Protos

What does "Book" mean in the Bible?

What we call books were unknown to the ancient Jews, at least in their present convenient form. Book appears in 93 verses across 15 books of the Bible.

What does the Bible say about Book?

BOOK . What we call books were unknown to the ancient Jews, at least in their present convenient form. Letters were engraved on stone, brick, metal (as lead and copper), or wood, and written on cloth and skins, and at a later period on parchment. Ex 17:14; 2 Tim 4:13. Tablets of lead and brass or copper of great antiquity have been discovered in modern times. The earliest mode of preserving inscriptions was by engraving on a rock. Comp. Job 19:24. The Sinaitic peninsula, especially the Wady Mukattab (the "Sculptured Valley"), and the neighborhood of Mount Serbal and Mount Sinai, are full of rock-inscriptions (called the Sinaitic Inscriptions). The writing-table mentioned Luke 1:63 was probably a tablet covered with wax or otherwise prepared to be written upon. Deut 27:2-3. Such tablets were used in England as late as the year 1300. Leaves and the bark of trees were also used, and were often prepared with much skill. The people of Ceylon write with a bodkin on broad and thick leaves cut into narrow slips; and these leaves, being fastened together, make books which they call alias. The missionaries often prepared tracts in this form before paper and printing were introduced upon the island. In Sumatra and among the Indians of North America bark is still used for making letters and pictures. Leather and linen or cotton cloth were also used. These were prepared in the form of long rolls, 12 or 14 inches wide, and fastened at each end to sticks (like the rollers to which maps are attached), and which were rolled together till they met midway. Sometimes these leaves were connected in the form of modern books, and opened in the same way. In this case the sheets were fastened to rods, and these rods passed through rings, and thus formed the back of the book. The writing was generally in capital letters and without punctuation or division of words; and when used, the reader unrolled the manuscript as far as the place which he wished to find, and kept before him just so much as he would read. The pages resembled the following in their general appearance, though they were of course wider and longer than these, and were read from right to left: John 1:1-5.

Definition text: Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible · 1898. Public domain.

Compiled by Protos: the verse list on this page. Where one name belongs to more than one person or place, each of them gets a separate entry.

What is the Hebrew word for Book?

Hebrew · H5612

סֵ֫פֶר

se.pher

scroll: document

TBESH, STEPBible, licensed CC BY 4.0.

Where does Book appear in the Bible?

Book is referenced in 93 verses across 15 books. Every passage below is about this one, not just every verse the word turns up in.

Showing the first 24 of 93.

Open all 93 references in Protos

What else appears in these passages?

These turn up in the same passages as Book.

Common questions

How many times does the Bible mention Book?

Book appears in 93 verses across 15 books, most often in 2 Kings, which accounts for 29 of them.

Which books of the Bible mention Book?

2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, 1 Kings, Deuteronomy, Nehemiah, Joshua, Exodus, Psalms, and 7 more.

Where can I read every verse about Book?

This page lists 24 of them. Protos carries all 93, and opens this entry on the verse you are reading rather than in a separate tab.

Read it in context

Read 2 Kings with "Book" explained on the verse.

Tap any name, place, or word you do not recognize and the background opens on the verse you are reading. No second tab, no search, no losing your place.

The Protos reader open on Genesis 1 with the How to Read Genesis background sheet raised over it
"People don't give up on the Bible for lack of discipline. They give up because they don't understand what they read. So they skim past it and jump straight to what it means for them, before they have listened to what God is saying through the words, the story, and the voice of the writer. It happens so often that theology has a name for it: eisegesis."
Fabio Jonathan ArifinFabio JonathanFounder of Protos · Portland Bible College graduate

Protos is the answer to that. Every explanation you read was written by a scholar and published in a reference work, credited right on the page.

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