John in Cyberspace: Before Abraham Was, I Am

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Before Abraham Was, I Am

John 8: 48-59

48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 5 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Bible verses courtesy: The ESV Bible
Photo credit: "When Mice Collide" - ACS Science, Hubble Space Telescope

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Sidebar

The words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of John bring me incredible joy and peace. From where I stand right now, these words are the most important ever printed in any format on this planet. When I see them combined with the stunning photographs from God’s amazing universe, I’m totally awestruck. I’m writing this because I have been publishing the printed word for much of my life, and I would like to share my experiences. The words of Jesus in the Book of John have transcended all forms of printing and moved into Cyberspace. With that in mind, I would like to reflect a bit on how I personally got from the scribes to Cyberspace.

"I love the smell of ink and paper."

I was hooked on publishing at the age of eleven, when I got my first full sized Schwinn bicycle, and hit the road as a Portland Oregonian newspaper carrier. I delivered the Oregonian in Eugene, Oregon for several months, when I won a trip to Portland, where I visited the downtown Oregonian printing plant. When I saw the giant Goss newspaper presses fire up for the first time, and the papers blast down the conveyor belt, I knew I wanted to be a publisher. Because of a strange set of circumstances, I found myself in Los Angeles eleven years later, publishing the first weekly motorcycle newspaper in the United States. Over the next thirty-five years I produced magazines and newspapers in every printed format from hand lettering to desktop publishing. To this day, when I see a printing press fire up, I still get excited when I smell ink and paper. The print production business began thousands of years ago with the ancient scribes.

Scribes

Anyone living at the time the Gospel of John was written would need a scribe to get the printed word published. All written words were carefully printed on scrolls or single sheets of parchment paper. This was a tedious job, with no room for errors. As a special art project, I lettered the names of my fellow Junior High classmates, on their diplomas, in Old English. It took days to complete the project. I almost went crazy before I finished. I hope scribes were well paid, because very few people could do the job. Scribes had a long run of employment, from antiquity, to the invention of the printing press in 1439.

Illustrated Manuscripts

Illustrated Manuscripts were the next big thing in print production. This is when scribes, illustrators, book binders and paper manufactures joined forces to create the first bound books. Most of these books were produced for religious institutions. A.copy of the entire Bible in this format could cost as much as an entire cathedral. A smaller group of books were published as general interest publications. Only the wealthest people could afford their own personal copy of a general interest book. If a scribe or illustrator made a mistake, it could cost small fortune to correct it. I would have been awake every night worrying about errors. Illustrated Manuscripts were designed and printed from around 400 AD, until they found themselves on collision course with the printing press.

The Gutenberg Press

The invention of a practical printing press dramatically changed the course of world history. Improved moveable type printing is credited to Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. He brought several earlier ideas together to get the job done. The first complete book printed on Gutenberg’s press was the Bible, printed in German. We all know what happened to the communications industry from there. The Gutenberg press firmly established the power of the press. For the next 700 years, the power of the press belonged to those who had one.

Lithography

Lithography is a method of printing using a lithographic limestone, or a modern day metal printing plate with a completely smooth surface. It’s a process where water keeps the printing surface clean where there is no image. Various forms of lithography have been around since 600 AD. The process was perfected by the German author and actor, Alois Senefelder in 1796 as a cheap method of publishing theatrical art work. Lithography has been the printing method for producing the highest quality of printed images in the world. The bulk of my experience has been producing publications with this format. I published my first tabloid newspaper on a newly developed rotary offset printing press utilizing the lithographic process.

Cold type and paste-up

When I got involved in publishing my first tabloid newspaper, the winds of change were blowing. In fact it was a hurricane. Since Gutenberg designed moveable type and letterpress printing in 1450, nothing much had changed. The cost of putting a newspaper page together with metal type, and printing it on a letterpress was beyond the reach of most people. What changed everything was the invention of photographic type, commonly referred to as cold type. A galley of cold type could be produced for a fraction of the cost of type produced in metal. In addition cold type could be assembled on an art board, instead of locked up heavy metal forms. These two developments gave untold thousands of people the chance to get into the publishing game. I was one of those thousands who embraced the opportunity to start a small newspaper. In January of 1960, my partner and I launched Motor Cycling News, the first motorcycle racing publication in the United States.

Desktop Publishing

Anyone watching the 1984 Super Bowl saw a futuristic ad launching the Apple Macintosh Computer. When I read about the Macintosh I knew it would cause a revolution in typesetting and production. I purchased my first “Mac” in late 1985. A great new software program named Aldus PageMaker had just been released. This program, along with new digital type fonts from Adobe Systems signaled the end of typesetting and production that had been with us for six hundred years. For the first time in history a small publisher could produce a completely digitized page, including photos, from their desktop. Since that incredible day in 1985, I’ve produced thousands of pages on my personal desktop. It was truly a dream come true!

Body of Work

I was fortunate to be part of the explosion of special interest publishing in the 1960’s, which was the result of low cost production and printing. It was an exciting time for small publishers with good ideas. Over the next thirty-five years, I published magazines and newspapers covering motorcycles, sports cars, bicycles, go-carts and drag racing. My company, Page One Graphics, was responsible for the design, production and printing of the Los Angeles Rams and California Angels game publications for many years. We also created several award winning corporate publications, and were consultants on the start-up of numerous publication concepts. My last position in publishing was working as the general manager for two national catholic newspapers, The National Catholic Register and Twin Circle Magazine. How wacky a career is that: from the bone busting, beer drinking world of motorcycle racing, to the quiet, reflective offices of a couple of Catholic newspapers.

Cyberspace

My career in print production started with a new company producing hand-lettered illustrated supermarket circulars, in Los Angeles in 1957, (just like the scribes), and is ending with “John in Cyberspace.” I’ve had the unique experience of producing printed literature in every format known to the human race for the last 3000 years. I believe the Bible is the most important book ever printed. And for me, the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John are the most beautiful I’ve ever heard. I would like to conclude this sidebar with these words, Jesus said, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.”