What's the Oldest Hebrew Inscription?

Biblical Archaeology Review ^ | May/Jun 2012 | Christopher A. Rollston

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Thanks for the ping!

[Wuli]

I did NOT say it was not important “to me”.

I said that resolving the question was, to me, not important to a Jewish or Christian faiths (in my view), but it does have importance in the history of written language.

[Wuli]

As to Abraham - the first "Hebrew" (Genesis 14:13) - it would likely be safer to say he "spoke" the father Semitic tongue/language, or a proto-Semitic language, from which the spoken languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Samaritan evolved - as they have their differences but a common root that is distinguishable, large and pronounced.

"The etymology of the Semitic languages, which are fully developed yet have retained their primeval root system in pristine form, is of a different nature; theirs is an entirely internal affair. There is very little that Hebrew can gain from the etymological consideration of the few other surviving members of its family of tongues. Hebrew and its living relatives — Arabic and Aramaic [and Samaritan] — are formally similar, have identical roots of assorted shades of meaning, and are barely etymologically distinguishable from one another." [ http://www.hebrewetymology.com/Introduction%20%28English%29.pdf ]