Unearthing History's Secrets...
The earliest writing was in the form of pictures. In this form, the written language had no bearing upon the audio verbalization of the text. For example, in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, the sun was represented by a circle to conform to the sun's disc. However, the spoken word was ré. This same hieroglyphic also meant day - that period during which the sun shone - but the spoken word for day was heru.
Meanwhile over in Mesopotamia, the Sumerians were also inventing a form of writing without regard to pronunciation, as the word describing a man (lu), was written as a triangle atop a pear shaped body - the figure facing right. Sometime shortly after 3000BC however, the figure was 'written' laying flat on its back. In fact, all Sumerian signs underwent reorientation from the vertical to the horizontal around this time.
Now a picture or a symbol thus used to represent a thing, an idea, or just any complete word, is known as an ideogram.
Then, in both Egypt and Sumeria, to this primitive form of writing was added the phonogram. This was a logical step in the evolution of the written word, and took the form of adding signs that indicated the sound of the word being spoken. In its infancy, this was achieved by using things whose names sounded like the word the scribe wished to convey. It is noteworthy that the object used to denote the sound and the object being portrayed in 'writing,' were not in anyway related. This is known as the rebus principle.
To explain this in modern terms, consider drawing the picture of a knight to denote that part of the 24 hour day we call night. These two words have no connection at all, but are pronounced the same. The addition of these phonograms meant that the written word took on a phonetic aspect; which opened the way for words of two, or even more syllables. Also common to both Egyptian and Sumerian, was the addition of determinatives. These signs, having no phonetic purpose whatever, were not intended to be read aloud, but were simply inserted into the text to indicate the category of the word with which they were associated. In Sumerian for instance, a star: dingir (symbolizing a god), would appear in conjunction with the name of a deity.
These two systems, the one in Egypt and the other in Mesopotamia, developed separately beginning sometime before 3300BC. Over time the written language of Mesopotamia was transformed into a system comprised of wedge-shaped symbols, arranged in various ways in relation to one another, to form the basic characters of the language. The impression was made by pressing a split reed into the surface of a wet clay tablet. This form of writing was labeled cuneiform (Latin: cuneus, meaning wedge, and forma, meaning shape) by Thomas Hyde in 1700AD.
Now when the Akkadians and Babylonians conquered the Mesopotamian valley region circa 2400BC, the direction of the Sumerian system took a decided turn; for the conquerors, being a Semetic speaking peoples, simply took their spoken language, and superimposed it upon the Sumerian system of writing. Taking ideograms from the foreign tongue, they incorporated them into their own language, and then pronounced them in their old familiar way. Thus, the Sumerian signs pronounced ka-dingirrak (meaning "gate of god"), became to the Babylonians, bab-ili - bab meaning gate, and ili being the genitive (possessive) form of ilu, meaning god.
This cuneiform, modified considerably by time and distance, spread eastward into Elam, and westward into Egypt. When the Hittites invaded Anatolia (modern central Turkey) circa 1700BC, they adopted the Babylonian version of cuneiform as did also the Urartians of Ararat (the mountainous region of Armenia). It was this form of writing that became the official, international medium of communication for all diplomatic correspondence exchanged between the countries of the ancient Near East. Even the Egyptians used this universally accepted form of writing in dealing with matters beyond their borders.
It is interesting to note, that back in Egypt by about 2200BC, Egyptian scribes had begun to use a cursive style of hieroglyphics - no doubt to speed up the transfer of ideas from the cognitive to the written form. However, despite the complicated nature of their system, the Egyptian language never really lost its pictographic flavor; and was still used when recording events, locating places, and honoring dignitaries - things that would be of local interest.
Now in the middle of the second millennium BC - somewhere between 1900 and 1500 BC - semetic laborers working for Egyptian masters in copper and turquoise mines at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai Peninsula, began using a new alphabet which was to reshape the way mankind corresponded.
Examples of Alphabet Evolution:
Proto-Sinaitic -----------------Phoenician----------Greek----------English
1500BC 1200BC Late Modern
Being under the domination of Egyptian culture as
they were, these laborers were no doubt well acquainted with the written form of
its language. However, bringing with them their proto-Canaanite language, they
used characters based on acrophony to devise a prototype
alphabet. Acrophony is simply choosing the first sound of the word that
describes the object, and assigning to that sound a written symbol. As an
example, in their spoken language, the word for hand was yadu.
In Egyptian hieroglyphics, the word for hand (dert) was
depicted by an open hand 
.
Therefore,
this symbol became the y sound.
Of interest to us living over three thousand years
downstream in time, is the letter aleph. To the Egyptian
scribe an ox was a 
(an ox head). To the Semetic
scribe in the Sinai, an ox was an alpu. Thus was born the
letter A. (see the table of examples showing alphabet evolution above).
The discovery of this ancient language was made by Sir Flinders Petrie (1853 -1942), a British archaeologist, who in 1881 turned his attention to Egyptology. In the spring of 1904, this intrepid scientist set off from the Suez Canal, accompanied by a large retinue of scholars and assistants, and ventured into the Sinai Peninsula. There in the wilderness, the camel caravan came upon the ruins of an ancient temple dedicated to the worship of the goddess Balaath (Egyptian - Hathor). And here, the history of the site was unearthed from the sand in the form of fragmented stone tablets, upon which was inscribed a hitherto undiscovered script - the beginning of modern writing.
At first however, no one was able to decipher this unknown script. Then, ten years after they were removed from the sand and obscurity, Sir Alan Gardiner, the brilliant paleographer and authority on Egyptian texts, began to crack the ancient code. But it was not until 1948 that the full text was translated. It has subsequently been established, that this much simplified form of writing was in fact, the precursor of the old Phoenician, using an alphabet which in turn spawned the many Indo-european alphabets in use today - including English.
What has been said up to this point is certainly of interest value; but the real significance is found in two biblical incidents which we shall proceed to consider herewith. An inscription found at the site of the ancient temple ruins in the Sinai is dated in the reign of Amenemhet III about 1800BC. This would be about 300 years before the Exodus of Israel from Egypt.
Now it is recorded in Deuteronomy 31:24 -26, that "when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: 'Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God...'" In the past, critics have claimed this passage to be evidence of biblical inaccuracy. The argument put forth being, that at the time of the Exodus, writing - particularly in the region where the migration took place - was unknown. However, in the light of present day knowledge, it can be said that, not only was writing a common fact of every day life, but that also, the precursor of many modern languages was already in use.
Further, we know that "Moses was learned in all wisdom of the Egyptians." (Acts 7:22) We know also that "Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian" (Exodus 2:15) for a time. Which means that he would have known not only the Egyptian hieroglyphic and the internationally used cuneiform script, but also, in all probability, the alphabetic script in use in and around Sinai.
Similarly, in Judges 8:13,14 we read: "Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle, from the Ascent of Heres. And he caught a young man of the men of Succoth and interrogated him; and he wrote down for him the leaders of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men." Again, in the light of present day knowledge, it is very easy to belive that in Gideon's day (circa 1200BC) writing was a common exercise engaged in by the common people. So then, rather than authorship of the biblical records cited above being relegated to some later date, and considered legendary, the archaeological facts support the biblical narrative - as per usual.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, General Editor, Merrill C. Tenney, The Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Oxford Companion to the Bible, Edited by Bruce M. Metzge & Michael D. Coogan, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England.
SDA Bible Dictionary, By Siegfried Horn, Ph.D., Editor, Don F. Neufeld, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D.C.
The Bible as History, Werner Keller, Translated by William Nell, William Morrow and Company, Inc. New York, NY 10016.
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