Early writing
At one time critics would say the Bible could not have been written when it claims to have been, because writing was not known so long ago. A visit to any of the major museums in the world now shows that writing has been known, certainly from much earlier than the time of Abraham. Excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia, where Abraham came from, have unearthed libraries of clay tablets, as well as bank records, trading accounts and hire purchase agreements. Writing consisted of wedge shaped characters made in clay with a shaped stick or pen. Records required for a limited time were dried to make the tablets hard. Permanent records were baked even harder.

At the time when Moses lived in Egypt, writing was on papyrus with pen and ink. Records have survived on sheets made from the papyrus reed, scraped, soaked and laid criss-cross, pressed and dried. The natural gum made a good writing surface. There are many wonderful examples of the priestly, hieroglyphic, picture writing in the British Museum in London as well as of the everyday, simpler script.

Other permanent writing materials were parchment – scraped, stretched and dried skin – and vellum, a much finer material made from stretched animal intestine. Ink was made from finely ground charcoal in a thin gum or egg white. Scrolls were made from sheets of parchment sewn together and could become very bulky; so when lengthy records had to be kept, successive scrolls were numbered. That is why in our Bibles we have the First and Second Books of Kings (1 and 2 Kings) and the First and Second Books of Chronicles (1 and 2 Chronicles).

If a book was important – and the sacred books (rolls) of the Jews were important – they would be copied with great care so that they could be read by more people in different places. In New Testament times, the letters to various groups of Christians were copied and passed to other groups:

‘After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea’
[Colossians 4.16 NIV].

The difficulty is that all the Old Testament writers wrote in Hebrew, while Paul wrote in Greek – as did the other New Testament writers. For us to be able to read the Bible in our own language is a real blessing. Many people over a long period of time, were involved in making this possible.

The first major translation
When Egypt was part of the Greek Empire, around 250 BC, the Emperor Ptolemy Philadelphus established an important library at Alexandria . His aim was to collect a copy of every important book, wherever in the empire it came from. Josephus, the Jewish historian, describes the way in which the sacred books of the Jews were included in the library:

‘Demetrius Phalerius, who was library-keeper to the king, was now endeavouring, if it were possible, to gather together all the books that were in the habitable earth, and buying whatsoever was anywhere valuable, or agreeable to the king’s inclination, (who was very earnestly set upon collecting of books;) to which inclination of his, Demetrius was zealously subservient.’
[‘Antiquities of the Jews’ Josephus; Book XII, Chapter 2, Para.1].

This is so similar to accounts of the efforts of those who work for modern wealthy collectors! We can understand, too, how ‘zealously subservient’ Demetrius was. His life as well as his livelihood might depend upon how well he did. He was commanded to get in touch with the Jewish leaders in Israel to arrange for a translation of the Jewish Scriptures to be made. He wrote to the High Priest who, Josephus tells us, wrote the following reply:

‘It is not fit for us, O king, or to overlook things hastily, or to deceive ourselves, but to lay the truth open: for since we have determined not only to get the laws of the Jews translated, but interpreted also for thy satisfaction, by what means can we do this when so many of the Jews are now slaves in thy kingdom? ’
[‘Antiquities of the Jews’ Josephus; Book XII, Chapter 2, Para. 2].

In other words, the High Priest was saying that they could work with much more enthusiasm if something could be done to deal with the ongoing problem of the number of Jewish political prisoners still being held. He did not say the work could not be done; the arrangements were already being made, but such was the keenness of the Emperor to obtain the Jewish Scriptures in Greek, that tradition has it that he agreed to 100,000 Jews being released.

Six Greek and Hebrew scholars were selected from each of the twelve tribes of Israel and because, tradition has it, that eventually 72 took part in the work, this important translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek became known as the SeptuagintVersion. When the work was finished, Josephus wrote:

‘When the labour of interpretation was over… Demetrius gathered all the Jews together to the place where the laws were translated, and where the interpreters were, and read them over. The multitude did also approve of those elders that were the interpreters of the law. They withal commended Demetrius for his proposal, as the inventor of what was greatly for their happiness… Moreover they all, both the priests and the ancientest of the elders, and the principal men of their commonwealth, made it their request, that since the interpretation was happily finished, it might continue in the state it now was, and might not be altered.’
[‘Antiquities of the Jews’ Josephus; Book XII, Chapter 2, Para. 13].

More information
The arrangement of the books in the Bible
Divine inspiration of the Bible
The scriptures of Jesus and the apostles
Further translations of the Bible
The Authorised Version and more recent translations of the Bible
Why today's Bible can be trusted