What Is Parchment and how long does it last?

Parchment is a skin of animal usually sheep, goat or cow. It's scraped, stretched and then submerged in products. It's stretched until smooth so it can be used as a writing surface. They can be stretched and smoothed and so thinly that you can't tell them apart from from paper. It's a different process than making leather.
They were cut to the desired size and either written and then bound or bound first before used as writing material. Because it's made of animal skin it lasts longer than papyrus which is made from a plant material. These parchment were not put away and treated as though they were fragile but rather used day to day.
Many early Christian writings on parchment were used by monasteries and churches and annotated so you see the marks of wear from daily use.There is evidence of parchments from the fourth and fifth century being repaired, corrected, and re-inked hundreds of years later.
The entire panel discussion "How Badly Did the Scribes Corrupt the Bible can be viewed here.
• Video
Lanier Theological Library- www.laniertheologicallibrary.org
The Stone Chapel Podcast- www.laniertheologicallibrary....
Biblical Literacy- biblical-literacy.org
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