The Material Used To Make The Bible Essays - Textual Scholarship

The Material Used To Make The Bible Introduction The bible is most read book in the world today, as we know it. It is also the longest lasting book or should I say oldest, still available in our bookshelves across the world. The Lord has blessed us with the technology that we have today. We have computers, laptops, typewriters, and even pocket size machines that are capable of writing things down, or even voice recordings. But think back to the days when the words that fill the pages of the bible were being lived and mapped out. What was the time like in those days? Think, back of the tools that were used just to give us the book we know today as our guide to know the real God. I know that even now we still struggle with this process, but think how much harder it must have been for those people of that times period to write pages beyond pages of stories and accounts. The endless hours it must have taken to write just one book of the bible. The process of gathering information and the fact that all these books could have survived th e times and be brought all together to form just one single book that would last over a thousand years later. In this paper I will tell you al little about the various tools used by the writers of the bible. Papyrus Papyrus is a water plant whose fibers were used by the people of Egypt to make a writing material. It also was used as material for mats, sandals, and sailcloth. The brownish flowers were made into garlands for the shrines of the Egyptian gods. Many people think the mother of Moses hid her son in an ark made of Papyrus. The papyrus plant still grows in the Nile valley of Egypt. It is also found in Ethiopia, Syria, southern Italy, and Sicily. The plants reedlike stems grow 3 to 20 feet high. As many as 100 flowers stalks spring from the top of each stem. These stalks may be more than 12 inches long. The Egyptians made a writing material also called papyrus, by laying strips of the plants stems in layers, and then placing them under pressure. The crushed Strips matted into a loose-textured, porous, white paper. Time has been known to turn surviving papyrus manuscripts brown and brittle. The paper was sold as long rectangular sheets of different sizes. The sheets were at first rolled an d tied with string, Later there were bound together into books. Until the 100s BC, Egypt guarded its monopoly on the preparation of the paper. Then the more durable parchment gradually replaced papyrus. This is also known as the most popular writing material of the time. Parchment Parchment is animal skin that has been prepared as a surface for writing. The word parchment usually means a writing material, made from the skins of sheep, goats, or calves, thus meaning them to be very long lasting. Parchment scrolls have survived from about 1500 BC. In making parchment, the skins are first washed and then placed in lime to remove the hair and fat. Next, the skins are stretched on a frame and thinned with knives and scrapers. Finally, the skins are rubbed with chalk and pumice in order to create a smooth, white writing surface. A form of fine, high-quality parchment called vellum is made from the skins of calves or lambs. Vellum has been used for important writings such as charters, university diplomas, and wills. Heavy parchment is made from the skins of calves, donkeys, goats, and wolves. It is used for drumheads. Dipping pure, unsized paper into a cooled mixture of sulfuric acid and water, and then washing and drying it under pressure make parchment paper, also called vegetable parchment. This process makes the paper partly transparent and much stronger than ordinary paper. Parchment paper is used for legal documents and maps. Parchment was especially popular in the ancient cities of Asia Minor. The Jews, Persians, and other ancient people used it for sacred and literary writings. Beginning about 200 BC, parchment gradually replaced papyrus as the most commonly used writing material. Parchment remained the leading writing material in the

Emily Dickinsons Mother, Emily Norcross

Emily Dickinsons Mother, Emily Norcross Emily Dickinson is one of the most mysterious writers in literary history. Although she was a literary genius, only eight of her poems were published in her life, and she lived a secluded existence. But, this quiet life at home can be compared to the isolated life her mother lived. About Emilys Mother: Emily Norcross Emily Norcross was born on July 3, 1804, and she married Edward Dickinson on May 6, 1828. The couples first child, William Austin Dickinson, was born just 11 months later. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson  was born on December 10, 1830, and her sister, Lavinia Norcross Dickinson (Vinnie) was born several years later on February 28, 1833. From what we know of Emily Norcross, she seldom left home, only making brief visits to relatives. Later, Dickinson would rarely leave home, spending most of her days in the same house. She isolated herself more and more as she grew older, and she seemed to become more selective in whom she saw from her circle of family and friends. Of course, one marked difference between Dickinson and her mother is that she never married. There has been a great deal of speculation about why Emily Dickinson never married. In one of her poems, she writes, Im wife; Ive finished that... and She rose to his requirement... / To take the honorable work / Of woman and of wife. Perhaps she had a long-lost lover. Perhaps, she chose to live a different sort of life, without leaving home and without marrying. Whether it was a choice, or simply a matter of circumstance, her dreams came to fruition in her work. She could imagine herself in and out of love and marriage. And, she was always free to spend her flood of words, with passionate intensity. For whatever reason, Dickinson did not marry. But even her relationship with her mother was troubled. The Strain of Having an Unsupportive  Mother Dickinson once wrote to her mentor, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, My Mother does not care for thought-- , which was foreign to the way Dickinson lived. Later she wrote to Higginson: Could you tell me what home is. I never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled. Dickinsons relationship with her mother may have been strained, especially during her earliest years. She could not look to her mother for support in her literary efforts, but none of the members of her family or friends saw her as a literary genius. Her father saw Austin as the genius and never looked beyond. Higginson, while supportive, described her as partially cracked. She had friends, but none of them really understood the true extent of her genius. They found her witty, and they enjoyed corresponding with her through letters. In many ways, though, she was completely alone. On June 15, 1875, Emily Norcross Dickinson suffered a paralytic stroke and suffered from a long period of illness thereafter. This period of time may have had more influence on her seclusion from society than any other, but it was also a way for the mother and daughter to become closer than ever before. For Dickinson, it was also just another small step away into her upper roominto her writing. Vinnie said that one of the daughters must be constantly at home. She explains her sisters seclusion by saying that Emily chose this part. Then, Vinnie said that Emily, finding the life with her books and nature so congenial, continued to live it... A Caretaker Till the End Dickinson cared for her mother for the final seven years of her life, until her mother died on November 14, 1882. In a letter to Mrs. J.C. Holland, she wrote: The dear Mother that could not walk, has flown. It never occurred to us that she had not Limbs, she had Wingsand she soared from us unexpectedly as a summoned Bird Dickinson could not understand what it meant: the death of her mother. She had experienced so much death in her life, not only with the deaths of friends and acquaintances, but the death of her father, and now her mother. She had wrestled with the idea of death; she had feared it, and she wrote many poems about it. In Tis so appalling, she wrote, Looking at death is dying. So, her mothers final end was hard for her, especially after such a long illness. Dickinson wrote to Maria Whitney: All is faint indeed without our vanished mother, who achieved in sweetness what she lost in strength, though grief of wonder at her fate made the winter short, and each night I reach finds my lungs more breathless, seeking what it means. Emilys mother might not have been the genius that her daughter was, but she influenced Dickinsons life in ways she probably didnt even realize. In total, Dickinson wrote 1,775 poems in her life. Would Emily have written so many, or would she have written any at all, if she had not lived that solitary existence at home? She lived for so many years alonein the room of her own. Sources: Emily Dickinson Biography Emily Dickinson Poems