What was the New Testament written on?

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Sharp

Sharp

Senior Member
May 5, 2009
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Was it papyrus? And what did they use to write on the papyrus?

Or was it written on parchment?

I've googled this but I keep getting the same sites which tell me nothing.
 
Sharp said:
Was it papyrus? And what did they use to write on the papyrus?

Or was it written on parchment?

I've googled this but I keep getting the same sites which tell me nothing.
Click to expand...


That is so funny you ask because i was just asking my dad the same question. I saw a documetary on the dead sea scrolls and how thats what the new testament was written on, and they said it was written on papyrus
 
NodMyHeadLikeYeah said:
That is so funny you ask because i was just asking my dad the same question. I saw a documetary on the dead sea scrolls and how thats what the new testament was written on, and they said it was written on papyrus
Click to expand...

there were zero NEW Testament documents among the Dead Sea Scrolls
 
greatkraw said:
there were zero NEW Testament documents among the Dead Sea Scrolls
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yeah see thats what i thought, and thats why i was asking my dad about it. Cause im way confused about the whole thing.
 
but all the copies seem to be written with papyrus. ?

also, what was the home made ink made from?
 
the dead sea scrolls were on papyrus and put in puts decades before Christ
they include the old testament and the septuagint and the apocrypha and other extra biblical books
the early New Testament books were typically written on vellum
 
Most of the original N.T. documents were written on papyrus rolls. Later copies of these documents began to be in the form of papyrus codex, or book form. Whereas most O.T. documents had been originially written on leather, papyrus had been used for thousands of years by the time of Christ.

Vellum or parchment came into prominence because of King Eumenes II (197-158 B.C.), of Pergamum. Eumenes was building a "world class" library, to the envy of he Egyptians. The king of Egypt cut off the supply of papyrus to Pergamum, thus forcing Eumenes to perfect another writing medium.

Later copies of N.T. documents began to appear on the vellum or parchment. For more than a thousand years, copies of N.T. documents were made on vellum. Vellum originally referred only to skins of calves and antelopes, (vellum from veal), while parchment referred to skins from sheep and goats. Later, they began to be used interchageably.
 
Sharp said:
but all the copies seem to be written with papyrus. ?

also, what was the home made ink made from?
Click to expand...
If you write something that you want to last a long time, you write it on vellum. If you are making a lot of copies, you write it on papyrus. That is the only real evidence that they were originally vellum and then copied onto papyrus. Inks were made from plants and minerals. Yellow was the easiest to make and purple the hardest.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone.

Do you guys know any websites that talk specifically about the scriptures having been written on vellum and copied onto papyrus?

Many thanks.
 
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