BOOKS

Books are fascinating; some people like to collect books. Preachers usually have a library of religion based books; mostly commentaries. My library is not as large as it once was, several years ago I thought of retiring from preaching and I gave several of my books to a young preacher who was just starting a library. Of course I kept most of my favorites! I know of a preacher who left the ministry for a while and sold all of his books in order to start a business, but since that time he has gone back to preaching and of course he has purchased many books and has even begun to write books. I too have written a few small books, mostly from sermons that I have preached.

Have you ever wondered where the idea of books originated from? There is a good chance that they started during the lifetime of Job. (Job 19:23–24) “Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! ²⁴That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!” At least this is the first mention of “a book” that is found in the Bible. Job desired that his words would be remembered, and what better way to preserve one’s words than to write a book. Even today men and women are writing their life’s story in book form. I afraid that my life’s story would not be very interesting to very many people, so don’t expect to find my life’s story to be found on the shelf of any book store.

Let’s look at some of the early books written during Bible times! What were they made of? Isaiah gives us a clue: (Isa 19:7) “The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.” At this time if you were to write anything it was written on paper reeds. Here are Gill’s comments of this verse: “The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks,.... Not at the fountain or origin of the Nile and its streams, but by the sides thereof; on the banks of which grew a reed or rush, called by the Greeks "papyrus" and "biblus"; from whence come the words "paper" and "bible", or book, of which paper was anciently made; even as early as the times of Isaiah, and so, many hundreds of years before the times of Alexander the great, to which some fix the era of making it.” So we know the substance of their paper.

The apostle Paul mentions “parchments”: (2 Tim 4:13) “The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. Again I refer to the comments of Gill: “But especially the parchments: which might contain his own writings he had a mind to revise before his death, and commit into the hands of proper persons; or some observations which he had made in his travels, concerning persons and things; though it is most likely that these were the books of the Old Testament, which were written on parchments, and rolled up together; and hence they are called the volume of the book; and these the apostle had a special regard for, that whatever was neglected, he desired that these might not, but be carefully brought unto him.” Can we not understand from 2 Timothy 4:13 the special regard this preacher had for books.

These early books were much different than the books of our day, our books are written on pages and their books were written in rolls: (Jer. 36:2) “Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.” (Ezek. 2:9) “And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;”

Most of today’s books are written on the computer, the books of Bible times were written with ink and pen (Jer. 36:18) “Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.” (3 John 13) “I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee:” I find the history of books to be very interesting!