Not many Christians carry around Bibles anymore these days.
In my younger years, I can remember that it was standard fare to carry your Bible to church. Even in college, we would take our Bibles to the evening gathering of our campus fellowship. To have a worn, tattered Bible—due to regularly carrying it around in one’s backpack—was sort of a sign that one took their faith seriously.
Of course, those days are long gone. With the rise of modern technology, and the Bible’s ready availability on phones or tablets, the physical presence of a Bible book is becoming more and more rare. Yes, Christians still care about the content of the Bible (I hope), but seem less concerned with the physical presence of the Bible.
But it was not so in the early church.
Despite the fact that most Christians couldn’t read, and despite the fact that physical copies of the Bible were mainly the privilege of the wealthy, many Christians still took steps to acquire physical copies of the Scriptures (usually just portions thereof). Typically, these were small pocket-sized “books” or what scholars call miniature codices. These tiny books were often quite sophisticated and could have a surprising number of pages, sometimes containing entire Gospels, or other scriptural writings.
So, what would Christians do with these tiny scriptural books once they had them? Here’s where things get really interesting.
Wearing Scriptural Books
The most common way that Christians used these tiny books is that they wore them. In particular, they often wore them around their neck so the books would be clearly on visual display for anyone they might meet.
Such a practice was not uncommon among monks and ministers. The fourth-century hermit Amoun of Nitria, regulalry carried a codex around his neck from which he read “the words of the Apostle and the Savior.” Maximus, a disciple of the fourth-century Martin of Tours, hung a “book of the Gospels” (Evangeliorum libro) around his neck during his travels. Similarly, an early deacon named Euplus was martyred in Catania in 304 under the Governor Calvisianus with the “book of the Gospels” hung around his neck.
But it was not just men. Women and children were also known for wearing a Gospel around their necks. John Chrysostom tell us that “women and little children suspend Gospels from their necks as a powerful protection and carry them about in all places wherever they go” (Stat. 19.14).
So, why would Christians do this? What purpose would it serve to put Gospels on visual display?
No doubt one of the reasons was a mark of Christian identity. Since Christians had such a high view of their scriptural writings, they quickly became known as “people of the book,” so to speak. But not just any book. Christians were identified with the codex book format as opposed to the scroll which was often associated with Judaism.
So, to wear a tiny codex around one’s neck was basically a way of saying, “I’m a Christian.”
But that’s not all. Christians didn’t believe their scriptural books were merely identity markers. They also believed these books were the very “word of God” and therefore embodied the very power and presence of God. Thus, to wear a Gospel book was a way of bringing God’s presence with you.
Here’s the key point: while full-size codices would have still represented the spiritual presence of Christ, miniaturized codices would have made that presence even more personal—the wearer could now carry Christ with them on their body, take him on journeys, feeling his presence as the book dangled around their neck or touched their skin.
In short, the function of these tiny books indicates that early Christians had a very high view of Scripture.
Sleeping with Scriptural Books
The earliest Christians were so eager to be in the presence of their scriptural books—because the believed it was a way to draw near to God himself—that they did more than wear them. At night, they would sometimes take their Gospel book and hang it beside their bed, or even lay their book in bed with them. In short, they slept with the Gospels.
Why would Christians do this? Well, they figured that if God’s presence is manifested in his divine books, then God’s presence might protect them from dangers and illness. For example, Chrysostom tells us that hanging a Gospel book by one’s bed would help prevent one from suffering from demonic attack through dreams (Hom. 1 Cor. 43.7).
Augustine thought in a similar fashion. He argued that if a person has a headache, that they ought to put their Gospel book in bed with them, even under their head, so that the headache might go away (Tract. Ev. Jo. 7.12.1).
While we might not necessarily agree with all these ways that early Christians used books for healing and protection—which, at times, admittedly swings a bit too closely toward a “magical” use of books— we should not miss the larger theological and practical point. Christians viewed their books as so connected to the divine, that they believed those books could therefore do divine things.
Indeed, we have a number of stories in the early church of scriptural books accomplishing amazing feats. Such books were said to heal the sick, cure blindness, and even put out fires. While much in these stories is no doubt legendary, they do highlight the main point once again: early Christians had a very high view of their scriptural books.
Conclusion
This brief glimpse into early Christian textual culture has revealed a remarkable feature that tends to be overlooked. Christians didn’t merely read their books; they also carried their books, wore their books, and even slept with their books. They were so committed to the Scriptures, that they wanted to have them near at all times.
Of course, the application is not that modern Christians need to wear tiny books around their neck. Nor is the application even that Christians should always carry a physical copy of Scripture (though that would not be a bad thing). Rather the application is that modern Christians should ask whether they value the Scriptures in the same way as their early counterparts.
We are often told that modern Christians have a higher view of the Bible than ancient ones, and that modern Christians are merely reading their high view of Scripture back into the earliest sources. But the evidence here suggests otherwise. Indeed, the evidence suggests that the earliest Christians had as high a view of the Scriptures as one could have. They viewed the Scriptures as the embodiment of the very presence of God.
For more on miniature codices, keep an eye out for my forthcoming book with Oxford University Press: Miniature Codices in Early Christianity.