I’m looking for conclusive answers to the following question:
My current understanding is that the Jews made considerable use of Parchment for their scriptures (scrolls) even before the time of Christ. However I’m seeing authoritative sources saying that Christian Manuscripts for the first two centuries were written on Papyrus exclusively. So the logical question would be: why were they not using Parchment?
It seems to me that the answer is simply that Parchment was considerably more expensive than Papyrus and that among them, the early Christians simply didn’t have have the financial resources to pay for the Parchment that would have been required whereas the Jews did (ie: since they were a much older and larger community and in possession of relatively vast financial resources compared to the tiny community of early Christians).
So I’m wondering if this aligns with the accepted explanation.
-Patrick
Thanks Robert. I’ve emailed him.
Perhaps the next question would be:
In view of the Diocletian persecutions and the actions of the “traditor” bishops, can we even say that the Christians didn’t use parchment for the first two centuries? In other words, isn’t it possible that they might have created parchment copies but that every last one was turned over by “traditors” in 305?
Reply from Brent Nongbri:
I asked Brent for further clarification of his statement on the materials used in creation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and he replied:
“With leather and parchment you’re looking at two different processes. Some of the prep is the same (hair removal) but then leather is tanned while parchment is not tanned but instead dried under tension and scraped. It’s not that one is more advanced than the other; it’s more a case of different purposes. You’re right that parchment is easier to write on, but it’s also more fragile. If parchment gets wet or even damp, it can quite quickly rot. But the tanning process used on leather makes it more resistant to wetness.
The exact processes that produced the writing material used for the Dead Sea Scrolls are still being studied. Different scrolls were produced in different ways, and some scrolls are occasionally described as being a kind of mixture of leather and parchment. More work is needed.”
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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