Paleo-Hebrew Script

Place in Scripture

The Bible never names this script directly. Scholars generally hold that the earliest texts of the Old Testament were originally written and copied in it. A few passages, however, show an awareness of different kinds of script.

• Ezra 4:7 records that a letter sent to the king of Persia was written in the Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language.
• Esther 8:9 reports that the king's decree was written to every province "according to the writing thereof," and "to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language." The text does not say what this "writing of the Jews" looked like.

Background

The Paleo-Hebrew script is generally regarded as an offshoot of the Phoenician alphabet. It consists of twenty-two consonants, is written from right to left, and does not mark vowels separately.

Notable artifacts written in this script include the following:

• Siloam Inscription: Discovered inside a water tunnel in Jerusalem. Many scholars associate the tunnel with the waterworks built in the time of Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:30).
• Lachish Letters: Letters written on pottery fragments (ostraca) found at Lachish.
• Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls: Small silver scrolls from Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem, inscribed with wording similar to the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:22–27). Scholars differ on their date.

Transition to the Square Script

After the Babylonian exile, the so-called square script, derived from the Aramaic alphabet, gradually replaced Paleo-Hebrew among the Jews. The Talmud preserves a tradition that the script was changed in the time of Ezra. Scholars, by contrast, generally view the change as a gradual process that took place over a long period.

Even afterward, the Paleo-Hebrew script did not disappear entirely.

• It was used on coins of the Hasmonean dynasty and of the Bar Kokhba revolt.
• Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in it.
• Some manuscripts written in the square script render only the four-letter name of God in the ancient script.
• The Samaritans still copy the Pentateuch today in the Samaritan script, which developed from Paleo-Hebrew.

Significance for the Bible as a Whole

The Masoretic Text, the standard text of the Hebrew Bible today, is written in the square script.

The phrase "one jot or one tittle" in Matthew 5:18 is frequently cited as evidence of the script in use during the New Testament period. The "jot" corresponds to the Hebrew letter yod, the smallest letter of the square script. Many interpreters therefore take the expression as an indication that the square script was already in wide use in the time of Jesus.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• The script of Moses' time: Scripture does not say in what script the tablets of the Ten Commandments or the writings of Moses were written. Jewish tradition itself preserves both the view that the Law was given in the square script from the beginning and the view that it was given in the ancient script.
• Interpreting letter shapes: An approach that reads the shapes of the ancient letters as pictures in order to uncover hidden meanings in biblical words has spread through online lectures and similar venues. Scholars acknowledge that the names and shapes of the letters originally derived from objects. Many scholars and theologians, however, criticize the practice of using this fact to reinterpret the meanings of words, arguing that it lacks support from linguistics and from the biblical text.