Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Yigal:

On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 7:21 AM, Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il> wrote:

Hi Karl,

 

You wrote (among other things:

 

 

"My number one objection to that belief is that there is absolutely no

historical evidence to back it up. None whatsoever. That includes the

claim that the ancient Hebrews didn’t have an alphabetic writing

system until late, while the historical evidence points to that the

ancient Hebrews brought their alphabetic system to Canaan around 1400

BC with Joshua, only later picked up by the Phoenicians. Did the

patriarchs already use an alphabet? No reason to say that they didn’t."

 

 

What evidence do you have that the Patriarchs wrote at all?

What evidence do you have that they didn’t?

Within Genesis we have the evidence that certain parts of the history were authored by certain individuals, names indicated were people who had either direct observation, or failing that, contact with the people indicated. Many moderns claim that those sections were preserved in oral traditions, though there’s no reason not to understand them as written records. I think that understanding them as written records makes more sense.

 

Where does the Bible mention their writing? Why would you expect pastoral nomads to write?

Why shouldn’t they? Especially if they use a simple to learn alphabetic system? There are other examples of nomads writing using alphabetic systems, so that is not out of possibility.

 

Or slaves, for that matter.

In the antebellum South, special laws were passed making it illegal for slaves to be taught to read and write, because literate slaves were more difficult to deal with. But even those laws didn’t stop it. So why not slaves in Egypt being literate?

 

If they wrote at all, the Patriarchs would have written in Canaanite and the Israelite slaves in Egyptian.

Why? To both of your questions. 

 

If they had their own language complete with writing system before coming to Canaan, and brought both to Egypt, why should they have abandoned both? 

 

Yigal Levin

Karl W. Randolph.