I keep my bible where it belongs – with the rest of the mythology books.
And that’s your privilege, Viola. But would you notice the question raised in the OP? WRS didn’t ask why people who don’t believe in the Bible don’t reverence it – that answer is, I think, self-evident. Do feel free to discuss your POV – you might be surprised at some of the opinions posed! But there was a disjunct between belief and practice on the part of those who do believe in the Bible, at least in WRS’s mind, and that’s what he inquired about. Different topic. (We could discuss whether married gay couples have the right to possess firearms peacably, too, and the present U.S. President’s stance on all these issues, and have one all-hot-buttons thread. But we at least try to stick somewhere near the topic of the OP, granted that most threads “drift” as they go along.)
Strangely, my grandparents taught me that I had to respect all books because the Bible was a book. Different strokes, I guess.
the bible is treated as any other blessed item; ie ikon, cross, etc. there are protocols for how it is treated and is housed in your home.
Could you elaborate a little more, please? This sounds interesting. What protocols are there? (I take you make be Orthodox.)
Thanks, Polycarp. 
WRS
yep, orthodox.
if the bible was blessed, it would be by itself, not in a book case with other books. it should not touch the ground, you would read it in a respectful manner, no food or bev. near it. you would say prayers before and after reading it. if it ended up in a condition where it would have to be disposed of, you would give it to a priest who would have the rules for that.
if baba gave you a bible for your birthday, non blessed, it would be treated as any other relig. books, with respect and perhaps on a shelf with other prayer books, relig. essays, etc. read in a respectful manner (not with lunch, or in the loo). it would be on the higher end of care, like book that you loved and took very good care of.
OT, but…
Woohoo! Finally another Orthodox comes forth, after the passing from this board of the late and mostly unlamented Dogface. I am no longer alone!
Thank you, rocking chair - your elucidation was very helpful. And I, too, am glad to know of another Orthodox Christian on the SDMB!
WRS
FWIW, I had a rather graphic demonstration of the level of reverence afforded the Bible years ago in a wednesday night youth service.
Our youth leader was an affable, joking guy, but he took his ministry seriously. He started a discussion about the Bible itself. Now, since it was a Baptist church, many of us had our own copies. My own was a sporty black leather edition that replaced the massive NIV Study Bible I had lugged every week for years. Everyone kept theirs on their laps or on the floor under their seat. We went around the room, and he asked each of us if he could rip some pages from our Bibles. Most said something like “No, you can’t do that; it’s the Bible!” I responded with my usual wisecracking,“No, my grandparents just gave it to me!” (Did I mention it was monogrammed?) As he expected, no takers. He then grabbed an old pew bible, from the red set that had recently been retired. He asked if he could tear that one. I was alone in encouraging him to do it, equally interested to see how many pages he could rip (he was a smallish guy), and how others would react. RIP! Out came a piddling two or three pages; the younger kids gasped, and some girls got weepy. It did spark a very long discussion about the nature of God’s word, respect for others, and soft idolatry. A success, I feel.
Many Hindus require all books, regardless of their content to be treated with reverence – In particular, one should never allow a book to be touched by one’s foot. Inadvertently doing so required doing pronam to the book – in effect a kind of prayer. This held true for magazines as well. When I was growing up, we always had magazines piling up in the basement, because my parents found it difficult to just throw them away – it seemed wrong.
I hardly treat the physical Bible as a sacred object; the first Bible that I regularly used when I was first a Christian fell apart after about a year from constant use. (It was a well-underlined paperback NEB.)
But I can’t imagine my being able to pull pages out of a Bible. A large part of that is that I can’t recall having ever torn pages out of any bound book, ever, other than a phone book - and if I was going to do that to some book, the Bible would not be the first one I’d pick. And I certainly wouldn’t tear pages out of a book unless it was pretty damned important that I do so. And now that the printer for our home computer also scans, faxes, and copies, I can’t see that need ever arising.
I’ve been in plenty of Bible study and prayer groups over the years where most or all of us sat on the floor, and of course placed our Bibles there. If we met outside, our Bibles would be lying open on the ground. Nobody thought twice about it.
I think it’s a greater degree of irreverence to publish the Bible under cutesy marketing-determined alternate names, like “The Book”. But even that doesn’t bother me much. The time that I saw a “As Seen On TV” sticker on the shrinkwrap of such a Bible, though, was a different story: a Bible trumpeting its endorsement by a commercial mass culture medium is a Bible that’s stopped believing in itself.
My pastor (Lutheran) when I was growing up encouraged us to underline/highlight in the bible that the church gave to all us kids. At first I couldn’t do it. He explained that it was the ideas and messages that were important. The paper and ink were just paper and ink.
In a Masonic Lodge, the Bible (or whatever Book of Law is to be used) is held in very high reverence. It is placed on the Altar, in the center of the Lodgeroom. The Book itself has to be of a specific nature. The Lodge cannot be opened without the Book present, and is opened only when the Book is ceremonially open. During rites, it is opened to a specific passage. Brothers are obligated on the Book of Law, and it is referred to as one of the Great Lights in Masonry.
I can’t speak to other Christians and how they personally treat their Bibles; however, I know folks who regard the Bible itself as holy, as if God’s presence is within the pages and will bring it out when demanding someone speak the truth. (Very rare, but it happens.)
Though I’ve also known some folks to treat a Ouija board with same awe.
Well, there’s been plenty of superstition attached to “the Good Book” over the centuries, with people using it as a talisman & such.
But when I read someone saying that Christians don’t reverence the Bible, I started to say that Protestants do more than Catholics. Not the copy of the book, but the text as distinct from the individual physical copy. The ideal Bible, as it were. “Don’t add to or subtract from this book,” is taken very seriously by some people. (Obviously less so by that publisher with the New Testament in magazine form–Thomas Nelson, i think?) And it’s evangelical Protestants who cling to Biblical inerrancy. You better believe they reverence the Bible. It’s just that it’s one Bible in many copies. But stuff about where your feet point? That’s not part of the religious tradition, so why would they worry about that?
In fact, I know a number of Christians who have both a “family” Bible and a “study” Bible.
The family Bible is treated with respect and reverence. It’s passed down from generation to generation. It may be read at certain occassions, but generally it is a ceremonial object.
The study Bible is treated like a “normal” book. Passages are underlined, notes are written in margins. It’s taken on camping trips, it may even be a key part of bathroom literature. It’s not an icon, it’s a vital, everyday part of these people’s lives. They use it, wear it out and get a new one.
I’ll leave it to others to decide which use is more “reverent.”
I hope it’s not too late to revive this thread…or at least hijack it.
The various versions of the ‘proper’ care and treatment of Holy Books has been fascinating. Personally I was raised Lutheran, and physically a bible is just a book and to be treated as such. The only ‘rule’ I was ever given was that a hardbound bible shouldn’t be opened and set ‘face down’ on a surface…but that was to avoid breaking the binding, not out of disrespect or anything like that.
But it did remind me of something I wondered about in regard to the Torah. Some years back a long lost Torah was rediscovered, and there were news stories of how important this was to Jews (I’m not sure if that was all jews or just orthodox) and a matter of great rejoicing and also historical research to determine to whose custody and care this particular copy should be entrusted.
Also included was a few paragraphs explaining to gentiles how sacred Torahs were to Jews, and that there were special rules for their treatment, and how they were kept in special cabinets, and if damaged beyond repair they had to be buried much as if they were a dead person…
All interesting, but…does that only apply to special copies? Torahs with a capital T as it were? Aren’t there also, well, secular copies? Ordinary print ones so you can have one in your home, give one to little Joseph to study, etc?
Or do you give kids a copy of a Christian Bible with a bookmark that says ‘stop reading here?’ (Sorry, just joking.)
Glad that I’d finished drinking my coffee when reading that last bit! 
Seriously tho, the Hebrew Bible’s (TeNaKh) books are in different order than in the Christian Old Testament and also, there are certain passages held by Christians to be Messianic prophecies which are translated somewhat differently between the Hebrew Bible & the C’tian OT.
Heheh I’ve seen this one; Bibles with scrawled notes, underlinings, cross-references and such were the mark of a very spiritual person. I’ve also seen people bending the spine backward on purpose so that it falls open at a certain place - not so much that it was their favourite bit or even the bit they considered most important, but rather (something like) it was the bit they wanted people to think they read over and over - that’s purely my impression, of course.
I’m glad this subject returned–I was sick when this thread was active.
As late as the 17th century, many English–Protestants and Catholics alike–believed that the Bible was an object of quasi-magical powers that demanded reverence. Even though the Church of England specifically disavowed certain reverential rituals towards the Bible during the service, popular religion still looked at the Bible itself as a supernatural object.
Take the example of Gregory Crow. Sometime during the 1530’s, Crow was on a ship off the coast of Norfolk which ran into trouble. Clutching a New Testament to his chest, Crow prayed for safety. “Miraculously,” the ship was spared! Sounds like a medieval hagiography, doesn’t it? Actually, the story is from John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, the comprehensive Protestant-leaning history of the church in England. Crow’s story apparently inspired many East Anglian Protestants. Keith Thomas reports in Religion and the Decline of Magic that it was popular in the area to use the book of the Bible to foretell the future, bestow good fortune, or heal the sick.
There was also the common belief that the book of the Bible could ward away the Devil. The best-known example of this belief is in fact from an American source of the 18th century, the Washington Irving short story “The Devil and Tom Walker.” In the climactic scene, Tom Walker faces the Devil down, reaches for his trusty Bible…and can’t find it under a stack of papers on his desk. (I know the feeling!) Walker’s belief in the physical book of the Bible as an antidote to Satan was extremely common in 16th and 17th-century England, where it was also believed that reading or reciting the words of the Bible would shoo away Old Scratch.
Why did the Bible cease to become an object of reverence in the popular English Protestant church? To some extent, it hasn’t. Note that there are still to some extent some rituals in the Book of Common Prayer specific to the text of the Bible. The call and refrain “This is the Word of our Lord./Thanks be to God.” were written by Cranmer himself. But the use of the Bible as a magical object declined with the use of all “magic,” as Thomas explained. Furthermore, as other methods of individual popular devotion became more widespread–particularly, the study of devotional literary or historical works and of the Bible itself–the Bible became more important as a object of “reading” than of “use.” Literacy in fact made the words themselves useful. At the time of the Reformation, it would have been generous to say that 25% of the population was literate–what use did the illiterate have for the Bible, other than as an object of some unknown power?
Yes, I’ve seen this, too, tho not so much since escaping the Baptist church. In my current (Methodist) church, no one even brings their own bible to services, except the pastor. I was astounded to see that! Baptists, particularly the fundamental type with which I am acquainted, seem to take much pride in wearing their bibles out so much that they have to purchase special fabric “bible bookcovers” to keep the book from falling apart (cos it would be too much trouble to buy a new bible and transfer all their handwritten notes to a new one).
OTOH, my great-aunt once scolded my mother for laying a piece of paper on top of her bible, because “the word of god should not be covered”. So it’s an interesting combination of wanting to be conspicuous about your devotion to studying yet also not disrespecting the text. I dunno what to make of it, I’m just very glad to be a Methodist now