The personal Bible that was on the nightstand the night Elvis Presley died was sold at an auction on Memorial Day weekend- at a price that could buy a home in some parts of the U.S. The World Edition version of the Bible, which includes marks from Elvis highlighting his favorite verses, sold for $150,000 after 23 bids. The starting bid was $30,000.
Among the verses personally highlighted by Elvis is Job 31:24-26: “If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; If I rejoiced because my wealth was great and because mine hand has gotten much; If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness.”
It came with a letter from his cousin, Patsy Presley.
“Shortly after Elvis’ passing, my uncle Vernon (Elvis’ dad) and I went up into Elvis’ bedroom at Graceland to organize and pack many of his personal belongings,” she wrote. “This Holy Bible was one of three Elvis had on his night table. After packing them, Uncle Vernon had me take them home for safekeeping and eventually gave them to me.
The front cover includes his full name “Elvis Aaron Presley,” embossed in gold, and the inner content contains a “large amount of bookmarked pages and underlined passages that seemingly spoke to Elvis,” according to GWS Auctions, which was in charge of the sale.
The Bible “was on his nightstand in his bedroom at Graceland on the night he passed,” GWS Auctions said.
On its website, GWS Auctions posted photos of pages that Elvis underlined.
He highlighted Genesis 1:31: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
He also highlighted Isaiah 29:19: “The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”
Elvis died in 1977 at the age of 42.
“A lot of people don’t realize that after every show, he would unwind by singing gospel songs until the sun came up,” his stepbrother Billy Stanley told Fox News Digital. “He was in touch with the Lord. A lot of people said, ‘Well, he did this and that.’ [But] we all fall short. We’re all human.”
“As Christians, most of us live under a magnifying glass,” he added. “Well, Elvis lived under a microscope because he was a big star. It was tough. But the way I like to put it is … [he] had the devil on one shoulder and God on the other. And there was a constant battle going on in his head.”
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Keystone / Stringer
Related Article: Elvis Presley's Personal Bible to Be Auctioned with a Starting Bid of $30,000
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.