Posted on 03/18/2006 10:23:47 AM PST by Daralundy
Archaeologists led by a Bible professor from Pittsburgh made an extraordinary discovery in Israel last summer.
Their excavation team found the oldest example of the Hebrew alphabet ever seen.
The inscription, from the 10th century B.C.E., is written in the same script as early parts of the Hebrew Bible.
“Anything written in the days of Solomon,” would have been written in this alphabet, says Dr. Ron Tappy, professor of Bible and archaeology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Tappy presented his findings at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History March 8.
The discovery was made at Tell Zeitah (Tel Zayit in Hebrew), a site 30 km east of Ashkelon. The tell, or hill, is an artificially formed mound of ruins “layered like a wedding cake.”
Tappy's team had been working on excavating the site for weeks until they made their “incredible” find the last day of the 2005 season. An eagle-eyed volunteer spotted a faint inscription on a small stone shoved into a wall near where he was working.
At first, Tappy wasn't even sure he could make out any writing at all. The letters had been scratched into the rock by a very fine writing tool, such as a sharpened piece of bronze or iron.
The letters formed primitive alphabet, or abcedary, carved in an ancient Judean script unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
Deciphering the code
Dr. Tappy assembled a team of experts to decipher the Tel Zayit writings: Kyle McCarter of Johns Hopkins University, Bruce Zuckerman of the University of Southern California, and Marilyn J. Lundberg of the West Semitic Research Project. All were intimately familiar with the archaeology and language of the period.
Tel Zayit is a unique site, says Tappy, because it sits on the border between the major Philistine and Judean culture areas of the biblical era. The town that stood on the site of Tel Zayit was influenced both by the Philistines of the coast and the Judean kingdom of the hilly areas.
Pottery from both Philistine and Judean culture was found in the ruins of the site. Gradually, Judean pottery began to outnumber Philistine pottery, leading Tappy to believe the town became affiliated with the Judean kingdom by the 10th century B.C.E. Discovery of some Egyptian artifacts also hinted that the area might have been under Egyptian control in the late Bronze Age.
Thankfully, the stone with the writing was found in a “primary context” - embedded in a wall - and allowed Dr. Tappy's team to securely date the inscription. What they found was astounding. Although an example of Hebrew writing had been unearthed in 1908, this specimen from the late 10th Century B.C.E. was the oldest on record.
A strange artifact
The 38-pound boulder had a bowl carved into its other side, which confused the excavators. It might have been used for another purpose before a scribe chose to write on it, archaeologists speculate, and eventually it found its way into the wall.
The writing was intriguing. The letters were out of order, and a big “X” was scrawled through the middle of the rock. Some speculated that the scribe may have made a mistake, but Tappy doesn't think so. Each letter would have taken almost an hour to carve, so the scribe had time to think about what he was doing.
The alphabet itself does not look like the Hebrew of the Torah nor the English ABC's. It's more akin to Greek. The biblical Hebrew alphabet branched off Phoenician, says Tappy. The Phoenician alphabet also gave rise to Aramaic and Greek (and thence English) letters.
Supporting faith
The discovery supports the theory that Kings David and Solomon built a powerful kingdom that extended its influence over Judah, says Tappy. It also supports the history in the Bible, especially from I and II Kings. “Most people who have personal faith will be thrilled by (this discovery). The challenge is for the revisionists who say David and Solomon didn't exist.”
Some historical revisionists claim that the Kingdom of Judah is a myth and the Bible wasn't written until the Hellenistic period. “They claim if anybody occupied Canaan in the 12th Century B.C.E., they were illiterate,” says Tappy. The Tel Zayit excavation proves that not only could they write, the Judeans also could build fortifications and walls of some size. (The team uncovered a circle of monoliths used to defend against invading armies.)
Many parts of the Bible may have been written in the Tel Zayit script, says Tappy. The Song of Solomon, ironically, was not written in King Solomon's era, but a piece of lyrical poetry like Exodus 15 (“The Song of the Sea”) would have been composed around this time.
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Always nice to find old things.
When God inscribed the 10 commandments on the tablets, what language did He write in?
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I think he dictated them to Moses and Moses wrote them down. Don't know what language Moses used.
Ex. 31:18 "he gave him the 2 tablets...inscribed by the finger of God."
These were the first tablets. I always wondered what language God wrote them in.
If you find out, let me know. Thanks.
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What's the mystery? Or is this a THIRD Hebrew script?
http://www.yeshiva.org.il/ask/eng/default.asp?category=2&page=1
Question:
B’’H
I heard that it has been proven that the "modern" Hebrew script, i.e. that in which our Holy Books are written, is in fact Aramaic script, and that the Original Hebrew Script(i.e. that in which the original Torah was revealed, and that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in,etc.) is quite different and is closer to the Pheonician letters. My question is, how is modern Hebrew and the script considered as the Holy Tongue if it is not the original Hebrew, of which is said in the Midrash that HASHEM created the world w/ it? And if this is true, when and why did the script change? Any further insight into the issue, such as sources,etc. would be very helpful.
Answer:
In the Talmud (Sanhedrin 22b 23a and more) we find the "Assyrian" font – Ktav Ashuri - that is the Hebrew font used for the Sefer Torah we write today; and the Hebrew font – Ktav Ivri – a.k.a. ancient Hebrew font, as found in some of the ancient scrolls and coins.
The Talmud (ibid) brings different opinions about the origin of the two in regards to how was the Torah initially written.
It is agreed by all that the language has remained the same, Hebrew – as we know it today,
It is similarly agreed that today we use only the Ktav Ashuri and the Ktav Ivri contains no sanctity. (Yadaim 4, 5; Megilah 8b; Rashi ibid)
It is commonly accepted that we hold by the opinion that the Torah was given in Ktav Ashuri; for some time the Jews used the Ktav Ivri for non-sacred-writing as letters and coins; and in a certain period of time after returning from Babylonia, changed all Hebrew writing back into the Ktav Ahsuri. (Rambam Yadaim 4, 5; Ran, Rach for Sanhadrin; Divrei Yatziv OC 29 and more. Note also end of Mishpat Cohen 69 from Yerushalmi Megilah 1, 9)
This is a vast topic and much more can be said, since different Rabbinic sources don’t seem to fit together simply, while modern archeology sheds perplexing evidence on this topic.
- Rabbi Elchanan Lewis
A critique of the Zayit Stone findings
Follow links at each site for more stuff.
The original, and still the best!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
http://www.avesta.org/
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