πινακίδιον. ‘tablet.’ A small wooden tablet (abacus) either smeared with wax, or with sand sprinkled over it, on which words were written with an iron stylus. Thus ‘John,’ (‘the grace of Jehovah,’) is the first word written under the Gospel; the aeon of the written Law had ended with Cherem, ‘curse,’ in Malachi 3:2-4 (Bengel).

ἔγραψεν λέγων. 2 Kings 10:6. It is one of the common picturesque pleonasms with which Hebrew abounds.

Ἰωάννης ἐστὶν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ. The Spartan brevity and decision of his answer was more marked in the two Aramaic words—יחנן שמו—which he probably wrote.

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Old Testament