Comments on: Sifting Through History to Find the Facts

By: www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkllfd5jiXnpnf6mvXyAaZCx2F0xeVgZc4

www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkllfd5jiXnpnf6mvXyAaZCx2F0xeVgZc4 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:45:02 +0000

… or scripture.

Chris

By: Bob Lang

Bob Lang — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:05:38 +0000

The explanation I’ve heard about that is the main reason the lock was there was to keep the servants out. They wouldn’t be willing to risk their job by taking the whole thing, but they might sneak a bit of the contents now and then. Makes sense for a liquor cabinet or sugar chest, not sure who would be sneaking bits of fennel or marjoram.

By: Christopher Schwarz

Christopher Schwarz — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:43:43 +0000

I’ve always been curious about small lockable boxes like this. Another example is the spice box. You’re worried about people stealing the contents, so you lock it up in a box that is easy to steal….

Perhaps I don’t know enough about larceny.

Chris

By: www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmCAqadDoKNw6D0Pct_-inMRnA0lI8HcNE

www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmCAqadDoKNw6D0Pct_-inMRnA0lI8HcNE — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:48:17 +0000

My mind immediately jumped to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" which references the Ark of the Covenant, described as carrying the ten commandments on their stone tablets. As an homage, a box of the right size for a Bible and nicely made would be a modernization of that idea: Bible Box. The first comment about the boxes storing the Koran made me wonder about the Jewish Torah. Torahs for the Jewish faith are written on scrolls which are apparently stored in cylindrical cases.

Koran, Torah, Bible – appropriate containers for each, hence a Bible Box.

Just my musings.

By: Bob Lang

Bob Lang — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:51:52 +0000

These boxes were used to store the family Bible as a prized possession, but that was only after the family Bible become a common item. The problem is that this form of box was around for a few hundred years before keeping the family Bible for several generations became widespread. Somewhere along the line the original term was lost, and even though we’ve been calling it a Bible Box for the last hundred years or so, we’re not using the right term. If you call a mule a racehorse for a hundred years he won’t be able to run any faster and people a hundred years from now will wonder why we held racehorses up as valuable animals.

I have an old family Bible that was a wedding gift to my great grandfather in the 1870s. It’s fragile and important so I keep it in a safe place. That place happens to be great granddad’s six-board chest, which is also a prized possession. If I start calling that chest a Bible chest, other people pick up on that term and a hundred years from now that is the common name, we’ve passed on bad information to upcoming generations.

If you study much history you’ll likely find more examples of that than you will of valid information being passed along.

By: Doug Fulkerson

Doug Fulkerson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:12:54 +0000

Sorry meant to say, "if you held the example box in the photo posted above like a book…"

By: Doug Fulkerson

Doug Fulkerson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:10:41 +0000

It could be that they just look like an old fashioned family bible; the big ones like Mike is talking about. If you held the example photo posted above like a book it would look like someone holding a bible. Of course, I don’t have any proof, but that hasn’t stopped me yet.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:26:23 +0000

Isn’t it just very simple? Bibles were expensive and every family had one that was passed down through several generations. It was also a place where people kept their family trees/names as it was passed down.
Where else would you honor and keep a prize possession?

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:17:18 +0000

I can’t speak for Bible boxes, but historically, copies of the Koran have been kept in boxes, sometimes quite large and elaborate. For example, there is a Koran box at the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul that’s roughly 18" square and about four feet tall, including the pedestal. It dates from the 16th Century. I’ve posted a rather blurry photo at http://www.dendroica.com/Scratch/koranBox.jpg (can’t use flash inside the museum). There’s another, less blurry, photo of the box at http://www.azriona.net/istanbul/koran_box.jpg, but it doesn’t show as much detail. (I didn’t take the latter photo.)

While the box is intended to protect, the main purpose is to honor.

[Sorry for the plaintext links, but hyperlinking doesn't seem to be working.]