The Magnolia gazette., 1899-11-11
HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO Us.
LECTURE SECOND, THE STORY OF
THE PARcHMENTs.
BY Rev. Albert r. Bond.

The Apostle to the Gentiles, a
chained and condemned prisoner
in Roman cell, old in the SER
vice OF the Gospel, presents pa
thetic picture as he writes to
Timotheus to bring tthe books,
especially the parchments' (2
Tim. ABB With only Luke with
him, Paul looked into gloomy
future. In these last days there
could have been no desire on the
part of this great preacher for
books other than those relative to
his religion. He NAV have long,
ed for the Psalmist's comfort, or
to make fresh application OF tine
Messianic hopes to the Christ Of
his experience.
The word parchment primarily
means material for writing pre-
pared from the skin of goat or
sheep, but in this lecture it is
broadened to cover the sacred
documents, regardless of the
special kind. We will consider
the following topics:
/. LINGUISTIC PEcULIARITIEs.
1. The Writing.
The material used in modern
book, with its fine paper, printers
ink and exquisite binding, is quite
different from that contained in
ancient works. Paul's express
sion especially the parchments"
is a fitting description of the ex-
tant manuscripts of the Bible, but
the skins of animals have not been
the only material in use. Modern
archaeological researches in the
Orient show that stone and clay
formed the book material, and
there is no reason to suppose that
the Hebrews we're unacquainted
with this method. The command
to Moses to write the Ten Com
mandments on stone tablets was
in perfect accord with the formal
writing of records. A sharp in
strument was used to make in
cisions upon the stone, and the
clay was baked after the impress
sions were made. We have no
biblical writings thus preserved,
but there are references in the
profane inscriptions to events of
a \
Palestine received the name of
Booktown because of the depos-
its of tablets.
The use OF papyrus was syncro-
nous with that OF clay and stone.
1t was prepared from reed that
grew in profusion on the banks of
the Nile, the product being a
smooth, thin fabric similar to our
paper. The word papyrus is the
origin of the English paper. Nat
urally, the destruction of papyrus
writings was very easy. and, as
this method was superseded by
another, we have no manuscripts
Preferred to by the sign MSS. on
this material.
The most convenient and wideA
ly used material was that made
from skins of animals. VelIum,
thin, fine article, was prepared
from the skin of a young antelope.
The skin of sheep and goats fur
nished the bulk of the demand.
The oldest MSS. in existence are
on this. A coarse paper IRON
cotton rags was manufactured in
the ninth century A. D. Among
the Jews only the skin of clean
animals was used.
The parchment was cut in strips
and pasted together, making a
strip many feet long. Both ends
were fastened to a stick and the
reader would unroll from one and
roll on the other stick, the writing
being in columns few iuciies
wide and written across the ma
terial. This was called scroll
= But, later this cumbersome style
gave place to the book form, and
all our MSS of the New Testa-
ment are thus written.
2. THE LANGUAGE.
Most OF the Old Testament was
written in Hebrew. The excep-
tinns aro Ezra d.2-R.19 ITO oe d.