(Photo by iStockphoto.com/AmericanBibleSociety.)

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 14 lunar flight — the first landing that succeeded in bringing the Bible to the moon. On Feb. 5, 1971, pilot Edgar D. Mitchell landed the lunar module Antares on the surface of the moon. He was carrying a packet of Bibles on microfilm, each the size of a color slide.

According to Carol L. Mersch in an excerpt from her book, The Apostles of Apollo, “Also included in the…Apollo 14 lunar Bible packets was a small folded certificate, referred to by Reverend Stout as a plaque, containing the first verse of Genesis in 16 languages contributed by the United Bible Societies, as these were the languages spoken by 60 percent of the world population…In time the entire group of Apollo 14 Bibles became collectively known as the ‘First Lunar Bibles.'”