Mar Zutra or, as some say, Mar 'Ukba said: Originally the Torah was given to
Israel in Hebrew characters and in the sacred [Hebrew] language; later, in the
times of Ezra,
and Aramaic language. [Finally],
they selected for Israel
the Ashshurith script and Hebrew
language, leaving the Hebrew characters and Aramaic language for the hedyototh.
Torah scroll Ktav Ashur letters with ornate ‘crown’ serifs
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In some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Biblical text is in Ktav Ashuri but
references to God are kept in the earlier Ktav Ivri (Paleo-Hebrew). The ancient
Hebrew script was also used for coinage by the Hasmonean kings , during the
Great Rebellion of 66-73 CE, and by Bar Kochvah.
(See Wikipedeia, “Paleo-Hebrew alphabet”)
Bar Kochvah coin
Hebrew and the first human language
Rashi has an interesting commentary on Genesis 2:23 which describes the
creation of the first woman from the rib of the first man.
He points out that the word for ‘woman’ אשה comes from
the same root as the word for ‘man’ איש, the
ה ending being the standard Hebrew grammatical device to
differentiate male from female.
He therefore concludes this
is proof that Hebrew was the original language of all human beings.
Using Rashi’s logic, one
could argue that English (man – woman) or Spanish’s versions of Mr.- Mrs. (señor – señora) or Italian (signore – signora) could have been the
first human languages, but English,
Spanish, Italian and all current European languages are of Medieval
origin.
And, as Biblical scholar
James L. Kugel admits, no other Semitic or early language had such a common
root for the words for male and female. It is uniquely Hebrew! (Kugel, How to Read the Bible, 2008,
p. 86)
Kugel, however, following modern linguistic theory and Biblical Criticism’s
mindset, argues at length (pp. 87-88) that Biblical Hebrew shows not just
dialect variations between texts but an overall evolution over time with sound
shifts from a simpler, original (not yet discovered) language named “Proto-Semitic” by linguists.
That Biblical Hebrew has
indicators of change and evolution -- just
as English has evolved since Shakespeare’s day -- does not preclude Hebrew from
being the first, and original human tongue; or that theoretical ‘proto-Semitic’
was not the original Hebrew dialect.
So, if no other ancient
language and culture envisioned man and woman as a single root word and linked
creation, and the Hebrew of Moses’ time, and thereafter is related to the
‘earliest’ ancestral language via Ktav Ivri,,
then Rashi’s insight, and the long Jewish and Christian traditions that
God and Adam and Eve spoke Hebrew, makes
sense.
Biblical Criticism Fallacy
For the longest time it was generally believed that the Greeks invented the alphabet, and
all other alphabets were later descendents – including Hebrew. The date for this Greek invention was sometime
after 800 BCE and some scholars thought it even more recent, based on
speculation of the date of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. (See Wikipedia,
“Homer”)
This standard ‘history’ affected Biblical Criticism from its beginnings
in the late 17th century to its height with Wellhausen (1844 – 1918)
in the early 20th century and their attitudes to the Hebrew Bible.
Put simply, even if the Greek alphabet dated as far back as 800 BCE, and
the dissemination of this Greek invention was quick, and the Jews were sharp, an
alphabet writing system for Hebrew could not have been invented and Biblical
literature written down much before the destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the exile of the Ten Tribes in 722
BCE. (And if, as some thought, the Greek
alphabet was only invented in the mid-7th century, the Hebrew
alphabet would most likely not have arisen and used until the time of the
Babylonian exile of 586 BCE.!)
A post-Babylonian date for Hebrew writing was also supported on another
front. Hebrew square shaped letters are clearly related to and a copy from the
script used for Aramaic by the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians thereafter. And
the most likely, earliest time for Jews to be exposed to Aramaic would be
during the post-Babylonian exile era, i.e., after 586 BCE.
So, whether relying on the accepted history of the Greek alphabet, or
using the Aramaic connection, it seemed clear to scholars that Hebrew writing
was, at the earliest, an adaptation just before 722 BCE, or more likely created
150 years later.
Consequently, all Hebrew documents
purporting to be ‘authentic’ written texts from ancient times would,
automatically, be ‘pious fakes’: combining ancient folklore and tales, myths
and fictitious personalities and events.
After all, they were not written down when claimed and any direct quotes
of what someone – or God -- said, was not reliable and concocted.
By this yardstick, the following parts of the Hebrew Bible or Tanach
were rejected:
1. The Pentateuch (supposedly written in ancient Moses times)
2. Book of Joshua
3. Judges
4. Samuel 1 and 2
5. King 1
6. Ruth
7. Book of Psalms (many by King David)
8. Proverbs (King Solomon)
9. Ecclesiastes (King Solomon)
10. Song of Songs (King Solomon)
11.Amos
12. Hosea
13. Michah
14. Isaiah (partly if post -586
BCE)
15. Zephaniah (if post -586 BCE)
16. Habakkuk (if post -586 BCE)
17. Jeremiah (partly if post -586 BCE)
18. Ezekiel (partly if post -586 BCE)
However, we have known for some time that Greek was not the
first alphabet (though it did lead to Latin, Italian, French, German
and English thanks to the Roman Empire, and was directly the origin of Slavic
language Cyrillic writing when later missionaries went from Greece to spread
the Christian Gospel to Eastern Europe in the 9th century CE.)
Thanks to archaeology, we now know the Greeks copied and expanded on the
alphabet used by Phoenician (Lebanese) traders – adding, most notably, symbols
for vowel sounds.
Moreover, living evidence of a far older, pre-Greek alphabet has been
around for centuries among the Samaritans, that people which the Assyrians
relocated to the land of the 10 tribes (Israel) in 722 BCE. While reduced to under 800 people today, they
have continued for centuries to worship the god of their new land – as was
standard ancient practice (except for us
stubborn Jews), built a temple on their central Mount Grizim and continued
their version of Judaism -- including coping their fairly accurate version of
Torah scrolls in the original Hebrew, Ktav Ivri. (See Wikipedia “Samaritans”.)
Archaeological finds have also shown that variants of Hebrew date back
to c. 1500 BCE and are
the original alphabet family; the fragmentary finds giving the different
scripts their names: starting with proto-Sinaitic, proto-Canaanite, paleo-Hebrew
and Phoenician.
Samaritan Torah scroll
Samaritan text
In fact, the old idea that Semitic forms of the alphabet derived from
Greek should have been rejected from the start.
Hebrew, Phoenician and related
alphabets do NOT have letter shapes for their vowel signs – but Greek does (the
real novel ‘addition’ of the Greeks.)
Hebrew vowel letters did not appear until the Middle Ages even though
the sounds: AH, A, EE, EH, O and OO
could have been easily copied based on the Greek model.
So, the Semitic Hebrew language family actually predates the Greek by close
to a thousand years!
Plenty of time for Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon and the others
to have access to Hebrew alphabet writing – in ktav Ivri.
Sorry Egypt and sorry Mesopotamia
The invention of the alphabet is one of the great developments in human
history, and it is not, for all the huffing and puffing, either Egyptian or
Mesopotamian.
Egypt and Mesopotamia were two of the greatest early civilizations and
were masters of agricultural, manufacturing, boat building, architecture, medicine,
science and mathematics, but on the writing front, they were not the best.
Yes, Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics (and its cursive version, Hieratic) were
the earliest written languages in the Middle East if not the world, now dated
back to the middle 4th millennium, but they were not easy to learn
or use, and never converted to an alphabet system even when Semitic alphabets
were already around.
Difficulties of Hieroglyphics (Hieratic) and Cuneiform
1. They were syllabic systems combining a consonant and vowel sound per
‘letter’ and as a result had well over 600 symbols to memorize.
2. Both languages were time and space consuming. Egyptian hieroglyphics stayed with ‘pictures’
and required patience to draw ½ dozen different bird shapes accurately. Royalty
even got special treatment as their names would be put in ovals called cartouches,
and within a cartouche the picture symbols would often be arranged
differently at the writer/artist’s preference and picture sizes.
Cuneiform’s wedge shaped writing was, for most words, not any easier
than Hieroglyphics. To write most ‘letters’ one had to drag, lift and press
down one’s triangle shaped stylus 10 or more times!
Egyptian tomb with hieroglyphic wall writing
Book of the Dead (Egyptian
prayers)
cartouche of Pharaoh Tutankhamen
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Notice the different birds.
cuneiform texts
By comparison, any alphabet system, whether just 22
letters or 45, is easy.
1. Any 6 or 7 year old child can learn all the letters and basic reading
and writing in a year or two of schooling --
as opposed to the 6 or more years needed by Egyptian and Mesopotamian
students.
2. The simpler alphabet shapes take far less time and space.
As a result of these advantages, literacy beyond a 1% to 3% elite became
possible.
Only the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg has done more for
public education and learning!
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So, what are the implications of the above?
1. Torah scroll Ktav Ashuri was a change introduced by Ezra, around
copying Assyrian, Aramaic script.
2. The earlier Ktav Ivri alphabet family dates back to before Moses’
time and was available for writing the Chumash/Pentateuch, and all the other,
later Hebrew Holy Scriptures that early Biblical Critics automatically dismissed
as ‘fakes’.
3. Hebrew may well be the oldest language on Earth as per Rashi’s
comment on Genisis 2:23.
4. Finally, the written alphabet may be a Jewish invention, if not a
Divine one. It was truly revolutionary and beyond
the ingenuity of the Egyptians to the
south or the early Mesopotamians to the north.
And its timelines and Sinai-Canaan origins match the Jewish experience.
Hollywood
Moses, Charlton Hesston, holding The 10 Commandments
in ktav vri (paleo-Hebrew)
