188 year old kjv found!

DANVILLE, Va. — Electrician Michael Hoskins is not averse to browsing when he drops off trash at the Route 41 dump bin, and a recent visit rewarded his curiosity. Hoskins said he discovered a 188-year-old King James Bible. Now he's fending off offers approaching $1,000 for the find.

"I go up there all the time to drop off my household trash, and there it was," Hoskins told the Danville Register & Bee. "There were three or four boxes of books leaning up against the concrete wall behind the Dumpsters," Hoskins said. "I found the Bible in four pieces, put them together and took it home."

While otherwise intact, the Bible appeared to have fire damage and had watermarks on some of its inner pages. The sheepskin-covered book was printed in Pittsburgh in 1818 and, according to Hoskins' research, is one of less than half dozen copies in existence.

"You can also see where it survived a fire at one time," he said. "I was always told a Bible wouldn't burn and have seen it before in other church and house fires."

Hoskins also looked into the Bible's history and discovered that it belonged to the Enoch family.

"So, I also did research on the Internet and found a descendant of Isaac Enoch listed in the Bible," Hoskins said.

1 Peter 1:24 "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

25 "But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."

Very cool.

The best find I have come across was a 1st Edition copy of William McGavin's 'The Protestant' from 1833 for $100. He was very outspoken against popery and kind of looked at as cooky from what I have dug up on the net. McGavin's statue was made by R Forrest, who also made John Knox's statue.

McGavin portrait: http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp52953&rNo=0&role=art

I had never heard of him when I bought the book, but I knew it was a piece of history when I saw it.