Paleo Hebrew
The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet ( Hebrew : or, in modern Hebrew , also called or is an offshoot of the Phoenician alphabet used to write the Hebrew from the tenth century BC. BC until its abandonment in the fifth century BC. AD , when substituting the Aramaic alphabet , which ended up giving the Hebrew alphabet.
Summary |
Origin
The oldest known inscription using the paleo-Hebrew alphabet is the ostracism of Khirbet Qeiyafa between -1050 and -970. It includes the words of a text in Hebrew
Then comes the Gezer calendar dating from the late tenth century BC. AD. The inscriptions on this calendar show strong similarities with Phoenician inscriptions contemporary Byblos.
Elements are visible among the Hebrew inscription Moab of the stele of Mesha. Hebrew inscriptions in the eighth century BC. AD show several specific features and exclusive reminiscent of some modern scholars that the paleo-Hebrew alphabet was widespread among the scribes. Although very few entries in the ninth century BC. AD were found, the amount of epigraphic material from the eighth century shows the gradual spread of education among the peoples of Israel and Judah.
Development
The Hebrew manuscripts have evolved by developing numerous cursive elements, the lapidary of the Phoenician alphabet gradually being set aside over time. This rejection of pithy writing may explain why the custom of erecting stelae by kings inscribed votive for their deity was not widely circulated in Israel. Even the inscriptions of the seventh century BC. AD show cursive style elements such as shading, which is produced naturally by using a pen and ink. The inscription of Siloam , many inscriptions in the tombs of Jerusalem and hundreds of Hebrew seals of the sixth century BC. AD are examples of these engravings in cursive. The cursive script are the most developed of the 18 ostraca of Lachish , letters sent by an officer to the governor of Lachish shortly before the destruction of the Temple of Solomon in 586.
Decline
After the Babylonian capture of Judah, when most of the elite were sent into exile, the peasants continued to use the alphabet Paleo-Hebrew. Handles of jars of the sixth century BC. AD , on which the names of a few winemakers are examples of this survival. From the early fifth century BC. AD , when the Aramaic became an official means of communication, the paleo-Hebrew script used by scribes scholars, mostly Sadducees , to write the Tanakh. Paleo-Hebrew fragments were found in the Dead Sea scrolls , especially to write the Tetragrammaton YHVH. The vast majority of coins Hasmonean , and those of the Jewish-Roman War and the revolt of Bar Kokhba , are legends in paleo-Hebrew.
Use of this alphabet disappears completely after 135 AD, at least among Jews. The Samaritans today continue to use an alternative, the Samaritan alphabet.
The use of writing YHVH in archaic characters continued through the fifth century as evidenced by Jerome Stridon.
See also
- Tel Dan Stele
- Archaeological data on the first written in Hebrew
- Hebrew alphabet
- Ugaritic alphabet
- Hebrew Grammar
Bibliography
- Joseph Cohen, writing Hebrew editions of Cosmo, 1997, Lyon. ( ISBN 2-909781-59-3 )
- Greenfeld, Jonas C. (2001). Kanfei Al Yonah: Collected Studies of Jonas C. Greenfield is Semitic Philology. Brill Academic Publishers. ( ISBN 90-04-12170-6 )
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