Q & AJ. MARK BERTRAND67 Comments

The Care and Feeding of Leather Bibles

Q & AJ. MARK BERTRAND67 Comments

Q. What's the best way to care for a leather-bound Bible? 

A. The conventional answer is to use it, the theory being that oils from your hands will keep the leather supple as the Bible ages. This theory has the dual advantage of sounding pious and requiring no additional effort on the part of the reader. That's been my own approach, and it seems to work. I don't apply leather care products or observe any special care regimens, and so far none of my Bibles appears to have suffered from the neglect. 

Having said that, I've heard from readers who've gotten good results using a variety of leather products -- sometimes to preserve the cover, sometimes to improve it. If you use the Google search in the sidebar, you can hunt up some of the recommendations. Better yet, I'd like to invite readers who've used leather treatments successfully to post about them here. If you do, please include a link to where the product can be obtained, if you have one.

A word to the unrealistic: no elixir is likely to transform bad, cheap leather into a luxuriant pleasure for eye and hand. The money you could spend in chasing that chimera would be better invested in a quality cover! 

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.