Friday, August 30, 2019

Bible Must Be In Codex Format?

There are churches that insist that the Bible can only come in codex (that is book that we know so well) format. No handphone apps. Well, let us be very scriptural about this and look into the Bible for answers.

The Torah was first written by God on stone tablets (Exodus 24:12-31:18, Exodus 32:15-16, Exodus 34:1-28, Deuteronomy 10:1-4). The Torah, together with rest of the Old Testament were written in scrolls (Exodus 24:7, Deuteronomy 31:24-29, 2 Kings 22:8, 2 Chronicles 34:14-15, Jeremiah 36:27-28, Luke 4:16-20). The New Testament were still written in scrolls and parchment before the closing of the revelation (2 Timothy 4:13). It seemed that the Bible started to appear in codex only in the second century AD.

Therefore it seems right that we should follow the Bible strictly and use scroll. If we want to be more rigid, we will use stone tablets for the Torah. Not only we cannot use the handphone, we also cannot use the book form. Remember this - Jesus use the scroll. We must following Him, right?

Then there is this warning by Apostle Paul about wasting time in endless discussion of myths and endless genealogies (1 Timothy 1:4), which does not seem to apply to Bible scrolls, codex or apps. Should we take heed?

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. (Luke 4:16-20 ESV)

Oh, wait a minute. The above Bible passage quoted is from ESV. If KJV, then it would be "book" and not "scroll". So maybe we have to use the book format after all if we are using KJV only.

Below are two references on the technology of transmission of the Bible text:
From scrolls to scrolling: how technology has shaped our Bible reading - Articles about the Bible - Bible Society
Technology and the Transmission of the Biblical Text

No comments: