Table, Tablet
Table, Tablet
TABLE,TABLET (Luk 1:63 , 2Co 3:3 and Heb 9:4 ).The word , not wholly unknown in classical Greek, although it is not commonly used, occurs but once in the NT and not at all in the Septuagint. When it is used in Luk 1:63 it denotes, in all probability, a wax-covered wooden writing-tablet. The ordinary LXX Septuagint word for tablet. or table is the word which is found also, as mentioned above, in the NT in two passages. In Isa 30:8 we find ( ), which is a writing-tablet of box-wood, and in Jer 17:1 we have ( ), breast, surface. Both and , however, stand, for the Heb. , which is the ordinary word for tablet or table, and is used, e.g. in Exo 31:18, in reference to the tables of the Law. (Isa 8:1), rendered in the Authorized Version roll, is in the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 more suitably rendered tablet. Tablets were in almost universal use in the ancient world alike for purposes of correspondence and for literary purposes in general, and were formed of various materials, such as stone, clay, and wood, the wood being sometimes whitewashed, sometimes covered with wax. Bronze also was employed for tablets, at least in some of the countries about the Mediterranean, but seemingly only for such tablets as contained inscriptions of an official nature.
Literature.The Commentaries; artt. in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible and Encyc. Bibl.; works on Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt in general; allusions in Ramsays Letters to the Seven Churches.
Geo. C. Watt.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Table, Tablet
TABLE, TABLET.1. Writing tablet is indicated by the Heb. lach, which is also applied to wooden boards or planks (Exo 27:8; Exo 38:7 in the altar of the Tabernacle, Eze 27:5 in a ship, Son 8:9 in a door) and to metal plates (in the bases of the lavers in Solomons Temple. 1Ki 7:36). It is, however, most frequently applied to tables of stone on which the Decalogue was engraven (Exo 24:12; Exo 31:18 etc.). It is used of a tablet on which a prophecy may be written (Isa 30:8, Hab 2:2), and in Pro 3:3; Pro 7:3 and Jer 17:1 figuratively of the tables of the heart. In all these passages, when used of stone, both AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] translate table except in Isa 30:8 where RV [Note: Revised Version.] has tablet. lach generally appears in LXX [Note: Septuagint.] and NT as plax (2Co 3:3, Heb 9:4). The writing table (RV [Note: Revised Version.] tablet) of Luk 1:63 was probably of wax.
2. A female ornament is indicated by Heb. kmz, AV [Note: Authorized Version.] tablets, RV [Note: Revised Version.] armlets, RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] necklaces, Exo 35:22, Num 31:50probably a pendant worn on the neck.
The word tablets is also the tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of bott hannephesh in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] Isa 3:20 (RV [Note: Revised Version.] perfume boxes, lit. houses of the soul). It is doubtful if nephesh actually means odour, but from meaning breath it may have come to mean scent or smell. On the other hand, the idea of life may suggest that some life-giving elixir, scent, or ointment was contained in the vessels; but the meaning is doubtful.
The tablet (gillyn) inscribed with a stylus to Maher-shalal-hash-baz, Isa 8:1 (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] roll), signifies a polished surface. The word occurs again in Isa 3:23 where it probably refers to tablets of polished metal used as mirrors (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] glasses).
W. F. Boyd.