I had a wonder about how Paul physically wrote his
messages. So I found an interview with Alan Millard on Reading and
Writing in Jesus time on the website thinkapologetics.com
It seems Paul would have used papyrus. This is
some of what Millard has to say about it:
Papyrus is made from the stem of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus. The outer rind is first removed, and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips of about 40 cm (16 in) long. The strips are then placed side by side on a hard surface with their edges slightly overlapping, and then another layer of strips is laid on top at a right angle. The strips may have been soaked in water long enough for decomposition to begin, perhaps increasing adhesion, but this is not certain. The two layers possibly were glued together.[14] While still moist, the two layers are hammered together, mashing the layers into a single sheet. The sheet is then dried under pressure. After drying, the sheet is polished with some rounded object, possibly a stone or seashell or round hardwood.[15]
Sheets could be cut to fit the obligatory size or glued together
to create a longer roll. A wooden stick would be attached to the last sheet in
a roll, making it easier to handle.[16] To
form the long strip scrolls required, a number of such sheets were united,
placed so all the horizontal fibres parallel with the roll's length were on one
side and all the vertical fibres on the other. Normally, texts were first
written on the recto, the lines following the fibres, parallel
to the long edges of the scroll. Secondarily, papyrus was often reused, writing
across the fibres on the verso.[4] Pliny
the Elder describes the methods of preparing papyrus in his Naturalis Historia.
And about how it was used:
THE TURNING: So, let’s imagine
if we had a time machine, and we could go back to the time of Christ. If
someone were taking notes about Christ after they met him, what form would
those take?
MILLARD: I think probably they
would have written the notes on little wooden tablets coated with wax, which
were the common notebooks of the time, often small enough to hold in the palm
of one hand. You scratch the writing on with a pointed stylus and either
transfer it to a leather or papyrus roll or if you don’t want it, simply smooth
over the wax and use it again. I can envisage people taking notes like that.
Some of them might have been priestly people, religious people, who sent their
information to Jerusalem to priests there who were opposed to Jesus. Others
might have been people like the soldiers whose son or slave Jesus healed and he
might have sent a letter to his brother serving in the army in another part of
the world, telling him what had happened. I think too, that the people who
heard and saw the remarkable things that went on made notes for their own
benefit or for their family’s benefit and some notes could have formed the
basis for some of the Gospel writer’s works.
THE TURNING: I guess for most
of us, we assume that the book, that thing with pages that you open up, that’s
got a cover on each side is something that’s been around forever. But in the
1st century, are we really talking about a book as we know it?
MILLARD: No, no, we’re talking
about a leather or papyrus roll or scroll. The Dead Sea scrolls, for example,
are simply long rolls of leather. The most complete one is the copy of the Book
of Isaiah from the Hebrew Bible and it’s about twenty-four feet long, eight meters
long. So, to read the book, you have to unscroll the leather with one hand and
roll it up with the other and a long book, like Isaiah was a long roll, the
average roll would only be twelve to fifteen feet long. The Isaiah roll is
about eleven inches high. We shouldn’t imagine these ancient rolls were as big
as the scrolls you see in a modern synagogue for example. Some of them were
much smaller, only five or six inches high and you could quite easily put one
in the fold of a coat, cloak and carry it along with you.
The full interview is very informative. http://chab123.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/reading-and-writing-in-the-time-of-jesus%E2%80%9D-by-alan-millard/
Joyce Voysey
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