In the Christian writings of the 1st cent, there is nothing — not even a specific term — to indicate that the codex, i.e. a construction of parcliment or papyrus sheets in the form of a modern book, was the vehicle of the autographs, or the first copies, of the Christian writings. In the Epistle of A risteas, a Jewish work dating from the 2nd cent. B.C., we find the words dveyifuKrSTi rd nvxn, and it has been suijiiosed that they refer to Jewish codices of the LXX ; but Birt in his Die Buchrolle liasefrectively shown that the reference is to book-rolls. When we bear in mind, however, that the codex was in fact the book of the common people, and thai the NT Epistles were written, not as books or literary works, but as actual letters, in rolls, or (in the case of a few shorter compositions) on wax tablets, or, again, frequently on parchment sheets, — which wo may perhaps think of as having been single leaves, —we must regard it as at least possible that at the
time when the Christian books began to be tran- scribed and collected, the codex form was the recognized one in Christian circles. Nor does it seem impossible, in view of the history of the codex as a whole, that Christianity, with its earliest literature, gave an imixutant and jiowerful impetus to the transition from the roll to the codex. The courseofthisduvelopment in the literary and artistic products of the period from the 2nd tolhe 5th cent. presents a fascinating sulijcct of study.
i. Writing and reading Birt emphatically
asserts th.-it the Greeks and Romans never used a table as a support in the act of writing {ypd())eiv, ayaypAipeip [in Hennas], d.va.ypa<j>ii [1 Clem.], rara- ypa.<p(iv, {yypd(p(i.v, etc.), but generally wrote in a squatting or sitting position, and cither simply upon a tablet held in the hand or, where a papyrus roll was used, upon this supported by the raised knee or the left fore-arm. Birt takes his stand upon the representations of ancient art, which un- doubtedly lend colour to his contention ; but the use of something in the nature of a table or board is so natural that we are almost forced to regard the data of art as defective at this point.
While it is possible tliat in general the Christian authors of the Ajiostolic Age wrote their books and epistles with their own hands, we know that St. Paul frequently dictated his letters — aswastlie practice more especially among people of wealth or rank — but added the closing salutation in his own hand (cf. 1 Co 16=', Col 4>8, 2 Th 3'" ; in Ro 16-= his amanuensis, Tertius, is mentioned bj' name). The Epistle to the Galatians, or at least its concluding paragraph, was penned by the Apostle himself. As regards the First Epistle of Peter, the question depends upon the interpretation of .5'= (oii 'ZCKovai/oiJ vfuf TovinffTouddeX^oOj uis\oyi^Ofj.aL, ol dXiyuiv ^ypa^a), where we may either, with Zahn {Einlcituiuj, ii.=, p. 10 f.), regard Silvanus as the real author of the letter or suppose that, as the present writer thinks, he wrote it to St. Peter's dictation. In course of time it came to be a very common practice in Chris- tian circles to employ tachygrajjhers and secre- taries.
As regards the reading (dvayiyvutTKav, a word of very frequent occurrence) of the papyrus roll, Birt has brought before us such a profusio'n of excellent data that we can quite well picture to ourselves how the people of the Apostolic Age would read, say, the Epistles of St. Paul. The most vivid representa- tion of the act is given by the Attic sepulchral relief in the Abbey of Grottaferata (see A. Conze, Die attischen Grabreliefs, Berlin, 1890, ii. plate 121, no. 622; Birt, op. cit., pi. 157, fig. 90), which shows the reader holding the roll, with its text arranged in columns, before him, his left hand rolling up the portion already read, while his right unrolls the portion still to lie read. Just as. volu- men, from volvere, is the Lat. term for the pajiyrus strip that couUi be formed into a roll, so we have in Greek — somewhat rarely, it is true — the term ipeCKriiia (first in Jos. Ant. XII. ii. 11), from iXlaau (d\laau>) 'turn,' 'wind,' 'roll round'; the special sense of the verb ajipears also in Rev &*, where the departing heavens are compared to a scroll being folded up, lis ^ilSXtof iXnTad/xemi (similarly in the Apocalypse of Peter [beginning of 2nd cent.], ed. E. VieiisKhen, Antilegomcna-, Giesseu, 1905, p. 88). In Lk 4}' we find the correlative term dvaTrTV(rffeii' used to denote the unfolding of the roll ; the read- ing dvoiia! which appears in a number of codices is probably not original here ; as we saw above, in connexion with Rev 5'"-, dvoiyw is the technical term for loosing the seal, and was only subse- quently, by association of ideas, transferred to the opening of the codex.
5. Letters ; signs to the reader. — As minuscule MSS first emerge about the end of the 7th cent. A.D.,
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YOUNG MEN
we must assume that the autographs of the NT were written in a majuscule script, and without douht in tlie Greek capitals known to us. But we must here distinguisli between the literary or book form of writing on the one hand and the form used in everyday life on the other. The distinction between the two corresponds very much to that between manuscript and print at the present day. The curj^ive hand arose, of course, from the desire to write rapidly and, where possible, continuously and without breaks. As most of the NT writings were not in the first instance produced as literary works — not being designed for the public at large — we may assume that t!ie NT Epistles at least, and probably also the first transcripts of the other books, were written in a cursive hand and in capitals, as found in various papyri of the 1st century.