How were Ancient Documents Preserved?
Very occasionally, by some fluke, an original copy or fragment of an ancient document has survived to the present day: but the chances of this happening are so remote that no significant literature of these times has ever been preserved in this manner. The writing materials of the day were prone to decay; and the more they were used, the faster they would degrade, so it was necessary for documents to be copied, for their preservation as well as for circulation. Particularly in the case of the scriptures, such care was taken in the copying process that a copy, once completed and checked, was deemed to be of equal authority with the original. Once the original had degraded to a point where it could no longer be easily read, it was normally discarded, often being burned. Indeed, Tischendorf’s first major manuscript discovery in the monastery of St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai (the Codex Frederico-Augustanus), was in a basket of old papers being used to light the oven. The monks apparently thou
