In what script did Moses write the Torah (Pentateuch)?
I have read elsewhere (e.g. here and here) that the Torah (Pentateuch) may have been written in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (also called Ketav Ivri) and therefore the Ten Commandments as well. It is also cited that this is why the Samaritan Torah is written in a very similar script.
From what I see most think this is so and for example, in the well-known movie The Ten Commandments (1956) the tablets of stone appear written in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. It is also thought that the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet descends from the Phoenician alphabet (although the former appears about 50 years later), with which I do not agree but I do not want to discuss this.
The incongruity that I find is that Paleo-Hebrew appears around 1000 BC while the date of the Exodus is calculated between 1446-1225 BC, which means that Moses did not use that script. The alphabets that are precursors of the Paleo-Hebrew/Phoenician are the Proto-Canaanite (1700-950 BC) and the Proto-Sinaitic (1850-1550 BC), which were very similar to each other, being the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, for the time in which it appears, as the main candidate. Below a comparative chart:
Then, is it possible that this was the alphabet used by Moses?, although there are no archaeological records that indicate that this alphabet was used by the Hebrews (apart from the controversial curse tablet from Mount Ebal, which I think may be authentic but at the moment not 100%) the fact that such alphabets were used by Semitic nations may indicate that perhaps the Hebrews also knew it.
So another question is, if the Torah was written in Proto-Canaanite/Proto-Sinaitic, was it written on stone (like many Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, but which I find difficult), papyrus or parchment (although at the moment there are no known inscriptions with this writing on such material)?
Finally, I want to say that I doubt very much that the Torah was written in square Hebrew, as many people think, because it is known that there is no record of the existence of square Hebrew until long after the Exodus.
1 answer
Maybe it was Egyptian.
Please hear me out. Moses grew up in Egyptian court (Exodus 2:10-11). From an available skills perspective, Moses was almost certainly required to learn Egyptian.
Also from a skills perspective, like Joseph (Genesis 39+), the best off among the slaves he was with - those who were literate and could copy the text - also probably had Egyptian as a first language.
Also, the people Moses was traveling with had been in Egypt for generations. From an audience perspective, even if the people spoke early Hebrew as a primary language, most also spoke Egyptian as a secondary language.
There are other examples of this in the history of the Bible: the Talmud, written by Hebrews now exiled in Babylon, is written in Aramaic. The New Testament was written by Hebrews (maybe parts) in Aramaic and (definitely) in Greek.
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