Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jim:

On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 7:09 AM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

The “Missing Link”:  Cuneiform Writing of Early Hebrew Words

 

I believe that all previous analysts have assumed that the first written form of the Patriarchal narratives was in alphabetical Hebrew narrative prose.  On that assumption, scholars have toiled for decades to try to determine the time period of the Hebrew language that appears in the received text of the Patriarchal narratives.  For example, Prof. Yigal Levin made the following apt remark on my prior thread [which I will assume represents the middle of mainstream academic scholarship, and with which I do not significantly disagree]:

 

“Standard Biblical Hebrew seems to be the dialect of late Iron Age Judah (called ‘Yehudit’ in 2 Kings 18)….”

 

However, the academic community has erroneously deduced from that fact that the first time the Patriarchal narratives were reduced to writing [as opposed to being an old oral tradition] was therefore in late Iron Age Judah [8^th - 7^th centuries BCE], with the very first written version of the Patriarchal narratives allegedly being in alphabetical Hebrew narrative prose in that time period:  the late Iron Age Judah era.  Not!

 

OK, far enough.

The earliest undisputed example of Hebrew writing that has survived until present was found in an archaeological dig at Khirbet Qeiyafa, where the forms of the letters are closer to those found in Semitic writings dating back to the early bronze age. Therefore, there’s no objection that Genesis was written using an early form of Semitic alphabet even as early as the early bronze age. So this assertion that Hebrew was originally written using cuneiform is completely unnecessary.

The far earlier writings of Wadi el-Hol and others date back to the time of Moses and before.

Therefore, it’s possible that Moses in the 15th century BC wrote down Genesis compiled from older documents in Semitic, alphabetic writing.

Again, history and archaeology shooting down one of your theories.

Karl W. Randolph.