Does A Trashed Bible Signal One's Piety?

Q. Who is more pious, the person with the pristine goatskin Bible or the one with the ragged, dog-eared paperback Bible?

A. I'm not the best person to ask when it comes to judging the piety of others, but I'll take a crack at it. Growing up in church, I was always led to believe there was an inverse relationship between the condition of your Bible and the condition of your soul. The nastier your Bible looked, the better your chance at eternity. We were saved by grace, but with a little help from patina. 

These days, the artificial aging of everything from leather goods to jeans is all the craze. I'm surprised the publishers aren't offering pre-distressed Bibles yet. Back then, we had some shortcuts to achieving patina, too. Leaving a cheaply made bonded leather Bible on your dashboard through the Louisiana summer was a good way to get yourself elected deacon. 

So let's just say I'm skeptical about the correlation between ragged Bibles and contrite hearts.
Don't get me wrong, though. The Bible is meant to be read. That's the reason I advocate for reader-friendly format and quality production. I want to see more Bibles that lend themselves to long-term use. 

The sorry state of Bible manufacture today is due in part to the fact that consumers don't notice the difference. They don't use their Bibles enough for the poor quality to show. And when a Bible does fall apart, the last thing you want to do is replace it. That thing is Pharisee Gold, the ultimate status symbol! Come to think of it, quality publishing might not be such a good thing. If occasional use was no longer tantamount to abuse, what would become of our pretenses?

I'm not a fan of babying "nice" Bibles. I don't buy good hammers for keeping in the toolbox and cheap ones for driving nails, either. You pay for quality because you intend to use it. Patina? Bring it on. But I prefer the kind that enhances the tool rather than destroying it, and that requires quality from the get-go.
J. MARK BERTRAND

J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor whose writing on Bible design has helped spark a publishing revolution. Mark is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), as well as the novels Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide—described as a “series worth getting attached to” (Christianity Today) by “a major crime fiction talent” (Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Henning Mankell.

Mark has a BA in English Literature from Union University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an M.Div. from Heidelberg Theological Seminary. Through his influential Bible Design Blog, Mark has championed a new generation of readable Bibles. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Society of Bible Craftsmanship, and chairs the Society’s Award Committee. His work was featured in the November 2021 issue of FaithLife’s Bible Study Magazine.

Mark also serves on the board of Worldview Academy, where he has been a member of the faculty of theology since 2003. Since 2017, he has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Laurie life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

http://www.lectio.org
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