If you look at the covers, there’s a lot of difference in Rose Marie Steen’s Bibles.

But as the old saying admonishes, “Never judge a book by its cover.”

One Bible is small, easily carried in her hand. It’s about a year old.

The other is 4 inches thick with a format of 17 by 11 inches, not one you would likely take to Sunday worship services. It’s 203 years old.

The similarity, Rose Marie said, is that the message inside is the same, and she reflected on God’s admonition that His word will not pass away, that it will be preserved. Both Bibles are the King James translation.

Gordon Cotton is an author and historian who lives in Vicksburg.

The new Bible was a gift, and so was the old one. It belonged to Rose Marie’s great-grandmother, Elizabeth Hyland Jones, who gave it to her daughter, Nancy Morrow Welles Wright — Rose Marie’s grandmother — who gave it to her.

Recently Rose Marie and her husband, Leo, had the Bible rebound at Norris Bookbinding Co. in Greenwood. The pages were worn and some torn, but they were not replaced. The Bible was restored, all the original parts preserved, including the covers and end sheets. All preservation material was acid free. Though most of the pages were in very good condition and easily readable because the Bible was printed on high rag content paper, the volume was coming apart and had to be re-stitched. Restoration was a slow process, as everything was done by hand. The cost, along with another family Bible, was $1,500.

It was worth the price, Rose Marie said, for both Bibles were rare, especially the largest one. The Norris Co. officials told her it would be impossible to affix a value to it because it is so very rare. It was printed in New York by Sage and Clough at 248 Pearl St. in April 1806. It was compiled by a minister, John Brown.

Brown called it a “Self Interpreting” Bible, for he wrote a commentary to go along with the text. He loved the Scriptures, and he wanted all to be able to read and understand, and the Scriptures to be self-explanatory.

Born in Scotland, Brown was orphaned when very young and was taken in by an old shepherd who taught the boy to tend the flock. While watching the sheep, Brown taught himself four languages. He was just a youth when he began preaching, and he eventually became president of the University of Scotland.

Like most Bibles, there’s a section for recording family history. Often such pages are printed with fancy engravings, but in this case they are blank — just plain paper on which the owner could write important events such as marriages, births and deaths.

It was from those pages that a tombstone mystery was solved a few years ago. At Old Hopewell Cemetery at Warrenton, a tall monument is dedicated to the memory of the original owner, who died in 1854; the name on the marker is inscribed “Elizabeth Alias Jones.” What an unusual middle name. Researchers wondered if it could it be a misspelling of Alice.

It was explained on the pages of the Bible. Elizabeth Hyland had married John G. Jones, a clerk of Superior and County Court for Warren County who was born in Saxony in 1777. (Another John G. Jones at Warrenton was pastor of Hopewell Methodist Church).

In the Bible, Elizabeth was listed as “Elizabeth Alias Hyland Jones” — in other words, she had been a Hyland before she married Jones. Whoever copied the material for the stonecutter either didn’t understand the meaning of “alias” or the stonecutter didn’t have room for the whole name.

The other old Bible Rose Marie had restored is not as large in format, but is still too bulky to take to Sunday school. It was printed in 1852 in Philadelphia by Lippincott, Grambo and Co. and measured 10 by 10 by 4 inches. It belonged to Rose Marie’s other great-grandparents, John B. and Cynthia Welles Wright, given to them by Mrs. Wright’s mother, who lived in the Bethesday community between Edwards and Utica. She gave them the Bible in the 1850s. John B. Wright, who was a Confederate soldier, was a charter member and the first deacon of Yokena Presbyterian Church.

Rose Marie, who was a Templeton before she and Leo married, lives on Price Hill near the west end of Campbell’s Swamp Road, only a few miles from where she was born 80 years ago in a house that had once been Bogue de Sha Baptist Church on Hankinson’s Ferry Road. She began school in Claiborne County, but after an illness the family moved back to Warren County. So, she enrolled in the first grade at Jefferson Davis Academy, staying there until in her high school years she transferred to Jett.

She taught Sunday school for about 25 years and is a member of the Church of Christ on Interstate 20.

The family notes in the Bible are not extensive, she said, but they might fill in some gaps in research —and she has told her kin they’re welcome to the information.

One of her goals this year is to read the Bible all the way through. She’s almost there, she said.

What will become of the old Bibles? They’ve been handed down in the family through the female lines, and Rose Marie will continue that tradition. She plans to pass them on to her daughter, Gail Kavanaugh.