Leather bound bibles

[rat]

I ran across a statement on an Orthodox web site that bibles couldn't be bound with leather "Because you can't have the living word of God covered with the skin of a dead animal." As I have a few leather bound bibles, I am wondering what to do...Must I get new ones?

[Liudmilla]

W.S.---

I don't know if what you say is true...but it seems to me that if you already have the Bibles, use what you have. It's more wasteful to get rid of them....How does one do that anyway? .....and since it's sinful to waste....just use what you have and don't worry about it....I'm fairly certain that God understands.

Milla

[Ebor]

You are correct that parchment and vellum are made from skins and were the common materials used for writing on until paper became more available. (mem. paper from "papyrus" the reeds in Egypt, but was eventually made from rags which have to be pulped and processed and then made into sheets of paper.) You couldn't just run out and get a couple of reams of white paper when you needed to write like we can now.

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchment
http://www.usartquest.com/products/proj ... -faqs.html

Parchment can last a very long time, too. Paper tends to degrade more quickly.

Ebor

[rat]

Thanks for the help, everyone! I'll try and post the link, no doubt I'll run across it again.

[OrthodoxyOrDeath]

Of course the Holy Gospel on the altar is covered in polished metal, hence this Saints comments. But as he indicates, it is not so much what the Gospel is made of, but how it reflects on us!

---

You do well not to let drop from your hands the polished mirror of the
holy Gospel of your Lord, for it provides the likeness of everyone who
looks into it, and it shows the resemblance of all who peer into it. And
while it preserves its own nature and undergoes no change, having no
spots and being quire free from any dirt, yet when coloured objects are
put in front of it, it changes its aspect, though itself undergoes no
change: when white objects are put in front of it, it turns white, when
black ones, it takes on their hue, when red, it becomes red like them;
and with beautiful objects it reflects their beauty; with the ugly it
becomes unsightly like them.

---St. Ephraim The Syrian, in The Spritual World of St. Ephrem the Syrian.