Prepare the Nations for "the Teaching of Jehovah"

HOW LANGUAGE HELPED

The common, or Koine, Greek language helped to promote good communication and unity among the Christian congregations.  Because of the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek was widely spoken and understood.  Thus, God's servants could communicate with all kinds of people, and this contributed to the spread of the good news. Moreover, Jews living in Egypt had translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. People were familiar with this Septuagint version, and the early followers of Christ quoted freely from it. Christians also found Greek to be ideal for their writings. It had an extensive vocabulary and was rich in terms that were useful when spiritual matters had to be explained. 

How could Christians use the Scriptures in their ministry?  Scrolls were cumbersome, for they had  to be rolled and unrolled, and usually there was writing on only one side of the parchment. The Gospel of Matthew alone would fill an entire scroll. But then came the codex-the earliest form of a book. It was a collection of pages bound together. A reader could open a codex and easily locate  a passage of Scripture. Though is is not known exactly when Christians began to use the codex, one reference work states:  "So universal is the Christian use of the codex in the second century that its introduction must date well before A.D. 100." 

Next time: Prepare the Nations for "the Teaching of Jehovah" - HOW ROMAN LAW WAS HELPFUL

From the Watchtower magazine, 2015