The Form of the Bible: The Transfer of the Biblical Text from Scroll to Codex Form

By Julie Clawson @ http://docs.google.com

The power of written language is undisputed. One can easily report examples of people being swayed by a book they have read or reacting strongly to a newspaper article. But does it matter in what form the words appear? For the last 1800 years or so, the words have appeared most regularly on pages organized into book format. Such a format has become so familiar, that one can hardly conceive of the written word appearing in any other format. Nevertheless, before the advent of the book, written words were most typically to be found on a scroll. Sometime, most likely during the second century AD, a transfer was made from scroll to book format. While that transfer did not happen suddenly, it was a major change that drastically affected how people approach the written word. Until the present day, there has not been a single change to the form the written word takes that has been as significant as that. Arguments can be made for the impact of the printed word as it replaced handwriting as being significant, which it is, but even with that, the general form of the book remained the same. In the current age a new form has been introduced -- that of the electronic medium. One no longer holds a physical object as one reads, but stares at a screen. In this medium lies the possible future of the written word. One wonders how significantly will this new transfer affect approaches to the word? But on that question, one can only speculate and make comparisons to the last significant transfer of the written word. By understanding the implications that the transfer from scrolls to books had on interpretation of and approaches to texts, perhaps an understanding of what is happening with electronic media currently can be reached.
To make a comparison, a study of the history of a particular book that has existed during the entire period in question is necessary. The Bible was originally written on a scroll format, then transferred to codex (book) form, and now has appeared in electronic medium. Given its importance as a religious document, the history of responses and approaches to it are readily available. Believers in the Bible, have not always interpreted the Bible in the same fashion, nor has their attitude to its physical form always been the same either. As a historically significant book that demands response from its readers, the Bible is the perfect hyper-example of the book in relation to the world. An exploration into the history of the Bible revels that interpretive approaches to the Bible both prompted and were the result of the transfer to book format. This paper will discuss that history and explore the impact the transfer of form had on the practice of interpretation of texts. In addition, some time will be given to discussing the possible implications the emergence of electronic media might have on the Bible and its interpretation.

The Bible as a Codex
By the age of the Emperor Justinian, the years 527 - 565, Christianity is legal and official. Such a status for the religion came after years of turmoil and persecution. But instead of being ostracized and persecuted, Christians now held positions of prominence. In fact by this period, “to be a bishop could now be a politically powerful and lucrative position.” # Similarly, by this period the Bible held a place of prominence as well. While the scriptures had always held a place of importance for Christians, the idea of the Bible as a book was significant in this period. For, “it is in this Justinianic world, which still encompassed both Greek east and Latin west, that western Bible manuscripts can first be observed as a coherent tradition.” # Its place in the church was determined and used regularly. Significantly, those Bibles “are all by now books rather than rolls, and all written on parchment rather than papyrus.” # In fact the book form was so common that some of those Bibles were even luxury volumes. # The codex form had gain such acceptance and was so common that the basic scriptures were put into expensive bindings and decorated.
Earlier evidence of the use of codex form for the Bible comes from the time of Constantine. It is recorded that “for churches in the new city of Constantinople, the Emperor himself, in AD 332, ordered fifty vellum Bibles.” # Given the extensive amount of time it took to prepare vellum and to copy the entire Bible, this was an extensive order. The request was made to Eusebius and the letter of the request remains. The emperor wrote, “I have thought it expedient to instruct your Intelligence [Eusebius] that you should command to be written fifty volumes on prepared vellum, easy to read and conveniently portable.” # The volumes requested were codices, “a manuscript which in shape and appearance is like a modern book.” # It is clear from this request that such a form was accepted as useful by this period. But the need for such a request to be made demonstrates that complete Bible books were not common. If the emperor had to request Bibles to be made so as to furnish the churches with them, one can see that that form had not become as widespread and common as it had by the time of Justinian. But it is in this period “that the codex form finally won the victory over the earlier roll; and vellum its victory over the earlier papyrus.” # The book had become accepted and through such requests as made by the emperor, was becoming more common. From this period onward scripture was written in the codex form.


Scripture Writing before the Codex
From the time scripture was first written down, the process and form of the writing was taken seriously. From the early times, “careful and exact copies of the holy writings had been made by Jewish scholars called ‘scribes.’” # This was a position that respected the form in which the scriptures were written. While it was a serious task from the beginnings of scripture writing, after the exile scribes were even more important and had the “responsibility of preserving, copying, and interpreting the law.” # The renewed interest in the long forgotten scriptures placed their physical existence in a more significant position. Regulations were even prescribed that demonstrate that level of respect for the physical appearance of the scripture. Such regulations included rules such as what type of ink the scribes could use, that each column written could have no less than forty-eight, and no more than sixty lines, that each word must be verbalized as it was written, that the pen and the scribe’s bodies must be washed every time prior to their writing the name of God, “Jehovah,” and that if more than three pages in a document required correction, the whole thing had to be redone. # The form that these well respected scriptures took was the scroll form because that was the common form for writing at that time.
Because the scroll form was the common method for writing on for the Jews, the books mentioned in the Bible are typically on rolls of papyrus. Writing on papyrus was a tradition that began in Egypt in around 3000 BC. Strips of papyrus pith were pressed together to form material suitable for writing on. For ease in writing, the scrolls usually just had writing on the side where the papyrus lay horizontally, but to fit more information onto a scroll, the vertical side was sometimes used as well. # The importance of having so much material on one scroll stands out, and the famous example of a scroll mentioned in the Bible, the one John sees in Revelation 5, was said to have writing on both sides, thus pointing out the significant amount of material it held.

The Scroll
The scroll was the common method for containing written material before the invention of the codex, but it had problems that had to be addressed. It is true that clay tablets were also used for writing purposes, but the weight and cumbersome nature of such made them impractical for the recording of lengthy material. Most common for writing large amounts of material on was papyrus. If the material was short, only a single page of papyrus was needed. Longer material was put onto multiple pages and connected. For convenient storage, that long papyrus was rolled into what is called a scroll. Papyrus was the most common material for scrolls, but parchment (animal skin) and metals were also used. For example, the scroll of Isaiah found with the Dead Sea Scrolls “measures exactly 7.34 meters . . . it is made up of 17 pieces of leather sewn end to end.” #
The problem of continuity was one that the scroll format had to overcome. Most things that had to be written were too long to fit onto just one piece of papyrus, which was limited in length by the height of the papyrus plant. Sewn parchment was cumbersome and metal was heavy and expensive (and hard to unroll). Having continuous scrolls was so important to readers “that the Athenians supposedly raised a statue to a certain Phillatius, who had invented a glue for fastening together leaves of parchment or papyrus.” # Having longer scrolls allowed for material to be connected and put together in one long piece.
But even with continuous scrolls, there still existed a limited surface with which to work. A scroll was held with both hands, and one hand unrolled what was to be read while the other rolled up what had been read. Given the limits of the span of human arms, only a small portion of the scroll could be accessed at any one moment, and a good deal of effort had to go into finding any particular point in a longer scroll. The limited surface of an unwieldy scroll is “a disadvantage we are keenly aware of today, having returned to this ancient book-form on our computer screens, which revel only a portion of text at a time as we “scroll” upwards or downwards.” # While computers provide means of quick shortcuts and so are not as bothersome as physical scrolls, the comparison gives the general idea of the difficulty scrolls gave people.
Given the fact that scrolls had to be held, they could not be too large. Yet, the longer the scroll was, the more material it could contain. Therefore a tension existed between making a scroll user friendly and allowing it to contain a good amount of material. In regard to the height of the scroll, specimens exist of papyrus rolls “which are as high as 15 inches, but about 10 inches is more usual for works of literature.”# Such a height is taller than the typical modern book one is accustomed to holding in one’s hands. The length varied according to what was more important - readability or necessity of containing much material. There are “several Egyptian liturgical rolls exist of 50 feet and over, and one is known of 133 feet; but such rolls were too cumbersome for ordinary reading, and Greek literary rolls seldom, if ever, exceeded 35 feet - a length which is sufficient for a single book of Thucydides or one on the longer Gospels, but not for more.” # The longer scrolls, though good for the amount of material they held, were just too impractical to be used ordinarily. The typical lengths of scrolls influenced how the scriptures were originally written. For instance, “the longest books of the New Testament (which, in descending order of length , are Luke, Acts, Matthew, John) represent the amount of written matter which a roll of normal size contained.” # One assumes much more occurred in the life of Christ than is recorded in the Gospels, but perhaps the authors had to limit themselves by the amount of space they had to compose on. Whatever the reason, the scriptures as a whole could not fit onto a single scroll.

The Codex
The codex was an invention of necessity. It is generally assumed that “the codex was a pagan invention.” # Legend has it that the first codex was made by Julius Caesar. According to the writings of Sueonius, “Julius Caesar was the first to fold a roll into pages, for dispatches to his troops.” # A flat folded piece of papyrus takes up less space and is more private than a roll. Such small uses, while perhaps not really first done by Julius Caesar, most likely came out of practical needs such as needing a way to store and transport small pieces of papyrus.
The earliest of the codices have been found to be made out of the common material papyrus. People were used to writing on papyrus, so it is natural that when the codex form was first used, the common writing material would be used in it. Since papyrus does not survive easily, it was originally though that there were no papyrus codices. But that idea was refuted by the discovery of the Chester Beatty Papyri. # Then at the site of Oxyrhyncus in 1896, Grenfell and Hunt found a folded sheet from a codex of St. John. There was “particular interest attached to this find, because it was formerly thought that the codex form was not employed before vellum came into use: but this sheet is from a papyrus codex, its date is the third century.”# To further strengthen the existence of the papyrus codex, in 1936, Sir Frederic Kenyon published the find of a Christian library stowed in jars found in a Coptic graveyard. In this library were papyrus codices which are dated as early as AD 200. # So while papyrus codices are now known to exist, it is also known that papyrus was not the most common material for the codex.
General impracticality of other materials led to the widespread use of animal skin for codices. Manguel discusses that since clay and papyrus were the common materials for writing, tablets and scrolls were common. But he points out that “neither was suitable for the form of the book that superseded tablet and scroll: the codex, or sheaf of bound pages.” # He explains that “a codex of clay tablets would have been heavy and cumbersome, and although there were codices made of papyrus pages, papyrus was too brittle to be folded into booklets.” # The codices made from papyrus did not usually last long and so were mostly impractical.
It was found that it was parchment or vellum (animal skins) that could be folded into all sizes and hence made into codices. The first uses of animal skin as a writing surface is unknown. Legends of its invention is found in the writings of Pliny the Elder. According to Pliny, “King Ptolemy of Egypt, wishing to keep the production of papyrus a national secret in order to favor his own Library of Alexandria, forbade its export, thereby forcing his rival, Eumemes, ruler of Pergamum, to find a new material for books in his library.” This early trade embargo therefore led to the invention of parchment in Pergamum in the second century BC. # Yet archeology proves legend wrong with the discover of parchment that dates from a century earlier than the time frame of the legend. # Whatever its origins, “by the fourth century, and until the appearance of paper in Italy eight centuries later, parchment was the preferred material throughout Europe for the making of books.” # The existence of parchment made the production of codices easier and contributed to their longevity.
Once the codex form was introduced, it grew in popularity. While the first folding of a sheet of parchment produced a codex of only four, eight, or sixteen pages, the idea soon evolved. The possibilities of the new form were soon realized and the codex grew in size and pages, making it vaster than any previous book. # In the codex, there now was a form that could hold page after page of material. While the length seemed theoretically limitless, “up to the third century no surviving codex is known to have had more than 300 pages . . . [but] after that the codex grew.” #
The growth of the codex involved both the extension of the amount of material it contained and its popularity. Both increased, as shown by the periods mentioned above such as when Constantine requests for whole Bibles written in this new form. The practical advantages of the codex made it more appealing that the older scroll and “by AD 400, the classical scroll had been all but abandoned.” # The codex had won.

Christians and the Codex
The triumph of the codex over the scroll can be linked to its connection with the Christian community. As alluded to above, “a book with pages in the form familiar to [modern humans] was not used in New Testament times, though this kind of book made its appearance not long after the end of the apostolic age and quickly became popular in Christian circles.” # Christians were using the codex form for their scriptures “certainly from the second century and probably as early as the first.” # This fact is peculiar because the use of the codex was not necessarily widespread. The codex was “the prevailing form for the Christian scriptures from a very early date, while for pagan literature, as indeed for other forms of Christian writing, the roll was only slowly ousted.” # Such a disparity calls for an exploration of why the codex was so popular among Christians for the recording of their scriptures.
The evidence is clear that the Christians used the codex form more than the pagans did. Archeological finding demonstrate that “for pagan literature, the papyrus codex accounts for only two to three percent of second-century fragments, rising to nearly seventeen percent in the third, forty-eight percent on the border-line of the third and fourth, and seventy-four percent in the fourth century.” # While it is apparent that the codex form won out for pagan literature, the process happened rather slowly. But “in the case of Biblical fragments ten belong to the second century or beginning of the third, and all were written on codices, while of the total of 111 Biblical texts surviving from the second to the fourth centuries only 12 are from rolls of which three and possibly six are Jewish, and five are episthographs -- i.e. the Biblical text is written on the backs of rolls already used for another purpose.” # While the evidence does not conclusively show that the Christians only used codices for the writing of the scriptures, it is evident that it was a preferred method.
Reason for the Christians’ affinity to the codex form are varied. Even during the apostolic age, written material (letters) was used as the means of instruction. Letters were sent which contained instruction and teaching. As Christianity grew, Christian churches in areas other than where those letter had originally been sent desired copies of those writings. As Christianity was more widespread in the Roman Empire there was a great ‘demand for the materials of Christian instruction.” # Copies of what was becoming accepted as scripture were sent to different areas, but “in the early days a Church which possessed the Scriptures would own them in parts.” #
Bible reading was a normal part of Christian life, and “Churches owned Bibles, or parts of them -- and if one owned a complete Bible it would be in several parts.” # The invention and growth of the codex form allowed for whole Bibles to be made. The ease of possessing entire copies of the scriptures increased greatly when those scriptures were contained in one manuscript.
The practical aspects of the appearance of the codex attracted Christians to it as well. Manguel comments on that aspect, and writes that “the early Christians adopted the codex because they found it highly practical for carrying around, hidden away in their clothes, texts that were forbidden by the Roman authorities.” # One must remember that the Christian books were banned and burned in many areas, and a form that made them easier to conceal would have been attractive to those who wanted to keep their copies and preserve their lives. The codex form was also practical in regard to referencing. # The scroll had always proved problematic when it came to finding specific passages or information. With the codex, one did not have to roll through the entire work before one came to the desired place. Instead, one could just open straight to the place one was interested in. In addition, “the pages could be numbered, which allowed the reader easier access to the sections.” # One could know exactly where to look in a codex for the information one needed. This was beneficial to Christians who had constant need to refer to particular parts of scripture. Also, “the four margins of a codex page made it easier to include glosses and commentaries, allowing the reader a hand in the story - a participation that was far more difficult when reading from a scroll.” # The limited surface of the scroll and its continuous writing made breaking points and addition of commentary impractical. With the codex, sections could be divided and commentary added alongside the text. Christians created a theology based on their scriptures and hence had need for commentary. Even if that commentary was not written on the same page as the text, it was much easier to have two codices (one text and one commentary) open in front of a person than to try and manage the unrolling and rolling back up of multiple scrolls at one time. Such physical aspects of the codex proved very beneficial to the Christians and were part of its appeal to them.
Probably the most important reason why Christians adopted the codex form so readily was that it allowed for the inclusion of multiple texts in one book. Because of the nature of the codex, “a much greater amount of matter could be included than was possible in a roll of normal length.”# For people who revered a large amount of writings as scripture, this aspect was appealing. Texts were no longer scattered or divided. Equally as important, “the organization of the texts themselves, which had previously been divided according to the capacity of a scroll was changed.” # Previously, texts had been divided according to the amount of material a scroll could contain. As mentioned above, only one of the Gospels could fit onto a normal size scroll. Books were either separate or paired according to length. For example, some of Paul’s letters might be combined on one scroll, but those would be separate from other letters or the Gospels. trends in how longer works were divided resulted from scroll capacity as well. In the case of Homer’s Iliad, for instance, “the division of the poem into twenty-four books probably resulted from the fact that it normally occupied twenty-four scrolls.” # But with the advent of the codex form, “the text could now be organized according to its contents, in books or chapters, or could become itself a component when several shorter works were conveniently collected under a single handy cover.” # The possibilities of organization where seemingly endless and attracted Christians who had an assorted number of texts to work with. Yet even though many works could be contained in a codex, the very aspect of their being combined in one bound form gave to them the semblance of a whole. The codex “allowed the reader to flip almost instantly to other pages and thereby retain a sense of the whole.” # This sense of a whole proved vital in the formation of the Christian canon.
The use of the codex is intricately tied to the formation of the canon. Elliott in discussing the canon comments that “it is likely that the codex form in which the Christian scriptures circulated helped to promote the establishment of the definite, fixed canon of the 27 books we know.” # While there were many factors contributing to the development of the Christian canon, the existence of the codex help the process. Although it was not “until the fourth century that relative agreement was reached about precisely which books should be in the [New Testament] canon,” the process began as soon as the first Christian documents were written. # The question of which books were the proper ones to follow was an important issue for the early church. Many books claimed, some falsely, to give true Gospel accounts or to teach true theology. For the lay Christian who was eager to encounter any Christian writing, there existed a great danger of being exposed to incorrect books. With the invention of the codex, collections of writings were made possible. As a result of these collections, “when certain, approved, texts were gathered into small collections this had the effect of ostracizing and isolating texts which were not deemed suitable for inclusion.” # The codex prevented the easy spread of random writings that were not approved by the church leaders. If they created a collection and left certain writings out, those writings had a very small chance of being seen as important by other Christians. That is not to say that no such separate writings were seen as important, but just that it was less likely to happen. In addition, “the users of these codices would have accepted all the texts in the Bible codex as having equal status.” # When the writings of Peter were placed next to the writings of Paul, both were seen as valid. When those writings had existed as separate scrolls, division grew and there were opposing sides of those who followed Peter and those who followed Paul. The inclusion of both in one codex gave then equal status.
The codex form had even more sway in the formation of the canon of the Gospels. As mentioned earlier, Gospels books, stories of the life of Christ were longer books and only one could fit onto a scroll. In the time of the early church many such separate Gospel stories were in existence, some informed and some bogus. The determining that the four Gospels that are in today’s Bible to be the correct four was a church decision, but the common acceptance of that decision was assisted by the existence of the codex. The fourfold Gospels “could fit into one codex, but not onto one roll, so the adoption of the codex would itself have had the effect of enforcing the fourfold Gospel canon as a fixed entity.” # When people are exposed often enough to a certain format, the four Gospels together, they come to accept it as the way it should be done. But not only did such a collection make those four Gospels common, it had the effect of making others uncommon. The collecting of the “four Gospels into one codex had the effect of according a special status to those four but, possibly more significant, helped to limit the number of Gospels to those four and no more.” # That desire to limit the number of writings that were circulating is perhaps one of the reasons the early Christians were so attracted to the codex form. With a set of collected writings there could be a semblance of inalterability. A collection in codex form then served the purpose of safeguarding the scriptures from either addition or deletion. Such an inalterable set of writings “is in effect the operation of a ‘canon.’” # It is true that the codices were not designed to demonstrate an established canon of scripture, but “canon and codex go hand in hand in the sense that the adoption of a fixed canon could be more easily controlled and promulgated when the codex was the normal means of gathering together originally separated compositions.” # The connection between the two is established and obvious. No matter how limited the understandings are of why they two were connected, the connection is undisputed.
Yet it was a connection peculiar to the Christians at that particular time. They saw some value in using the codex for their writings, and it served their purposes well. In previous times, no such connection was necessary for the establishment of a canon. The Jews had a canon, but did not have the codex form. It seems that the situation that the Christians found themselves in provided them with certain conditions that made the use of the codex helpful, but also in the long run necessary for the establishment of the canon of scriptures. Even if the connection mentioned above is in reality a mere coincidence, the use of the codex saved the Bible in another sense. The original New Testament books were written on papyrus sheets or rolls, depending on their length, but papyrus usually does not last long, and so it is a blessing that the scriptures were copied soon enough to be saved. # The codex form is more durable and preserved the copies of things like flimsy letters long enough for certain writing to become established. The early use of the codex form also benefits modern historians in allowing them to find very early manuscripts of the scriptures which would be less possible if the scriptures had remained on papyrus. So the codex appealed to Christians for very practical reasons, but it also served some very practical purposes for them in the preservation and establishment of their canon of scriptures.

Interpretation of the Bible
From the evidence discussed above, the Christians had many reasons for adopting the codex form for their scriptures. The statistics about the number of manuscripts that have been discovered among Christians and pagans demonstrates that the early popular use of the codex was generally restricted to Christians. While little research has been done to explore why the pagans did not quickly grab onto this new form, it is generally assumed that they just did not have the same need to do so as the Christians did. The pagans had a set library which had existed on scrolls for a significant period of time. They had no need for a smaller book that could be concealed from the authorities or serious reason to establish a canon of some sort. The codex over time proved to be more convenient for them and so won out, but there was never any intense need to make use of it from its early days.
The codex form did not just serve the Christian’s purposes, it influenced them as well. The emergence of a new form of book does not exist devoid of any meaning. In discussing the influence of the codex, Boomershine writes that “the primary communications system of the community provides the contest within which Biblical interpretation happens. It determines the values, attitudes, and overall hermeneutical options for the interpretation of the Biblical translation in that cultural context.” # For the first time ever the entire scripture cold fit into one bound volume. The very existence of such a volume influenced how those scriptures were regarded. When things are put together into a new book, a sense of the whole is created. Each item in that book is given equal status and is seen as unified. Being under one cover brought a seemingly random collection of writings together, and since they were collected together it was assumed that they had some connection to each other. In general, “the expectation [is] that the major changes in communications systems are followed by paradigm shifts in Biblical interpretations.” # This new found unity provided the basis for the establishment of a new theology that saw the Bible as a continuous narrative centered around the incarnation of Jesus Christ. All parts of the Bible were seen to point to that central event. That narrative theology became prominent in Christian groups as did the idea that the scriptures were a singular book. Such views could never have become so widely accepted expect for the existence of the codex which allowed for the singular book to exist.

Comments on Electronic Format
The study of the transfer of the book format from scroll to codex form lends itself to speculation on the significance of the recent emergence of a new format, that of the electronic medium. While the codex form is still the most widely used form for accessing written material, the electronic form is gaining popularity. Most people who have access to written material, encounter at least a portion of it in electronic form. Both codex and the electronic medium are currently in common usage. The significant question at hand is if the electronic medium will triumph over the codex as writing did over oral tradition and codex did over the scroll, and what will be the long term effect of that transfer? Of course, the answers to those questions lie in the future and so can merely be speculated about, but after an examination of the establishment of the codex and its influences, those questions are forefront on one’s mind. The question is especially of interest to Christians who have formed a theology based on the codex form of the Bible. While the codex came as a needed form during the early days of the scriptures, the emergence of the electronic medium provides no obviously needed role. In fact there are many Christians who look upon the form as something that will destroy the scriptures they hold dear.
Some of the concerns about the new form are the aspects of it that differ significantly from the codex form. As mentioned earlier, the electronic medium is similar to the ancient scroll in the amount of space on can see on the screen at any given moment, for one must scroll up and down to see the text. # Hypertext links solve the problem of having to scroll through an entire work to get to a certain part, but the idea is the same. In addition there no longer exists the simple unity that the Christians based much of their theology on. The Bible is too big to fit onto one file or one web site. So as with early scrolls, it must be divided according to length. Usually this means having a link to each separate book. Tradition still refers to it as the Bible, but one wonders what affect this redivision of the book will have of the theology of it as being a whole. Then while the codex allowed for more interaction than with the scroll, the electronic medium allows for more interaction than with the codex. The code word for the new learning approaches is the word “interactive, ” # for “it used to be for instance, that the only way to compare different translations was to open books and spread them out over a large surface, or to search a parallel Bible, again in book form.” # But with the new electronic medium “comparisons are aided by the increasingly familiar ‘windows’ environment of computers,” one can have the original text in one window, translation in another, and a commentary in another. # The possibility of the influence of outside commentary increases greatly with this new form.
It is true that “the conservative response in each age is to resist the new culture generated by the new medium but to incorporate the medium into the old culture and its hermeneutics.” # Bible are widespread in the electronic medium, but that form is also being fought as contrary to everything that is dear about the Bible. The result of the debate could lead to some serious rethinking about the very nature of the Bible and scripture. Already scholars have reexamined what the nature of the scriptures is. Harley comments that “a major element in the paradigm shift is the recognition that the Bible is sounds that were recorded in manuscripts so that they could again be resounded rather than texts to be studied in silence.” # He suggests taking the emphasis off the existence of the Bible as a book because that was just a form it took out of connivance, and instead to focus on the words and ideas. But the issue is far from solved, and what the entire implications of this new form will be are not even known. What is important is to see the events as they are occurring in perspective and to realize that something similar has occurred before.

Concluding Thoughts
In retrospect, the history of the Bible provides interesting insights. The influence and the popularity of the codex form of the Bible are evident. Most people when they think of the Bible think of a singular bound volume. It is a beneficial exercise to explore who that form came to be. For in the modern age when the emergence of the new electronic medium has people up in arms to protect the form of the Bible, knowing the history of that form can put much of the current debate into perspective. The reasons for the early Christian use of the codex appear as practical ones, not absolute or God ordained. There is nothing inherently special about the codex form. Its history shows that it suited the needs of the Christians at a particular point in history and has continued to do so for over 1800 years. Having that knowledge of the codex diminishes its importance as a form in and of itself. It would be foolish to reject the new electronic medium merely because one has a false belief that there is inherent value in the codex form. The scriptures are the word of God in whatever form they take and must be accepted as such.








Bibliography

Boomershine, Thomas E. “Biblical Megatrends: Towards a Paradigm for the Interpretation of the Bible in Electronic Media.” The Bible in the Twenty-First Century. ed. Howard Clark Kee. New York: American Bible Society, 1993.
Bruce, F.F. The Book and the Parchments, London: Pickering & Inglis Inc., 1950.
Connolly, Ken. The Indestructible Book: The Bible, Its Translators, and Their Sacrifices. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996.
Elliott, J.K. “Manuscripts, The Codex and The Canon” Journal for the Study of the New Testament. Issue 63, Sept 1996.
Gibson, Margaret T. The Bible in the Latin West. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993.
Harley, Richard. “New Media for Communicating the Bible: The Potential and the Problems.” The Bible in the Twenty-First Century. ed. Howard Clark Kee. New York: American Bible Society, 1993.
Herklots, H.G.G. How Our Bible Came to Us. New York: Oxford University Press, 1954.
Kenyon, Sir Frederic. Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1958.
Manguel, Alberto. A History of Reading. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.