Formations of Hebrew writing

VIEW:615 DATA:2020-03-20

The origin of writing is closely linked to remembering facts. Thus man sought to develop ways of remembering facts. We can say that the first ways to record memories try to draw the facts you want to remember. In this, several caves were marked with drawings of animals and victories.

The formation of Semitic writing is linked to these pictographic factors (representation by figure). Among the first drawings related to the formation of writing we have the inscriptions of Wadi el-Hol and Serabit el-Khadem

Such follow the acrophonic principle, in which the first letter or syllable of the figure is idealized in writing. Such are reported as the oldest alphabetic writings. Coming in line with remembering past facts. Its development takes place in the Semitic region, and being spread to this region, and reaching the Egyptian region.

These forms of writing are called protosinaitic. The Semitic and Egyptian regions have adapted and evolved this type of writing.

Meanwhile in the Mesopotamian region, people have developed a means of accounting, using wedge-shaped signs called cuneiforms. These signs were used to determine the number of animals, and products that one wanted to remember. With the development of this writing, it came to include forms of written information. It spread to the Mesopotamian region, but its way of writing was very complex and needed specific rules to decipher such inscriptions, since sets of symbols represented information, such as Chinese writings. It is analyzed that the origin is Sumerian, but the phonetic forms of writing are based on Ugaritic.

We began our analysis of the writing of the Hebrew people, with the existence of Abraham. Defining that such person has left Ur. A region that idealizes to know the cuneiform symbols. On the classic route, Abraão leaves Ur dos Chaldeans, going to Padan Aran, and has contact with all the cultures of the Euphrates region where he passed. Typically on this route the form of writing is cuneiform. From Padan Aran, Abraão goes towards Egypt, and in this region he comes into contact with the proto-Sinaitic writings. Between Ebla and Damascus it has contact with regions of mixture between protosinaitic and cuneiform, but with great tendency to use protosinaitic. Going towards Egypt he has contact with the Hieroglyphics in their phase of evolution of the protosinaitic symbols.

The point is that in the entire contact phase, there is no report that Abraham and his descendants before Moses wrote documents in any form of writing. We have that Ebla reports about Abraham in cuneiform tablets, but no writing reports. So it is to be analyzed that Abraham and his descendants did not acquire techniques in these types of writing. One is that the cuneiform requires standard models, and the proto-Sinaitic needs a favorable environment for writing, which would be considered difficult for the (habiru), nomadic peoples, who were known to the Hebrews of that time.

From Moses in the 15th century BC we have in Egypt knowledge of the proto-Semitic writings, the cuneiform, and the evolution of hieroglyphs. All these forms of writing, it is analyzed that Moses has learned.

Act 7:22 So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in word and deed.

Having knowledge of all forms of writing, Moses leaves for Midian. Staying in Midian for 40 years, Moses has direct contact with the proto-Sinaitic writings, and has contact with the story of Job, which is considered the first book of Moses. As it was in Midian, and the cuneiform being a little used script in the region, and the hieroglyph very difficult to write a great amount of information, the proto-Sinaitic script was the best for the production of the book of Job.

During the Exodus, Moses and the Hebrews left Egypt and went to various regions of Sinai, having constant contact with the proto-Sinaitic writings. For another forty years, the Hebrew nomads were in contact with the population of the region who used their documents and trade based on the proto-Sinaitic. As the rule of proto-synaptic was the acrophonic system, it was easy to understand what was being written. Unlike the cuneiform models that were no longer remembered by the Hebrew people, who had long been involved with pictographic representations, and acrophonic systems in the region. Thus, all documents were written in paleo-Hebrew. A pronunciation system close to Ugaritic with proto-synaptic pictographs. Upon entering the Canaanite region, the Hebrew people were in contact with the Phoenician script, which in this period was already widespread in the Greek region. Since the Greeks were evolving such writings into unical Greek writing. Thus for centuries the Hebrews interrelated with the neighboring peoples with the proto-synaptic writing, and wrote their documents in the paleo-Hebrew form.

Observing the centuries that the Hebrew people have been using the proto-Hebrew, we see that the alterations are few. In the table below we have the table of documents separated by centuries, of texts written in Paleo-Hebrew and Moabite. And throughout these centuries the Hebrews and Moabites wrote their documents with such symbols. The diffusion and assimilation by the acrophonic system was dominant in the region, and the peoples in contact with such writings that did not have a submitting political system adopted such syllabic models. From the writing table below, we can see that over the centuries writing has been changing only to speed up the writing speed, the drawings were in more direct formats, with straight lines.

During the sixth century, Babylon dominated the Hebrews, and the region even Egypt. Its expansionist policy involved valuing the Babylonian culture. As such a system was submissive, even though Babylon had contact with the Phenicia writing, and the proto-sinaitic, still retained the cuneiform system, even though it was much more difficult to use. The Babylonian system tended to be conservative, and the dominated peoples were to be servants. Below we see the Babylonian writings relating the lives of the Hebrew people in Babylon.

And at that time Hebrew writing was based on Proto-Hebrew. We can see this in the inscription of a bull on the conquest of Babylon over the king of Judah. ​​Showing the Jewish submission document on Babylonian power.

Due to the form of domination by submission imposed by the Babylonian empire, the Persians and Greeks came together in an alliance and 538 BC the city of Babylon is dominated by the Persians and Medes. The Persians were still connected with cuneiform writing but their connection with the Greeks (Medes), made them free from Babylonian imperialism to observe the ease of syllabic writing. So the Persians began to change their way of writing, developing the square Aramaic which we see in the table below.

We can observe the appearance of the Hebrew square after the fourth century, observing the letter aleph, which demonstrates that the change occurred in Persia in the transition from a cuneiform culture, with the Aramaic connection, and the influence of the Medes. At this time the Persian people did not develop a culture of submission but of inclusion. The Jewish people were no longer considered slaves, but citizens. The region of Israel was left free, and whoever wished to stay could, or could, return to their land. At this point the Jewish people remained in the Persian empire, with satrapa Daniel. In these periods the Jewish people adapted to Persian citizenship and their customs and along with the change to Aramaic square. It is noted that the Jews were very well suited to the Persian people, as they managed to get the Jews to release the translation of the scriptures from Paleo-Hebrew into unical Greek,

It is not clear why the Jews changed their paleo-Hebrew form of writing to square Hebrew. It is idealized that the Jews were so well established with the Persians that culture and a more liberal sense were mixed. Take, for example, the inclusion of the LXX, where we note the name of God in Paleo-Hebrew, amid the unical Greek text. We also have the wedding of Queen Esther (Jewish), like King Ahasuerus (Persian) {'achashrôsh}. In these facts described, we see that the Jewish population miscegenated greatly with Persian culture and customs, as they were treated as similar. This shows that good miscegenation involves equal treatment, with imperialism always forming layers that seek isolation and subversion of the empire.

When looking at the changes in Hebrew, we see that ancient Hebrew remained similar for centuries, but in the period of Persian influence the change to square Aramaic occurs. If we look again at the table of variations in the Persian system, we will see that the Persians after 50 AD continue to alter their writing, differentiating it from the square Aramaic. In 400 AD, its characters are already very different from those existing in the period that brought together the Jewish people. So that the Persians followed the alteration of the Aramaic cuneiform, and the Jews who were with the transition, left the Persian group, while the Aramaic-square was strong. And so the Jews retained the square Aramaic script of the Persians. It is interesting to note that the Hebrew people have a constant factor in what they acquire. While between the period of Moses the protosinaitic symbols were preserved until the Persian period, generating centuries of conservation of the North Semitic way of writing. The Aramaic-square writing style developed by the Persian alteration has preserved Jewish culture for millennia, while the Persians themselves who were altering, stopped using it.

Which demonstrates the conservative character of Hebrew culture. Notably we see that both the characters of ancient Hebrew - protosinaitic, and those of square Aramaic, are not Hebrew inventions. They are regional assimilations, of regional forms of writing. Even so, the literary work is unique in relation to the surrounding peoples. So that we can idealize that the content of the scriptures is not a Hebrew invention but an external information. Supposing that such information is different from the region that was inserted. So we conclude that such content goes beyond Hebrew understanding, and the region in which they were. Therefore, we idealize a unique character of the Hebrew scriptures.

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