Writing

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Ancient Categories

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Literature in Bible Times by Milton C. Fisher, Page 105,108)

History

Words were carved into stone cylinders then papyrus biblions, rolls, codices (codex) were used.

Origins of Writing

Clay tablets with Sumerian cuneiform (incised wedge writing) dating to about 1750 B.C. were recovered by the University of Pennsylvania excavation at Nippur (Iraq, ancient Mesopotamia). Among them was a catalogue of literature dating to at least 2000 B.C., indicating that writing had been invented and literature had been produced back into the 3rd millennium B.C.

Egyptian hieroglyphic picture-writing was an independent development, perhaps under the stimulus of earlier Sumerian writing. Not long after king Menes in 3000 B.C., a phonetic system of hieroglyphics seems to have been developed.

The Babylonian and Assyrian scribes borrowed Sumerian ideograms and adapted them into a phonetic syllabary for recording their own Semitic speech, known collectively as Akkadian.

The oldest examples of a Canaanite alphabet were preserved in the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet of just 30 single letters in the 14th century B.C. The old style is called the Phoenician or paleo-Hebrew script and is the predecessor to Greek and Western alphabets. To the south of Ugarit, a linear alphabet was produced. The latter was used by the Hebrews and was later carried into Europe and elsewhere by the Phoenicians.

Thousands of clay tablets dating to the reign of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (~650 B.C.) were found in the royal library at Nineveh during 25 years of excavation in the second half of the 19th century. These were but copies of far older compositions, handed down from Sumerian times. Among them were the creation epic Enuma Elish and the Babylonian-Assyrian version of the great flood, part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. An even greater number of tablets (>20,000) were discovered in the 1950s at Mari, on the Euphrates River northwest of Babylon. The majority of these were secular documents, business and political records and exchanges. Religious, epic, and commercial documents and letters came to light about the same time at Ugarit, on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. These are dated by their contents to the period from 1400-1200 B.C. In recent years, an equally valuable discovery has been made of numerous tablets from ancient Ebla, the contents of which deal with a period antedating Abraham by 400 years.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Literature in Bible Times by Milton C. Fisher, Page 101-102; The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Biblical Languages by Larry Walker. Page 221)

Papyrus

Papyrus rolls were replaced by writing surfaces like parchment and vellum.

Codices spread with the proliferation of the Bible, and the oldest surviving codex is a copy of Mark.

Papyrus was barely used after the A.D. 700s, except for things like papal decrees.

Modern "paper vellum" is made from synthetic plant material, but its usage and quality are similar. It's used for tracing, technical drawings, plans, and blueprints.

(Origin of the Bible class notes, February 8, 2023. Page 1, Origin of the Bible handout by my small group leader, February 8, 2023. Summarized from Wikipedia. Page 1-2.)

The Code of Ur-Nammu is the oldest surviving law code, dated 2050 B.C.

(Origin of the Bible class notes, March 1, 2023. Page 1.)

The Writings (Hebrew Bible)

The Hebrew Bible is arranged into the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Writings contain Psalms, Proverbs, Job; the five Scrolls (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther); and Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Biblical Languages by Larry Walker. Section One: The Authority and Inspiration of the Bible. Page 5-6)