The History of the Book in the Biblical Era

The Bible is a collection of books. To most, this won’t be a surprise. We flip through the pages and chapters of our Bible reading the names of the various books, many of which bear the names of their attributed ancient authors. But how did the Bible come to be a collection of "books," and what do we know about books and book culture in the Biblical world? In this lecture, Brian Donnelly-Lewis will talk about the technology of writing in the years of the Bible, the tools of the trade and the contexts in which books were held and used. Tracing the transformation of book culture, we can see the deep impact that writing and reading had on the Bible until this day.