A Is for Ancient, Describing an Alphabet Found Near Jerusalem

New York Times ^ | November 9, 2005 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

[Sabramerican]

A Is for Ancient, Describing an Alphabet Found Near Jerusalem By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

In the 10th century B.C., in the hill country south of Jerusalem, a scribe carved his A B C's on a limestone boulder - actually, his aleph-beth-gimel's, for the string of letters appears to be an early rendering of the emergent Hebrew alphabet.

Archaeologists digging in July at the site, Tel Zayit, found the inscribed stone in the wall of an ancient building. After an analysis of the layers of ruins, the discoverers concluded that this was the earliest known specimen of the Hebrew alphabet and an important benchmark in the history of writing, they said this week.

If they are right, the stone bears the oldest reliably dated example of an abecedary - the letters of the alphabet written out in their traditional sequence. Several scholars who have examined the inscription tend to support that view.

Experts in ancient writing said the find showed that at this stage the Hebrew alphabet was still in transition from its Phoenician roots, but recognizably Hebrew. The Phoenicians lived on the coast north of Israel, in today's Lebanon, and are considered the originators of alphabetic writing, several centuries earlier.

The discovery of the stone will be reported in detail next week in Philadelphia, but was described in interviews with Ron E. Tappy, the archaeologist at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary who directed the dig.

"All successive alphabets in the ancient world, including the Greek one, derive from this ancestor at Tel Zayit," he said.

[Sabramerican]

Another thing the Jews stole from the Arab "Palestinians"- Hebrew.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Ping 'ibri.

[Red Badger]

Brought to you by the letter "F"...........

[Publius6961]

Weren't the future muslims then still eating worms and grubs along the west coast of Arabia at that time?

[Sabramerican]

So nothing has changed. Today's future Moslems eat snails as a delicacy.

[Madam Theophilus]

10th Century is when David and Solomon reigned. It would seem this evidence puts another nail in the coffin of higher criticism (Wellhausen and Co.) which presupposes writing was acquired late in Hebrew history.

[OSHA]

abecedary

Abecedarian \A`be*ce*da"ri*an\, Abecedary \A`be*ce"da*ry\, a. Pertaining to, or formed by, the letters of the alphabet; alphabetic; hence, rudimentary.


LIB! It is a real word.

[hershey]

Wow! Amazing!

[Unam Sanctam]

"All successive alphabets in the ancient world, including the Greek one, derive from this ancestor at Tel Zayit," he said.

As I understand, the Greek alphabet descends from the Phoenician, not the Hebrew, so the Greek and the Hebrew would be more sister alphabets than mother/daughter.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

How soon before it is declared to be a fake as many inscriptions are claimed to be now days?

[S0122017]

Greek alphabet descended from hebrew alphabet.

That is a known fact. It was Hebrews that had extensive contact with greek, not phoenicians.

[Unam Sanctam]

The alphabet family trees at the following websites both show Archaic Greek and Aramaic alphabet families as sister families, both descended from the Phoenician. Phoenicians were well-traveled traders around the Mediterranean, don't forget.

http://victorian.fortunecity.com/vangogh/555/Spell/alfabet2.html

http://phoenicia.org/alphabet.html

[Verginius Rufus]

The Greeks were aware of having gotten their alphabet from the Phoenicians...sometimes they were referred to as "Phoenician letters." The term Phoenician is the Greek name for the Canaanites...the language was either the same as Hebrew or very similar.

It's not surprising to have some small differences in the alphabet...ancient Greek city-states had lots of different local variations of the Greek alphabet. (Our letters F and Q are derived from letters found in some versions of the Greek alphabet but which dropped out of the Ionian alphabet which eventually became the standard Greek alphabet.)

[Thinkin' Gal]

In the 10th century B.C., in the hill country south of Jerusalem, a scribe carved his A B C's...

If the Hebrews didn't steal these letters from the Palis, it wouldn't be called Paleo Hebrew.

Ani lo medaberet ivrit, aval ani rotsah lilmod. (Ich denke dass, vielleicht ich bin nicht eine gute Studentin, weil ich lerne nicht mit Geduld, aber ich kann jeden Tag viele festliche und schöne Kuchen bakken.)

Ist Grammatik meine Freundin? Antworten Sie nicht!

[tuesday afternoon]

Another baffling peculiarity is that in four cases the letters are reversed in sequence; an F, for example, comes before an E.

There is no E in the Hebrew aleph-beit.

[Sabramerican]

aval ani rotsah lilmod

Aivrit scelac niere mezuyn

[Thinkin' Gal]

Ani mevinah nur ein bißchen, darum mit Zärtlichkeit gebe ich Ihnen et ha-ugah shelcha. ;-)

[Guyin4Os]

There is no E in the Hebrew aleph-beit

correct. There's no F either. The "F" sound is made with a softened Pe.

[SunkenCiv]

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