Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Tory:

On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 8:31 PM, Tory Thorpe <torythrp AT yahoo.com> wrote:

Jim and Karl:

… However I am interested in the possibility of narrative material produced by some educated Asiatics domeciled in Egypt. The story of Moses is that he was born, raised, and educated among the elite of the elite in Egypt.

Yes, but with the archeological evidence for the Exodus as occurring during the 12 dynasty, that means that Moses was reared and educated during the previous dynasty. The earliest record we have of the story of Sinuhe dates from the 12th dynasty. http://carrington-arts.com/JJSinuhe/DuplicateTexts2.html

 

This bespeaks a literary training in hieratic. This man would have known the classics (i.e. Sinuhe, etc.) well. All "narrative" of this time and location was composed in hieratic. Perhaps a figure fitting the description of Moses did know "ethnic" proto-Hebrew script. That does not a-priori mean he would compose narrative material in that script to the exclusion of hieratic.

Why would he write in hieratic, when he wrote in Hebrew, not Egyptian? It makes no sense. 

Tory Thorpe
Tel, Aviv

Karl W. Randolph.