Jeremiah 36 sheds further light
on writing on papyrus documents. The words סֵפֶר seper (Jer 36:2, 4, 8,
10, 11, 13, 18, 21, 23, 32) and מְגִלָּה məgilla (Jer 36:6, 14, 20, 21,
23, 25, 27, 28, 29) are used interchangeably to refer to what might be
considered the original book/scroll of Jeremiah. Baruch was the scribe who
copied Jeremiah’s recitations (36:4), writing with דְּיוֹ dəyo ‘ink’
(36:18). This is the lone appearance of this word in the Hebrew Bible, almost
undoubtedly borrowed from the Egyptian word ry(t), with /d/ for /r/r
either due to the error of a copyist editor, giving the visual similarity of ד
and ר, or perhaps due to the similar sound of the two consonants (e.g., with
tapped /r/ somewhat akin to /d/).
When Baruch took the scroll
containing the messages of Jeremiah to the temple for public reading, it was
read to King Jehoiakim. What follows is a report of the destruction of this
scroll: “As Jehudi read three or four columns [דְּלָתוֹת dəlatot], the
king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the
firepot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire” (Jer 36:23). This
passage indicates that the Hebrews embraced the Egyptian system of writing on
pages or sheets of papyrus that were glued together to form a scroll. (James
K. Hoffmeier, “Scribal Practices in Ancient Egypt,” in Rethinking the
Composition of the Pentateuch, ed. Kenneth Bergland, Roy E. Gane, Gary A.
Rendsburg, and A. Rahel Wells [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2026], 56,
emphasis in bold added)
In Ezek 9 (vv. 2, 3, 11) we are
introduced to a man decked in a white linen, possibly a priest or angel, who
are introduced to a man decked in white linen, possibly a priest or angel, who
is identified as wearing “a writing case [קֶסֶת הַסֹּפֵר qeset hassoper]
at his waist.” Behind קֶסֶת qeset is the Egyptian word gsti, a
scribe’s palette. The kits of scribes writing in Aramaic, such as that of the
scribe shown standing before king Bar-Rakib (733-713 BCE) of Zincirli, may
offer a good parallel to that used by officials in Jerusalem during the Iron
Age. The Egyptian writing kits changed little over the millennia. They held the
reeds used to write, along with two holes for black ink and red ink. A jar of
water was required to moisten the dry ink in order to write. It seems logical
to conclude that if the Hebrews utilized the system of writing on papyrus with
ink and the Egyptian term gsti was used for the scribal kit in Judah,
then almost undoubtedly the kits were similar in appearance and function. (James
K. Hoffmeier, “Scribal Practices in Ancient Egypt,” in Rethinking the
Composition of the Pentateuch, ed. Kenneth Bergland, Roy E. Gane, Gary A.
Rendsburg, and A. Rahel Wells [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2026], 56)
