Topic
Pen
11 passages cited, from 3 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 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 They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently.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.
- Job 19:24ISBE · Nave Made of iron
That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
- Psalms 45:1ISBE · Nave General scriptures concerning
My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
- Isaiah 8:1ISBE · Nave General scriptures concerning
Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
- Jeremiah 17:1ISBE · Nave Made of iron
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
- Judges 5:14Nave General scriptures concerning
Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.
- Jeremiah 8:8Nave General scriptures concerning
How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
- Jeremiah 36:1–32ISBE
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and…
- Jeremiah 36:18ISBE
Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.
- Jeremiah 36:23ISBE
And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
- John 1:13ISBE
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
- 3 John 1:1Nave General scriptures concerning
The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
In the reference works
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 0 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 10 references
(`et, cheret; kalamos): The first writing was done on clay, wax, lead or stone tablets by scratching into the material with some hard pointed instrument. For this purpose bodkins of bronze, iron, bone or ivory were used (Job 19:24; Isa 8:1; Jer 17:1). In Jer 17:1 a diamond is also mentioned as being used for the same purpose. In Jer 36 Baruch, the son of Neriah, declares that he recorded the words of the prophet with ink in the book. In Jer 36:23 it says that the king cut the roll with the penknife (literally, the scribe's knife). This whole scene can best be explained if we consider that Baruch and the king's scribes were in the habit of using reed pens. These pens are made from the hollow jointed stalks of a coarse grass growing in marshy places. The dried reed is cut diagonally with the penknife and the point thus formed is carefully shaved thin to make it flexible and the nib split as in the modern pen. The last operation is the clipping off of the very point so that it becomes a stub pen. The Arab scribe does this by resting the nib on his thumb nail while cutting, so that the cut will be clean and the pen will not scratch. The whole procedure requires considerable skill. The pupil in Hebrew or Arabic writing learns to make a pen as his first lesson. A scribe carries a sharp knife around with him for keeping his pen in good condition, hence, the name penknife. The word used in 3 Joh 1:13 is kalamos, "reed," indicating that the pen described above was used in John's time (compare qalam, the common Arabic name for pen).
Figurative: "Written with a pen of iron," i.e. indelibly (Jer 17:1). "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer" (Ps 45:1; compare Jer 36:18). As the trained writer records a speech, so the Psalmist's tongue impresses or engraves on his hearers' minds what he has conceived.
James A. Patch
In the topical indexes
Texts: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); 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.