![]() The 1831 edition of the Encyclopedia Americana also makes this connection between the Phoenician, Samaritan and Hebrew alphabets " written characters were the same as the Phoenician, to which the letters of the Samaritan manuscripts approach the nearest." Also note the similarities of the letter hey in each of these alphabets. ![]() This is the letter beyt in the Old Hebrew. When we compare the letters of these three alphabets, we can see this similarity.įigure 6 – The letter "beyt" in Old Hebrew, Samaritan and Phoenician While Prideaux noted that the Old Hebrew alphabet was the same as the Samaritan alphabet, he also pointed out that it is identical to the Phoenician alphabet. Old Hebrew and the Phoenician Alphabetįigure 5 – A portion of a text from a Phoenician inscription ![]() The Hebrew Torah (Pentateuch) was originally written with an alphabet similar to that of the Samaritans, but after the Exile in Babylon it was transcribed with the Chaldean square alphabet, which was still used 1,000 years ago for the Aleppo Codex and is still used today in modern Hebrew. This same theory is presented in the 1831 edition of the Encyclopedia Americana "During the Babylonish captivity, they received from the Chaldees the square character in common use and in the time Ezra, the old Hebrew manuscripts were copied in Chaldee characters." Humphrey Prideaux also writes in 1799 "And these five books still have among them, written in the old Hebrew or Phoenician character, which was in use among them before the Babylonish captivity, and in which both these and all other scriptures were written, till Ezra transcribed them into that of the Chaldeans." According to the Samaritans themselves and Hebrew scholars, this alphabet is the original "Old Hebrew" alphabet.Įven as far back as 1691, this connection between the Samaritan and the "Old" Hebrew alphabets was made by Henry Dodwell " still preserve in the Old Hebrew characters." The Torah Scroll of the Samaritans use an alphabet that is very different from the one used on Jewish Torah Scrolls. The Samaritans are, according to themselves, the descendants of the Northern Tribes of Israel that were not sent into Assyrian captivity, and have continuously resided in the land of Israel. Hartwell continues: "But the most decisive confirmation of this point is to be found in ancient Hebrew coins, which were struck before the captivity, and even engraven on all of them are manifestly the same with the modern Samaritan." In 1854, Thomas Hartwell wrote "The present Hebrew Characters, or Letters, are twenty two in number, and of a square form: but the antiquity of these letters is a point that has been most severely contested by many learned men."įigure 2 – Judean Half Shekel (Image courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.) However, history suggests that these Hebrew letters are not the same Hebrew letters used in antiquity. The mention of the Hebrew alphabet brings to mind the Hebrew letters that are familiar to many today that are used in Torah scrolls, Hebrew Bibles and even in Modern Hebrew Books and Newspapers.
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