Topic
Ink
12 passages cited, from 2 classic reference works.
These works date from 1896–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- 2 Corinthians 3:3ISBE · Nave General scriptures concerning
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
- Exodus 32:33ISBE
And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
- Numbers 5:23ISBE
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:
- Jeremiah 22:14ISBE
That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
- Jeremiah 36:2ISBE
Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.
- Jeremiah 36:18Nave General scriptures concerning
Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.
- Ezekiel 23:14ISBE
And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,
- Wisdom of Solomon 13:14ISBE
Or made it like some vile beast, laying it over with vermilion, and with paint colouring it red, and covering every spot therein;
- 2 John 1:1Nave General scriptures concerning
The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;
- 2 John 1:12ISBE
Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
- 3 John 1:1Nave General scriptures concerning
The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
- 3 John 1:13ISBE
I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee:
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 9 references
ink (deyo, from root meaning "slowly flowing," BDB, 188; melan, "black"): Any fluid substance used with pen or brush to form written characters. In this sense ink is mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible (Jer 36:2) and 3 times in the Greek New Testament (2Co 3:3; 2 Joh 1:12; 3 Joh 1:13), and it is implied in all references to writing on papyrus or on leather. The inference from the "blotting out" of Ex 32:33 and Nu 5:23 that the Hebrew ink was a lamp-black and gum, or some other dry ink, is confirmed by the general usage of antiquity, by the later Jewish prejudice against other inks (OTJC, 71 note) and by a Jewish receipt referring to ink-tablets (Drach, "Notice sur l'encre des Hebreux," Ann. philos. chret., 42, 45, 353). The question is, however, now being put on a wholly new basis by the study of the Elephantine Jewish documents (Meyer, Papyrusfund2, 1912, 15, 21), and above all of the Harvard Ostraca from Samaria which give actual specimens of the ink in Palestine in the time of Ahab (Harvard Theological Review, Jan. 1911, 136-43). It is likely, however, that during the long period of Bible history various inks were used. The official copy of the law in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus was, according to Josephus (Ant., XII, ii, 11), written in gold, and the vermilion and red paints and dyes mentioned in Jer 22:14; Eze 23:14, and The Wisdom of Solomon 13:14 (milto kai phukei) were probably used also for writing books or coloring incised inscriptions. See literature under WRITING; especially Krauss, Talmud, Arch. 3, 148-53; Gardthausen, Greek Palestine, 1911, I, 202-17, and his bibliographical references passim.
E. C. Richardson
In the topical indexes
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.