Elvis Presley’s Bible up for auction to highest bidder
A Bible belonging to iconic American singer and actor Elvis Presley, one of rock music’s dominant performers from the mid-1950s until his death in 1977 and hailed as the king of rock 'n' roll, will be auctioned to the highest bidder on Saturday.
The Bible was found on his nightstand on the day he died on Aug. 16, 1977, at age 42.
The Bible (World Edition) has a current bid of $35,000, with a minimum bid of $37,500, according to GWS Auctions.
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The Bible has the name "Elvis Aaron Presley" embossed in gold on the bottom right cover, and it contains a number of bookmarked pages and underlined passages.
One of the underlined passages is Job 31:24-26, which states: "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."
The Bible will be auctioned along with a handwritten letter from Elvis’ cousin, Patsy Presley, according to the auction house.
The letter states in part: "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. This Holy Bible was one of three that Elvis had on his night table. After packing them Uncle Vernon had me take them home for safe keeping and eventually gave them to me."
In a previous interview with Billy Hallowell, Elvis' stepbrother Billy Stanley, who wrote a memoir titled,The Faith of Elvis: A Story Only a Brother Can Tell, said the late singer was "a Bible-carrying Christian."
"He carried the Bible with him everywhere he went," Stanley recalled.
"One of the things that always amazed me is when he read the Bible to my brothers, he would sometimes act out the part as he was reading the Bible. You don't forget those Sunday school lessons."
Stanley said at the time that he felt compelled to write a book about Presley's faith because his stepbrother's faith wasn't something the mainstream media ever put on display despite how important it was to him.
The auction of Presley's Bible comes days after his granddaughter, Danielle Riley Keough, filed a 60-page lawsuit to stop the sale of Graceland, her grandfather's estate.
A lender behind the foreclosure sale, Naussany Investments and Private Lending LLC, which had scheduled to auction Graceland on Thursday morning, claims it gave a $3.8 million loan to Lisa Marie Presley in 2018, and she signed a deed of trust with Graceland used as collateral. The company claims she failed to pay back the loan before she died in 2023.
Keough has argued, however, that the alleged creditor used forged signatures to create a loan that never existed.
On Wednesday, a Tennessee judge blocked the foreclosure sale of Graceland, ruling that it’s in the public’s best interest to stall any transfer of ownership of Elvis Presley’s “well loved” estate in Memphis, NBC News reports.
Shelby County Chancery Court Judge JoeDae L. Jenkins told Keough's attorney on Wednesday, "It appears ... your client will be successful on the merits ... providing that you prove the fraud that has been alleged."
According to Memphis-based news station WREG, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said his office will investigate the attempted foreclosure of Graceland.
Nicole VanDyke is a reporter for The Christian Post.
