Origins, history, language

What were the original biblical texts written on?

Many modern writers use word processors to edit and improve the text on screen. It is not so long ago that writers used typewriters to help with their speed and presentation, and it is not more than a hundred years ago since manuscripts were sent to the publishers handwritten. It is only very recently in the history of the human race that a book might appear on paper only at the final printing stage.

The earliest tools: papyrus and reed pens

Papyrus

Some of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament books may have been written originally on papyrus. This is a reed plant, whose name probably comes from Egypt where much of it was grown and then ‘manufactured’ into a writing material.

To make a papyrus ‘book’

• Slice the reed downwards into long, thin strip
• Beat and press it with strip at right angles to one another (like lines in a noughts and crosses game)
• When it is dried out, polish it into a smooth writing surface using shaped stone or wooden tools.

Papyrus rolls easily, so ‘books’ were rolled rather than closed, and the length of sheet varied. Papyri could be joined together using an overlap and pasting the sheets. If something was shorter than a single sheet of papyrus, for example a business letter, it was cut out of the larger sheet to save the material.

Contrary to what some books say, papyrus was not vastly expensive in its day and it was hard-wearing. It yellowed with age, whereas when new it was white, but it did not deteriorate rapidly in other ways. It is possible to buy small samples of papyrus now – but watch out, because what is sold to tourists in some countries as papyrus is actually made from dried banana leaves. This product rots away soon after you have returned home and cannot claim your money back!

Reed pens

Reed pens, with ends like small chisels, were the first sort of pen to be used but the Greeks introduced quill pens made from feathers. In some cases pens were cut and then the end was chewed to make a fine brush. Ezekiel’s secretary had a writing kit (the Good News Bible translates this as ‘something to write with’ mentioned in Ezekiel 9:2). It may have been rather like the wooden pen case of today but containing several pens, inks made from red ochre or black carbon, a cloth to serve as blotting paper and a pen-knife – in those days it really was a knife for making pens! Surviving texts show red and black as writing colours. The ink was made from carbon (soot) mixed with thin gum. It was sometimes made into dry tablets for storage and water was added to make it write again, rather like a child’s box of watercolour paints today that needs water to make it workable.

Clay and stone tablets and wooden writing boards

For major and permanent writings of a relatively short length, stone or clay tablets or wooden writing boards were used. Jeremiah’s iron pen (Jeremiah 17:1) might have been for writing on metal. The Ten Commandments were written on stone (Exodus 24:12). This form of writing still exists today in Britain on gravestones. The purpose is exactly the same – to produce something visible and lasting. But that’s as far as the advantages go!

Parchment and vellum

The Jews preferred their synagogue copies of the Torah to be written on treated animal skin rather than papyrus. This was an early form of parchment and, later, vellum. The skin was treated by being scraped and rubbed smooth. The skin of young animals was preferred. Needless to say, pig skin was never used for this, because of the prohibitions on pigs under Jewish law.

When sheets were attached to one another they were pasted or stitched. Animal skin was believed to last longer than papyrus for hard-wearing regular use.

Codices and how they were produced

It is thought that the New Testament documents were written on both rolls and on codices. Codices (pronounced ‘co-diss-ease’) is a plural word, the single of which is ‘codex’. A codex was made by folding the sheets of papyrus or vellum down the middle and stitching them. It was therefore an early form of book as we know it.

The pages of a codex were piled on top of one another and then folded down the middle. This meant that the pages were uneven in size and had to be trimmed before they were written on. Occasionally, because of the cost of producing papyrus, a roll or codex would be recycled. It would be rubbed smooth again, rather like we might rub out pencil writing of our own, but using tools not rubbers. The resulting text is called a palimpsest, which means ‘rubbed smooth again’. With modern detective and scientific work, however, scholars can sometimes work out what the original text was as well as reading the one written on top. One early copy of Hermas’ Shepherd was written on the back of a business document.

Even where codices survive only in part, it is possible to work out the number of pages they contained. One, known by the reference number P45, contained all four Gospels and the Book of Acts in 220 pages, but only about 30 pages have survived. Gradually codices took over from scrolls as the preferred method of preserving Christian texts. Both sides could be written on and more easily read than on a roll. Rolls also had the disadvantage that when you had finished reading and rolling it from right to left as you did so, the roll had to be rewound to the start. The average length of a roll was thirty-five feet. Perhaps this made rewinding a job for the slave!

The codex was more convenient for travellers and pages could be (and often were) numbered. Lines and margins were frequently rule. The Romans were used to parchment notepads and the codex might have seemed to them a natural follow-on from these – see for example 2 Timothy 4:13, where the receiver of the letter is asked to bring the books and ‘especially the ones made of parchment’. This is generally believed to refer to these notepads, which were then in common use.

Uncials and other scripts

The oldest of the New Testament texts to survive were written without punctuation and in uncials – the Greek form of capital letters. They have no title pages, no division into paragraphs or sections, no illustrations and no contents pages. They are called ‘Uncials’, after the capital letters in which they are written. It was not until the 9th century AD that a joined script came into use, which helped scribes to write much faster. These later joined scripts are called ‘cursives’ or ‘minicules’. There were no chapter and verse numbers, but in some a form of paragraphing was formed by spacing exits. Perhaps because of the desire not to waste papyrus, these ‘paragraphs’, where they existed, were much longer than our paragraphs.