Bible older than the US found in Indianola retirement home

INDIANOLA, Iowa (KCCI) - A bible, older than the United States by several decades, has been discovered at a retirement home in Indianola.

Kathy Magruder, who runs a bookstore in Indianola that sells new, used and antique books, found the 318-year-old Scottish Bible while going through books from the retirement home’s community library.

She was looking through books that had not been checked out from the library in some years.

“This one, just something about it, when I open it up, the pages make a noise when you turn them that’s a little different than a new book, they feel a little different, and the book smells a little different than any other book. And that’s when I knew it was probably worth looking into more.” Magruder said.

Macgruder said she started studying the book, and she discovered it was printed in Selkirkshire, Scotland in 1705.

She believes it was printed illegally, without the oversight of the church, which at the time, was a crime punishable by death.

Macgruder said she tried to research the family members listed in the bible, but she was unable to find modern-day relatives, leaving who it belongs to and how it ended up on a different continent a mystery.

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