PARCHMENT

Skins of sheep, goats or calves prepared for use as writing material. Leather was long used as a writing material among ancient people; the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, dating from the first or second century B.C.E., is of leather. Papyrus from Egypt became a more widely used writing material but, according to Pliny, when the ruler of Egypt prohibited the exporting of it about 190 B.C.E., the use of leather parchment was invented in Pergamum (English “parchment” comes from Latin pergamena). Perhaps this means simply the popularizing of an already-existing method of treating the skins so that both sides could be written on. Scrolls of parchment were much more durable than the less expensive papyrus scrolls.

At 2 Timothy 4:13 the apostle Paul asked Timothy to bring “the scrolls, especially the parchments.” (NW, Ro) He does not indicate the contents of these requested items, but quite possibly he was asking for portions of the Hebrew Scriptures so that he could study them while imprisoned in Rome. The phrase “especially the parchments” may indicate that both scrolls of papyrus and scrolls of parchment were involved.

ROMAN PARCHMENTS

Among the early Romans wooden tablets covered with wax were often used for writing matters of a temporary nature. Eventually sheets of leather or parchment were used instead for this purpose.

The Latin word membranae (skin) was applied to such notebooks of parchment. In the text quoted earlier, Paul employed the Greek equivalent of the word in asking for “the scrolls, especially the parchments [mem·braʹnas].” Thus some commentators have suggested that he was requesting scrolls of the Hebrew Scriptures plus notes or letters of some type. So Moffatt translates it, “my books, and particularly my papers,” and The New English Bible reads, “the books, above all my notebooks.” However, whether the “parchments” were in the form of notebooks or papers, or were parchment scrolls (La; Kx; Sy) cannot be ascertained with certainty.

VELLUM

Parchments were normally made from sheep, goat or calf skin. In the third and fourth centuries C.E. there arose a distinction between the coarser and the finer grades of the material, the coarser continuing to be called parchment, but the finer, vellum. The vellum was made from delicate skins of calf (veal) or kid, or of stillborn calves or lambs. It was prepared by scraping the hair from the washed skins, stretching them on a frame, washing and scraping again to remove inequalities, dusting with chalk and rubbing with pumice. This produced a thin, smooth, almost-white writing material that came to be widely used for important books until the invention of printing, for which paper was better and cheaper. Important Bible manuscripts such as the fourth-century Sinaitic and Vaticanus and the fifth-century Alexandrine manuscripts are of vellum.

PARK

[Heb., par·desʹ].

This word occurs but three times in the Hebrew Scriptures and is considered by some to be derived from the Persian word pairidaeza (from which is drawn our word “paradise”). (However, see PARADISE.) According to M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopœdia (Vol. VII, p. 652), ancient Greek writers used the Persian term as meaning “an extensive plot of ground, enclosed with a strong fence or wall, abounding in trees, shrubs, plants, and garden culture, and in which choice animals were kept in different ways of restraint or freedom, according as they were ferocious or peaceable.” The Greek form of the word (pa·raʹdei·sos) was used by the translators of the Septuagint Version in all references to the garden of Eden.

Among his great works, Solomon made both “gardens and parks [“orchards,” AV; Heb., par·de·simʹ]” in which he planted fruit trees of all sorts. (Eccl. 2:5) He uses the same term in his “superlative song” when he has the shepherd lover describe the Shulammite maiden’s skin as a “paradise of pomegranates, with the choicest fruits.” (Song of Sol. 1:1; 4:12, 13) In postexilic times, Nehemiah 2:7, 8 shows that the Persian king had placed Asaph as “the keeper of the park that belongs to the king,” and that application had to be made for permission to fell trees from this park for the reconstruction work in Jerusalem.—See FOREST; GARDEN.

PARMASHTA

(Par·mashʹta) [the very first].

One of Haman’s ten sons.—Esther 9:9.

PARMENAS

(Parʹme·nas) [probably contraction for Parmenides, steadfast].

One of the seven recommended to the apostles and appointed by them to ensure a just daily distribution of food supplies in the Jerusalem congregation after Pentecost of 33 C.E.—Acts 6:1-6.

PARNACH

(Parʹnach) [gifted].

A Zebulunite whose son Elizaphan was the tribal representative in dividing the Promised Land.—Num. 34:17, 18, 25.

PAROSH

(Paʹrosh) [flea].

Founder of a family in Israel. There were 2,172 of his descendants who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel in 537 B.C.E. (Ezra 2:1-3; Neh. 7:8) By the time that Ezra arrived in 468 B.C.E., with 150 “sons of Parosh” led by Zechariah, some of their family already in Jerusalem had taken foreign wives, whom they later sent away. (Ezra 8:1, 3; 10:25, 44) Pedaiah, one of the family, repaired a section of Jerusalem’s wall. (Neh. 3:25) The head of the Parosh family attested to the later covenant agreeing to keep the law of Jehovah.—Neh. 9:38; 10:1, 14.

PARSHANDATHA

(Par·shan·daʹtha) [perhaps of Persian origin, inquisitive].

One of Haman’s ten sons.—Esther 9:7.

PARSIN

(Parʹsin).

One of the words mysteriously written on the wall of Belshazzar’s palace and read and interpreted by Daniel. (Dan. 5:25) It is the plural number of PERES, which means “a half-shekel,” a division of a shekel. In giving the interpretation, Daniel did not use the plural “Parsin,” but used the singular form (Peres). (Dan. 5:28) Perhaps this was because only Belshazzar was present to hear the prophet explain the prophetic message, although it applied to both rulers of the Babylonian Empire, Belshazzar and Nabonidus.

PARTHIANS

(Parʹthi·ans).

Jews and proselytes from Parthia are listed first among those visitors attending the Festival of Pentecost in Jerusalem in 33 C.E. God’s holy spirit poured out on the group of about 120 Christian disciples enabled them to proclaim the good news in the language or dialect of those Parthians, some of whom doubtless responded favorably, became Christians, and likely spread the message among their own people upon returning to Parthia. (Acts 1:15; 2:1, 4-12, 37-47) The natural Jews from Parthia were part of the Dispersion; the “proselytes” (Acts 2:10) were non-Jews who had become converts to Judaism.

The Parthian Empire originated SE of the Caspian Sea but in time came to extend from the Euphrates as far as India. The Parthians were under subjection to the Persians from the time of King Cyrus. Later coming under Greek domination, they rebelled against the successors of Alexander the Great and managed to maintain their independence for several centuries (247 B.C.E.-226 C.E.), even against Rome. They held Judea for three years (40-37 B.C.E.) before losing it to the Romans. The Parthians were still an independent nation in the first century, and though they practiced the predominant Persian religion, the religions of the Jews and others were tolerated.