book Summary and Overview

This word has a comprehensive meaning in Scripture. In the Old Testament it is the rendering of the Hebrew word "sepher", which properly means a "writing," and then a "volume" (Ex. 17:14; Deut. 28:58; 29:20; Job 19:23) or "roll of a book" (Jer. 36:2, 4). Books were originally written on skins, on linen or cotton cloth, and on Egyptian papyrus, whence our word "paper." The leaves of the book were generally written in columns, designated by a Hebrew word properly meaning "doors" and "valves" (Jer. 36:23, R.V., marg. "columns"). Among the Hebrews books were generally rolled up like our maps, or if very long they were rolled from both ends, forming two rolls (Luke 4:17-20). Thus they were arranged when the writing was on flexible materials; but if the writing was on tablets of wood or brass or lead, then the several tablets were bound together by rings through which a rod was passed. A sealed book is one whose contents are secret (Isa. 29:11; Rev. 5:1-3). To "eat" a book (Jer. 15:16; Ezek. 2:8-10; 3:1-3; Rev. 10:9) is to study its contents carefully. The book of judgment (Dan. 7:10) refers to the method of human courts of justice as illustrating the proceedings which will take place at the day of God's final judgment. The book of the wars of the Lord (Num. 21:14), the book of Jasher (Josh. 10:13), and the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah and Israel (2 Chr. 25:26), were probably ancient documents known to the Hebrews, but not forming a part of the canon. The book of life (Ps. 69:28) suggests the idea that as the redeemed form a community or citizenship (Phil. 3:20; 4:3), a catalogue of the citizens' names is preserved (Luke 10:20; Rev. 20:15). Their names are registered in heaven (Luke 10:20; Rev. 3:5). The book of the covenant (Ex. 24:7), containing Ex. 20:22-23:33, is the first book actually mentioned as a part of the written word. It contains a series of laws, civil, social, and religious, given to Moses at Sinai immediately after the delivery of the decalogue. These were written in this "book."

[WRITING]

BOOK . What we call books were unknown to the ancient Jews, at least in their present convenient form. Letters were engraved on stone, brick, metal (as lead and copper), or wood, and written on cloth and skins, and at a later period on parchment. Ex 17:14; 2 Tim 4:13. Tablets of lead and brass or copper of great antiquity have been discovered in modern times. The earliest mode of preserving inscriptions was by engraving on a rock. Comp. Job 19:24. The Sinaitic peninsula, especially the Wady Mukattab (the "Sculptured Valley"), and the neighborhood of Mount Serbal and Mount Sinai, are full of rock-inscriptions (called the Sinaitic Inscriptions). The writing-table mentioned Luke 1:63 was probably a tablet covered with wax or otherwise prepared to be written upon. Deut 27:2-3. Such tablets were used in England as late as the year 1300. Leaves and the bark of trees were also used, and were often prepared with much skill. The people of Ceylon write with a bodkin on broad and thick leaves cut into narrow slips; and these leaves, being fastened together, make books which they call alias. The missionaries often prepared tracts in this form before paper and printing were introduced upon the island. In Sumatra and among the Indians of North America bark is still used for making letters and pictures. Leather and linen or cotton cloth were also used. These were prepared in the form of long rolls, 12 or 14 inches wide, and fastened at each end to sticks (like the rollers to which maps are attached), and which were rolled together till they met midway. Sometimes these leaves were connected in the form of modern books, and opened in the same way. In this case the sheets were fastened to rods, and these rods passed through rings, and thus formed the back of the book. The writing was generally in capital letters and without punctuation or division of words; and when used, the reader unrolled the manuscript as far as the place which he wished to find, and kept before him just so much as he would read. The pages resembled the following in their general appearance, though they were of course wider and longer than these, and were read from right to left: INTHEBEGI WORDWASG EMADEBYHI INHIMWASLI NNINGWAST OGTHESAME MANDWITHO FEANDTHELI HEWORDAN WASINTHEB UTHIMWASN FEWASTHELI DTHEWORD EGINNINGW OTANYTHIN GHTOFMENA WASWITHG ITHGODALL GMADETHA NDTHELIGHT ODANDTHE THINGSWER TWASMADE SHINETHIND John 1:1-5. BOO BOO These columns could be divided from one another and used separately, as we may cut the columns of a newspaper which is printed on one side only, and arrange the extracts as we like. Sometimes the reading was what is called furrow-wise. The first line was from right to left, and the second from left to right, and so on alternately, like ploughing a field. The roll or book of curses which Ezekiel saw was 30 feet long and 20 wide. The writing was usually on one side, but not always. Eze 2:10. When the roll was done with, it was carefully deposited in a case. The cut on the next page shows the book of the Law rolled upon two cylinders, with the seal at one side. There were other forms of the scroll, and also collections of sheets in the shape of a modern book, secured with rings and rods. A very good idea may be formed of an ancient roll by supposing a common newspaper to have rods or rollers at the right and left sides. The reader takes hold of the rods and unrolls the sheet until he comes to the desired column. Thus, in Luke 4:17 the phrase "opened the book" would properly read "unrolled the scroll," and in v.Ruth 4:20 for "closed the book" read "rolled up the volume" or "scroll." This shows the force of the figure, Isa 34:4, where the heavens are represented as rolled together as suddenly as the opposite ends of an unrolled scroll fly to meet each other when the hand of the reader is withdrawn from it. A kind of paper was made from the stalk of an Egyptian vegetable called papyrus, or paper-reed, which is still found in various parts of India. See Bulrush. The stalk was slit with a needle into plates or layers as broad and thin as possible. Some of them were 10 or 15 inches broad. These strips were laid side by side upon a flat horizontal surface, and then immersed in the water of the Nile, which not only served as a kind of sizing, but also caused the edges of the strips to adhere together as if glued. The sheets thus formed were dried in the sun and then covered with a fine wash, which made them smooth and flexible. They were finally beaten with hammers and polished. Twenty or more of these sheets were sometimes connected in one roll. The pen or [1] style was made of some hard substance, perhaps not unlike the instruments used by glaziers to cut glass. Jer 17:1. Upon tablets of wax an instrument was used, one end of which was pointed, to mark the letters, and the other broad and flat, to make erasures. Pens or styles of copper are now used by the Ceylonese. On a soft substance like linen or papyrus, the marks were painted with a fine hairpencil, as is practised among the Chinese to this day. Most of the Eastern nations now use the reed-pen, which is split with an instrument used as we use the penknife. Jer 36:23. The pith is removed, and the bark or rind, being split like a quill, retains and properly sheds the ink. It is not hard or stiff enough to be used long without mending. See Pen. Ink was prepared from a variety of substances (see Ink), and those who were skilful in writing wore an inkhorn fastened to the girdle, Eze 9:2, which is the present mode among the Persians and the Moors of Barbary. See Inkhorn. As tables were unknown, the paper or other substance written upon was laid upon the knees or held firmly with the left hand. A sealed book was a roll fastened together by a band or string, and a seal affixed to the knot, Isa 29:11, as seen in the cut. Book of the Generation, Gen 5:1; Matt 1:1, signifies the genealogical history or records of a family or nation. Book of the Living, Ps 69:28, and the kindred phrase. Book of Life, Rev 21:27, are supposed to allude to the genealogical lists or registers kept by the Jews, from which the names of the dead were erased. Isa 4:3. The aptness and force of the figurative use of the terms are sufficiently obvious. Books of Judgment. Dan 7:10. The allusion here is probably either to the practice of opening books of account to settle with servants or laborers, or to the custom of the Persian kings to have a book in which a daily record is made of special services performed by BOO BOT any of their subjects, and of the rewards which were given to the individuals. Esth 6:1-3. Book of the Wars of the Lord, Num 21:14, Book of Jasher, or the Righteous, Book of the Law closed. Josh 10:13 and 2 Sam 1:18, and Book of the Chronicles (or annals) of the kings of Judah and Israel, 1 Kgs 14:19,1 Chr 2:29, are the names of ancient writings known to the Jews, but not preserved in the sacred canon.

"Eat ... a roll of a book" (Ezekiel 2:8-9), meaning, Appropriate its contents in thy mind so entirely that it shall become part of thyself (Ezekiel 3:2). God's messenger must first inwardly possess as his own and him. self digest the truth of God before he can speak it effectually to others, to their believing appropriation of it (Revelation 10:9). Jeremiah 15:16 is the inspired explanation of the phrase: "Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." A seal secured books anciently, when designed to be kept secret. A book was then a roll of paper, often written within and on the back (Revelation 5:1), so as not to be wholly readable until the seal was broken. The fragments readable outside would excite curiosity and the desire to read the whole. Precisely the nature of God's roll of inspired Scripture, the successive parts being unfolded as God's grand scheme of redemption develops itself; the parts revealed whetting the desire for more and more, until the whole stands forth in its finally consummated perfection. Unbelief seals up to many (however learned) even what is revealed. Docile, childlike receptivity is needed (Isaiah 29:11; Matthew 13:10-17; Matthew 11:25). Prophecy in the Old Testament was comparatively a sealed volume until Jesus, who "alone is worthy," "opened the seals" (Daniel 12:4-9). John reveals what Daniel veils; therefore Daniel is told to "seal the book," John "not to seal the book" (Revelation 22:10). Daniel's book was sealed because referring to the then distant future; John's unsealed because the events foretold were immediately to begin their fulfillment. "The book of the living" (Psalm 69:28); Philemon 4:3, "the book of life." the Israelites who came up out of Egypt were entered in a muster roll of the living citizens, called "the writing of the house of Israel," "the book of life" (Ezekiel 13:9). Those who died were erased each year. An image of God's book of predestination to eternal life (Psalm 139:16; Psalm 87:6; Exodus 32:32; Daniel 12:1; Luke 10:20; Philemon 4:3; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 21:27). In man's point of view it has in it names of highly privileged professors who have but a name to live, but are dead spiritually, and therefore may be blotted out, as was Judas (Revelation 3:5; Matthew 13:12; Matthew 25:29); but in God's point of view it contains those only who are never blotted out, but elected finally to life (John 10:28-29; Acts 13:48; Revelation 20:12; Revelation 20:15), "written among the living in (the heavenly) Jerusalem" (Isaiah 4:3).