Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Roberts" <formoria AT carolina.rr.com>
To: "Walter R. Mattfeld" <mattfeld12 AT charter.net>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Exodus and Hebrew Language


> Walter,
>
> You're forgetting the Izbet Sartah ostracon. (Naveh 1982), which is
> arguably 13th-11th century.

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