Huldah - Her Life And Times

Huldah - Her Life And Times

BOOKS AND SCROLLS

Ancient writers recorded their thoughts and information on clay tablets. Literally hundreds of thousands of these tablets have been found, many of which have yet to be read. And it is estimated that 99 percent of the ancient tablets still in existence have yet to be found.

Later, writers wrote on scrolls. The paper for the scrolls was made from processed papyrus reeds, which grew along the Nile River. The separate pieces were glued together into one long sheet and then rolled onto wooden dowels, with the beginning of the scroll on the right and the end on the left. Readers of Hebrew, usually men and sometimes boys — girls were seldom taught to read — read the columns of letters from top to bottom, right to left. The reader would roll up the read portion of the scroll while unrolling the unread portion.

After some time the Israelites began to form another sort of paper, called parchment, from the skins of animals. They were careful to use only skins from clean animals for the paper to be used to record the Scriptures. The animal skins were treated until they were supple and very light in color, and then several of these prepared skins would be sewn together to form one scroll. For instance, an old copy of the book of Isaiah found as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 is a scroll made of seventeen pieces of skin of varying sizes sewn together. The scroll is about ten inches in height and an amazing twenty-four feet long when unrolled.

Books as we know them today, with page after page bound together between two covers, did not develop until the second century AD The fact that the writing still had to be done by one person, laboriously by hand, limited the number of these books until the 1400s, when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. His first book? The Bible, now known as the famous Gutenberg Bible. As few as ten full copies of this first printing are still in existence today.

Original documents of the Old and New Testaments, called autographs, no longer exist. Parchment and papyrus both decay over time and when exposed to dampness. Also, New Testament books and letters may literally have been read to pieces or may have been destroyed during times of persecution.

The Book of the Law discovered in the temple during Josiah’s day was probably made from papyrus. Historians are uncertain exactly how much of the law was contained in this scroll. Some think it contained the entire Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy), while others believe it only contained the book of Deuteronomy. Josiah’s reaction, however, would cause one to believe that at least the curses of Leviticus 26 or Deuteronomy 28 were included. Huldah, the faithful prophetess during a time of national unfaithfulness, bravely spoke God’s judgment. She emphasized the words of judgment Josiah had already read in the Book of the Law, and then went on to pronounce a reprieve for Josiah because of his sorrow over the sins of his people. Once again, God had faithfully and wonderfully demonstrated his divine judgment as well as his divine willingness to forgive.