Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Exodus and Hebrew Language

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Brian Roberts <formoria AT carolina.rr.com>
  • To: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Exodus and Hebrew Language
  • Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 07:41:19 -0400

Yigal,

So what do you say about Jack's assertion that the script of the Izbet Sartah inscription is proto-Canaanite?

I guess if we were to take the harmonization route here, we'd come up with an Israelite village where a Philistine child was learning Canaanite. (Sorry, couldn'y resist).

On a more serious note, do scholars assume that literacy in the ANE was an on-off phenomenon or was there a scale of degrees of literacy like we see today?

Best Salaams,

Brian Roberts


On Saturday, May 29, 2004, at 07:31 PM, Yigal Levin wrote:


----- Original Message -----
The Izbet Sartah inscription is assumed to be"Hebrew" because it was found
in the archaeological context of a typical Iron I hill-country village -
typical in pottery, architecture, plan etc. Izbet Sartah is as Iron I
"Israelite" as there is. Now, it is possible to argue just what "Israelite"
means in the 12-11th centuries and would the inhabitants have actually used
that term, but what would have been the linguistic difference between a
Canaanite village and an Israelite one, anyway?

Yigal


From: "Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>
I am not sure what it is that makes the Izbet Sartah inscription Hebrew.
The script is proto-Canaanite. Is it considered Israelite because the
abecedary had..or was supposed to have..22 letters? Hebrew is a language
that used the Canaanite script and some centuries later, adopted the
Aramaic
script...but a script is not a language, is not a culture. This ostracon
could have been the exercise of a Philistine child learning Canaanite.
Maybe there is something I am missing here.

Jack

_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew




_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page