Paleo-Hebrew alphabet

Redirect to: Phoenician alphabet

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet ( ), is an abjad offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet, identical to the Phoenician alphabet . At the very least it dates to the 10th century BCE. It was used as the main vehicle for writing the Hebrew language by the Israelites , both Jews and Samaritans . It began to fall out of use by the Jews in the 5th century BCE when they adopted the Aramaic alphabet as their writing system for Hebrew, from whence the present Jewish "square-script" Hebrew alphabet descends. The Samaritans , who now number less than one thousand people, have continued to use the Old Hebrew alphabet until today.

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (Hebrew: ), also spelt Palaeo-Hebrew alphabet , is a variant of the Phoenician alphabet . Like the Phoenician alphabet, the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet contains 22 letters, all of which are consonants, and is described as an abjad . The term was coined by Solomon Birnbaum in 1954 who wrote "To apply the term Phoenician to the script of the Hebrews is hardly suitable". Archeological evidence of the use of the script by the Israelites for writing the Hebrew language dates to around the 10th century BCE. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet began to fall out of use by the Jews in the 5th century BCE when the Aramaic alphabet was adopted as the predominant writing system for Hebrew, from which the present Jewish "square-script" Hebrew alphabet evolved. The Samaritans , who now number less than one thousand people, have continued to use a derivative of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, known as the Samaritan alphabet . The Hebrew scripts, Volume 2, Salomo A. I have therefore coined the term Palaeo-Hebrew."

Script used in the historic kingdoms of Israel and Judah by Israelites The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet ( Hebrew : ), also spelled Palaeo-Hebrew alphabet , also known as Proto-Hebrew, was the script that was used in the historic kingdoms of Israel and Judah , specifically to record the Hebrew language . Proto-Hebrew, like the Phoenician alphabet , is a slight regional variant and an immediate continuation of the Proto-Canaanite script , which was used throughout Canaan in the Late Bronze Age . Hebrew is attested epigraphically from about the 10th century BCE, and no extant "Phoenician" inscription is older than 1000 BCE. The Phoenician language , Hebrew language , and all of their sister Canaanite languages were largely indistinguishable dialects before that time. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is an abjad of 22 (consontantal) letters. Use of the term "Paleo-Hebrew alphabet" is due to a 1954 suggestion by Solomon Birnbaum , who argued that "[t]o apply the term Phoenician to the script of the Hebrews is hardly suitable". Paleo-Hebrew signet ring discovered in Jerusalem's City of David. City of David Archive, Eliyahu Yannai The earliest known examples of Proto-Hebrew writing date to the 10th century BCE. By the 5th century BCE, among Jews the alphabet had been mostly replaced by the Aramaic alphabet as used in the Persian empire (itself a descendant of the Proto-Canaanite script). The " Jewish square-script " variant now known as the Hebrew alphabet developed from the Aramaic script by about the 3rd century BCE (although some letter shapes did not become standard until the 1st century CE). By contrast, the Samaritan alphabet , as used by Samaritans , is a direct continuation of Proto-Hebrew. There is also some continued use of Proto-Hebrew in some Jewish religious contexts, notably in certain parts of the Dead Sea scrolls , down to the 1st century BCE. In the beginning : a short history of the Hebrew language . By 1000 B.C.E., however, we see Phoenician writings [..] Naveh, Joseph (1987), "Proto-Canaanite, Archaic Greek, and the Script of the Aramaic Text on the Tell Fakhariyah Statue", in Miller; et al. [...] scribes wrote in Paleo-Hebrew, a local variant of the Phoenician alphabetic script [...] The Hebrew scripts, Volume 2, Salomo A. I have therefore coined the term Palaeo-Hebrew."

Writing found in Canaanite inscriptions The Paleo-Hebrew script ( Hebrew : הכתב העברי הקדום ), also Palaeo-Hebrew , Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew , is the writing system found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions , including pre-Biblical and Biblical Hebrew , from southern Canaan , also known as the biblical kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah . It is considered to be the script used to record the original texts of the Bible due to its similarity to the Samaritan script ; the Talmud states that the Samaritans still used this script. The Talmud described it as the "Livonaʾa script" ( Jewish Babylonian Aramaic : לִיבּוֹנָאָה , romanized: Lībōnāʾā ), translated by some as " Lebanon script". However, it has also been suggested that the name is a corrupted form (with the letters nun and lamed accidentally swapped) of "Neapolitan", i.e. of Nablus . Use of the term "Paleo-Hebrew alphabet" is due to a 1954 suggestion by Solomon Birnbaum , who argued that "[t]o apply the term Phoenician [from Northern Canaan, today's Lebanon] to the script of the Hebrews [from Southern Canaan, today's Israel-Palestine] is hardly suitable". The Paleo-Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets are two slight regional variants of the same script. The first Paleo-Hebrew inscription identified in modern times was the Royal Steward inscription ( KAI 191), found in 1870, and described at the time as "two large ancient Hebrew inscriptions in Phoenician letters". Fewer than 2,000 inscriptions are known today, of which the vast majority comprise just a single letter or word. The earliest known examples of Paleo-Hebrew writing date to the 10th century BCE . Like the Phoenician alphabet , it is a slight regional variant and an immediate continuation of the Proto-Canaanite script , which was used throughout Canaan in the Late Bronze Age . Phoenician , Hebrew , and all of their sister Canaanite languages were largely indistinguishable dialects before that time. The Paleo-Hebrew script is an abjad of 22 consonantal letters, exactly as the other Canaanite scripts from the period. By the 5th century BCE, among Judeans the alphabet had been mostly replaced by the Aramaic alphabet as used officially by the Achaemenid Empire . The "square" variant now known simply as the Hebrew alphabet evolved directly out of this by about the 3rd century BCE, although some letter shapes did not become standard until the 1st century CE. By contrast, the Samaritan script is an immediate continuation of the Proto-Hebrew script without intermediate non-Israelite evolutionary stages. There is also some continued use of the Paleo-Hebrew script in Jewish religious contexts down to the 1st century BCE, notably in the Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll found in the Dead Sea Scrolls . Sanhedrin 21b:22: " אמר מר זוטרא ואיתימא מר עוקבא בתחלה ניתנה תורה לישראל בכתב עברי ולשון הקודש חזרה וניתנה להם בימי עזרא בכתב אשורית ולשון ארמי ביררו להן לישראל כתב אשורית ולשון הקודש והניחו להדיוטות כתב עברית ולשון ארמי. מאן הדיוטות אמר רב חסדא כותאי מאי כתב עברית אמר רב חסדא כתב ליבונאה Mar Zutra says, and some say that it is Mar Ukva who says: Initially, the Torah was given to the Jewish people in Ivrit script, and the sacred tongue, Hebrew. It was given to them again in the days of Ezra in Ashurit script and the Aramaic tongue . The Jewish people selected the Ashurit script and the sacred tongue for the Torah scroll and left the Ivrit script and the Aramaic tongue for the commoners. Who are these commoners? Rav Chisda said: The Samaritans [Kutim]. What is Ivrit script? The Hebrew scripts, Volume 2, Salomo A. I have therefore coined the term Palaeo-Hebrew." Avigad, N. The Epitaph of a Royal Steward from Siloam Village . Israel Exploration Journal, 3(3), 137–152: "The inscription discussed here is, in the words of its discoverer, the first 'authentic specimen of Hebrew monumental epigraphy of the period of the Kings of Judah', for it was discovered ten years before the Siloam tunnel inscription. I may observe, by the way, that the discovery of these two texts was made long before that of the inscription in the tunnel, and therefore, though people in general do not seem to recognise this fact, it was the first which enabled us to behold an authentic specimen of Hebrew monumental epigraphy of the period of the Kings of Judah." Millard, A. Poulter , The Journal of Theological Studies, 44(1), new series, 216–219: "...every identifiable Hebrew inscription dated before 200 BC... First ostraca, graffiti, and marks are grouped by provenance. This section contains more than five hundred items, over half of them ink-written ostraca, individual letters, receipts, memoranda, and writing exercises. The other inscriptions are names scratched on pots, scribbles of various sorts, which include couplets on the walls of tombs near Hebron, and letters serving as fitters' marks on ivories from Samaria.... The seals and seal impressions are set in the numerical sequence of Diringer and Vattioni (100.001–100.438). The pace of discovery since F. Vattioni issued his last valuable list (Ί sigilli ebraici III', AnnaliAnnali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientate di Napoli 38 (1978), 227—54) means the last seal entered by Davies is 100.900. The actual number of Hebrew seals and impressions is less than 900 because of the omission of those identified as non-Hebrew which previous lists counted. A further reduction follows when duplicate seal impressions from different sites are combined, as cross references in the entries suggest... The Corpus ends with 'Royal Stamps' (105.001-025, the Imlk stamps), '"Judah" and "Jerusalem" Stamps and Coins' (106.001-052), 'Other Official Stamps' (107.001), 'Inscribed Weights' (108.001-056) and 'Inscribed Measures' (109.001,002).... most seals have no known provenance (they probably come from burials)... Even if the 900 seals are reduced by as much as one third, 600 seals is still a very high total for the small states of Israel and Judah, and most come from Judah. It is about double the number of seals known inscribed in Aramaic, a language written over a far wider area by officials of great empires as well as by private persons. Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance . This sequel to my Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions includes mainly inscriptions (about 750 of them) which have been published in the past ten years. The aim has been to cover all publications to the end of 2000. A relatively small number of the texts included here were published earlier but were missed in the preparation of AHI. The large number of new texts is not due, for the most part, to fresh discoveries (or, regrettably, to the publication of a number of inscriptions that were found in excavations before 1990), but to the publication of items held in private collections and museums. In the beginning : a short history of the Hebrew language . It is only up to a century later, in early Iron IIB, that the distinct characteristics in the alphabets of Philistia, Phoenicia, Aram, Ammon and Moab develop." Naveh, Joseph (1987), "Proto-Canaanite, Archaic Greek, and the Script of the Aramaic Text on the Tell Fakhariyah Statue", in Miller; et al. [...] scribes wrote in Paleo-Hebrew, a local variant of the Phoenician alphabetic script [...]