Saint Mark, painting by Andrea Mantegna. Notice the codex’s (the book’s) prominent position in the picture.
–Andrew Brady, November 2, 2023
Introduction
If I turned in this blog post on a legal pad in red ink with my handwriting, it would be much less fun to read. Format matters. Spiral notebooks are easier to write in and rip pages from than composition books. Sticky notes are great for short messages but too small for essays. Paperbacks are lighter but hardbacks are sturdier. Bibles tend to be printed on petal thin paper to try to keep the book size manageable. The format we choose affects a document’s professional reputation, size, weight, lifetime, and durability.
Like today, format was important in the ancient world. Even though scrolls were the standard format for finished literature, Christians primarily created their manuscripts in codices (Dilley). The author of 2 Timothy even mentions wanting his membrana (parchments codices) in 2 Timothy 4:13 (2 Tim 4:13 NRSV, Galen and His Codices, Interlinear Bible). Why did the early Christians prefer writing their finished products on codices, instead of scrolls like their Jewish and pagan contemporaries? In this blog post, we will address this question.
Background
A scroll/roll (What is a codex?)
What is a Scroll? A scroll, or roll, is a form of manuscript in which pieces of material are pasted together to form a continuous strand (Medieval scroll). In the world of Early Christians, parchment and papyrus were two choices for scroll materials (Dilley).
Parchment is a writing material made from the skin of animals, such as goats, sheep, or calves (Workshop I). From the skin, parchment is made by taking off the hair, stretching and scraping the skin to remove further blemishes, and letting the cleaned skin dry (How Parchment is Made). Here is a cool video on traditional parchment making, produced by the BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-SpLPFaRd0 (How Parchment is Made).
Papyrus sheets are made from the papyrus reed, a plant native to Egypt (Grout). Papyrus is made by cutting the reed into thin horizontal strips, laying them on a wet surface, overlaying vertical strips, pounding them together, and letting it dry (Grout). A papyrus scroll (when read horizontally) would be held with both hands (Grout). A papyrus scroll is typically about 10 inches tall and when unrolled up to 11 meters long (Grout, Allison 12-13). To ‘turn the page,’ the reader unwinds the unread portion in the right hand while winding already read material with the left hand (Grout). Thus, in ancient imagery, a person holding a scroll in the right hand has not yet read the scroll, and a person holding the scroll in the left hand has already read it (Grout).
A codex (What is a codex?)
What is a codex? A codex is the ancient form of a book, meaning a set of pages bound together with a front and back cover (What is a codex?). One reads by flipping a page, by which I mean moving a page on the right side so that it is supported by the left cover. Like with scrolls, parchment and papyrus were two materials used for codices (the plural of codex).
At the time, the codex was for note taking and drafts, and the scroll for finished products (Dilley). Thus, it is very unusual that Christians had a “noted preference” for the codex over the scroll (Dilley). In the 2nd century, 71% of surviving Christian books were codices, compared to only 4.9% of all surviving books (Dilley, from Hurtado). Unfortunately, only modern sources and not ancient sources do not comment on why Christians chose the codex (Dilley). Thus it is difficult to determine why Christians liked the codex so much. Below I describe a few potential theories.
Theories
Theory: Jewish tradition
One theory, proposed by Lieberman, a rabbinical scholar, takes its roots in Jewish tradition (Dilley). Ancient rabbinical sources prohibit writing on scrolls any documents except for sacred scripture (Dilley). Thus, Jesus’s disciples, if they had taken notes on Jesus’s sayings and teachings, would likely have done so in a codex (Dilley). Continuing to follow rabbinical tradition, when writing the early gospels, codices would have been used out of respect (Dilley). From these writings, a tradition of using the codex developed, and subsequent writers continued favoring the codex because previous writings were already in codex form (Allison 10).
Dilley notes a hole in this theory. Although Christians favored the scroll for their literature, 29% of surviving Christian documents from the 2nd century were still in roll format (Dilley, from Hurtado). Specifically, the Gospel of Thomas, an authoritative text, was written on a scroll, potentially contradicting the above theory (Dilley). However, considering that the early Christians were a diverse group over diverse geographic regions, it is possible that some communities with more Jewish influence wrote in codices for Lieberman’s reason, and that other communities with less Jewish influence would not have had this scruple and used both scrolls and codices. Of the theories we will discuss, this theory is the one I believe is the most plausible.
Theory: Name that text!
Another theory, proposed by various scholars and described by Allison, is that an “important early text” took the form of a codex, starting a codex tradition (Allison 10). However, the scholars disagree on which text this was.
According to Skeat, the four-gospel canon is a candidate for this early text, requiring a codex to fit the whole document in a single volume, but the four-gospel canon did not appear early enough to possibly be this early text (Allison 14). Roberts and Skeat suggest a hypothetical proto-Gospel could be this early text, but we do not have this gospel, so it seems unlikely to be our text of interest (Allison 15).
Roberts and Skeat also suggest that Mark was this early text (Allison 11). According to their theory, Mark’s community pressured him to write down what Peter had taught him, and Mark chose a familiar parchment notebook (Allison 11). Then, Mark brought this notebook to Alexandria, where he founded a church and the notebook was copied into a papyrus codex, which spread (Allison 11). However, there is no actual evidence to support their theory (Dilley). Further, the gospel of Mark was looked down on in the early church (compared to Matthew), so it is doubtful that Mark’s gospel was important enough to start a codex tradition (Allison 11). Also, the church of Alexandria lacked the influence to start a codex tradition (Allison 11).
Larsen and Letteney also suggest that Mark was this early text, but for a different reason (Allison 11). They argue that Mark was a collection of draft notes, not a finished literature work, and therefore suited to the codex format, which was at the time meant for note-taking (Allison 11, Dilley). One would argue for Mark’s incompleteness as follows. Luke’s preface, in its desire to write an “orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed” (Luke 1:1-4, NRSV), throws shade on Mark for being incomplete (Ehrman 152). Further, Mark’s ending is abrupt and two endings have been added later to it, suggesting that the ending was lost or yet to be written. However, I disagree with this argument, because as we have discussed in class, Mark’s ending can also be interpreted as intentional and supporting a circular reading. From this perspective, Mark is a finished piece of literature deserving a scroll, and writing Mark on a codex remains unusual.
Gamble argues that a collection Paul’s letters, specifically “Corinthians, Romans, Ephesians, Thessalonians, Galatians, Philippians, and Colossians,” were this early text, in the above order of decreasing length, with multiple letters to the same church concatenated (Allison 12). Important to note is that seven sets of letters were chosen, and that seven is the number of perfection (Allison 12). To keep the numerical significance and for convenience, the letters needed to be in a single volume, and only a codex was large enough to fit all of them, as Greek scrolls typically were up to 11 meters long and Paul’s letters would have required 24 meters of papyrus (Allison 12-13). One reason codices could fit more text is because one wrote on both sides of a sheet in a codex, whereas one only writes on one side of a sheet on a scroll (Allison 18-19).
Additionally, the codex is better for non-narrative works like Paul’s letters because referencing an arbitrary position in a document is easier in codex than scroll form (Allison 13). However, this argument may not be valid as we have a modern bias for books over scrolls, and it may have been just as easy for an ancient reader to search a scroll as a book, especially since there were no page numbers (Dilley). Paul’s works were influential in the Christian community and possibly the first Christian texts, meaning that they had the importance to start a codex trend (Allison 13). Overall, this theory seems plausible to me. However, I do not think that the convenient practical benefits to the codex would be sufficient to buck the tradition of using scrolls.
Theory: Easier for missionaries
Another theory, described by Dilley and proposed by Epps, is that codex use came from missionaries spreading Christianity (Dilley). According to Acts, Paul routinely teaches and debates at synagogues (e.g. Acts 17:17, 18:19 NRSV). Even if Acts is not a reliable account (Ehrman 358), it seems plausible that Paul would use Jewish scripture when trying to convince converts that the Jewish God is the one living God because the Jewish scriptures describe the Jewish God’s power. In order to refer to scripture during these discussions, Epps hypothesizes that Paul wrote scripture excerpts in a codex, which is small and easier to travel with than scrolls (Dilley). Paul’s use of codices then spread to the rest of Christian tradition.
Allison describes cost as another benefit to codices: according to Roberts and Skeat, codices were 25% cheaper than a scroll containing the same content (Allison 19). Although codices do use material more efficiency by permitting writing on both sides of a sheet, Dilley cautions against making a blanket statement that codices were cheaper because material costs fluctuated with region.
Theory: Codex as Christian invention
Don Stewart, a well-known televangelist (Donald Lee Stewart), claims that “there is good evidence that the codex was invented by Christians in the first century A.D. to arrange the different biblical books into one volume and make the passages easier to find” (Form of Biblical Books). However, I have found no evidence to support this view, and scholarly authors that disagree. Specifically, Grout attributes the invention of the codex to the Romans in general, and Harnett states that the research community has concluded that “Christians probably didn’t invent the codex” (Harnett).
We can’t even conclude that Christians popularized the format of the codex. Some authors have suggested that Christians popularized the use of the codex, that the triumph of Christianity went hand-in-hand with the triumph of the codex (Grout, Allison 1, Medieval Scroll). However, recent research suggests that the growth of the codex cannot be attributed to Christians because most early literary codices were not Christian, even though the Christians preferred them (Dilley, from Roger Bagnall). Moreover, codex use had already reached a critical mass before Christianity could play a role, meaning that codex adoption would have occurred with or without Christian support (Harnett).
Theory: Codex to be different
Grout suggests that Christians utilized the codex to differentiate their work from sacred Jewish scripture and pagan literature; Hurtado also supports this view. This view seems plausible, as Christians were struggling to find their identity amidst Gentile conversion and removal from synagogues. Early Christian groups like Marcionites and Gnostics who believe in an evil Jewish creator god could possibly further distinguish themselves from Jewish tradition by eschewing the scroll and using codices.
Conclusion
Although we don’t know precisely why Christians chose to primarily use codices for their literature, above I’ve discussed some plausible, and a couple implausible, theories explaining their choice. Even if codex theories aren’t massive enough to shake the foundations of biblical studies, the codex debate supports our construction of an image of early Christians, like a single brushstroke contributes to a painting. It is my hope that next time you pick up the Jewish Annotated New Testament, you pause for a second to think about all the mediums the text went through to get there, and wonder that so much heavy material can fit in a single book.
I hoped you liked scrolling through this blog. As always, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and I’ll see you in my next post.
References
“About this site,” https://penelope.uchicago.edu/site.html.
Allison, Rutherford. “The Development and Adoption of the Codex,” https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=hab.
By Andrea Mantegna – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154567
Dilley, Paul. “From Roll to Codex?: Christians, Manichaeans, and the Book across Late Antique Eurasia,” Welcome and Opening Lecture for the 2016 Mellon Sawyer seminar, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8F2Vso3WL4., also found at https://uicapture.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=ff477afd-ce04-48e3-a20f-d0d114829440.
“Donald Lee Stewart (preacher),” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Lee_Stewart_(preacher).
Ehrman, Bart. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, Oxford University Press, Seventh Edition.
Emily, “How to make a scroll,” https://sites.dartmouth.edu/ancientbooks/2016/05/25/how-to-make-a-scroll/#:~:text=The%20Anatomy%20of%20a%20Scroll&text=The%20%27recto%27%20is%20the%20side,the%20outside%20of%20the%20roll.
Grout, James. “Scroll and Codex,” https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/scroll/scrollcodex.html.
Harnett, Benjamin. “The birth of the book: on Christians, Romans, and the codex,” https://aeon.co/ideas/the-birth-of-the-book-on-christians-romans-and-the-codex.
Holmes, Steve. “From scrolls to scrolling: how technology has shaped our Bible reading,”
“How Are We to Understand Paul’s Request to Timothy ‘Bring the Scrolls, Especially the Parchments’?” Christian Publishing House, https://christianpublishinghouse.co/2020/04/09/how-are-we-to-understand-pauls-request-to-timothy-bring-the-scrolls-especially-the-parchments/.
“How Parchment is Made,” BBC, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-SpLPFaRd0. A nice BBC video on traditional parchment making.
Hurtado, Larry. “About me and this site.” https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/about/.
Hurtado, Larry. “Christians and the Codex: Encore!” https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/christians-and-the-codex-encore/.
Hurtado, Larry. “Galen and his Codices,” https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2019/03/12/galen-and-his-codices/.
Hurtado, Larry. “The Codex and Early Christians: Clarifications & Corrections,” https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/the-codex-and-early-christians-clarification-corrections/.
Interlinear Bible, Blue Letter Bible, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3200/kjv/tr/0-1/.
Kee, Shania, “The Historical Background of the Ancient Scroll,” Dartmouth Ancient Books Lab, https://sites.dartmouth.edu/ancientbooks/2016/05/24/the-historical-background-of-the-ancient-scroll/.
Kraft, R, “Early Jewish Uses of Scrolls and Other Writing Formats,” https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak//courses/735/book/jewish%20codices.html.
“Making Your Own Codex,” Dartmouth Ancient Books Lab, https://sites.dartmouth.edu/ancientbooks/2016/05/23/making-your-own-codex/.
“Parchment,” Dartmouth Ancient Books Lab, https://sites.dartmouth.edu/ancientbooks/2016/05/16/alys-test-post/.
“Scrolls: A Basic Introduction,” https://medievalscrolls.com/scrolls-a-basic-introduction/#:~:text=A%20scroll%2C%20or%20rotulus%2C%20or,glue%2C%20thread%2C%20or%20thongs.
“Saul Lieberman,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Lieberman.
Stewart, Don. “In What Form Were the Biblical Books Originally Written?” https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/stewart_don/faq/words-bible/question7-form-biblical-books-originally-written.cfm.
Szymanski, Terrence. “What is a Codex?” https://apps.lib.umich.edu/reading/Paul/codex.html.
Workshop I, Mellon Sawyer Seminar, http://eurasianmss.lib.uiowa.edu/2016/11/01/getting-hands-on-and-personal-with-ancient-manuscript-technologies/.