Knife
“Various terms: eating implement / cutting instrument”
Summary
A cutting instrument used in ancient Israel for various purposes including sacrifice, circumcision, food preparation, and everyday tasks.
☩Types and Uses
Several Hebrew words are translated "knife" in Scripture, each referring to different types of cutting instruments. The maakheleth was a large knife used for slaughtering and cutting up food, as when Abraham took a knife to sacrifice Isaac. Flint or stone knives were used for circumcision, as when Joshua circumcised the Israelites with "knives of flint" at Gilgal. The challaph referred to temple knives used for slaughtering sacrificial victims, of which 29 were among the vessels returned from Babylon. A smaller knife called sakkin was used for various purposes including food preparation, as the wise man warns about being careful when dining with a ruler.
☩Special Uses
Knives had several specialized uses beyond ordinary cutting. The scribe's knife or penknife was used for sharpening reed pens and cutting papyrus or leather scrolls, as when King Jehoiakim cut up Jeremiah's scroll. In the confrontation on Mount Carmel, the prophets of Baal cut themselves with knives and lancets as part of their frantic worship, a practice explicitly forbidden to Israelites. The Levite in Judges used a knife to dismember his concubine's body as a shocking summons to the tribes of Israel.
Related Verses9 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Knife," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. V (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Knife," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. III (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.George Morrish, "Knife," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 4.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Knife," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).