כָּתַב

From the study of Proverbs 7:3

Range of meaning

To write, inscribe, record or register: writing laws, covenants, records and letters (Exod 24:4; Deut 6:9, "write them on the doorposts"; Josh 8:32, writing the law on stones).

Against the English

"Write" is accurate. In an age with few literate people, writing was done by specialists and meant something permanent, official and binding, more weighty than casual note-taking.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 6:9 and 11:20: "write them on the doorposts of your house." Proverbs keeps Deuteronomy's pairing of binding and writing but moves the writing from doorposts to the heart. Jeremiah 31:33 uses the same verb for God writing the law on hearts.

From the study of Jeremiah 31:33

Range of meaning

To write, inscribe, record: on stone, a tablet, a scroll, a doorpost. Used for permanent public documents, treaty texts, legal records and the Sinai tablets.

Against the English

BSB's 'inscribe' brings out the picture of engraving a text onto a surface. 'Write' is accurate.

Used elsewhere in the period

Sinai's tablets were 'written with the finger of God' (Exod 31:18; 32:15–16; Deut 9:10). Israel was to write the words on doorposts and gates (Deut 6:9) and on plastered stones (Deut 27:3, 8). The king was to write his own copy of the torah (Deut 17:18). In Jeremiah 36 the prophet's scroll is written, cut up and burned by King Jehoiakim, then written again. Ancient treaties were written on tablets and kept in temples: a copy of Esarhaddon's treaty was found in 2009 in a temple at Tell Tayinat.

From the study of 2 Kings 14:6

Range of meaning

A passive form of 'to write' meaning 'what is written', with 'according to / as'. Together: 'as it is written'.

Against the English

Translations agree ('according to what is written'). The point is the significance of the phrase, not how it is translated.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare in the earlier history books, this formula becomes common in Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah ('as it is written in the torah of Moses', Ezra 3:2; Nehemiah 8:15). It is a standard way of citing scripture in the Dead Sea Scrolls (kaʾăšer kātûb) and in the New Testament (kathōs gegraptai).