The only way to duplicate a manuscript was to spend hours (weeks before the invention of the printing press? months? years?) laboriously copying it by hand. Note: It took one modern other four years, of composing as much as 14 hours a with fine-tipped markers, to handwrite a copy of the bible day! Can you imagine the stress of perhaps not screwing up?!

Scribes in biblical times utilized mainly two surfaces that are writing which to record scripture: plant materials and animal skins. The known papyrus that is oldest (plant) fragment goes back to 2400 BC. Parchment (leather-based) scrolls have actually survived from about 1500 BC. To an inferior level, scribes additionally utilized pottery chards, rocks inscribed with an iron pen, clay pills etched having an instrument that is sharp dried, and wax pills developed by addressing an appartment little bit of lumber with wax.

Materials With Limited Shelf Life

Papyrus, a paper created from reeds, had been the most typical material that is writing in biblical times.