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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] logograms--an ode to Hebrew

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  • From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • To: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] logograms--an ode to Hebrew
  • Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 20:44:43 -0500

Jack:

You are confusing oldest surviving with earliest written.

While it is true that the earliest specific mention of writing in Hebrew is
that of writing long books to be carried by nomads, it does not mention which
writing materials used, though presumably ink on parchment. Here's the
speculation part, if Moses in the mid second millennium BC was using ink on
parchment, what was to prevent his having older texts, also ink on parchment,
possibly already copies of copies, that recorded all the way back to Adam? If
this speculation is true, that would make parts of Genesis older than the
oldest surviving Akkadian writing. It is only that ink on parchment did not
survive, while fired clay bricks did, that leaves us with Akkadian writing
surviving while possible Hebrew writing did not.

There is no evidence that this speculation is either correct or wrong.
However, there are clues in Genesis that Moses used older manuscripts to make
his Urgeschichte, original history, and that those manuscripts may have had
their authors going back to Adam. If true, that means your whole development
scheme below is wrong. But clues do not equal evidence.

As for "Proto-Hebrew", I'm not Mr. Smith, but I think he means the oldest
Hebrew.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>

>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darrell Smith"
> <Darrell.H.Smith AT sceptreofjudah.org>
> >
> > Nevertheless, all Semitic languages are
> > direct descendants of Proto-Hebrew!
>
> This just is not true. Akkadian was the earliest recorded Semitic
> language. Protosemitic divided into geographic divisions and
> Northwest Semitic consisted of Aramaic, Canaanite and Ugaritic.
> Ugaritic is important in the development of proto-Sinaitic and
> Canaanite and the evolution of these languages produced Phoenician,
> Hebrew and Moabite. You need to explain to me what "proto-Hebrew"
> is.
>
> Jack
--
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