Then
another book was opened, which is the book of life.” Revelation 20:12
The Book of Revelation is perhaps the Bible’s most dramatic
and mysterious section. Revelation 20
recounts the climax of the story, the great Day of Judgement, when our Lord
will return to speak the truth upon all humanity and make all things new. It’s easy to miss the fact that the author is
also noting a significant change in communications technology. The Lamb, that is Christ, has a book, a book of life—a book, and not a
scroll.
Books—codices is the
technical name-were new-wave technology in the first century. The first mention of a codex in literature is
by the Roman poet Martial, who was born a few years after the death of
Christ. Before codices there had been
tablets of wax and clay, as well as scrolls.
The codex was a handy technology.
Its covers protected the contents and it was easy to find one’s
place. The paper could be written on
both sides, so it was more economical as well.
It took the codex a few centuries to surpass the scroll. Religious officials were inevitably among the
holdouts, with their preferences for the venerable, the beautiful, and the
familiar. In synagogues today, they
still read the Torah from scrolls.
But Christians were different.
