WRITING
historical
parts
of
the
OT,
neither
can
we
from
the
Pentateuch
learn
their
contents
with
precision;
yet
the
tradition
that
such
Tables
at
one
time
existed
is
likely
to
be
trustworthy,
and
the
narratives
given
in
Ex.
and
Deut.
imply
that
there
were
whole
Tables
and
fragments
of
Tables
which
had
to
be
accounted
for.
From
the
statement
that
they
were
written
on
both
sides
—
afterwards
grotesquely
misunderstood
—
we
may
infer
that
they
resembled
steUs
in
form,
and
perhaps
the
original
should
be
rendered
by
that
word.
2.
Origin
o!
writing
among
the
Israelites.
—
It
is
im-probable
that
the
OT
contains
any
documents
which
in
their
written
form
are
earlier
than
the
time
of
David,
when
we
first
hear
of
an
official
scribe
(2
S
8")-
The
question
of
the
date
at
which
writing
was
first
in
use
in
Palestine
is
absolutely
distinct
from
that
of
its
earliest
employ-ment
by
Israelites,
though
the
two
are
often
confused.
There
is
no
evidence
of
Israel
ever
having
employed
the
cuneiform
script,
or
any
form
of
hieroglyphic
writing,
though
both
may
have
been
familiar
in
Palestine
before
the
rise
of
the
Israelitish
State.
Probably,
then,
their
earliest
writmg
was
alphabetic,
but
whence
the
Israelites
got
the
art
is
a
question
of
great
difficulty,
never
likely
to
be
cleared
up.
It
is
certain
that
Hebrew
orthography
is
etymological,
i.e.
fixed
in
many
cases
by
the
history
ot
the
word
as
well
as
by
its
pronunciation,
and
this
being
so,
it
must
have
come
down
by
tradition
from
an
earlier
stage
of
the
language;
yet
ot
this
earlier
language
we
have
no
monuments.
The
possibilities
are:
(1)
that
the
Israelitish
tribes
contained
men
with
whom
knowledge
of
writing
was
hereditary;
(2)
that
when
they
settled
in
Canaan
—
however
we
interpret
this
phrase
—
they
took
over
the
language,
and
with
it
the
writing
and
orthography,
of
the
earlier
inhabitants;
(3)
that
when
the
immigrants
were
settled,
teachers
of
this
art,
among
others,
were
sent
for
to
Phoenicia.
The
second
of
these
hypotheses
has
most
in
its
favour,
as
it
accounts
best
for
the
differences
between
Hebrew
and
Phoenician
spelling.
3.
Character
of
writing.
—
The
alphabet
employed
by
the
Israelites
consists
of
22
letters,
written
from
right
to
left,
serving
for
28
or
more
sounds,
not
including
vowels,
which
some
of
the
consonants
assist
in
representing.
The
OT,
which
has
no
grammatical
terms,
never
alludes
to
these
signs
by
name;
yet
we
learn
a
few
letter-names,
not
from
their
being
employe<l
to
denote
letters,
but
from
their
use
as
names
of
objects
resembling
those
letters:
these
are
Waw
and
Taw,
meaning
'hook'
and
'cross'
Oike
our
T-square,
etc.),
and
it
seems
possible
that
two
more
such
names
may
lurk
in
Is
28i».
From
the
story
in
Jg
1
26
it
might
be
interred
that
the
letter-names
were
not
yet
known
at
the
time;
still
those
which
figure
in
the
Hebrew
grammars
must
be
of
great
antiq-uity,
as
is
evinced
by
the
Greeks
having
borrowed
them.
The
Greek
names
are
evidently
taken
from
an
Aramaic
dialect,
and
of
this
language
some
of
the
names
used
by
the
Jews
(NUn,
Resh)
show
traces.
These
names
have
often
been
thought
to
be
taken
from
the
appearance
of
the
letters
—
or
perhaps
it
should
be
said
that
the
letters
were
originally
pictures
of
the
objects
which
their
names
denote
—
but
it
is
difficult
to
draw
up
a
consistent
scheme
based
on
this
theory.
The
familiar
order
is
found
in
the
alphabetic
Psalms
and
in
Lamentations,
and
in
the
cypher
of
Jeremiah
(252»
etc.,
if
the
traditional
ex-planation
of
those
passages
be
trustworthy).
Of
the
existence
of
any
graphic
signs
other
than
the
letters
there
is
no
evidence,
though
it
is
likely
that
the
signs
used
by
the
neighbouring
peoples
to
express
units,
decades,
scores,
and
centuries
were
known
to
the
Israelites,
and
they
may
also
have
had
the
dividing
line
between
words,
though
the
mistakes
in
the
text
of
the
OT
due
to
wrong
division
show
that
it
was
not
regularly
used;
a
dividing
point
is
used
in
the
Siloam
inscription.
Isaiah,
as
has
been
seen,
distinguishes
'human
writing'
or
'the
writing
ot
'enSsh'
from
some
other;
and
it
would
be
in
accordance
with
analogy
that
the
spread
of
the
art
WRITING
should
lead
to
the
formation
of
a
variety
of
scripts.
The
style
current,
as
exhibited
in
the
inscription
mentioned,
and
in
a
weight
and
a
few
gems,
differs
very
slightly
from
that
in
use
in
the
Phoenician
settlements,
of
which
the
history
is
traceable
from
the
8th
or
9th
cent.
B.C.
down
to
Roman
times.
The
papyri
recently
dis-covered
at
Elephantine
show
that
in
the
5th
cent.
B.C.
a
different
and
more
cursive
hand
was
used
for
Aramaic
by
the
Jewish
exiles;
we
should
probably
be
corrpct
in
assuming
that
a
similar
hand
was
employed
for
Hebrew
papyri
also,
in
the
time
of
Jeremiah
and
Ezeklel.
The
square
character,
according
to
the
Jewish
tradition,
was
substituted
for
the
older
writing
(of
which
a
variety
is
preserved
in
the
Samaritan
script)
in
copies
of
the
Law
by
Ezra,
but
this
can
be
regarded
only
as
a
conjecture.
The
modern
character
first
appears
in
Hebrew
inscrip-tions
of
the
1st
cent,
a.d.,
and
a
somewhat
similar
type
in
Palmyrene
texts
of
nearly
the
same
date;
yet
for
certain
purposes
the
older
style
was
retained
by
the
Jews,
e.g.
tor
coins,
which
show
the
ancient
character
even
in
Bar
Cochba's
time.
Still
the
numerous
errors
in
the
LXX
version
which
owe
their
explanation
to
the
confusion
of
similar
letters,
show
that
an
alphabet
similar
to
that
now
in
use
must
have
been
employed
for
writing
the
Law
as
early
as
the
2nd
or
perhaps
the
3rd
cent.
B.C.;
and
the
allusion
in
Mt
5"
to
Yod
as
the
smallest
letter
of
the
alphabet,
shows
that
the
employ-ment
of
this
alphabet
was
familiar
at
that
time.
The
change
by
which
it
had
superseded
the
older
scripts
is
likely
to
have
been
gradually
rather
than
suddenly
accomplished.
The
square
character
differs
from
the
older,
among
other
things,
in
the
possession
of
five
final
forms,
four
of
which
are
in
fact
nearer
the
older
script
than
the
initial
forms;
this
innovation
seems
to
be
connected
with
the
practice,
adopted
from
the
Greeks,
of
employing
the
letters
for
numeration,
when
five
extra
letters
were
required
to
provide
signs
for
500-900.
That
this
practice
was
borrowed
from
the
Greeks
is
con-firmed
by
the
Rabbinical
use
of
the
Gr.
word
gematria,
'geometry,'
to
denote
it.
The
exact
sense
of
the
word
rendered
'tittle'
in
Mt
5'*
is
unknown;
attempts
have
at
times
been
made
to
interpret
the
word
from
the
strokes
called
in
the
later
Jewish
calligraphy
tOgtn.
4.
Later
history
ol
Hebrew
writing.
—
Of
other
signs
added
to
the
letters
the
only
kind
which
can
claim
any
considerable
antiquity
are
the
puncta
extraordinaria,
dots
placed
over
certain
letters
or
words
(.e.g.
'
and
he
kissed
him'
in
Gn
33')
to
indicate
that
they
should
be
'ex-punged,'
a
terra
which
literally
means
'
to
point
out.
'
This
practice
was
common
to
both
Western
and
Eastern
scribes
in
the
early
centuries
of
our
era,
and
even
before;
and
it
has
rightly
been
Inferred
from
the
occurrence
of
these
dots
that
all
our
copies
of
the
Hebrew
OT
go
back
to
one,
of
no
great
accuracy.
In
Bible
times
the
process
of
erasure
is
indicated
by
a
word
signifying
'
to
wipe
out
'
(Ex
32'2),
apparently
with
water
(Nu
5^),
whereas
in
Rabbinical
times
a
word
which
probably
signifies
'to
scratch
out
'
is
ordinarily
employed.
The
NT
equivalent
is
'to
smear
out,'
e.g.
Col
2"
etc.
During
the
period
that
elapsed
between
the
fall
of
Jerusalem
and
the
completion
of
the
Tradition,
various
rules
were
invented
for
the
writing
of
the
Law.
which
are
collected
in
the
Tract
called
SSph^fim;
these
involved
the
perpetuation
ot
what
were
often
accidental
peculiarities
of
the
arche-type,
and
the
insertion
in
the
text
of
signs,
the
mean-ing
of
which
had
in
certain
cases
been
forgotten.
A
much
more
important
addition
to
the
text
is
later
than
the
completion
ot
the
Talmuds,
viz.
the
introduction
of
a
system
of
signs
indicating
the
vocalization
and
musical
pitch
or
chant.
Of
the
former,
two
systems
are
preserved,
an
Eastern
and
a
Western,
but
the
familiar
Western
system
won
general
acceptance.
The
invention
and
elaboration
of
these
systems
stand
in
some
relation
to
the
efforts
made
by
Syrian
Christians
and
Moslems
to
perpetuate
the
correct
vocalization
and
intonation
of
their
sacred
books
and
facilitate
their
acquisition;
and
