Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

I took out a book I have that has a full page photograph of 
the Gezer Calendar. It is generally said that it was 
inscribed by a school boy. The reasons are that the letters 
are inconsistant in shape and size. As separators between 
words, the writer inserted vertical lines, but he omitted 
them more than included them. There is only one clear waw, 
and that is in line five, the others are not clear and could 
be crooked vertical lines for separating words. Then the 
word (CD in line three is not a Biblical word at all, and 
KLM in line five could refer to an agricultural use of the 
term that has been lost, as it was not used in Tanakh. There 
are other signs of damage that could throw off modern 
researchers as well as other indications of missteps by the 
original writer, that the ommission of a mater lectionis or 
two could be attributed to a youthful mistake rather than to 
the belief that they didn't exist at that time.

In short, that the Gezer Calendar omits them, doesn't mean 
they didn't exist.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com>
> 
> Also:
> 
> > The Gezer Calendar (c. 925) does not use them.  (The waw in YRXW is
> > not a mater lectionis, but is to be understood phonetically as "ew"
> > (contraction of "ehu", and the word translated "his two months".)
> 
> There is absolutely no evidence to support this "W=dual" hypothesis,
> and considerable evidence against it.  I think we have to admit that
> the Gezer Calendar is still not fully deciphered.
> 
> -Joel Hoffman

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