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Roll (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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ROLL (βιβλίον, κεφαλίς).—The word ‘roll’ is found in NT only in the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 , and in the Gospels only as a marginal reading. In the account in Luke of our Lord’s sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth it occurs thrice in the margin (Luke 4:17 bis. lk 4:17 20) as the rendering of βιβλίον, where Authorized Version and text of Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 give ‘book.’ In Hebrews 10:7 ‘In the volume of the book it is written of me’ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 gives ‘roll’ for Authorized Version ‘volume’ as the rendering of κεφαλίς. The latter word occurs here only in NT, but it is quoted from the Septuagint (Psalms 40:7), and thus its meaning is determined, as it is the translation of the Heb. מְנִלָּה, ‘roll,’ although in Liddell and Scott κεφαλίς is given as meaning ‘chapter or passage.’ Why κεφαλίς is taken to represent מְנִלָּה is uncertain, although it has been held that the reference was to the knobs or rounded heads of the roller about which the manuscript was rolled (see Grimm-Thayer, Lex. s.v.). The roll was the form of the book both in Palestine and Egypt, although usually, if not always, the Hebrew rolls were, originally at least, of skins which had gone through some process of tanning (see art. Book), while the Egyptian rolls were of papyrus. When papyrus began to be used in Palestine it is difficult to say. The codex form of book is generally held to have been introduced after the invention of parchment, but there is reason to believe that the Egyptians occasionally employed it for papyrus manuscripts, while the roll was the prevailing form.

Literature.—Comm. on the NT; Kenyon’s art. ‘Writing’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible , and his Textual Criticism of the NT, p. 19 f.

Geo. C. Watt.