Very few schools of theology would disagree with Alfred Edersheim, Ph.D. See Sketches of Jewish Social Life IN THE DAYS OF CHRIST.
If Jesus never carried around the Old Testament Books, on his travels, if the Apostles never handed out flyers and tracts and copies of Old Testament writings and Christian Scripture, that alone proves my point.
Scripture was RARE!
Christianity didn't even exist until after Pentecost.
Jesus quoted directly from Scripture, and the Jews knew the OT from memorization. After Pentecost it was Paul's letters, which first became important. They are for the most part very short, and we know each church would immediately copy their letter and pass it on to the next church. The first Christians used inexpensive papyri for his letters, and that is why we have very few first century manuscripts.
The level of freedom permitted to minor variation in these papyri speaks to the view of canon in the second century. Such deviations as misreading, transpositions, and nonsense readings were allowed to stand uncorrected. This suggests that such deviations were considered minor—and the text was still flexible. This conclusion is supported by the authority of oral tradition in this period and the common practice of loose quotation by early church writers (Aland, The Significance, 117–18; Comfort, The Quest for the Original Text, 21).
The disorganization and irregularity of the New Testament texts indicate the early Christians’ view of sacred texts. The early papyri are allowed far greater scribal alteration than later manuscript families. This may be connected to the lack of sufficient institutional structure before the early fourth century (Aland, The Significance, 64). The Greek manuscripts are written with varying levels of scribal skill. The presence of a number written in a calligraphic script—such as the Numbers—Deuteronomy manuscript—indicates that professional scribes were enlisted in Egypt for the production of some Christian codices even before the religion gained licit status (Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, ix).
Why was the invention of the printing press so important, if you think it was so easy to copy or mass produce the written word?
The printing press certainly helped, but your use of the word rare is overdone.
Gold is a rare metal even though a majority of the population might own a small amount of gold and even though nearly everyone has seen gold in America.
Gold is still rare.
The Sacred Scripture was rare in the early Church.