My grandmother passed away at the age of 98 in 2009. She was a deeply religious woman who had several Bibles, some she read daily, others she had for 75+ years and were falling apart.
Believe it or not, even after all these years I am still getting rid of her papers, pictures, letters, and cards many she wrote years before her death. I have been holding onto her many Bibles, some with print too tiny for my eyes to read; a large Coffee Table Bible and a few Children’s Bibles. I no longer have a Coffee Table nor do I have little children so what do I do with them.
I can donate a few to a homeless shelter especially those with all the pages intact, but how about the ones with pages falling out – do I simply throw them it into the recyclable bin?
Hubby bought me a new Bible for Christmas a few years ago, so between that one and my Smartphone app, I definitely don’t need any of them. My hubby and sons are Muslims and have their own Holy Koran so I won’t be passing them down to the next generation.
What do think I should do with these old Bibles?
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17 thoughts on “How Do You Dispose of Old Family Bibles?”
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Good morning and thanks for this nice article.
Thank you for stopping by, glad you enjoyed it.
Good morning and thanks for this great article about a touchy issue for many religious families like ours. Today I got a nice surprise when I checked the statistics of my blog early in the morning and it lit up like a Christmas tree. Holy mackerel! You put 16 “likes”, one after the other. Now, be honest girl. Did you really read all those articles in a row? Well, you’re a woman, so you have the stamina that we, the weak gender, do not have. Thank God that women are the keepers of Mankind’s subsistence. I owe your family and you a nice dinner when I go to Delaware. You have a great website. Congrats!
Grazie Babbo Natale. Un grosso bacione. Arrivederci!
You made my day and I am going to be honest with you, I actually tried reading them all while watching “The Walking Dead” so, there are parts of each that I may have missed or even skipped all together – but I tried. Hope you are having a mah-vah-lous Monday and I’ll stop by the next 16 or so posts soon!
Aha! I knew it! For the next 16 please watch the upcoming fifth season of “Vikings” and those marvelously nude torsos that the women around me love so much.
A big kiss. Arrivederci!
You got it!
As far as I can tell, hardback books are not accepted for recycling in DE. The DSWA specifically lists “paperback books” and “telephone books”, which seems to imply “not hardbacks”, although I haven’t seen hardbacks listed on the Do Not Recycle list either. I agree that donating the Bibles in good shape to homeless shelters or religious organizations is a win. I don’t know if a pastor would agree with me, but if the Bibles aren’t in good shape, and there is nothing about them that would make them a valuable treasure, then I don’t see what’s wrong with disposing of them. You could rip out the pages for recycling and throw away the binding, or just throw the whole thing out. I understand that it sounds a little sacrilegious, but I don’t know that it actually is. Someone with far more religious authority than I would have to address that.
You know in some of them, the print is so tiny I doubt anyone could actually read them. I did however, donate a few to the Vets last week and the others will find a nice home in the recyclable bin because they have too many missing pages, besides hubby bought me a nice new one which I love and will hold onto forever…now what my sons do with it after I am dead and gone is another story for another day!
We have one Bible, given to us by the priest that married us. It’s very special. I think donating them is a great idea.
Yes, that is a very special Bible which I am sure you will keep forever.
For those bibles that can’t be donated, it would appear that burying or burning the Bible, with respect, would be the proper course of action. In my religion, a holy object would be “retired” in those manners (especially by burial).
Thank you Alana, yes, a few others suggested burial or burning, which seems kinda eerie to me.
Do not do this! Go to http://www.lovepackages.org/how-to-donate-old-bibles/ – they will ship them to other countries that need then – even the ones w pages missing
Thank you, I will keep this if ever the need arises again.
We give ours to family back home if they are in good condition. If the pages are torn they go in the recycle bin.
Yes, the torn ones went into the recyclable bin and the good ones were donated. I am still holding onto the big one.
Do not do this! Go to https://lovepackages.org/how-to-donate-old-bibles/ and they will ship them to other countries – even damaged ones –