Living the High Life of a....Scribe?

A lot of times when I speak to certain doctors or dentists, especially those that have been in practice for a while it seems as though I always walk away thinking to myself, "That sure would be the life...Setting your own hours, vacations when desired, typically not heavy intensive labor, and not to mention a hefty paycheque to end things off nicely..." 

So it has often seemed like an ideal job in my mind,but in the recent while as i've become more acquainted and familiar I  have realized that how I pictured earlier on wasn't exactly precise.

Well there is a similar type of field that existed many, many years ago. To those that held this position there often were many perks and entitlements that came along with the job. BUT, it wasn't without pay some prices or sacrifices early on. This choice of career (if we could say choice) is that of a Scribe.

On the first day of class when we discussed the unit of written knowledge there was a section or topic that I was particularly interested in for a variety of reasons and the interest only grew as we went on our class field trip to the library which I thought was quite fascinating.

Now I don't think that I was the only one (I imagine not), but I was absolutely amazed at how neat the writing was on some of the literature that we saw. Everything from the symbols that we saw to the texts that had been copied. Some of those books that we saw honestly looked like they were printed by a computer in the 21st century and even just the type of font's that they used...all of it was really neat!

So ever since that, I have wondered how those men came to have that skill and what life would be like as a scribe in those days.

The life of a scribe really did depend on where you resided as you were a scribe and in what time periods. There are a lot of cool facts and interesting things about a variety of cultures that I want to touch on as well as a little bit of my own personal experience.

So in general, according to what I've read, a practicing scribe was treated quite well. However, it wasn't always like that starting the day the decided to become a scribe, they had to pay their dues. Their training was quite gruelling and long and started at a young age typically. But when you look at the work they could produce, I would say that it paid off quite nicely and worked out well.

In ancient Egypt you would come into the trade or career of being a scribe most likely because your father was a scribe. There were a lot of footsteps followed when it came to this field of work. It was very rare actually for a student to be admitted into scribe school without his father possessing the title or job of a scribe as well. As far as schooling goes it wasn't abnormal for the training to begin when a young man would reach the age of 5 or so, which is just a tad younger than when most of us enter or begin our schooling. In the Egyptian culture, the most important thing that a scribe would have to do would be to memorize more than 700 hieroglyphics symbols which i'm sure would not have been an easy task. The length of years varied as far as the schooling goes, but typically it was somewhere around 5 years. Once that was finished they would become an apprentice to a scribe. Often times it would be their fathers and then they would take of the practice when their father could no longer. A scribe was exempt from paying any taxes and also the duty of joining the military was by passed. It is said that it was as though they joined the royal court.

Not all places were as great as Egypt though as far as the lifestyle. Typically in Europe this type of a career was done by that of monks and took place in monasteries in a room called the scriptorium. Often the time that they would spend in the scriptorium would be to create beautiful copies of the Bible. This lifestyle was not quite as leisurely or enjoyable as those in Egypt by any means, but they were still really good at what they did.

This is called illuminated manuscript,  work by monks and other scribes.

In Israel there was quite the regimen of rules that a scribe needed to abide by. Things such as:

- The ink must be black, and of a special recipe.

-They must say each word aloud while they are writing

-They must wipe the pen and wash their entire bodies before writing the most Holy name of God,      YHVH every time they wrote it.

So these were just a few of the ones that I found particular interest in, There are many others as well.

Overall though, the key to their success has to do with the amount of work they put into it and definitely lots and lots of practice. Hours and hours each day during training would be copying texts over and over till they got it just right. They often say "Practice makes Perfect" but I think "Perfect Practice makes Perfect" is a little bit better suited on this occasion.

So...believe it or not, this does tie into my own life, I promise! Probably like most guys, handwriting wasn't ever my forte I guess you could say. It seems as though it can be quite rare to find a guy with decent writing and if you do than it's instantly said that "he writes like a girl.." This isn't an insult by any means, but it simply proves the point that stereotypically guys write messier or less neat than girls. Admittedly, I was no exception the stereotype.

Like everyone else, with computers on the rise, the amount of time in my life that I actually spent hand writing a text decreased at a steady pace, rampant almost. That was consistent in my life until I hit the ripe age of 19 and was called to serve a mission. Good bye computer, iTouch, cell phone (kind of), and any other technical device that was previously used in order to communicate.  Never before had I been forced to write some much by hand. All my notes from MTC classes, firesides, devotionals, journals, and of course letters to friends and some family were all to be done with pen in hand.

It was at this point that I came to the full realization that, "Wow, I really have terrible hand writing! It's horrendous!" and if you don't think so...well let me show you.

My Handwriting in the MTC

So this picture above is a notebook that I used in my mission to take notes in the MTC and then once I entered the field I used it strictly for General Conference notes. Early on into my time in the field, I made the commitment to myself that somehow, someway I was going to have better handwriting. It just needed to be done. I mean what is the point of writing something down if it isn't legible right? How good would it have been if the ancient scribes who copied everything didn't put so much effort into making it neat. It really wouldn't have been that beneficial at all! That's the way I felt about my journals and other notes. Why would I bother writing this stuff down if myself or someone else is going to need a urim and thumim to understand it (Obviously i'm exaggerating quite a bit, but I hope that my point is clear). About this same time that I made this decision to improve, I began to keep a daily journal where I would write at least one page a day which I continued to do throughout the rest of my mission....always being conscious of my handwriting. Here is how it turned out for me.

My Handwriting a year or so into my mission.
I don't have my journals here with me right now, but this is the book I used for General Conferences once I got into the mission. Don't know that i'd want my journal posted on here anyways ;) just kidding.

Obviously mine does not look anything similar to what we saw in class and it's not nearly as perfect, but I hope it does illustrate the point of how the scribes did what they did. It came down to hard work and making a conscious effort just as I did for a time during my mission. So the reason why I found the handwriting of ancient times so fascinating is because of the progression that I have seen in my own. Now I don't have plans to take it much further than what it's at right now and but will remain to be amazed by the work done by the scribes and the monks...I almost feel as though it is somewhat of a lost art or perhaps dying art.