Modern believers are frequently encouraged to treat their Bible’s with a little less care. Use it! read it! don’t worry about marking it up, dog-earing pages, or wearing it ragged, they’re advised. A tired-looking Bible is a good sign. Its user is, well, using it. Sometimes, though, the thing itself, that particular copy, really matters. Some might protest that that’s to make an idol of the object; but occasionally the object is greater than itself. Maybe it points to a history that musn’t be forgotten, its survival is a triumph of right, or it simply reminds that sacredness demands honor and attention. I’m thinking here of the Hebrew Bible, looted by Nazi soldiers in 1938 and finally returned on Monday to the Austrian Jewish community in Vienna. When and how should a Bible be so honored in itself?
