56 The Rev. J. Hamilton on the Punic Passage in Plautus, 



•i"?}*?, ^li, has been already noticed as the Dtus meus of the Gospel and 

 Psalms. For the word inscriptio there are in Scripture two words used synoni- 

 mously, 2n;3 and pn : Job, xix. 23, " Oh, that my words were an^j written, 

 printed, pn-'* So Isaiah, xxx. 8, " Write in a table, 2n!3 — Note in a book, 

 |?nj &c." Accordingly the Lexicons — Schindler's, &c. give pn^ scriptura. 



The meaning of j-it» hcsc, is well known, 'slu^i is the Pahul participle of 

 nu?3, final n changed to •!. *i^ =-mecum. 



The Punic and Libyan Phraseology respecting the Tessera collated with 

 parallel Passages of Scripture. 



When Rahab demanded a tessera or token from the spies, she designated it 

 exactly in Hanno's words,* nttN nn^ Joshua, ii. 12. 



If Hanno's tablet be supposed (as certain other tablets having inscriptions are 

 described by the old lexicographers) a XevKcofia, or (ravi9 XevKrj, his tessera 

 would correspond very strikingly with the symbol mentioned in the Apocalypse, 

 viz. a white symbol, or countersign, having his god engraved or inscribed in 

 such an occult or secret way as to be only known to the giver and receiver of it ; 

 a token, moreover, of admissibility to eat of the hidden manna or spiritual ybodf 



sense but as a painting ox figuring on a heam or contabulated pannel ; nor can I discover that 

 Buxtorf, in his Chaldee Lexicon, gives as the interpretation of "W^, tabula cut aliquid insculpta, 

 as Bochart and his followers seem to imply. 



* n!2N pro njlSS, Pagnini, TTiesaurus, in Verb. 



t See Bishop Pearson on the Creed, Art. IV. (Note.) And Adam Clarke's and Hartwell 

 Home's remarks on the " white 4/ij(})oj" in the Apocalypse. " The original words," says Home, 

 " do not specify either the matter or the form, but only the use of it. By this allusion, therefore, 

 the promise made to the Church of Pergamos seems to be to this purpose — ' To him that over- 

 cometh, I will give a pledge of my affection, which shall constitute him my friend, and entitle him 

 to privileges and honours, of which none else know the value.' And to this sense the following 

 words well agree — which describe this stone or tessera as having « a name written which no man 

 knoweth saving he that receiveth it.'" 



