Status Updates From THE READING CULTURE OF EARL...

The first codices were made of wax-coated wooden tablets, as a form of temporary writing (similar to Luke 1:63). Apart from the printing press, the codex has been viewed as the most significant advancement in the development of the book. Its advantages over scrolls include: far more written material (front and back), easier to carry, more convenient, cheaper to produce, easier to locate information, more durable.

The composition and use of the scroll and the codex around the time of the New Testament.

Introduction: The making of New Testament books. Do we have a reflection of the originals (in establishing the Word of God) from the surviving manuscripts and how can we know and with what confidence? Textual criticism is the science and art of addressing these and other related questions, based on the analysis of these handwritten manuscripts.