The inspiration for printing the words of Jesus in red comes from
Luke 22: "This cup is the new testament in my blood, which I shed for you." On 19 June 1899,
Louis Klopsch, then editor of
The Christian Herald magazine, conceived the idea while working on an editorial. Klopsch asked his mentor
Rev. Thomas De Witt Talmage what he thought of a New Testament with the words of Jesus in red and Dr. Talmage replied, "It could do no harm and it most certainly could do much good." Klopsch published the first modern red letter edition New Testament later in 1899. The first modern, fully "red letter" Bible was published in 1901. The red letter bible instantly became popular, and is sometimes favored by
Protestant Christians The format has been cited as particularly useful in
King James Version editions, which do not use
quotation marks. ==Previous Use of Red in Documents==