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WRITING
"WRITING
Asia Minor, and is therefore not to be rejjarded as a discoverj'of the lirst or hiter Cliristian centuries. Still, the relatively late appearance of the codex in art, and especially in art of Christian origin, hardly justilies us, the present writer thinks, in assum- ing that parchment MSS in that form were very numerous in the Apostolic Age and the Apostolic Church, though this argument might doubtless be met by the hypothesis that art, in clinging to the papyrus roll, and continuing to do so even at a lime when, as in the 4th and oth centuries A.D., the codex had become tirmly established, and the roll was all but wholly superseded, was simply showing its "eneral tendency to conservatism. On the whole, therefore, while it is absolutely certain that in course of time Christian literature and the NT were transmitted in growing measure by parch- ment and codex, so that in fact ' parchment codex ' and ' Christian literature ' are related in the closest way, it may be presumed that this was not the case at first, and there can be little doubt that the great majority of the primitive Christian autographs, as well as of their earliest copies, were written on papyrus.
The fluid used for writing on papyrus was a soot- ink, i.e. a mixture of pine soot and glue dissolved in water, but, as this mixture did not adhere very well to parchment, a metallic ink of gall-apples was employed for the latter. Gall-apple ink, how- ever, is not mentioned until the 5th cent. A.D. — ' . 470 (Martianus Capella, iii. 225 [ed. F. Eyssen- hardt, Leipzig, 1866, p. 55]) — and thus the ink used in the Apostolic Age would probably be the mixture first mentioned, as referred to in 2 Co 3^ {ycypaiJ.fi4i>oi ij.4\avi), 2 Jn '^ (5id xaprou Kal /u.i\ai>os), and 3 Jn '^ (oia /xAaros Kal KaXdjxov).. Inkstands were also in use, though they are not mentioned in the Christian writings of the Apostolic Age. In 3 Jn '* we hear also of the xaXa/ios, the reed used for writing. It is probable that originally this was applied like a small brush, but in the period under consideration it was in all likelihood a pen in the proper sense. It was shaped and pointed exactly like the quill pen of later times ; the writing ac- cessories of the time included a knife for splitting the reed, and a piece of pumice stone for re- sharpening the point. The best equivalent for KdXa/ios is therefore ' reed-pen.'
3. Roll and codex. — If we would figure to our- selves the outward structure of one of the longer works written on pajjyrus in the Apostolic Age — as, e.g., the Gospel according to St. John — we must dis- miss from our minds the appearance of a modern book, wliich in reality preserves the form of the codex. It is true that codices were sometimes made of papyrus (cf. Jerome, Ep. Ixxi., 'ad Lucinium ' : ' et descripta vidi in chartaceis codi- cibus ') ; and we should probably agree with Schu- bart in assuming — on the ground of an inscription of Priene, dedicated to Aulus yEmilius Zosimus the town-clerk — that papyrus codices were to be found in Asia Minor as early as the 1st cent. B.C. ; but it is hardly likely that this form of book was generally or even frequently resorted to in that age. We may therefore safely infer that, e.g., the Gospel according to St. John was first written upon a roll ; in Jn 203" oi^', in fact, it is called rb pifiUov. Such a roll was formed of a number of papyrus sheets of equal size carefully joined together in a continuous strip, which may sometimes have been from 20 to 30 ft. — say 7 to 10 metres — long. The writing began with a vertical column at the extreme left, and was continued towards the right in similar columns, tliough we also find cases where the lines ran at right angles to the length of the roll, and were thus massed in a single column. There was great variation in the size of the sheet, and thus also in the breadth of the roll, which may usually
have been some 20-30 cm., but was often only 12-15 cm. in width. The number of lines in a colunm was likewise far from constant, and the breadth of the upper and lower margins introduced fresh variations ; but generally the number of lines would lie between 20 and 30. The breadth of the column did not usually depend on that of the sheets, wliich were so carefully joined that the j)en moved freely over the line of attachment. At its maximum tiie line was probably about equal in length to the hexameter, comprising some 36 letters, but more commonly it contained 20-25 letters. Hence, taking average measurements — say, a column of 25 lines consisting of 23 letters ; each letter with its necessary space 3-5 mm. ; lines with spaces between, 7 mm. ; upper and lower margins, 3 cm. each ; space between columns, 2 cm. — we may estimate that the Gospel according to St. John (1-20), with about 70,000 letters, would fill a papyrus roll 235 cm. broad, 12-5 m. long, and con- tnining 122 columns. Sindlarly, Revelation would lill a strip 8'5 m. in length ; Mark, one of 10 m. ; Matthew, one of 16 m. ; Lukeand Acts, each one of some 17 m. {Luke's Sevrepos Xbyoi having probably been written on a roll of the same dimensions as his TrpuiTos \670s).