A thumb bible is a literary genre of its own. It belongs to the category of miniature books and is a subtype of the literary genre of children's bibles. It is an attempt to summarize the whole bible by paraphrasing selected biblical narratives. The abridgements of the biblical texts follow the scripture principle of the Reformation "scripture alone". The thumb bibles are designed for children and youth. Their intention is to communicate biblical basics in an elementary way. The majority has pictures to illustrate the biblical content. Collectors of miniature books enjoyed the thumb bibles for a long time, while scientific research has ignored the little volumes up to this day. This volume is the first scientific study of the thumb bibles. It contains their history from the beginning to the present and presents the theological, literary, pedagogical and pious profile of this literary genre.