Agnostic needs help with bible study

[Rick Carlson]

Lan Barnes wrote:

>On Mon, Dec 13, 2004 at 11:57:06AM -0800, Rick Carlson wrote:
>  
>
>>Lan Barnes wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Google for once is failing me. Can anyone point me to the OT text that
>>>describes the dimensions of the font in the Temple of Jerusalem?
>>>
>>>TIA,
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I am unsure of your term "font" for there were what have been called 
>>'lavers", etc. but not fonts. I believe a single font in the front of a 
>>church was more typical of Catholic Churches than Jewish Temples.
>>
>>You may find what you are looking for here:
>>
>>I Kings vii. 27-37
>>
>>    
>>
>
>Thanks. I'll take a peek.
>  
>
You are welcome. 8-)

>font1   Audio pronunciation of font ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (fnt)
>n.
>
>   1. A basin for holding baptismal water in a church.
>   2. A receptacle for holy water; a stoup.
>   3. The oil reservoir in an oil-burning lamp.
>   4. An abundant source; a fount: She was a font of wisdom and good
>sense.
>  
>
Yes, I am familiar with these definitions. But, there was no font as 
described above in the Temple. The Jews did not do much baptizing, 
reports of Jonh the Baptist aside. John was not a mainstream Jew, he was 
an Essene which was considered to be a mystic cult. They also did not 
use holy water in the Temple. Holy water was an addition from the 
Catholic Church which had its seat in Rome where there were many holy 
fountains. The Catholic Church incorporated holy water sacred to their 
God from the other religions which had their own holy water from the 
fountains in their temples to their own non-Christian Gods.

I am pretty sure you were not asking about a reservoir in an oil burning 
lamp nor of a woman (perhaps a Priestess? Not likely in a Jewish Temple) 
who was a font of wisdom.

When you go to the reference I quoted you will find mention of what is 
more likely baths than fonts. The Jews did believe that when you 
approached their God you were supposed to be clean and reverent which 
explains why Yahweh told Moses to remove his shoes when he spoke to Him 
before the burning bush.

>The use of "font" meaning type face and size came from the lead type
>days when the individual letters were stored in a large sloped case of
>open cubbies for each letter and mark. The typesetter would reach in for
>whatever he needed next. For some reason, this reminded them of
>baptismal fonts (or perhaps it was "An abundant source").
>  
>
Close but no cigar. I should first admit that while I am an IT 
Professional I work in the printing industry. Actually I work as the IT 
person for a printing plant in San Diego which is part of the world's 
largest printing company. It is pretty impossible to be in this field 
and not learn quite a bit about the printing industry.

For the most part you are correct concerning the old lead type days 
except that all the characters i.e. the upper and lower case letters, 
symbols, and characters in the same family of type combine to form the 
typeface. Then there are variations of the typeface e.g. regular, 
italic, bold, etc. which are called fonts. The various fonts combined 
form the typeface family.

You are on the right track with the lead type reference because back 
then the fonts were created by casting them in lead. This was your 
typical mold and molten lead operation where the typeface molds were 
filled with the molten lead to make the movable type of Gutenberg fame. 
Font is a derivative of the old French word which meant 'to pour' and it 
is sometimes written 'fount', as in a pool of liquid.

Rick
rcarlson52 at nethere.net