Nadene Goldfoot
Writing has been going on for over 4,000 years, making Moses's recording over his 40 year period believable. He was raised as a prince, educated with the royal family children, so was literate.
Egypt had developed hieroglyphics for their writing and wrote on the walls of the pyramids. "Ancient Egyptian writing is known as hieroglyphics ('sacred carvings') and developed at some point prior to the
Hieroglyphs were written on papyrus, carved in stone on tomb and temple walls, and used to decorate many objects of cultic and daily life use. Altogether there are over 700 different hieroglyphs, some of which represent sounds or syllables; others that serve as determinatives to clarify the meaning of a word. The hieroglyphic script originated shortly before 3100 B.C.E, at the very onset of pharaonic civilization. The last hieroglyphic inscription in Egypt was written in the 5th century CE., some 3500 years later. For almost 1500 years after that, the language was unable to be read.
The Rosetta Stone: An irregularly shaped stone of black granite 3 feet 9 inches (114 cm) long and 2 feet 4.5 inches (72 cm) wide, and broken in antiquity, it was found near the town of Rosetta (Rashīd), about 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Alexandria. It was discovered by a Frenchman named Bouchard or Boussard in August 1799. After the French surrender of Egypt in 1801, it passed into British hands and is now in the British Museum in London.
In 1799, the Rosetta Stone was discovered in Egypt by Napoleon's troops. The Rosetta Stone is a trilingual decree (written in hieroglyphs, Greek, and Demotic) dating to the time of Ptolemy V (205-180 B.C.E.). Its discovery proved to be a crucial link in unlocking the mysteries of Egyptian hieroglyphs and in 1822, enabling Jean-François Champollion to re-decipher the hieroglyphic signs, thereby allowing the modern study of Egyptian language to begin.
In about 1,300 BCE, which was 3,322 years ago, Moses wrote the 10 Commandments on 2 stone tablets while on top of a mountain. Etched in stone, they have lasted down to this very day, transferred to other materials. "According to the Book of Exodus in the Torah, the Ten Commandments were revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai and inscribed by the finger of God on two tablets of stone kept in the Ark of the Covenant."
LACHISH, Israel (BP) — A written inscription spelling the biblical name “Jerubbaal” or “Yeruba’al,” has been found during an archaeological dig in a Southern District of Israel, according to media reports.
The five-letter inscription, written on a jug and dated around the 12th or 11th century B.C.E, was found by researchers at “Khirbat er-Ra‘I”, an archaeological site in Israel that has been excavated since 2015, according to The Jerusalem Post. Researchers cited by The Times Israel claim the inscription most likely reads as the biblical name “Jerubbaal” or “Yeruba’al.”
Dead Sea Scrolls: The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered in 1946/47 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in Judea Samaria, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea which is now in Jordan.
They are approximately two thousand years old, dating from the third century BCE to the first century CE. Most of the scrolls were written in Hebrew, with a smaller number in Aramaic or Greek. Most of them were written on parchment, with the exception of a few written on papyrus.
Akkadian Cuniform:
© Trustees of the British Museum. The symbol for beer, an upright jar with pointed base, appears three times on the tablet. Beer was the most popular drink in Mesopotamia and was issued as rations to workers. Alongside the pictographs are five different shaped impressions, representing numerical symbols. Over time these signs became more abstract and wedge-like, or “cuneiform.” The signs are grouped into boxes and, at this early date, are usually read from right to left and top to bottom. One sign, in the bottom row on the left, shows a bowl tipped towards a schematic human head. This is the sign for “to eat.”
Hammurabi, King of Babylon reunited Mesopotamia and instituted the Code of Hammurabi, a comprehensive set of laws addressing nearly all aspects of both civil and criminal offenses. Hammurabi is portrayed receiving the laws directly from Shamash the sun god. (a parallel to Moses can be made here).
The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed c. 1755–1750 BCE. It is the longest, best-organized, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, purportedly by Hammurabi, sixth king of the First Dynasty of Babylon. This happened about 455 years before the 10 Commandments from Moses.
Cuneiform as a robust writing tradition endured 3,000 years. The script—not itself a language—was used by scribes of multiple cultures over that time to write a number of languages other than Sumerian, most notably Akkadian, a Semitic language that was the lingua franca of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires.
The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1,800 complete clay tablets, 4,700 fragments, and many thousands of minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria. The tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team in 1974–75 during their excavations at the ancient city at Tell Mardikh. The tablets, which were found in situ on collapsed shelves, retained many of their contemporary clay tags to help reference them. Now Ebla's tablets, says Dr. Pettinato, reveal that a city named Ur existed in Syria in the area of Haran (and Ebla). If true, this may show that the two cities mentioned in Genesis are actually one, and finally clear up the contradiction.
As for the general relevance of Ebla for understanding Abraham, it will ultimately depend on when you think he lived. Some scholars date him as early as the 3rd millennium BCE; others as late as the late 2nd millennium BCE. Some doubt his historical existence altogether, but most scholars gravitate to a date around 1800 BCE. Our Jewish historians have 1391 BCE for his birth and 1271 BCE for his death at age 120 years.
They all date to the period between c. 2500 BCE and the destruction of the city c. 2250 BCE. Today, the tablets are held in museums in the Syrian cities of Aleppo, Damascus, and Idlib. Above is part of the excavation.
Life in the Middle East was recorded for posterity. There is no reason to think that it wasn't. Like today, the heads of state had their history recorded and what they wanted remembered was usually all the good things about themselves. Egyptian history is noted for this. Little was said about their slaves, the Israelites. It was up to Moses to record those things.
A difference in Hebrew ancient literature is that it tells the bad along with the good. David's mistakes are recorded. The same goes for others, like his son, Solomon taxing people past their limit, Samson falling for Delilah who was of the enemy of Israel.
The invention of the alphabet took place in Canaan around the 18th century BCE. The story in (Judg. 8:14) shows that boys were taught about the Gezer Calendar in about 1,000 BCE. which may have been a school exercise. Personal seals usually had picture identification on them. Most Hebrew seals contained the owner's name. It's figured that the ordinary man should be able to read. Reading was important to carry out business.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleo-Hebrew_alphabet
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/3000-year-old-inscription-could-be-oldest-discovered-evidence-of-hebrew-language/
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/213-1605/features/4326-cuneiform-the-world-s-oldest-writing#:~:text=Cuneiform%20as%20a%20robust%20writing,the%20Assyrian%20and%20Babylonian%20Empires.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi#:~:text=The%20Code%20of%20Hammurabi%20is,the%20First%20Dynasty%20of%20Babylon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebla_tablets
https://www.afhu.org/2017/01/09/bringing-life-to-the-dead-sea-scrolls/?
https://www.imj.org.il/en/wings/shrine-book/dead-sea-scrolls#:~:text=They%20are%20approximately%20two%20thousand,a%20few%20written%20on%20papyrus.
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