Ink

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

The ink of the ancients was not so fluid as ours. Demosthenes reproaches AEschines with labouring in the grinding of ink, as painters do in the grinding of their colours. The substance also found in an inkstand at Herculaneum, looks like a thick oil or paint, with which the manuscripts there have been written in a relievo visible in the letters, when you hold a leaf to the light in a horizontal direction. Such vitriolic ink as has been used on the old parchment manuscripts would have corroded the delicate leaves of the papyrus, as it has done the skins of the most ancient manuscripts of Virgil and Terence, in the Vatican library; the letters are sunk into the parchment, and some have eaten quite through it, in consequence of the corrosive acid of the vitriolic ink, with which they were written. The inkhorn is also mentioned in Scripture: "And one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side," Ezekiel 9:2 .

The eastern mode and apparatus for writing differs so materially from those with which we are conversant, that it is necessary particularly to describe them. D'Arvieux informs us that "the Arabs of the desert, when they want a favour of their emir, get his secretary to write an order agreeable to their desire, as if the favour were granted; this they carry to the prince, who, after having read it, sets his seal to it with ink, if he grants it; if not, he returns the petitioner his paper torn, and dismisses him. These papers are without date, and have only the emir's flourish or cypher at the bottom, signifying the poor, the abject Mohammed, son of Turabeye."

Pococke says, that "they make the impression of their name with their seal, generally of cornelian, which they wear on their finger, and which is blackened when they have occasion to seal with it." The custom of placing the ink-horn by the side, Olearius says, continues in the east to this day. Dr. Shaw informs us, that, among the Moors in Barbary, "the hogas, that is, the writers, or secretaries, suspend their inkhorns in their girdles; a custom as old as the Prophet Ezekiel, Ezekiel 9:2 ." And in a note he adds, "that part of these inkhorns (if an instrument of brass may be so called) which passes between the girdle and the tunic, and holds their pens, is long and flat; but the vessel for the ink which rests upon the girdle is square, with a lid to clasp over it." So Mr. Hanway: "The writers carry their ink and pens about them, in a case, which they put under their sash."

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Μέλαν (Strong'S #3188 — Noun Neuter — melan — mel'-an )

the neuter of the adjective melas, "black" (see Matthew 5:36; Revelation 6:5,12 ), denotes "ink," 2 Corinthians 3:3; 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:13 .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Ink, Inkhorn. Jeremiah 36:18; Ezekiel 9:2. It is supposed that the common ink of early ages was made of water and pulverized, charcoal, or the black of burnt ivory, with the addition of some kind of gum. Other substances were doubtless used both for writing and coloring matter. The Romans used a dark purple liquid, which was obtained from a species of fish, for this purpose. The ink in common use at this day has been known for several centuries in Europe, and is usually made of nutgalls, vitriol, and gum. Ancient ink was more caustic, and less liable to fade or decay. Chinese ink is of the same quality. The professed writers or scribes carried with them, as they do at the present day in eastern countries, writing instruments, and among them was an inkhorn, thrust into the girdle at the side.

King James Dictionary

INK, n. A black liquor or substance used for writing, generally made of an infusion of galls, copperas and gum-arabic.

1. Any liquor used for writing or forming letters, as red ink, &c. 2. A pigment.

Printing ink is made by boiling lintseed oil, and burning it about a minute, and mixing it with lampblack, with an addition of soap and rosin.

Ink for the rolling press, is made with lintseed oil burnt as above,and mixed with Frankfort black.

Indian ink, from China, is composed of lampblack, and size or animal glue.

Sympathetic ink, a liquor used in writing, which exhibits no color or appearance till some other means are used, such as holding it to the fire, or rubbing something over it.

INK, To black or daub with ink.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

INK is mentioned once in OT ( Jeremiah 36:18 ). Exodus 32:33 and Numbers 5:23 are adduced as evidence that the old Hebrew ink (derived from lamp-black [?]) could he washed off. From the bright colours that still survive in some papyri, it is evident that the ink used by the Egyptians must have been of a superior kind. The NT term for ‘ink,’ occurring three times ( 2Co 3:3 , 2 John 1:12 , 3 John 1:13 ), is melan (lit. ‘black’). See, further, under Writing.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) A pigment. See India ink, under India.

(2): (n.) A fluid, or a viscous material or preparation of various kinds (commonly black or colored), used in writing or printing.

(3): (n.) The step, or socket, in which the lower end of a millstone spindle runs.

(4): (v. t.) To put ink upon; to supply with ink; to blacken, color, or daub with ink.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Jeremiah 36:18 . The ink of the ancients was thick and durable, and resembled our printer's ink. The ordinary materials were powdered charcoal, or ivory black, water, and gum. The black matter of the scuttle-fish was also used. Writers carried their inkhorns within, or suspended from, their girdles, Ezekiel 9:2 . See GIRDLE.

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

2 Corinthians 3:3 (b) As in physical life, ink is used to make impressions upon paper, so in spiritual life, the Holy Spirit is the medium by and through whom impressions are made on human hearts. The ink is in contrast to the Holy Spirit.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Jeremiah 36:182 Corinthians 3:32 John 1:123 John 1:13

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Ink. See Writing.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ink ( דּיו , deyō , from root meaning "slowly flowing," Bdb , 188; μέλαν , mélan , "black"): Any fluid substance used with pen or brush to form written characters. In this sense ink is mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible ( Jeremiah 36:2 ) and 3 times in the Greek New Testament (2 Corinthians 3:3; 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:13 ), and it is implied in all references to writing on papyrus or on leather. The inference from the "blotting out" of Exodus 32:33 and Numbers 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 Hébreux," Ann. philos. chrét ., 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 Jeremiah 22:14; Ezekiel 23:14 , and The Wisdom of Solomon 13:14 ( mı́ltō kaı́ phúkei ) were probably used also for writing books or coloring incised inscriptions. See literature under Writing; especially Krauss, Talmud, Arch . 3 ,148-153; Gardthausen, Greek Palestine , 1911, I, 202-17, and his bibliographical references passim .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(דְּיוֹ, deyo', so called from its blackness, Jeremiah 36:18; Gr. μέλαν, black, 2 Corinthians 3:3; 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:13). The most simple, and hence probably the most ancient mode of preparing ink was a mixture of water with charcoal powdered, or with soot, to which gum was added. The Hebrews made use of different colors for writing, as did also the ancient Egyptians, and some of the books of the former are stated by Josephus to have been written in gold. The mode of writing mentioned in Numbers 5, 23, where it is said that "the priest shall write the curses in a book and blot them out with the bitter water," was with a kind of ink prepared for the purpose, without any calx of iron or other material that could make a permanent dye; these maledictions were then washed off the parchment into the water, which the woman was obliged to drink: so that she drank the very words of the execration. The ink still used in the East is almost all of this kind; a wet sponge will completely obliterate the finest of their writings. The ancients used several kinds of tinctures as ink; among them that extracted from the cuttle-fish, called in Hebrew תְּכֵֵֶלת, tekeleth.

Their ink was not so fluid as ours. Demosthenes reproaches AEschines with laboring in the grinding of ink, as painters do in the grinding of their colors. The substance found in an inkstand at Herculaneum looks like a thick oil or paint, with which the manuscripts had been written in a sort of relievo, visible in the letters when a leaf is held to the light in a horizontal direction. Such vitriolic ink as has been used on the old parchment manuscripts would have corroded the delicate leaves of the papyrus, as it has done the skins of the most ancient manuscripts of Virgil and Terence in the library of the Vatican;' the letters are sunk into the parchment, and some have eaten quite through it, in consequence of the corrosive acid of the vitriolic ink with which they were written. (See Writing).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Inkhorn

Ink, Inkhorn [WRITING]