Gamera

In the current issue of Biblical Archaeologic Review, there is a brief article on how the epistles were read (out loud, to a group): "Sacred Texts In Oral Culture, How Did They Function," by Ben Witherington. The article makes an interesting argument that that the epistles were not "read" like we read them -- i.e., as texts in which we can go back and forth and make comparisons and contrasts that oral presentations don't allow.

In any case, as part of the argument, the author claims that papyrus was expensive. I had heard that the papyrus industry was pretty well developed in the 1st century Roman Empire, and unit costs were pretty low.

Does anybody know whether papyrus was an expensive commodity at that time or not?

Newton's Cat

I'm convinced that the Gospel of Mark, as we have it today, is a reassembly of a damaged codex (book form rather than roll) in which some of the pages were cut into pieces. I even see evidence of knife or sword thrusts through pages. Whoever reconstructed it was not familiar with the text and made mistakes. A lot of extra pages were also added - changing the storyline. I think that the original was a text of a play meant to be performed in the presence of a sophisticated intellectual audience.

Julian

I am not sure about the cost of papyrus but I will thumb through my sources and see what I can find. A couple of nitpicks follow, so I apologize in advance.

Firstly, it's just papyrus, not papyrus paper, seeing as the latter is a bit confusing.

Secondly, reading anything by Ben Witherington is a complete waste of time. While he has learned many things and knows much stuff, he has the intelligence of your average earthworm and is completely incapable of reason. Sorry, but the guy just annoys me with his mindless apologetics.

Thirdly, and this is a pet peeve of mine for some time now, reading from a scroll does not make it an 'oral culture' thing. An oral culture involves transmitting text through memorization and recital. If go to my bookshelf, grab a volume and read it out loud, that doesn't suddenly turn my household into an oral culture. In a culture where papyrus is probably fairly expensive and literacy is quite low, it is only natural that reading out loud would be the common method of presentation. This doesn't make the culture oral, just the delivery. Remember, there were professional scribes who would take down a letter and get it sent off to a destination where another scribe could read it to the recipient. Not oral, just somewhat awkward. We have lots of examples of letters, thousands of them, in fact, from a time where most people were illiterate. Again, not oral. Illiterate culture <> oral culture.

I suspect that papyrus probably was somewhat expensive as I seem to recall that Pergamum started its major move in production of parchment as a response to Egyptian papyrus export policies, although this may be somewhat mythological. Also, I know I have read somewhere just how many goats, or whatever, it would take to make a gospel and it is quite a few. Again, I will see if I can hunt it down.

Julian

youngalexander

According to Writing History

We have little information on the relative prices of papyrus and parchment.According to Birt, papyrus cost more than parchment. This may have been so in Greec~Birt relies on an Athenian inscription of 407 B.C.--but it cannot have been true of the Roman imperial epoch, when enormous quantities of papyrus were imported from Egypt and there were numerous chartarii or paper dealers. The government owned a huge paper warehouse, the horrea chartaria, for the storage of papyrus used in the offices of the administration.

eta: I have read or seen something on this recently. Have a vague idea it was on 'Time Team' which would mean ancient Briton, but I could be wrong.

judge

Was the damaged copy the only copy in existence then?
If not what became of all the other non-damaged copies?

Roger Pearse

There is some evidence that the original copy of Mark may have been written into a primitive codex.

It is a fact that the Christians adopted the codex form far earlier than anyone else. An analysis of fragments from Oxyrhynchus showed that early use was almost exclusively Christian. It has been theorised from this that this suggests a religious motive, and if one or more of the gospels had originally been written in such a form, this would account for it.

In support of this is adduced the likely loss of the original ending of Mark at some very early date. The ending of a roll is well-protected inside the roll, whereas the end of a codex is on the outside and indeed is routinely lost in ancient and medieval mss.

None of this is conclusive, but it is certainly interesting.

There were several grades of papyrus sold (I believe there may be something about this in the Suda). I don't recall the prices, tho.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Julian

According to Philip Comfort (Encountering the Manuscripts (or via: amazon.co.uk)), parchment was far more expensive than papyrus which was eventually phased out in favor of parchment for durability reasons. Some stats on parchment: one sheep or goat could provide two double folios (one sheet folded in the middle to make two folios or leaves in a codex). A group of NT writings (say, the gospels only) in average format would take fifty or sixty sheep or goats (200-250 folios). Many times you would need even more folios of greater size, say for Codex Sinaiticus, for example. That would represent a good sized herd of animals, certainly enough for several farmers. Some of these stats are from The Text of the New Testament (or via: amazon.co.uk).

As for grades of papyrus, Pliny (in his Natural History) tells us (XIII 23, 74-76) that the quality were determined by the quality of the fibers used, and by the fineness, stoutness, whiteness, and smoothness of the product. Augustus paper and Claudius paper (paper used here as a translation from charta) were the best. Other types of paper were Fannian, amphitheater, Saitic, and finally "emporitic" paper which was not good enough for writing material but very handy for wrapping up merchandise (from the Greek EMPOROS = merchant). I guess you would get your fish and chips wrapped in emporitic papyrus back then. Here is Pliny's chapter on the nine kinds of paper: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin...=head%3D%23814 and here is the whole of book VIII which has much more to say on the topic: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin...:head%3D%23791

Julian

Roger Pearse

The papyrus industry was localised in Egypt, and was affected by the change in climate in late antiquity. Availability must also have declined after the collapse of the western empire, and in the east after the Arab conquest.

By contrast parchment was a by-product of the monastic farming system in the middle ages and so was essentially free, but in limited supply. In the letters of Poggio Bracciolini at the renaissance we read of constant interest in supplies of parchment.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Julian

That all sounds reasonable. I can also add that papyrus was used up to the eighth century but more and more sparingly with hardly anything appering in that final century. Paper started being used in the tenth century with almost everything being paper by the fifteenth.

Julian

Buck Laser

Papyrus paper, like parchment, was frequently reused. The original writing was scratched off and the new material added. There's even a word for a re-used papyrus. If memory serves, the word is "palympsist." I always found the word amusing because it reminds me of the Scarlet Pimpernel.