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What language?? Moses/tablets/etc.

jeager106

jeager106

Learning more about Jehovah.
Premium Member
It's been writen that Moses "wrote" the first 5 books of the O.T.
In what language? I ask because I have read that writen language was not in use in the
times of Moses, that the 10 Commandments were writen by the "finger of God" while Moses was on the mountain. According to scripture the 10 Commandments were writen by God on stone tablets.
What language? If there were no writen langauges of Moses' day then what langauge would
the words have been writen in?
I am not at all trying to debunk scripture, just asking for you help to determine:
Was there indeed no writen language in use in Moses' day, how could there be tablets
writen by the finger of God?
Moses is credited with "writing" the first five books of the O.T.
Writen by Moses when there was no writen langauge in use?
Writen WHEN? According to scripture Moses was a simple shepard when God sent him back to Egypt to ask that Pharoah "let my people go".
We know that oral tradition was the primary way information was tramsmitted to future generations.
Moses, tho raised an Egyption Prince, was still a humble shepard after he fled Egypt.
Possibly he could read Egyption glyphs but using glyphs to write 10 Commandments would take a lot of room on stone tables, perhaps so much room the tablets could not even be carried by one man.
Can anyone cite sources to explain the writen language that could have been used by Moses to write
the books of the O.T?
Indeed, did Moses have time to write such a huge document while wondering in the desert for 40 years?
I suspect when langauge came into common use that scribe wrote the books in question based on
oral tradition.
 
Riverwolf

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
jeager106 said:
It's been writen that Moses "wrote" the first 5 books of the O.T.
In what language? I ask because I have read that writen language was not in use in the
times of Moses,
Click to expand...

Where did you read that? Because it's wrong.

Cuneiform script is the oldest known system of writing, and it dates to about 1,000 years before the supposed time of Moses. During the time Moses supposedly lived, Egypt had already developed its robust hieroglyphic system.
 
029b10

029b10

Member
You might consider looking in the Book of Numbers.....

Yet as far as the finger of God.....

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire
out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold,
the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

sfas2-e1407682133127.jpg


And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see,
God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said,
Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
​
 
N

Nietzsche

The Last Prussian
Premium Member
jeager106 said:
It's been writen that Moses "wrote" the first 5 books of the O.T.
In what language?
Click to expand...
We will likely never know when the very first of these oral traditions were first written down, let alone what language they were in. One could make an argument stating that Sumerian is the most likely, if only because the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest known story on the planet, is written in it, and there are some extremely obvious similarities between it & various portions of the Bible.
 
jeager106

jeager106

Learning more about Jehovah.
Premium Member
Riverwolf said:
Where did you read that? Because it's wrong.

Cuneiform script is the oldest known system of writing, and it dates to about 1,000 years before the supposed time of Moses. During the time Moses supposedly lived, Egypt had already developed its robust hieroglyphic system.
Click to expand...

Wow. That is what I was needing to know.
Thank you.
Now one wonders if Moses knew of it and used it?

I read here that it would have taken 5,000,000 cunieform characters to represent the works of the Torah. Wow. Is that possible?
I really haven't a clue.
 
Last edited:
Riverwolf

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
jeager106 said:
Wow. That is what I was needing to know.
Thank you.
Now one wonders if Moses knew of it and used it?

I read here that it would have taken 5,000,000 cunieform characters to represent the works of the Torah. Wow. Is that possible?
I really haven't a clue.
Click to expand...

There's no reason to think he used cuneiform himself, since the Exodus story doesn't happen in that part of the world, or anywhere near it.

It's important to remember that Moses isn't an historical figure. That doesn't mean he absolutely didn't exist, but there's no physical evidence that the story of Exodus recounts an historic event.

If he did live, from what little I've looked into, it's likely that the Torah would have been "written" down in Proto-Sinaitic. However, don't take my word for that; there's likely people here who are more knowledgeable on the topic of this region's linguistic history than I am. I'm just giving you some places to start your own research. Keep in mind, however, that the scholarly consensus last I checked was that the Torah as we have it now was "written" after the Babylonian exile (and, in fact, as a result of it).

Always remember that when it comes to information on this time period, there's very little we know with absolute certainty. Hence why I use terms like "consensus"; that just refers to our current understanding, which is always subject to change given new information or insights that are consistent with current information.
 
H

Hawkins

Well-Known Member
The very nature of human history is that history itself is hardly evidenced!

History is a matter of human witnessing, that is, we choose to believe in what is written down by other humans.
 
N

Nietzsche

The Last Prussian
Premium Member
Hawkins said:
The very nature of human history is that history itself is hardly evidenced!

History is a matter of human witnessing, that is, we choose to believe in what is written down by other humans.
Click to expand...
Given the numbers of people who'd be migrating in the case of the Exodus, we'd have evidence other than written. And it would be exceedingly well preserved, because, well, it's the desert.
 
P

pearl

Well-Known Member
jeager106 said:
It's been writen that Moses "wrote" the first 5 books of the O.T.
In what language?
Click to expand...


I think there is a scholarly consensus that Moses was not the sole author of 'the law of Moses', the Pentateuch.
To ask what language God spoke is to assume that God spoke words. If He did, which is questionable, and if He
wanted to be understood, such language would have to have been Hebrew. Or when we say God spoke, is it meant
literally or is it biblical anthropomorphism as the statements of God walking, begetting etc. One possibility, the revelation
on Mt Sinai was a mystical experience which had to be translated into human language, and that is what Moses did.
 
J

JosephThomas

Member
Can you honestly believe Moses wrote the Genealogies through inspiration and it was not instead Written by the generations? ***

truly that would be incredible.
 
H

Harmonious

Well-Known Member
jeager106 said:
It's been writen that Moses "wrote" the first 5 books of the O.T.
In what language? I ask because I have read that writen language was not in use in the
times of Moses, that the 10 Commandments were writen by the "finger of God" while Moses was on the mountain. According to scripture the 10 Commandments were writen by God on stone tablets.
What language? If there were no writen langauges of Moses' day then what langauge would
the words have been writen in?
I am not at all trying to debunk scripture, just asking for you help to determine:
Was there indeed no writen language in use in Moses' day, how could there be tablets
writen by the finger of God?
Moses is credited with "writing" the first five books of the O.T.
Writen by Moses when there was no writen langauge in use?
Writen WHEN? According to scripture Moses was a simple shepard when God sent him back to Egypt to ask that Pharoah "let my people go".
We know that oral tradition was the primary way information was tramsmitted to future generations.
Moses, tho raised an Egyption Prince, was still a humble shepard after he fled Egypt.
Possibly he could read Egyption glyphs but using glyphs to write 10 Commandments would take a lot of room on stone tables, perhaps so much room the tablets could not even be carried by one man.
Can anyone cite sources to explain the writen language that could have been used by Moses to write
the books of the O.T?
Indeed, did Moses have time to write such a huge document while wondering in the desert for 40 years?
I suspect when langauge came into common use that scribe wrote the books in question based on
oral tradition.
Click to expand...
For those of us who a) believe that Moses was, in fact, a real historical figure, and b) that he, solely, actually transcribed what God dictated... We believe that the language God and Moses used was Hebrew. However, it was written in a format called Kria Ivri, which would look more like Cuniform than the Hebrew block letters that are more familiar and used today. That is called Kria Ashuri.
 
J

JosephThomas

Member
such as billions of years of rape murder tyranny and Canadianism as a religion to be preached as the most rational to children who are also told they do not live long, in an unfair society which does not guarantee their success, make it easy to succeed and does not guarantee any of their desires fulfilled, while others indulge abundantly.

atheists are ****ing retarded XD

pretend saying that doesn't promote negativity as a religion and your a brain dead FAwk up. You probably support a disrespectful assholee of a friend in a neglectful relationship if you do. And disregard atheism as being the primary promoter of political agendas and injustice.
 
Vishvavajra

Vishvavajra

Active Member
It's like asking what language Priam spoke in the time of the Trojan War. Only not really because there's a shadow of a chance that the Trojan War myth was based on a conflict that actually happened. The Exodus... not so much. It's a cultural myth of the Hebrew people that situated their identity with respect to their neighbors the Egyptians. And Moses is a primordial lawgiver figure, like many cultures have. He's not a historical figure who literally wrote the Jewish Law.

The ancient Hebrews probably imagined him writing in Hebrew, but that's because it was the language they spoke back then. I wouldn't read too much into it. This isn't a real controversy, in any case, any more than the question of who Adam & Eve's kids married.
 
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