Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] akkadian bible?

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>
  • To: nir AT ccet.ufrn.br
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] akkadian bible?
  • Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:59:01 -0400 (EDT)

Hi Nir,

On Tue, 9 Apr 2013 16:43:21 -0200, "Nir cohen - Prof. Mat."
<nir AT ccet.ufrn.br> wrote:
> chavoux, jim,
>
> to the best of my knowledge, the proto-sianic alphabet was invented at
> about 2000 bc. all the evidence indicates that it was used mainly
> on animal skins. animal skins are not as durable as clay tablets.
>
> akkadian, yes, was used in the region, but only in political-economical
> documents between leaders. not, as far as i know, for any religeous
> purposes.
>
> now, if we assume that the hebrews did keep a written version of their
> history and faith, which (so far) is just a supposition, i'd rather suppose
> that it was written in proto-sinaic on animal skins than that it was written
> in akkadian. for many reasons, starting with the fact that nobody spoke
> akkadian in the region except one or two scribes.

To be fair, I think you misunderstand what Jim is proposing. Although
he refers to "Akkadian cuneiform", I think what he means is that the
narrative was written in "cuneiform", i.e., Canaanite/Hebrew written
in cuneiform script, not Akkadian written in cuneiform. (Jim can
correct me if I'm wrong, but that's *my* understanding.) After all,
cuneiform was invented for representing Sumerian, and ended up being
used to represent quite a variety of other languages apart from
Akkadian.

--
William Parsons
μη φαινεσθαι, αλλ' ειναι.



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page