Why did the early christians start using the codex?
Created | Updated Jul 18, 2008
This is a discussion of some of the reasons why the early Christians almost exclusively used the codex for their literature.
The most plausible reason why approximately 98% of Christian literature by the 3rd and 4th Centuries was written in codices, is that an important document from early Christianity was written in such a format (Gamble, H. Books and readers in the early church). A number of other hypotheses will be discussed including the possible origin of the codex form from wax tablets and the economic advantages of the codex form, as well as the need for the Christians to differentiate their Scripture from the Scripture of the Jews. Also the need to be able to reference certain passages of the Bible in order to certify their new religion will be discussed and the extra ease which the codex allows for this, and early references to published works on codices with reference to Martial and certain passages in Quintilian’s Institutes of Oratory that mention the use of parchment notebooks, as well as numerous fragments of manuscripts particularly collections of Paul’s “Letters to 7 Churches” (Gamble, H. Books and readers) and the Codex Sinaiticus (McCown. Codex and roll in the new testament). The fast change in format will be examined and contrasted to the far slower adoption of the codex in the rest of society.
There are a number of hypotheses which try to account for an astoundingly fast change of format. The archaeological record shows that an absolute majority of Christian literature was in codices by the 4th Century. The Codex Sinaiticus is a good example of how advanced the technology was, when it came to codices, because it is such a fine example of the art of making codices. It is highly unlikely that a codex that is so well-made was one of the very earliest examples of a codex. This means that by approximately 360 AD when the Codex Sinaiticus was made the codex was already a common form of book and people had had time to perfect the art of binding vellum codices. Indeed the codex has changed little since then. It took much longer for the rest of society to become aware of the advantages of the codex. By the 8th Century all literature, Christian and Pagan, was written in codices. (McCown. Codex and roll in the new testament)
So the question is: Why did the Christians start using the codex so much earlier than the rest of the educated world if codices were so much more economical and so much easier to use? It could be that the Christian’s were simply more open to change than the rest of society, but even if this the case what set off the change in the first place? It would have had to have been something very major to break from the strong Jewish tradition of using scrolls for all Scriptures and major literary works. It is important not to forget that early Christians were Jews before they became Christians and that the Torah was always written on scrolls. Contrast this to the fact that almost all Bibles were written on codices and you have a striking comparison.
But where did the form of the codex come from in the first place? It was possible that the Romans wax tablets suggested the form of the codex. The word “codex” comes from the Latin word caudex meaning a block of wood. The Romans used thinly cut wooden tablets that were whitened and bound together or hollowed out and filled with wax as notebooks. These could be reused, the ink could be washed off the wood and the wax could be reheated and smoothed out to provide a new writing surface. They also would bind together pages of parchment as notebooks which were used for official documents. Quintilian also mentions using parchment in a personal notebook if one happens to be weak of sight (10.3.31). From this you can see that the approximate form of the parchment codex was around from the 1st Century AD (Adoption of the codex book).
It is also suggested that the form of the codex was adapted from the way the Egyptians bound their papyrus letters. They were folded into something reminiscent of a road map and numerous such letters or documents were bound together with a Coptic binding. The codex could be seen to have come from this source particularly if the early Christians traded with the Egyptians a great deal and therefore were exposed to this form of letter and binding often (adoption of the codex book).
All “published” literary works the way the ancient Romans understood it were written on roll books or scrolls. Although the codex was around in the form of notebooks from as early as the 1st Century or even earlier published works were always written on scrolls. Martial says that for travellers who want to take copies of his poems with them they should buy “those that parchment confines in small pages” (Epigram 1.2: quos artat brevibus membrana tabellis) and goes on to name a bookseller that they can be purchased from. He stresses the convenience of buying works in this format and the greater capacity in comparison presumably to the scroll. Parchment notebooks were used for official documents such as tax records but it was rare that anything else was written on notebooks. However early Christians did not consider the Old or New Testaments literary works, they thought of them as profound truths and revelations. This is relevant because literary works were written on scrolls but if the Scriptures were not literary than they need not e written on scrolls. It was also common that early Christians were lower middle class and not high literary people and would have copied out their Scriptures into something they were familiar with (Gamble. Books and readers).
Another hypothesis is that codices easier to use as reference books particularly for Christians. This is important for the Christians as it served to provide easy access to passages from the Old Testament that would support the New Testament. It is debatable though that this is so important because early books did not have page numbers and the extra ease afforded would have been less than if they had page numbers. It is also said that a skilled user of scrolls would not have had trouble finding individual passages in a scroll, however it has already been mentioned that most early Christian’s were not literary people and so would not have had so much practise using scrolls as another. It was particularly important for them to be able to find passages to rebut a claim made by a Jew or find a passage to try to convert someone. This alone however can’t explain the almost complete lack of rolls in early Christian literature. Despite the low status of many early Christians and their possible lack of skill with the use of the scroll how can this alone account for the negligible number of scrolls. Scrolls aren’t completely unused in Christian Scripture. However the few scrolls that have been found from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Centuries have been unimportant school exercises, copied on the back (verso) of used scrolls.
Codices were more economical than scrolls because both sides of the parchment or papyrus could be used. However codices did require more work and more time to put together than scrolls particularly if it was a multiple quire codex (a quire is a gathering of pages folded in half and stitched, now called a signature or section). This is because whereas a scroll needs only to have the pages stuck together into the long strip and then the wooden rollers attached, a codex required the pages to be cut and folded and then stitched either as a single quire or the multiple quires stitched together, and finally the first three or so and the last three or so pages glued together to form a hard cover. It could then be covered with leather that extended beyond the edges of the book to make a wrap which would make a protective covering when folded all the way around the book. This also made the codex more durable than scrolls. The Torah was always written on scrolls, so it is ironic to consider that the earliest copy of the Torah ever found is in a codex.
Another advantage of the codex form was when early Church fathers wished to discard parts of different books or wished to change the order of the letters of Paul it wasn’t possible because they were contained in a single codex. This meant that less favoured parts of the New Testament were saved because they were bound in codices that also contained more favoured parts. By having all the many different texts gathered together into a few codices it standardised the Christian Bible by not allowing parts to be discarded by whomever felt so inclined. Because codices have a greater capacity than scrolls it was possible for more to be contained in one codex than in one scroll. For example it was possible to have all the letters of Paul contained in a single codex rather than in separate scrolls. Had they been contained in separate scrolls it would have been possible to throw away a single letter keeping the rest. Because codices were slow to make one was not discarded simply because it contained a single text that was not considered exactly canonical (McCown. Codex and roll in the new testament).
It is also possible that early Christians preferred this format because it differentiated their scriptures from that of the Jews. Early Christians would have felt the need to differentiate their Scripture from that of the Jews particularly as, until later, before someone could become a Christian they had to be a Jew. Having all their literature as codices made it very obvious to anyone who picked it up that it was Christian rather than Jewish. This is probably a positive consequence of the use of codices and not a cause (adoption of the codex book).
However it is important not to confuse causes and consequences. As has been stressed throughout many of these hypotheses are not strong enough on their own or in combination to warrant the exclusive use of the codex as opposed to thesc roll. Despite some favourable situations which make the Christians more likely to use the codex over the roll, such as need for reference or being mostly practical business people, why would the Christians see the benefits of the codex and begin using it so much earlier than the rest of society? Something had to start them using codices in the first place. It is sometimes difficult where there are only patchy records to differentiate between what caused a change and what were the favourable consequences of the change.
It is likely that the popularity of the codex resulted from the use of the codex by St Paul, for his “Letters to 7 Churches”. From the several collections of Letters it can be seen that the order of the letters was important, longest to shortest when some of the letters are grouped, and the number was important. Numerous other documents have been suggested by C.H. Roberts, namely the Gospel of St Mark, however the evidence he uses to back his claims up is tenuous at best. Roberts and another T.C. Skeat also suggest a comparison with Oral Torah and the Oral Law of Jesus, given that early Christians were Jews originally and could have used the same method of note-taking to write down what Jesus said. This is unlikely however because the Oral Torah and Oral Law are different in content and context and the evidence is again tenuous (gamble. books and readers in the early church).
The idea that an important document started the tradition is sound. Paul’s Letters to 7 Churches is a good candidate because of a number of things. Firstly because the stress is placed on the number of Churches and the order of the letters. Had the letters been written on a single scroll in decreasing order it has been estimated that the scroll would have been 24 metres long, more than twice the length of the longest scroll and three times the usual length. If they had been written on 7 separate scrolls it would have been impossible to maintain the order and number. Even if they had been kept in a cabinet together as scrolls often were, scrolls could have still been removed and the order still changed. If all ten letters had been in a single codex it would not have been of an exceptional size and the order and number of scrolls would have been maintained at all times. Secondly Paul was a Roman citizen and small businessman and would have been familiar with the parchment notebook. It stands to reason that he would have written his letters in a form that was familiar to him and easily done on the road just as later Christians copied Scriptures on the same form that was also familiar to them. It stands to reason that in an effort to emulate such an important document as Paul’s Letters to 7 Churches even the most learned Christian who was used to using scrolls, had an incentive to adopt the codex (gamble. books and readers).
It is also important that the Letters to 7 Churches are actual letters, for individual study, not necessarily chronological reading. Scrolls leant themselves to reading texts from start to finish as the text progressed down the scroll smoothly. Codices leant themselves to studying and referencing as has been mentioned already, and the letters did not have to be read in the order that they were placed in the codex. Yet the codex still placed emphasis on the number and order of the letters (gamble. books and readers).
As we have seen, although there are a number of reasons that the early Christians may have begun using codices it is most likely that it was because of the Letters to 7 Churches coupled with the familiarity most Christians would have had with the codex through their work. It is important to remember that even though codices were more economical, easier to use as reference books and they differentiated Christian books from Jewish books, these may have merely been consequences of the original use. These positive consequences would have compounded, and made the use of the codex more certain than ever.
Bibliography
Essay
Gamble, H. (1995) Books and Readers in the early Church : a history of early Christian texts. New Haven : Yale University
McCown, C. (1941) “Codex and Roll in the New Testament” Harvard Theological Review 34(4): p 219-249
Adoption of the Codex Book: Parable of a new reading mode. (1998) [21/05/08] <http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v17/bp17-10.html>
The Coming of the Codex. (2002) [21/05/08] <http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/chb/chbn2002_4.htm>
Roberts, H. & Skeat, T. (1983) The Birth of the Codex. London : Oxford University Press
Book 10 – Chapter 3 (2006) [04/06/08] <http://honeyl.public.iastate.edu/quintilian/10/chapter3.html#31>
Martialis, The Epigrams of Martial (2004) [21/06/08] <http://martialis.blogspot.com/2004_06_01_archive.html>
The most plausible reason why approximately 98% of Christian literature by the 3rd and 4th Centuries was written in codices, is that an important document from early Christianity was written in such a format (Gamble, H. Books and readers in the early church). A number of other hypotheses will be discussed including the possible origin of the codex form from wax tablets and the economic advantages of the codex form, as well as the need for the Christians to differentiate their Scripture from the Scripture of the Jews. Also the need to be able to reference certain passages of the Bible in order to certify their new religion will be discussed and the extra ease which the codex allows for this, and early references to published works on codices with reference to Martial and certain passages in Quintilian’s Institutes of Oratory that mention the use of parchment notebooks, as well as numerous fragments of manuscripts particularly collections of Paul’s “Letters to 7 Churches” (Gamble, H. Books and readers) and the Codex Sinaiticus (McCown. Codex and roll in the new testament). The fast change in format will be examined and contrasted to the far slower adoption of the codex in the rest of society.
There are a number of hypotheses which try to account for an astoundingly fast change of format. The archaeological record shows that an absolute majority of Christian literature was in codices by the 4th Century. The Codex Sinaiticus is a good example of how advanced the technology was, when it came to codices, because it is such a fine example of the art of making codices. It is highly unlikely that a codex that is so well-made was one of the very earliest examples of a codex. This means that by approximately 360 AD when the Codex Sinaiticus was made the codex was already a common form of book and people had had time to perfect the art of binding vellum codices. Indeed the codex has changed little since then. It took much longer for the rest of society to become aware of the advantages of the codex. By the 8th Century all literature, Christian and Pagan, was written in codices. (McCown. Codex and roll in the new testament)
So the question is: Why did the Christians start using the codex so much earlier than the rest of the educated world if codices were so much more economical and so much easier to use? It could be that the Christian’s were simply more open to change than the rest of society, but even if this the case what set off the change in the first place? It would have had to have been something very major to break from the strong Jewish tradition of using scrolls for all Scriptures and major literary works. It is important not to forget that early Christians were Jews before they became Christians and that the Torah was always written on scrolls. Contrast this to the fact that almost all Bibles were written on codices and you have a striking comparison.
But where did the form of the codex come from in the first place? It was possible that the Romans wax tablets suggested the form of the codex. The word “codex” comes from the Latin word caudex meaning a block of wood. The Romans used thinly cut wooden tablets that were whitened and bound together or hollowed out and filled with wax as notebooks. These could be reused, the ink could be washed off the wood and the wax could be reheated and smoothed out to provide a new writing surface. They also would bind together pages of parchment as notebooks which were used for official documents. Quintilian also mentions using parchment in a personal notebook if one happens to be weak of sight (10.3.31). From this you can see that the approximate form of the parchment codex was around from the 1st Century AD (Adoption of the codex book).
It is also suggested that the form of the codex was adapted from the way the Egyptians bound their papyrus letters. They were folded into something reminiscent of a road map and numerous such letters or documents were bound together with a Coptic binding. The codex could be seen to have come from this source particularly if the early Christians traded with the Egyptians a great deal and therefore were exposed to this form of letter and binding often (adoption of the codex book).
All “published” literary works the way the ancient Romans understood it were written on roll books or scrolls. Although the codex was around in the form of notebooks from as early as the 1st Century or even earlier published works were always written on scrolls. Martial says that for travellers who want to take copies of his poems with them they should buy “those that parchment confines in small pages” (Epigram 1.2: quos artat brevibus membrana tabellis) and goes on to name a bookseller that they can be purchased from. He stresses the convenience of buying works in this format and the greater capacity in comparison presumably to the scroll. Parchment notebooks were used for official documents such as tax records but it was rare that anything else was written on notebooks. However early Christians did not consider the Old or New Testaments literary works, they thought of them as profound truths and revelations. This is relevant because literary works were written on scrolls but if the Scriptures were not literary than they need not e written on scrolls. It was also common that early Christians were lower middle class and not high literary people and would have copied out their Scriptures into something they were familiar with (Gamble. Books and readers).
Another hypothesis is that codices easier to use as reference books particularly for Christians. This is important for the Christians as it served to provide easy access to passages from the Old Testament that would support the New Testament. It is debatable though that this is so important because early books did not have page numbers and the extra ease afforded would have been less than if they had page numbers. It is also said that a skilled user of scrolls would not have had trouble finding individual passages in a scroll, however it has already been mentioned that most early Christian’s were not literary people and so would not have had so much practise using scrolls as another. It was particularly important for them to be able to find passages to rebut a claim made by a Jew or find a passage to try to convert someone. This alone however can’t explain the almost complete lack of rolls in early Christian literature. Despite the low status of many early Christians and their possible lack of skill with the use of the scroll how can this alone account for the negligible number of scrolls. Scrolls aren’t completely unused in Christian Scripture. However the few scrolls that have been found from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Centuries have been unimportant school exercises, copied on the back (verso) of used scrolls.
Codices were more economical than scrolls because both sides of the parchment or papyrus could be used. However codices did require more work and more time to put together than scrolls particularly if it was a multiple quire codex (a quire is a gathering of pages folded in half and stitched, now called a signature or section). This is because whereas a scroll needs only to have the pages stuck together into the long strip and then the wooden rollers attached, a codex required the pages to be cut and folded and then stitched either as a single quire or the multiple quires stitched together, and finally the first three or so and the last three or so pages glued together to form a hard cover. It could then be covered with leather that extended beyond the edges of the book to make a wrap which would make a protective covering when folded all the way around the book. This also made the codex more durable than scrolls. The Torah was always written on scrolls, so it is ironic to consider that the earliest copy of the Torah ever found is in a codex.
Another advantage of the codex form was when early Church fathers wished to discard parts of different books or wished to change the order of the letters of Paul it wasn’t possible because they were contained in a single codex. This meant that less favoured parts of the New Testament were saved because they were bound in codices that also contained more favoured parts. By having all the many different texts gathered together into a few codices it standardised the Christian Bible by not allowing parts to be discarded by whomever felt so inclined. Because codices have a greater capacity than scrolls it was possible for more to be contained in one codex than in one scroll. For example it was possible to have all the letters of Paul contained in a single codex rather than in separate scrolls. Had they been contained in separate scrolls it would have been possible to throw away a single letter keeping the rest. Because codices were slow to make one was not discarded simply because it contained a single text that was not considered exactly canonical (McCown. Codex and roll in the new testament).
It is also possible that early Christians preferred this format because it differentiated their scriptures from that of the Jews. Early Christians would have felt the need to differentiate their Scripture from that of the Jews particularly as, until later, before someone could become a Christian they had to be a Jew. Having all their literature as codices made it very obvious to anyone who picked it up that it was Christian rather than Jewish. This is probably a positive consequence of the use of codices and not a cause (adoption of the codex book).
However it is important not to confuse causes and consequences. As has been stressed throughout many of these hypotheses are not strong enough on their own or in combination to warrant the exclusive use of the codex as opposed to thesc roll. Despite some favourable situations which make the Christians more likely to use the codex over the roll, such as need for reference or being mostly practical business people, why would the Christians see the benefits of the codex and begin using it so much earlier than the rest of society? Something had to start them using codices in the first place. It is sometimes difficult where there are only patchy records to differentiate between what caused a change and what were the favourable consequences of the change.
It is likely that the popularity of the codex resulted from the use of the codex by St Paul, for his “Letters to 7 Churches”. From the several collections of Letters it can be seen that the order of the letters was important, longest to shortest when some of the letters are grouped, and the number was important. Numerous other documents have been suggested by C.H. Roberts, namely the Gospel of St Mark, however the evidence he uses to back his claims up is tenuous at best. Roberts and another T.C. Skeat also suggest a comparison with Oral Torah and the Oral Law of Jesus, given that early Christians were Jews originally and could have used the same method of note-taking to write down what Jesus said. This is unlikely however because the Oral Torah and Oral Law are different in content and context and the evidence is again tenuous (gamble. books and readers in the early church).
The idea that an important document started the tradition is sound. Paul’s Letters to 7 Churches is a good candidate because of a number of things. Firstly because the stress is placed on the number of Churches and the order of the letters. Had the letters been written on a single scroll in decreasing order it has been estimated that the scroll would have been 24 metres long, more than twice the length of the longest scroll and three times the usual length. If they had been written on 7 separate scrolls it would have been impossible to maintain the order and number. Even if they had been kept in a cabinet together as scrolls often were, scrolls could have still been removed and the order still changed. If all ten letters had been in a single codex it would not have been of an exceptional size and the order and number of scrolls would have been maintained at all times. Secondly Paul was a Roman citizen and small businessman and would have been familiar with the parchment notebook. It stands to reason that he would have written his letters in a form that was familiar to him and easily done on the road just as later Christians copied Scriptures on the same form that was also familiar to them. It stands to reason that in an effort to emulate such an important document as Paul’s Letters to 7 Churches even the most learned Christian who was used to using scrolls, had an incentive to adopt the codex (gamble. books and readers).
It is also important that the Letters to 7 Churches are actual letters, for individual study, not necessarily chronological reading. Scrolls leant themselves to reading texts from start to finish as the text progressed down the scroll smoothly. Codices leant themselves to studying and referencing as has been mentioned already, and the letters did not have to be read in the order that they were placed in the codex. Yet the codex still placed emphasis on the number and order of the letters (gamble. books and readers).
As we have seen, although there are a number of reasons that the early Christians may have begun using codices it is most likely that it was because of the Letters to 7 Churches coupled with the familiarity most Christians would have had with the codex through their work. It is important to remember that even though codices were more economical, easier to use as reference books and they differentiated Christian books from Jewish books, these may have merely been consequences of the original use. These positive consequences would have compounded, and made the use of the codex more certain than ever.
Bibliography
Essay
Gamble, H. (1995) Books and Readers in the early Church : a history of early Christian texts. New Haven : Yale University
McCown, C. (1941) “Codex and Roll in the New Testament” Harvard Theological Review 34(4): p 219-249
Adoption of the Codex Book: Parable of a new reading mode. (1998) [21/05/08] <http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v17/bp17-10.html>
The Coming of the Codex. (2002) [21/05/08] <http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/chb/chbn2002_4.htm>
Roberts, H. & Skeat, T. (1983) The Birth of the Codex. London : Oxford University Press
Book 10 – Chapter 3 (2006) [04/06/08] <http://honeyl.public.iastate.edu/quintilian/10/chapter3.html#31>
Martialis, The Epigrams of Martial (2004) [21/06/08] <http://martialis.blogspot.com/2004_06_01_archive.html>
