Cheri,
Repairing a Bible can get tricky for the simple reason that Bible paper is usually very thin. It is tough to handle the pages without causing further damage.
The only Bible repair I've ever done was back in the 70's when I was a kid. I had a Bible with a damaged cover and put on a new one on it. I used crude materials (corrugated cardboard for the cover - colored with red and black marker) but the basic concept behind what I did was correct.
To put on a hard cover you will need 3 pieces of book board (front cover, back cover, and spine), an appropriate cover material to wrap around the book boards (cloth or leather work best), and end papers to bind to the book block and glue the new cover to the book.
A few years ago I bought a very detailed bookbinding e-book (
www.GoEasyBook.com) that came with a bonus course on creating hardcover books. It is the most detailed info I've come across so far for creating modern case-bound hardcovers. I haven't done enough work with them to create any tutorials of my own yet.
When it comes to re-binding loose pages, the approach depends on the original binding. The solution may be as simple as clamping everything together in a jig and applying fresh glue to the spine. If you can link to a picture of the book spine it would help to figure out the best approach.
This sounds like a much-loved book. I hope this info helps to point you in the right direction to preserve it.
Andrew
