Moses makes frequent mention of ancient books of the Hebrews, but describes none, except the two tables on which God wrote the ten commandments. These he tells us, were of polished stone, engraven on both sides and as Calmet remarks: "it is probable that Moses would not have observed to us these two particulars so often as he does, were it not to distinguish them from other books, which were made of tables, not of stone, but of wood and curiously engraven, but on one side only."It cannot be said that Moses uses any language which can be construed to mean the employment of rolls of papyrus, or barks of trees, much less of parchment.
We have therefore reason to believe that by the term book, he always means table-books, made of small thin boards or plates.
The edicts, as well as the letters of kings, were written upon tablets and sent to the various provinces, sealed with their signets. Scripture plainly alludes to the custom of sealing up letters, edicts and the tablets on which the prophets wrote their visions.
The practice of writing upon rolls made of the barks of trees is very ancient. It is alluded to in the Book of Job: "Oh! that mine adversary had written a book;surely I would take it upon my shoulders, and bind it as a crown to me." (Old version.) The new one runs: "And that I had the indictment which mine adversary hath written!" The rolls, or volumes, generally speaking, were written upon one side only.
This is intimated by Ezekiel who observes that he saw one of in extraordinary form written on both sides: "And when I looked, behold, an Hand was sent unto me, and lo! a roll of a book was therein; and he spread it before me, and it was written within and without."To have been able to write on dry tablets of wood or barks of trees with the reed or brush, the then only ink-writing instruments in vogue would have necessitated the employment of lampblack suspended in a vehicle of thick gum, or in the form of a paint. Both of these maybe termed pigmentary inks. The use of thin inks would have caused spreading or blotting and thus rendered the writing illegible.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica generalizes its remarks on this subject:--"The earliest writings were purely monumental and accordingly those materials were chosen which were supposed to last the longest. The same idea of perpetuity which in architecture finds its most striking exposition in the pyramids was repeated, in the case of literary records, in the two columns mentioned by Josephus, the one of stone and the other of brick, on which the children of Seth wrote their inventions and astronomical discoveries; in the pillars in Crete on which, according to Porphyry, the ceremonies of the Corybantes were inscribed;in the leaden tablets containinlu the works of Hesiod, deposited in the temple of the Muses, in Boeotia;in the ten commandments on stone delivered by Moses; and in the laws of Solon, inscribed on planks of wood. The notion of a literary production surviving the destruction of the materials on which it was first written--the 'momentum, aere perennius' of Horace's ambition--was unknown before the discovery of substances for systematic transcription.
"Tablets of ivory or metal were in common use among the Greeks and Romans. When made of wood--sometimes of citron, but usually of beech or fir--their inner sides were coated with wax, on which the letters were traced with a pointed pen or stiletto (stylus), one end of which was used for erasure. It was with his stylus that Caesar stabbed Casca in the arm when attacked by his murderers.
Wax tablets of this kind continued in partial use in Europe during the middle ages; the oldest extant specimen, now in the museum at Florence, belongs to the year 1301."Later the Hebrew Scriptures were written in ink or paint upon the skins of ceremonially clean animals or even birds. These were rolled upon sticks and fastened with a cord, the ends of which were sealed when security was an object. They were written in columns, and usually upon one side, only. The writing was from right to left; the upper margin was three fingers broad, the lower one four fingers; a breadth of two fingers separated the columns. The columns ran across the width of the sheet, the rolled ends of which were held vertically in the respective hands. When one column was read, another was exposed to view by unrolling it from the end in the left hand, while the former was hidden from view by rolling up the end grasped by the right band. The pen was a reed, the ink black, carried in a bottle suspended from the girdle.
The Samaritan Pentateuch is very ancient, as is proved by the criticisms of Talmudic writers. A copy of it was acquired in 1616 by Pietro della Valle, one of the first discoverers of the cuneiform inscriptions.
It was thus introduced to the notice of Europe. It is claimed by the Samaritans of Nablus that their copy was written by Abisha, the great-grandson of Aaron, in the thirteenth year of the settlement of the land of Canaan by the children of Israel. The copies of it brought to Europe are all written in black ink on vellum or "cotton" paper, and vary from 12mo to folio. The scroll used by the Samaritans is written in gold letters. (See Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible,"vol. III, pp. 1106-1118.) Its claims to great antiquity are not admitted by scholars.
The enumeration of some of the modes of writing may be interesting:
The Mexican writing is in vertical columns, beginning at the bottom.
The Chinese and Japanese write in vertical columns, beginning at the top and passing from left to right.
The Egyptian hieroglyphics are written invertical columns or horizontal lines according to the shape and position of the tablet. It is said that with the horizontal writing the direction is indifferent, but that the figures of men and animals face the beginning of the line. With figures, the units stand on the left.
