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Bible Encyclopedias
Print; Printing; Printed
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
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The art of making original records is writing. This, however, is a slow process. It involves tracing each letter and part of a letter through from beginning to end by the moving point of chisel, pen, or other instrument, and this process must be repeated with every copy. As soon, therefore, as occasion arose for frequently repeating the record, many ways were devised to save the labor of forming each symbol separately. All these ways involve making a character or a series of characters on a single surface and transferring as a whole to another surface. Neither "pressure," as some say, nor "ink," as others, is essential to the process, for printing from a photographic negative takes no pressure, and printing for the blind takes no ink. Any process which transfers a whole surface is printing.
The earliest use of printing seems to have been for painting the face or body with ownership, tribal, trophy, or ceremonial marks for worship, war, mourning, etc. This paint might be temporary or pricked in by the tattoo process. Tattooing itself is rather a writing than a printing process, but may be either, according as the color is laid on by drawing or by the "pintadera." The "pintadera" or "stamp used to impress patterns upon the skin" is best known from the Mexican and South American examples, but in recent years it has been found in deposits all over the Mediterranean region (North Italy, Austria, Hungary, Mycenae, Crete, Egypt) and in Borneo at least. Many of these specimens are from the Neolithic or Copper age. Both in South America and in Neolithic Liguria, some of these stamps were cylindrical and "were used like a printer's roller" (Mosso, The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization , 254-61, with many illustrations, and Frobenius, Childhood of Man , figure 31, "Dayak block for painting the body").
The injunction of Leviticus 19:28 , which is translated "print," is commonly, and probably rightly, in view of the Hebrew word, supposed to refer to the permanent marks of tattooing which may or may not have been made by this printing process. Job 13:27 the King James Version, which speaks of printing upon the heels or soles of the feet, has been quite changed in the Revised Version (British and American), and, if the idea is one of printing at all, it refers rather to branding than stamping with color.
The use of the inkhorn in setting the mark upon the forehead (Ezekiel 9:3 , Ezekiel 9:4 , Ezekiel 9:6 ) certainly points to marking with color rather than branding. See INK-HORN . This may, of course, have been drawing rather than printing, but, on the other hand, the sealing of the servants of God on their foreheads (Revelation 7:4; Revelation 9:4 ) necessarily means printing rather than drawing, and probably printing rather than branding, for the use of the seal with color had long been common. The marks of the beast upon the forehead and upon the hand in Rev 13; 14; Revelation 15:1-8; 16; 19 and Revelation 20:1-15 , more likely refer to branding, as the Greek word points more or less in this direction, while the
The use of seals is a true printing process, whether they are used with color, as they were both in Crete and Egypt almost from the beginning of history, or impressed on clay, wax, or other plastic substances. Mention of seals is frequent in the Bible (see SEAL ). A new interest has been given to this aspect of the matter by the sealings discovered in Ahab's palace and other excavations throughout Palestine, which are forming one of the most useful classes of modern inscriptions.
Both stamp and seal were used throughout the Middle Ages, the latter abundantly, and the stamp at least occasionally, for stamping the capital letters in Biblical and other manuscripts, as well as for various other purposes.
Modern printing begins with the carving of whole pages and books on blocks of wood (xylography), or metal plates for printing (chalcography). This method was quite early practiced by the Chinese, and began to be common in Europe in the early 15th century, most of the books printed by it having to do with Biblical topics ( Biblia pauperum , etc.).
It was only with the invention of movable type about the middle of the 15th century that the multiplying of books by writing began to come to an end. The printing with movable type is also closely associated with Biblical study, the Gutenberg Psalter and the Gutenberg Bible standing with most for the very beginning of modern printing.
For the printed editions of the Hebrew and Greek originals, and the various versions, see articles on
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Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Print; Printing; Printed'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/isb/p/print-printing-printed.html. 1915.
