With Gov. Bill Haslam's signature, the Bible will become a state symbol of Tennessee alongside agate and limestone (state rocks), Pterotrigonia thoracica (state fossil) and the channel catfish (state commercial fish).
And, lest we forget, the most recent addition to state minutiae - the Barrett M82/M107, the state rifle, earlier this year.
Remember how quaint we were when, as school children, we were proud we could memorize the state flower (iris), state bird (mockingbird) and state tree (tulip poplar), and maybe sing one of the then-only three state songs? Now there are two state flowers, two state birds and nine state songs. Where will it end?
State senators approved the Bible measure Monday, following the House's approval of the measure last year.
We hoped the issue had died a quiet death when it didn't get done in either 2014 or 2015, but now Tennessee is on the cusp of becoming the first state to trivialize the Bible this way.
Even Louisiana and Mississippi couldn't get such a measure through its legislatures.
To be clear, it's not the Bible, what's in it or what it represents. We believe, after all, the book is the inspired word of God, a history of God's people and a manual that contains everything needed for a commitment to personal salvation.
But making it a "Jeopardy" question won't invite further reading, convert a soul to new life in Christ or sell more Bibles (the bill noting several major Bible publishers are in Nashville).
The actual wording of the measure, sponsored by Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, said the Bible should be recognized for its "great historical and cultural significance in the State of Tennessee as a record of the history of Tennessee families that predates some modern vital statistical records."
Of course, those were individual family Bibles, not the Bible as an entity.
And not to stir up trouble, but the legislation doesn't designate which Bible should be the state book or which translation. Those two questions, in themselves, are enough to set off scholarly arguments for the rest of the century.
There's also that nettlesome legal opinion by Attorney General Herbert Slatery, saying the bill violates both the U.S. Constitution and Tennessee Constitution, but never mind. What's a little constitutional crisis when we're talking about the most important book ever written?
If Gov. Haslam doesn't sign the bill, the Bible would become the state book if he ignores the measure for 10 days after receiving it. But we urge him to veto the bill, inviting a legislative second thought, not because the Bible isn't important but because it is.