Origin of the Materials of Writing, Tablets, etc.
The art of writing is very ancient. Its origin is actually lost in the
distance of time. From one point, however,—this side of the gulf of lost
ages, in which high art perished, and with it the key to all its
antediluvian greatness,—we date our history.
The Bible gives us the earliest notice on the subject that is anywhere
to be found. The most ancient mode of writing was on _cinders_, on
bricks, and on _tables of stone_; afterwards on _plates_ of various
materials, on _ivory_ and similar articles. One of the earliest methods
was to cut out the letters on a tablet of stone. Moses, we are told,
received the two tables of the Covenant on Mount Sinai, written with the
finger of God; and before that, Moses himself was not ignorant of the
use of letters.[9] [Exodus xxiv. 4; xvii. 14.] A learned writer
says:—“In Genesis v. 1, ‘This is the book of the generations of Adam,’
reference is made to the book of genealogy; whence it irresistibly
follows that writing must have been in use among the antediluvian
patriarchs; and, under the view that writing was a divine revelation,
the same almighty power that, according to the preceding proposition,
instructed Moses, could have equally vouchsafed a similar inspiration to
any patriarch from Adam to Noah. Nor does it seem consistent with the
merciful dispensation which preserved Noah’s family through the grand
cataclysm, and had condescended, according to the biblical record, to
teach him those multitudinous arts indispensably necessary to the
construction of a vessel destined to pass uninjured through the tempests
of the Deluge, that the Almighty, by withholding the art of writing,
should have left the account of antediluvian events to the vicissitudes
of oral tradition, or denied to Noah’s family the practice of this art,
which, it is maintained, was conceded first to Moses.”
It is said that “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”
The five books of Moses carry with them internal evidence, not of one
sole, connected, and original composition, but of a _compilation_ by an
inspired writer from earlier annals. The genealogical tables and family
records of various tribes that are found embodied in the Pentateuch,
bear the appearance of documents copied from written archives. We have
the authority of Genesis v. 1 for asserting the existence of a book of
genealogies in the time of Noah; and a city mentioned by Joshua was
named in Hebrew “Kirjath Sefer,” “The City of Letters.” It is impossible
to prove that letters were unknown before Moses; and the Hebrews of his
day appear to have had two distinct modes of writing the characters of
which, in one case, were “_alphabetic_,” and in the other “_symbolic_.”
The inscription on the ephod itself is said—Exodus xxviii. 36—to have
been written in characters “like the engravings of a signet.”
The materials and instruments with which writing was performed were, in
comparison with our pen, ink, and paper, extremely rude and unwieldy.
One of the earliest methods was to cut out the letters on a tablet of
stone. Another was to trace them on unbaked tiles, or bricks, which were
afterwards thoroughly baked or burned with fire. When the writing was
wanted to be more durable, lead or brass was employed. In the book of
Job, mention is made of writing on stone. It was on tablets of stone
that Moses received the law written by the finger of God himself.
Tablets of wood were frequently used as being more convenient. Such was
the writing-table which Zacharias used. [Luke i. 63.] Cedar was
preferred as being more incorruptible; from this custom arose the
celebrated saying of the ancients, when they meant to give the highest
eulogium of an excellent work, _et cedro digna locuti_,—that it was
worthy to be written on cedar. These tablets were made of the trunks of
trees. The same reason which led them to prefer the cedar to other
trees, induced them to write on wax, which is incorruptible. Men used it
to write their testaments, in order better to preserve them. Thus,
Juvenal says, _cereus implere capaces_. The leaves and, at other times,
the bark of different trees were early used for writing. From the thin
films of bark peeled off from the Egyptian reed papyrus which grew along
the Nile, a material was formed in latter times answering the purpose
much better. It bore the name of the reed, papyrus, or, in our language,
paper. Long afterwards its name passed to a different material, composed
of linen or cotton, which has taken place of all others in the use of
civilized countries, and is called to this day paper. Paper made of
cotton was in use in 1001; that of linen rags in 1319.[10]
“_The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, ... shall
wither, be driven away, and be no more._”—Isaiah xix. 7.