Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Ken, 
 
The earliest alphabetic inscriptions were from that time period, however, 
their 
glyphs were very different from paleo-Hebrew or Phoenician. However, it is my 
understanding that the Phoenician writing does not show a transition from 
that 
very ancient writing to the glyphs with which we are familiar, while Hebrew 
history 
has the Hebrews having spent time in the area where such inscriptions have 
been 
found, then a period of time during which we have found no inscriptions but 
occasional references to writing (in other words, no transitional forms there 
either) 
then the earliest examples where both Phoenician and paleo-Hebrew have the 
glyphs that we can recognize as antecedant to Greek and Latin. Others correct 
me if I am wrong, but I understand that the Phoenicians used cuneiform at the 
time 
tradition says Moses was writing the Torah using the alphabet. 
 
Karl W. Randolph. 
 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca> 
 
> Karl wrote: 
>  
> > If Moses wrote the Torah as tradition avers, then the  
> > Phoenecians learned the alphabet from the Hebrews, not the  
> > other way around. 
>  
> I thought the earliest alphabetic inscriptions from the Holy Land dated 
> from 
> the 17th century BCE, centuries before the traditional date for Moses.  
>  
> Ken Penner, McMaster/DSS 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PennerThesis 
>  
-- 
__________________________________________________________
Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com
http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup

CareerBuilder.com has over 400,000 jobs. Be smarter about your job search
http://corp.mail.com/careers