquyunlu Quran) was created around the time of the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century. 

The gold-flecked book with colored pages features Thuluth calligraphy and white, blue and gold medallions in its margins.

Sold in 2020, its origins and buyer remain unknown. 

Year sold: 2015

Sold for: $9.32 million ($10.7 million today) 

Bottom line:  In 2015, this 16th-century Babylonian Talmud went up for auction. It was one of only 14 multivolume, full sets still in existence. 

Daniel Bomberg, a Christian publisher living in Venice, employed rabbis and scholars to help him print the Rabbinic Bible and the first complete Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds.

The book was printed between 1519 and 1523 and was purchased by Stephan Loewentheil, a rare books expert, for private equity billionaire Leon Black.