2 Timothy 4:13
Paul Asks for His Scrolls and Parchments
13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
In St. Paul's day there really no books as we know them...Writings of books and other articles were on scrolls and parchments...A scroll usually rolled up, and one could read a page at a time by unrolling the left or right of the scroll...A parchment was a stiff, flat, thin material made from the prepared skin of an animal and used as a durable writing surface in St. Paul's time...St. Paul especially wanted his parchments...It is possible they were his writings, but we are not told...
After two thousand years, scrolls and parchments -mostly they just wear out...But also the ancient scroll and parchment texts, get misplaced, borrowed, taken or stolen, lost in war, and get lost...After two thousand years, we are lucky to have any scrolls and parchments at all during Jesus' time...God protects those things He needs to protect...