i just used a book

I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, be sure to bring the coat I left with Carpus at Troas. Also bring my books, and especially my papers. (2 Timothy 4:12-14 NLT)

I just used a book. Now I recognize that is not earth shattering, stop the presses, alert the media stuff, but at the some time, it has been a while since I used one quite like that.

I was looking at Hebrews 2 for tonight’s Bible class. The passage, Hebrews 2:10 says (in the NIV) In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

I was wondering what the word perfect there was in the original Greek. The NLT uses the phrase And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.

NLT uses fit instead of perfect. What is it?

As it turns out, it is the word teleios, a word which means “perfect, (a) complete in all its parts, (b) full grown, of full age, (c) specially of the completeness of Christian character.” According to Strong’s which agreed with several others. (Now the definitions I got off the internet).

But I looked into an old copy of the Interlinear Greek New Testament by Berry. The copy is undated, as the copyright page is missing, but it is pretty old.

What struck me was something that used to be a considerable part of my life. It was the smell of the old book.

It hit me with such memories. I used to pore over books, holding them, looking at them, smelling them, using them. I had quite an extensive library and liked using it.

Then a few years ago, I sold the vast majority of my library. I kept my Greek and Hebrew language books for some reason, but everything else went.

And I rarely used them. In the age of the internet, you can find whatever you want online instantly, without having to search through a book.

But by not searching, you miss the experience of holding a book. It is something that future generations, unless there is a resurgence of written materials, will miss.

I read an article not long ago in which Thomas Edison prophesied that books would be written on hyper thin leaves of pure nickel, which he said would be ultralight. The Encyclopedia Brittanica, he said, would fit in a book of an inch thick weighing less than a pound.

He was wrong, of course, as were so many of that era. How could they have possibly known.

But I miss my books, and the smell and feel of them.

I have regretted selling the library, but, of course, how could I have them after what we have gone through in the past few years? But still.