Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Please note that one example shows top to bottom reading as I suggested to
the list a few months ago but was not taken very seriously.

James Christian

2010/1/22 James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>

> See here for traces of the Wadi el Hol inscriptions:
>
>
> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b4/Wadi_el-Hol_inscriptions_drawing.jpg
>
>
> 2010/1/22 James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>
>
>> It is easy to see that both Phonecian and Paleo alphabets are later lazier
>> adaptations of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet which is not so lazy in terms 
>> of
>> drawing things like ox heads. Even older attested symbols are those of
>> Proto-Sinaitic script found in Palestine and Sinai region and dated to 1800
>> and 1500 BCE. See for example the Wadi el-Hol script. Here's a picture of
>> the 1500 dated text:
>>
>> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/Ba`alat.jpg<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/Ba%60alat.jpg>
>>
>> <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/Ba%60alat.jpg>Evidently,
>> the 1800 text is represents an older script than the Phoenician script that
>> they started circulating around the mediterranean from 1500 onwards. Also 
>> it
>> is easier to see the connection with Egyptian pictograms in this stage of
>> the evolution of the alphabet. If we are to believe the historic claim that
>> Moses ran away from Egypt into the Sinai he would certainly have had 
>> contact
>> with this alphabet and not the later Phoenician stage of its evolution.
>>
>> James Christian
>>
>> 2010/1/22 James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> recent theories I've been presenting to the list members about the Hebrew
>>> alphabet and its implications for the perception of the inventors hinge on
>>> one very important factor. Who invented the alphabet?
>>>
>>> Throughout my presentation I've been very careful to limit the discussion
>>> to 'the perception of the inventors of the alphabet' without stating any
>>> definite conclusions of who those inventors were. And so, I would be very
>>> interested in hearing from supporters of Phoenician origins why they feel
>>> that to be the case. I suspect such theories are largely based on a late
>>> authorship of the Torah (which for most of us who believe it to be ancient
>>> are lines of evidence merely lines of conjecture). Is there anything worth
>>> considering that doesn't involve a conspiracy theory that the Isrealites 
>>> did
>>> not come out of Egypt? As the Hebrew alphabet characters are evidently
>>> adapted pictograms from Egyptian I really don't see why we need a 
>>> Phoenician
>>> stepping stone.
>>>
>>> James Christian
>>>
>>
>>
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