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# כְּתָב

Biblical Aramaic

**writing** — used 12 times in the Aramaic chapters of the Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

writing [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/aramaic/1499/lemma_3a_5db_5b0_5bc_5ea_5b8_5d1/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

כְּתָב: n.m. writing [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/aramaic/1499/lemma_3a_5db_5b0_5bc_5ea_5b8_5d1/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.m. Dn 5:7 writing;—abs. כְּתָ֑ב Ezr 7:22 (Baer כְּתַב, but v. K§ 57 ad fin. Str); cstr. כ׳ 6:18; emph. כְּתָכָא Dn 5:8 +, ה—ָ 5:7, 15;— writing, inscription (on wall) Dn 5:7, 8, 15, 16, 17, 24, 25. written decree 6:9, 10, 11. written requirement Ezr 6:18; 7:22.

### Jastrow 1903

כְּתָב: writing, writ character. signature [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/aramaic/1499/lemma_3a_5db_5b0_5bc_5ea_5b8_5d1/#m3)

**The whole Jastrow entry:** preced.) writing, writ; character. Ab. V, 6; Pes. 54ᵃ; Sifré Deut. 355 (of things created in the last hour of the sixth day) הכתב והמִכְתָּב the art of writing and the writing on the tablets (Ex. XXXII, 16; Rashi to Pes. l. c. והמְכַתֵּב and the pencil); Mekh. B’shall., Vayassa, s. 5 only כתב. Ab. Zar. 10ᵃ אין להם לא כ׳ ולא לשון they (the Romans) have neither (original) types nor language; Gitt. 80ᵃ (of פרסיים!). Y. Meg. I, 71ᵇ bot., v. אַשּׁוּרִי. Snh. 21ᵇ; Meg. 8ᵇ כ׳ עברי(ת), v. לִיבּוֹנָאָה. \[Ib. עד שיכתבנו בכתב אשורית, strike out בכתב, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l., a. Meg. 9ᵃ.\]—תורה שֶׁבִּכְּ׳ written Law, opp. שבעל פה. Yoma 28ᵇ; a. fr.—Meg. 18ᵇ שלא מן הכ׳ without a written copy, from memory.—Pes. 21ᵇ, a. e. דברים כִּכְתָבָן וכ׳ וכ׳ construe the Biblical words as they are written (Deut. XIV, 21) , to the resident stranger give it as a present, to the foreigner sell it.—כְּתַב יד signature. Keth. II, 3 sq.; a. fr.—Tosef. B. Kam. VII, 4 כ׳ היכר יד שלו.—Gen. R. s. 48 בכל מקום … הכ׳ רבה על הנקודה אתה דורש את הכ׳ וכ׳ wherever you find in the Biblical text the plain writing, i.e. the number of undotted letters in a word, prevailing over the number of the dotted, you must interpret the undotted (ignoring the dotted); where the dotted prevail, you must interpret the dotted, e.g. א̇לי̇ו̇ (Gen. XVIII, 9) read אַיּוֹ, where is he (Abraham)?; ib. s. 78; Cant. R. to VII, 5.—Tosef. Meg. IV (III), 41 (ref. to II Kings X, 27 מחראות) קורין אותו ככְתָבוֹ we read it as it is written (not as emended in the K’ri); a. fr.—Pl. כְּתָבִים, כְּתָבִין. Tanḥ. Masé 1; Num. R. s. 23, beg. כ׳ רעים מן המלכות government papers containing orders of hard measures against the Jews. Esth. R. introd. כְּתָבָיו של מלך royal decrees. Ex. R. s. 20 עד שילמוד בני כ׳ (some ed. כתובין) until my son shall have studied documents; a. e.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 12 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (2 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (2 candidates); Jastrow: headword, part of speech agrees, 0 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses (8 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: the (9); \[is\] the (1); \[is\] writing (1).

## In the verses

[Daniel 5:25](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.5.25/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.5.25/#tree)

וּדְנָ֥ה כְתָבָ֖א דִּ֣י רְשִׁ֑ים מְנֵ֥א מְנֵ֖א תְּקֵ֥ל וּפַרְסִֽין׃

*Word for word:* and this \[is\].the writing which it.was.inscribed mene mene teqel and pharsin

*JPS 1917:* And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN.

[Daniel 6:10](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.6.10/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/DAN.6.10/#tree)

כָּל־קֳבֵ֖ל דְּנָ֑ה מַלְכָּא֙ דָּֽרְיָ֔וֶשׁ רְשַׁ֥ם כְּתָבָ֖א וֶאֱסָרָֽא׃

*Word for word:* as to because this the king Darius he.signed the writing and the prohibition

*JPS 1917:* Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the interdict.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Biblical Aramaic dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/aramaic/w/lemma_3a_5db_5b0_5bc_5ea_5b8_5d1.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/aramaic/1499/lemma_3a_5db_5b0_5bc_5ea_5b8_5d1/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).