RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Writing, Hebrew
correcily remarked by Schlottmann that the king would hardly have cast. whole pieces of leather upon the open firebox of the orient; and so 2. The faras Num. v. 23 is concerned, one can Materials easily wash fresh ink from papyrus. Employed. Papyrus (q.v.) still grows in Palestine at various places, as in the marshes on the coast, at Lake Huleh, at the Sea of Tiberias, and lower down on the Jordan to the Dead Sea (cf. L. Fonck, Streifztige durch die biblische Flora, pp. 36 sqq., Freiburg, 1900). Import of papyrus from Egypt to Phenicia is authenticated for the eleventh century 3B.c. Nevertheless, the use of rolls of leather was so common in antiquity, that its use among the Israelites can well be assumed. The later discovery of parchment (Eumenes II. of Pergamon, 197-158 B.c.) has bearing only on the New Testament (II Tim. #v. 13). The books were in the form of rolls (Jer. xxxvi.; Ezek. ii. 9, iii. 1 sqq.; Ps. xl. 7; Zech. v. 1 sqq.). The writing-instrument was a stylus (Hebr. ‘ef; Ps. xlv. 1; Jer. viii. 8; kalamos, III John 13) which was brought to a point by the use of the scribe’s knife (Jer. xxxvi. 23) and was dipped in ink (Hebr. dyp, Jer. xxxvi. 18; Gk. melan, II Cor. iii. 3; II John 12; III John 13). The inkhorn was called keseth hassopher (Ezek. ix. 2, 3, 11). The writer’s equipment was carried in his girdle (Ezek. ix.). For engraving upon metal or stone there was in use the iron stylus (‘et barzel, Jer. xvii.1; Job xix. 24); the term used in Isa. viii. 1 is heret, from a root meaning to incise or engrave.
II. Information from Other Sources: The discoveries in the winter of 1887-88 at Tell el-Amarna (see AMARNA TABLETS) and the more recent discoveries at Taanach have in surprising fashion shown that in Palestine about 1400 B.c., there were in use the Babylonian script and the Babylonian language, this being employed not only on the part of Egyptians and official Palestinians in reports and petitions to the pharaohs Amenophis III. and IV., but also in communications from the upper-class Palestinians to the people of the land. It is concluded from these facts that in that period a script better suited to Canaanitic needs was either not yet available or was not widely diffused (H. Winckler in Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vol. v., Berlin, 1896; also in Schrader, KAT; E. Sellin, Tel Ta‘annek, Vienna, 1904). It is unknown at which point of contact of Babylonia with Palestine the use of the Babylonian script became common. If the theory of J. Halévy (Revue sémitique, 1904, pp. 240-248) becomes established, this being that the Habiri of the Amarna Tablets were descendants of Casshite military colonies, it will be necessary to think of the seventeenth or the sixteenth century before Christ as the period. That the Israelites after the conquest of Canaan in any great measure made use of the cuneiform writing has no support in actual evidence. With this would fall the supposition of some Englishmen and of H. Winckler that the Decalogue was first written in the cuneiform script. So far as it is possible to trace back the course of events, the Israelites seem to have used the same form of writing as that discovered in June, 1880, in the Siloam Inscription (q.v.), which apparently belongs to the time of Hezekiah. This is the- form
which appears on the seal found in 1904 at Tell el- Mutasilim (Megiddo), which reads: ‘‘(seal) of Shema’, servant of Jeroboam” (i.e., of Jeroboam II.) —cf. HE. Kautzsch, in Mittheilungen und Nachrichten des deutschen Paldstina-V ereins, 1904, pp. 1-14.
Ill. The North Semitic and Early Hebrew Script: The writing just mentioned is essentially that of the Moabite Stone (q.v.), the Sendjirli inscription, and the inscriptions of Phenicia. These are
called North Semitic in distinction from
1. North the South Semitic, which include the
Semitic Sabean, Minzan, Safaite, and proto-
Script. Arabic. The South Semitic, toward the deciphering of which J. Halévy has contributed a great deal, is derived from the North Semitic (cf. the convincing discussions of M. Lidzbarski in his Hphemeris fiir semitische Epigraphik, i. 109-123, Giessen, 1901). And yet some of these forms of writing show an older type of writing, standing nearer the Old Canaanitic than does the Sabean (cf. F. Praetorius, in ZDMG, 1902, 676-680, 1904, pp. 715-726). With respect to the age of the North Semitic all that can be said is that comparison with the Greek alphabet, which depends upon it, shows that this most significant of all inventions was made some considerable period before the end of the second century B.c., possibly several centuries before that end. This script is found in use by a West Semitic (Aramaic, possibly Canaanitic) people which stood in close contact with Egypt. For the close connection with the Egyptian Emmanuel de Rougé was the first sponsor, alleging the writing from right to left, the principle of acrophony (i.e., each letter formed after the figure of some thing the name of which began with the sound of that letter), and the writing of the consonants only. This would make the writing of the Old Canaanitic script common with that of the Old Egyptians. But comparison with both the hieroglyphic and the hieratic writing seems to make derivation from the Egyptian an untenable supposition. Also to be rejected are the hypotheses which derive the North Semitic script from the Babylonian-Assyrian cuneiform writing (Deecke, in ZDMG, 1877, pp. 102 sqq.; F. Delitzsch, E’ntstehung des dltesten Schriftsystems oder der Ursprung der Keilschriftzeichen, pp. 221-231, Leipsic, 1896). Delitzsch, to be sure, does not derive the Canaanitic writing from the cuneiform of the period of the invention, but from the much older pictorial forms known only to the learned of the time.
The names of the letters are in great part taken from the names of the things which were used to figure forth the oldest forms. Thus Ayin means “eye,” and Resh means “head.’”’ In Codex Vaticanus of the Septuagint (in the Lamentations of Jeremiah) the names of the Greek forms are given as Aleph, Béth, Gimel, Daleth, E, Ouau, Zain, Héth, Téth, Id6th, Chaph, Lamed, Mém, Noun, Samch, Ain, Phé, Tiadé, Koph, Réchs, Chsen, Thau. The Greek-Latin Psalter in Verona has in Psalm exix. afew variant forms, viz., Zai, Labd, Nun, Samech, Sade, Res, Sen.
With respect to the history of the North Semitic alphabet it may be said that some of the letters arose through differentiation from others (M. A. Levy,
Writing, Hebrew