SCROLL (מְגִלָּה, H4479, from גָּלַל֒, H1670, to roll; סִפְרַיָּ֗א [Ezra 6:1], RSV “archives,” סֵ֫פֶר֒, H6219, from Assyrian šipru, message [Isa 34:4], elsewhere usually tr. as “book”; גִּלָּיﯴן, H1663, from גָּלָה, H1655, gālâ, to uncover, RSV “tablet” [Isa 8:1]; βιβλίον, G1046, from βιβλυς, a writing, hence a small book or scroll [Rev 6:14]). Papyrus, leather, or parchment sheets joined together in long rolls, usually 10-12 inches wide, up to thirty-five ft. long, which could be rolled from left to right between two wooden rollers with part of the roller projecting as a handle; used for various kinds of documents in ancient times; the equivalent of a modern book.

Rarely were both sides written on (exceptions: Ezek 2:10; Rev 5:1). The writing was in short vertical columns a few inches wide, side by side, separated by a narrow space; usually written with an ink which was astoundingly durable. The scroll was read by uncovering one column, then rolling it up on the other roller as the reading continued.

The use of the standard length papyrus scrolls necessitated the division of the Heb. Pentateuch into five books. One scroll was sufficient for a book the length of Isaiah. The Egyptians used some scrolls of enormous lengths, such as the Papyrus Harris (133 ft. long by 17 inches wide) and a Book of the Dead (123 ft. long by 19 inches wide).

The substitution of the more convenient book form (codex) for the scroll was first made by the Christians and was unknown to the Jews before the 2nd or 3rd cent. a.d. Most of the DSS were of leather, and Talmudic law required that copies of the Torah intended for public reading be written on scrolls made of leather of clean animals, for papyrus was a great deal more perishable than leather. Scrolls were often stored in pottery jars, such as those found in the caves of Qumran.

The most familiar reference to scrolls is found in Jeremiah 36, where Baruch wrote down at Jeremiah’s dictation all that God had spoken to the prophet over a twenty-three year period. The LXX takes it for granted that the scroll was made of papyrus and renders it χαρτίον or χάρτης, G5925, both words meaning a sheet of papyrus. It was surely papyrus and not leather that Jehoiakim cut in strips and burned, for the odor of burning leather would have been unbearable (Jer 36:22, 23). In Ezekiel’s inaugural vision, he was ordered to eat the scroll on which God’s words had been written (Ezek 2:9-3:3). There was a flying scroll in Zechariah’s vision (Zech 5:1, 2).

Bibliography M. Burrows, What Mean These Stones? (1941), 30-59; R. H. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament (1948), 71-79; A. Bentzen, Introduction to the Old Testament, I (1957), 42-50; E. Würthwein, The Text of the Old Testament (1957), 5-9; D. R. Ap-Thomas, A Primer of Old Testament Text Criticism (1964), 7-18.