Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Rochelle:

On 10/24/06, rochelle altman <willaa AT netvision.net.il> wrote:
> The entire first part is more of the same, so let's get to the final item::
>
> >[snip[
> >What format and size of documents did Moses use when he wrote Torah in
> >the 15th century BC? What is your evidence? What writing substrate did
> >he use: leather, papyrus, or what? What is your evidence?
>
> Moses didn't write the Torah, remember?

No I don't remember. Rather I remember verses like Exodus 17:14, 24:4,
34:27, Numbers 33:2, Deuteronomy 31:9, 22, 24, Joshua 8:32 and Ezra
6:18.

> .... It was supposed to have been
> written by god -- and if he did write it, then he used stone.

This was not the Torah, but the shenei luchot a berit, two tablets of
the treaty. What Moses wrote was a book, not a tablet of stone.
Further, I'm using "Torah" in the modern sense, referring to the
Pentateuch.

> .... It was Joshua
> who was told to make a 'mishneh'  -- on what material?

Joshua 8:32 answers that for you. It was the side of a mountain, as it
did not have to be carried away.

> .... Well, certainly not
> watermarked paper. Silver, bronze, and copper, though were used for
> documents such as treaties, or anything that was supposed to be "permanent"
> and that was not "carved in stone."   (Amusing just how far back in time
> that saying goes.)
...
> Script: all I can do is tell you what is speculated in the literature -- of
> which there is a very large amount. 15th BCE: Siniatic; 13th BCE -- 
> Phoenician.
>
> You want to see the evidence? Remember, I've been collecting this stuff for
> more than 50 years...there are hundreds of examples just from the ANE and
> down through the 1st century BCE... when we get to CE, we get into the
> millions.  There are more than 250,000 examples in one Late Medieval
> cemetery -- can't use all of them now can I. You'll have to wait until I
> finish organizing the blurry book on the subject  -- this i going to take a
> lot of picking and choosing to fit into a single volume -- and then finish
> writing it up to see the evidence for yourself.. I've given you a few
> examples to look at so you get an idea.
One source stands out by its absence, namely tablets of Biblical
period Jewish origin.

> Incidentally, if you want to know where the double tablet comes from, look
> at Syrian MSS, then Gothic, and then the Amianitus from the 8th CE.
>
> Now, shall we get back to BH?
My question about Moses was back to BH.

> risa,
> Dr. Rochelle. I. Altman

By the way, where did you get the idea of sapphire cubes you mentioned
to Yitzhak? He didn't say anything of the sort, at least not publicly,
nor is there any Biblical Hebrew source for that.

Karl W. Randolph.