WRITING
WRITING
945
Wooden boards, inscribed in tlie one case with lines from Homer, in another witli part of tlie Phtenissie of Euripides and the IhrnU of Calli- iiiachus, are in the British Museum and the Rainer Collection at Vienna resi)ectively, both having been found in Egypt. Many wooden tablets witii Egyjitian writing are also in existence, and Egyp- tian monuments represent scribes in the act of using such tablets. In Is 30' and Hab 2' the 'tablet' or 'table' [Heb. li'm/i, LXX nviiof] is no aoubt wooden. The ' tables [same Ileb.] of the heart,' metaphorically spoken of in Pr 3', may be regarded either as wood or, in the light of Jer 17', more probably as stone. It is not always possible to tell whether the writing upon tablets mentioned by ancient authors is upon the wood itself or upon wax or some similar material with which the wood was covered. Wax was certaiulv used sometimes, and in later periodswax tablets were the commonest form of note-books in Greece and Italy. Herodotus mentions such a tablet (vii. 23',)), and Cicero, Martial, and other authors refer to them very freiiuently. Many examples of them are still extant, notably those discovered at Pompeii.* (d) Bark is sjiid by Pliny {EN xiii. 11) to have been used for writing before pajiyrus was known, and it continued to be used in the AVest, though rarely, as late as the 5th cent, after Christ (M.ar- tianus Capella, ii. 136 ; though it is not quite clear that the books so described are intended to be con- temporary productions). From its name, liber, comes the Latin word for 'book.' (c) Linen also was used in Italy in amient times {libri lintci, Livy, iv. 7, x. 38). The largest extant example of Etruscan writing is upon linen (in the museum at Agram). Linen was also used by the Egj-ptians for this purpose. (/) Lead was used in Greece and Italy, and probably elsewhere. P.iusanias (ix. 31. 4) mentions a leaden plate which he saw at Helicon, inscribed with the Worlcs and Days of Hesiod ; but the principal use to which le.ad (and other metals) was put as writing material seems to have been to receive magical incantations and charms. Such tablets have l)een found, and men- tion of them is frequently made in magical pai)yri. ((?) Potsherds (Jffrpaito) were used at Alliens to receive the names of persons on whom sentence of banishment {ostracism) was to be pronounced. In Egypt they were very plentifully u.sed for accounts, and especially for tax receipts ; in the Coptic period passages of Scripture and quasi - literary pieces were also inscribed upon potsherds, (/t) Leather plays a far more important jiart in the history of writing, especially of the Uible. It was used in Egypt ; leather rolls are extant from about B.C. 2000, and papyri of later date refer to docu- ments written on skins as far back as the 4th dynasty. On the Assyrian monuments scribes are shown holding rolls which appear to be of this material. The I'ersians used leather to contain the royal records (;3a<ri\iica! ii(pOipai, Ctesias, ap. Uiod. II. xxxii. 4). Similarly, Herodotus states that the lonians of Asia Minor formerly used skins of sheep and goats, and that many barbarous peoples continued to do the s.anie in his own time. In the OT, leather or skins are not expressly mentioned, but it is practically certain that this material was largely used, and was, in fact, the principal vehicle of Hebrew literature in historical times. The use of books in roll form is mentioned
• Sir H. M. Stanle.v (Camhill Magazint, Jan. 1901, pp. 60, 01) recoffls that on hit) flrst visit to I'^andu, in IbTfi, portions of tlie NT, trttnsl:ilc<l or iHtmphnmcd bv him and hia companions, were written on ' tliiii and polJHhcd boards of wliito wood, aliout 10 by 12 inches. . . . DurinR the three months I remaine<l with Mtes.*!, the translations which we made from the Gospuls were very ropious, and the principal events from the Creation to llic Crucifixion wore also fairly written out, forming quite a hullty library' of hoards.'
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in I's 40', Jer 36- * etc., Ezk 2» ; and the roll form implies the use of either leather or papyrus (vellum not having been yet invented, and bark, so far as is known, never having been employed in Pales- tine). Papyrus might, no doubt, have been intro- duced into Palestine from Egypt, and there is a recorded case of its being sent to Phu;nicia in the \\i\\ cent. {Zeitsch. f. dgiipt. Uprac/ie, 1900, p. 11); but there is no evidence of its general use at this date. On the other hand, the mention of the 'scribe's knife' {ta'ar hassuphcr, LXX tv ivpi} toO -/pan- ixariu^) in Jer 36 (43)^ probably indicates that the roll destroyed by Jehoiakim was of leather; since a knife (for the purpose of erasures) was p.art of the equipment of a scribe writing upon leather or vellum, but could not be used on so delicate a material as papyrus. In Nu S^ it is implied that writing could be washed off with water ; but this was the practice in the case of papyrus as well as leather, so that the p;is.sageis imonclusive. Clearer evidence is given by later writers. In the Letter of Aristeas the copy of the Law sent from Jeru- salem to Egj'pt for the purpose of the version of the LXX is expressly said to have been written on di(p0^pai. Further, tlie Talmud requires all copies of tlie Law to be written on skins, and in roll form ; and this regulation, which still remains in force for volumes intended for use in the synagogue, no doubt jioints back to an ancient tradition. All the evidence, in fact, seems to go to show that the OT Scriptures were habitually written on prepared skins, for which, in course of time, vellum was probably substituted in the case of ordinary copies (as distinct from synagogue rolls). It is not im- Ijrobable that in St. Paul's request (2 Ti 4") for t4 /3t/3Xta, fidXicTTa Tcts fiffM^pdvas, the latter word refers to copies of parts of the OT.*