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Roll
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rol ((meghillah) volume, (cephar) archive)
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Easton's Bible Dictionary
The common form of ancient books. The Hebrew word rendered
"roll" or "volume" is meghillah , found in Ezra 6:2 ; Psalms 40:7 ; Jeremiah 36:2
, 36:6 , 36:23 , 36:28 , 36:29 ; Ezekiel 2:9 ; 3:1 - 3 ; Zechariah 5:1 , 5:2 .
"Rolls" (Chald. pl. of sephar, corresponding to Hebrew. sepher) in Ezra 6:1 is
rendered in the Revised Version "archives." In the New Testament the word "volume"
( Hebrews 10:7 ; RSV, "roll") occurs as the rendering of the Greek kephalis, meaning
the head or top of the stick or cylinder on which the manuscript was rolled, and
hence the manuscript itself. (See BOOK .)
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
(no entry)
Smith's Bible Dictionary
A book in ancient times consisted of a single long strip
of paper or parchment, which was usually kept rolled upon a stick, and was unrolled
when a person wished to read it. The roll was usually written on one side only,
and hence the particular notice of one that was "written within and without."
( Ezekiel 2:10 ) The writing was arranged in columns.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
rol:
The usual form of book in Biblical times. It had been in use in Egypt for perhaps
2,000 years at the time when, according to the Pentateuch, the earliest Biblical
books were written in this form. The Babylonian tablet seems to have been the
prevailing form in Palestine up to about 1350 BC, but by 1100 BC, at least, the
roll had been in established use for some time as far North as Byblos. Two Hebrew
words, gillayon, meghillah, one Aramaic, cephar, and one Greek word, biblion,
are so translated in the King James Version. Cephar (Ezra 6:1, the Revised Version
(British and American) "archives, margin "books"), with the corresponding Hebrew
form cepher, is the generic word for any whole work large or small, but as a book
form (Isaiah 34:4) it may mean "roll," and, according to Blau (pp. 37, 45, etc.),
it never does mean anything else. Both the other words seem to be connected with
galal, "roll," which is the technical term for opening or closing a book. The
meghillath cepher (Jeremiah 36:2) means the unwritten roll, or the roll considered
in its material form as contrasted with the work. Meghillah, which is found in
Ezra 6:2 (English Versions of the Bible, "roll"), Jeremiah (often), Ezekiel (often)
and Zechariah, is a somewhat late word, and came to mean a small roll (but with
a complete work) as distinguished from a book, corresponding thus to the modern
distinction of pamphlet and book or document and book. The word gillayon is translated
in the Revised Version (British and American) as "tablet," and is universally
regarded as meaning (Isaiah 8:1) some smooth surface, corresponding to the same
word in Isaiah 3:23 which is rendered "hand-mirror." But "cylinder-seal" would
possibly fit the sense in both cases; this being hung round the neck as an ornament
in one case and inscribed with a personal name in the other.
Biblion is regarded by the Bible translators as equivalent to meghillah in the
sense of small roll. It is in fact 4 times in the Septuagint of Jeremiah 36 used
as the translation for meghillah, but very much oftener it is the translation
for cepher, for which in fact it is the correct technical equivalent (Birt, Buchrolle,
21). Indeed the "small book" (Thayer, Lexicon, 101) is hardly consistent with
the ideas of the heavens as a scroll, of the Lamb's Book of Life, or of the vast
quantity of books of John 21:25, although in Luke 4:17 it may perhaps correspond
closely with meghillah in the sense of a complete roll and work, which is at the
same time a whole part of a larger work. Its use in Revelation 6:14 is reminiscent
of Isaiah 34:4 ("scroll"), and is conclusive for the roll form. It is indeed always
technically a roll and never codex or tablet.
It is not likely that Isaiah and John (here and in his Gospel, John 21:25) refer
directly to the Babylonian idea that the heavens are a series of written tablets
or to the rabbinic saying that "if all the oceans were ink, all reeds pens, the
heavens and earth sheets to write upon, and all men writers, still it would not
suffice for writing out the teachings of my Masters" (Blau, op. cit., 34). Nevertheless,
the "whole Cosmos" does suggest "the heavens and earth" as sheets to write on,
and under all there does perhaps lurk a conception of the broad expanse of heaven
as a roll for writing upon.
LITERATURE.
Birt, Die Buchrolle in der Kunst, Leipzig, 1907; Jew Encyclopedia, XI, 126-34,
"Scroll of the Law"; Blau, Studien z. althebr. Buchwesen, Strassburg, 1902, 37-66,
etc., and the literature under the article "Writing," especially Gardthausen,
134-54.
E. C. Richardson
Tags:
bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, biblion, book, cephar, define, meghillah, roll
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