When discussing the history of the Bible, it is important that we all understand the terminology being used. Certain writing materials have certain names that set them apart from the others. Because the Bible was written over thousands of years, these writing materials changed several times. The Old Testament was mainly written onto scrolls made of animal skin. This kind of paper is called parchment, and when the animal is a calf it is called vellum. This parchment was rolled into scrolls and read in worship. Closer to the New Testament times, they used papyri plants and weaved them to make it thick. They squished them to get all of the water out, and let them dry. This writing material is called papyrus, the root word of paper. The papyrus sheets were either rolled into scrolls called a biblion or sewn together into stacks called a codex, similar to modern books. Later, when I reference specific papyrus manuscripts I will refer to them as p#.
Ink was usually made by mixing water with charcoal and some kind of gum as a binder. John actually references pen and ink in 3 John 3:13. Of course, they did not use pen and ink such as we have. Another important factor in the transcription of the Bible is the lighting. As we know, there were no electric light bulbs to illuminate their homes. Everything they did was lightened by the sun or candlelight. Can you imagine writing down God’s Word in a cold or hot room with only the light of a candle or sunlight from a small window? This was an arduous task that would have caused headaches and backaches.
And what if they made a mistake? The only options were to start over completely or to scratch through it and keep going. There was no eraser, and there certainly was no backspace key! The Masoretes, who we will discuss more fully later, were extremely picky about the manuscripts. Mistakes were not easily forgiven, and the accuracy of the Holy Scriptures was of upmost importance.
The Bible was written in three languages, which means three different alphabets, none of which use Roman letter like English. I will be talking about each language individually and in greater detail in the future, but I would like to point out a few things here first. Alphabets were not the first form of language. First was the pictogram, small pictures that stood for entire words instead of just one letter. For example, aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, was originally an ox head. It changed throughout the years until now we have the letter A. Each letter has a history such as this. The chart below is a good visual demonstration of the evolution of the alphabet:
This image is from the Biblical Archeology Society.
Now that you have a beginning knowledge of the materials, methods, and the alphabets used in the transcription of the Bible, we can begin talking about the long journey the Bible has made from Moses to your coffee table. Next, we will discuss the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages and their individual impacts on the Bible.
The main source for this history is The Books and the Parchments by F. F. Bruce. If you wish to read a fuller, more detailed history, I highly recommend this book. It is a bit dense, but not boring!