HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY and Biblical Criticism


HEBREW, Ktav Ahsuri and Biblical Criticism’s fallacy

Ktav Ashuri

To read Hebrew, one needs to learn the square-shaped script used in books, newspapers and other print, and a second, substantially different cursive or hand writing script. (The two are as different as English print from English pen and paper writing.)  And, if you study the Torah and Talmud, you will need to learn the French script used by the great medieval commentator, Rashi.  

So having Hebrew writing in three separate scripts is simply accepted as normal. 

 

                                                             modern Hebrew print - Ktav Ashuri

      modern Hebrew handwriting

 

 

                                                                           Rashi script

 

But I was shocked, as was my shul’s rabbi, when an article from a highly regarded Orthodox website mentioned the script used for writing Torah scrolls, Mezuzahs and Tephilin today did not date back to Moses but was introduced by Ezra after the Babylonian exile. It is called Ktav Ashuri.  And the earlier Hebrew script is called Ktav Ivri (named Paleo-Hebrew by archaeologists.)

 

The source cited is the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, where it is stated:

21 b

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,⁴⁶ the Torah was given in Ashshurith script⁴⁷ and Aramaic language. [Finally], they selected for Israel⁴⁸ the Ashshurith script and Hebrew language, leaving the Hebrew characters and Aramaic language for the hedyototh.

 

22a

And the writing of the letter was written in the Aramaic character and interpreted into the Aramaic [tongue].¹ And again it is written, And they could not read the writing nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.² Further, it is written: And he shall write the copy [mishneh] of this law,³ — in writing which was destined to be changed.⁴ Why is it called Ashshurith? — Because it came with them from Assyria

 

Sanhedrin 22a  includes two other explanations rejecting the Assyrian/Aramaic link, but The Jerusalem Talmud concurs with the Ezra origin as did the ritual hand signs used to anoint the High Priest and also Davidic kings according to the Mishna. (See http://jtf.org/forum/index.php?topic=60882.0)

The Ashuri script, copied from Aramaic, has square lettering and frequent 90° angles.  It is radically different from Ktav Ivri which is more angular, and which archaeologists have shown is related to the earliest alphabet scripts known.  (See more below under Biblical Criticism).

For Ezra to introduce such a major change to Holy Scripture is consistent with the many challenges of the Babylonian Exile era, and his efforts to revive Torah knowledge, including introducing public Torah readings on the market days of Monday and Thursday.

 

Torah scroll Ktav Ashur letters with ornate ‘crown’ serifs

                                                           



 

Hebrew letter	Paleo-Hebrew letter	English Name
א		Aleph
ב		Bet
ג		Gimel
ד		Dalet
ה		He
ו		Waw
ז		Zayin
ח		Heth
ט		Teth
י		Yodh
כ/ך		Kaph
ל		Lamedh
מ/ם		Mem
נ/ן		Nun
ס		Samekh
ע		Ayin
פ/ף		Pe
צ/ץ		Tsade
ק		Qoph
ר		Resh
ש		Shin
ת		Taw

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 17^th century to its height with Wellhausen (1844 – 1918) in the early 20^th 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-7^th 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 9^th 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 4^th 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

 

                                                                                        

                                                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)