Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

See also Dispillio tablet text dated 5300 BCE

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Dispilio_tablet_text.png

Quite a few familiar symbols can be spotted. Phoenician origins starting to
look like the worst possible hypothesis on the planet.

James Christian
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Dispilio_tablet_text.png>

2010/1/22 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
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>