Papyrus in the First Century

Papyrus was the material upon which the Christian Greek Scriptures were written. Made from the white pith of the papyrus plant, it was tough yet relatively inexpensive. For this reason it was universally used in the days of Jesus and his apostles. Camden M. Cobern in his book The New Archeological Discoveries noted some interesting facts about papyrus at that time. He said: “The ordinary size of a papyrus sheet in the days of the apostles was about five by ten inches, and the ordinary grade was often sold in rolls of perhaps twenty sheets, the price of a sheet being little more than twenty-five cents. While the width of the cheaper papyri was only about six inches, a better quality called Charta Livia . . . reached a width of eight inches or more; and the highest grade, called Hieratica . . . , ran about nine and a half inches in width. . . . It is doubtful whether any New Testament writer had ever in his life used the higher grades of papyrus, and it can be counted as absolutely settled that every book of the New Testament was written upon the medium or poorer qualities. But in all the years since linen paper came into common use​—in the eighth or ninth century of our era—​it has never been honored as was the humble papyri of that first century which received the autographs of the apostles and evangelists as they told the story of the Man of Nazareth, ‘A poor man toiling with the poor.’”