![]() ![]() The Phoenician script prevailed in Palestine after the conquest as well as in the countries bordering on it. By the time of the monarchy the king and nobles could write ( 2 Samuel 11:14 8:17), but not the common people, until the time of Amos and Hosea, when writing seems to have been common.Ĥ. Other early references are Judges 5:14 margin 8:14 margin. The Book of the Wars of Yahweh is named in Numbers 21:14. The next is Exodus 24:7, mentioning the Book of the Covenant (Ex 20-23). The earliest reference to writing in the Old Testament is Exodus 17:14. References to Writing in the Old Testament: Although this non-alphabetic script was in use in Canaan when the Israelites entered it, they do not seem to have adopted it.ģ. Of the literature of Canaan before the Israelites entered it the remains consist of a number of cuneiform tablets found since 1892 at Lachish, Gezer, Taanach and Megiddo, but especially of the famous the Tell el-Amarna Letters, discovered in Egypt in 1887. This original alphabet was the invention of the Semites, for it has letters peculiar to the Semitic languages, and probably of the Phoenicians (so Lucan, Pharsalia iii.220 compare Herodotus v.58), who evolved it from the Egyptian hieroglyphics. There is only one alphabet in the world, which has taken many forms to suit the languages for which it was employed. This is not disproved by the discovery there of two cuneiform contracts of the 7th century, as these probably belonged to strangers. The Israelites probably did not employ any form of writing in their nomadic state, and when they entered Canaan the only script they seem ever to have used was the Phoenicia. in Genesis 23, nor anywhere in the Old Testament before the time of Moses (compare however, Genesis 38:18,25 41:44, which speak of "sealing" devices).Ībout the year 1500 BC alphabetic writing was practiced by the Phoenicians, but in Palestine the syllabic Babylonian cuneiform was in use (see ALPHABET). The art of writing is not referred to in the Book of Genesis, even where we might expect a reference to it, e.g. Inscriptions after Settlement in Canaanġ2. ![]() References to Writing in the Old TestamentĤ. ![]()
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