Counting Words and Rolling Scrolls: Word Counts of the books of the Hebrew Bible, in the Context of the Ancient Use of Scrolls As Writing Material
A continuation of my previous piece:
The following figures, rounded to the nearest hundred, are derived from the Bar Ilan Responsa Project CD, as documented in the ‘Tanakh’ table of my "Words of Wisdom: Word Counts of Classical Jewish Works" (registration required).
My previous piece discussed the Talmudic endeavor to determine the precise word count of the Pentateuch. In this piece, I’ll discuss the likely reasons for the lengths of books of Tanakh. First I’ll start by introducing the writing technologies available, and the later shifts.
The Scroll
Scrolls were the first form of editable record keeping texts, used in Eastern Mediterranean ancient Egyptian civilizations.
Parchment scrolls were used by the Israelites among others before the codex or bound book with parchment pages was invented by the Romans, which became popular around the 1st century AD.
Scrolls were more highly regarded than codices until well into Roman times.
Codices and paper
codex - Wiktionary, sense #2:
“A book bound in the modern manner, by joining pages, as opposed to a rolled scroll.”
“At least in the Western world, the main alternative to the paged codex format for a long document was the continuous scroll, which was the dominant form of document in the ancient world.
The Ancient Romans developed the form from wax tablets. The gradual replacement of the scroll by the codex has been called the most important advance in book making before the invention of the printing press.
The codex transformed the shape of the book itself, and offered a form that has lasted ever since.
The spread of the codex is often associated with the rise of Christianity, which early on adopted the format for the Bible.
First described in the 1st century of the Common Era, when the Roman poet Martial praised its convenient use, the codex achieved numerical parity with the scroll around 300 CE, and had completely replaced it throughout what was by then a Christianized Greco-Roman world by the 6th century.
With the advent of codices, a Roman innovation, coupled with the introduction of paper, a Chinese invention, the Jewish community witnessed a surge in written works during the early medieval era. Prominent examples include the Mishnah and the Talmud Bavli. While other compositions existed (such as midrashei aggada, and private writings), they were documented in a less formal manner and lacked rabbinical endorsement. For a detailed exploration, see, at length, Sussman's Kotzo shel Yud.
Lengths of books of Tanakh
The books of Tanakh were originally written on scrolls and parchment, and this medium affected the length of books. Each book of the Pentateuch averages around 16,000 words.
For context: For contemporary academic texts or non-fiction books (which have relatively denser formatting, compared to, say, novels), 16,000 words would be approximately 40 pages.1 As a heuristic, one could reasonably say that the contemporary non-fiction book is an order of magnitude larger than the scroll. Meaning, 10x the length, or 400 pages.
(Of course, this is a rough estimate, as the actual number of pages can vary based on the specific font size, spacing, formatting and design elements of the book.)
Torah (=Pentateuch)
The Pentateuch, also known as the חמשה חומשי תורה (literally, '5 Fifths of Torah'), spans from 12k words in Vayikra to 20.6k words in Devarim.
Nevi’im Rishonim
The range for the ‘Nevi’im Rishonim’ (9 books) is between 9.9k (Shoftim) and 22k (Yirmiyahu).
Twelve Minor Prophets
The Twelve Minor Prophets, known as תרי עשר (literally, 'Twelve'), encompass a total of 14.4k words. To ensure their preservation, these twelve were amalgamated into one scroll, as suggested by the Talmud.
Others
The 5 megillot, or 'scrolls', are relatively concise, ranging from 1.3k words (Ruth) to 3.1k words (Esther).
Ezra and Nechemiah are collectively a single book, comprising 9.1k words.
Two-part books
When certain Tanakh works became overly lengthy, they were divided. Such was the case with Shmuel (split into two, averaging 12.2k words each), Melachim (divided into two, averaging 12.8k words each), and Divrei HaYamim (separated into two sections, averaging 12.1k words each).