It is said that a Bible that’s falling apart is a sign of a life that isn’t. But we at Leonard’s are aware that a devoted follower of Christ, reading their Bible diligently every day to follow in His footsteps, is not the main reason a Bible falls apart.
While I can’t say why your own Bible has fallen apart, here are 6 very common reasons why it might be. See if some of them apply to your Bible.
1. The Bible’s cover was made of bonded leather.
Bonded leather is not the same as a real leather. You can know this easily when you ask yourself whether you have ever seen an animal called a “bonded”. Even “genuine bonded leather” is not a real leather. Likewise, “European leather” is not a real leather. It is not made of Europeans but is actually another form of bonded leather.
Instead, bonded leather is merely a product made of leather scraps, ground together and mixed with a bonding agent, then rolled out and stamped with a grain. It looks great when it is first made, but over time, it will crack and break off. Very often, what is described as a “leatherbound” product for sale is only bonded leather. You can tell when the cover is not stamped with the name of an animal at all.
The main exception to the rule is pigskin. No one ever stamps a Bible’s cover with “Genuine Pigskin”. So you’ll see “Genuine Leather”, and from Cambridge, “Genuine Berkshire”. It’s pigskin. Don’t be fooled.
2. The Bible’s cover was made of a synthetic substance.
There are many proprietary names given for these synthetic products, such as TruTone, DuoTone, LeatherLook, LeatherLike, LeatherSoft, etc. They are not leather. They are made of a type of plastic.
Beware! If your Bible is encased in a product such as this, over time, it will melt, peel, and flake. It looks great at first, comes in beautiful colors with embossed designs … but it will look like cotton candy when the plastic peels off. These are forever chemicals that should not be so close to your lungs.
3. The Bible has been staying on the dashboard of a car under extreme heat conditions.
The intent is to have the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, available at all times, so that you can read it during standstill traffic in a commute or share it with a friend at work as needed.
But unintentionally, this leads to either the melting of the synthetic cover referenced above, causing it to be sticky and flake off, or in the case of a real leather Bible, it causes a drying out of the fibers and a premature aging. Remember, if it’s too hot to leave your child in a car seat while you’re in a store, it’s too hot to leave your Bible under the sun’s powerful heat.
4. The Bible’s pages were bound only with a strip of glue and not sewn.
The Bible’s pages were originally produced on large sheets paper and folded together into signatures. But then, some publishers will chop off the folded edges of the signatures and apply glue to the binding edge to keep the text block together more cheaply than sewing them.
Over time, the pages will break off from the glue strip, and you will be left with chunks of pages and single pages. Glue binding is also called “perfect binding”, which is a clear misnomer, as it is far from perfect. Heat will hasten the failure of the glue strip.
5. The Bible has been trapped inside a carrying case.
Many, many people believe that the attractive carrying cases available even in Christian bookstores will keep their Bibles safe as they travel, kind of like a cell phone case. But the intended use is to put the Bible’s covers inside the pockets. Those pockets will restrain the covers so they won’t pop up on you while you’re reading if the cover is too stiff, but you have to understand the consequences.
The restraining effect of the pockets is similar to crucifixion for a Bible. Once the front and back covers are tightly held down, the handle of the zippered carrying case causes the full weight of the Bible to sag downwards and the spine to curl backwards. The fore-edges of the pages begin to protrude, and they are easily susceptible to dog ears and tears.
Worse yet, if your Bible’s cover is bonded leather or a synthetic, it will crack or peel because of the abrasion with the carrying case, but you won’t see it. Some synthetics will meld with the insides of a plastic carrying case. If your Bible is sewn, it will stretch or break the sewing. If it is only glued, the stress will hasten the process of the pages falling out. You’ll only notice all this when you have seen the breakaway pages.
6. The Bible has been living in a home with an aggressive dog.
Okay, so maybe this one was already painfully obvious.
