FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE   BIBLE

DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING
 

The Old Testament has nothing to say about the origin of writing,  which seems to have been invented early in the fourth millennium B.C.  but it does assume writing on the part of  Moses,  who wrote the Law not earlier than about 1450 B.C.  Many earlier records of  writing have been discovered in various places.  But,  what was the character of those records?  Were they drawings?  Symbols?  If so, what did they symbolize?

Three stages in the development of writing may be discerned:  pictograms,  ideograms,  and phonograms.

Pictograms

These were representations that long antedated the origin of  writing and played a role in the development of  it. They were actually crude pictures that represented objects such as the sun,  an old man,  an eagle,  an ox,  a lion.  As long as pictograms represented nothing other than the objects themselves,  there was no difficulty in using them.  However,  as time passed the use of  pictures to depict ideas appeared,  and pictograms lost their dominant position in recorded communication.

Ideograms

Ideograms superseded pictograms.
They were pictures that actually represented ideas rather than objects.

Thus, a long stride toward writing was taken,  although writing in the modern sense was still a long way off.  But ideograms,  actually a particular use of  pictograms,  were not the only extension of pictograms.

Phonograms

Still another extension of  pictograms,  phonograms was really representations of  sounds rather than objects or ideas.  Thus, a representation of  the sun might speak of a son rather than the sun;  a picture of a bear might be used to express the verb 'to bear';  the picture of  a bee to express the verb 'to be.'  As a result,  another step was taken in the direction of written languages,  but there was still a long succession of events necessary before writing in the modern sense was achieved.

Ideographic and phonographic writings were later intermingled with simple syllabic writing,  and that with a more sophisticated system of  cuneiform,  wedge-shaped signs was used by the Sumerians.

Merrill F. Unger adequately summarizes the situation:
"Those who first attempted to reduce human speech to writing did not at once perceive the chasm that separates the spoken words from the characters in which they are symbolized.  They wrote as they spoke in unbroken succession,  inscribing the letters in closest proximity to each other,  without separating them into words,  much less into sentences,  paragraphs and chapters.
Although letters were used in writing by the time of Moses,  they were consonants only,  as vowels were added much later.  Hence,  an unbroken succession of consonants covering an entire tablet,  later a scroll,  and still later a codex  (sheets of papyrus bound into a book form)  would appear before the reader of a given text.  Needless to say,  even that was still far from the modern concept of writing.
 

Although the witnesses to writing in antiquity are far from abundant,  there is sufficient evidence available to indicate that it was the hallmark of cultural achievement.  During the second millennium B.C.  there were several experiments that led to the development of  the alphabet and written documents.  In Palestine itself there have been very few documents that have survived from the pre-exilic period,  but the evidence from surrounding territories makes it reasonable to assume that the Israelites shared in the act of writing even earlier than the beginning of  the Davidic kingdom.

Several lines of  evidence may be called upon to witness to the fact that writing was most certainly practiced by the Israelites prior to the time of the Moabite Stone of  Mesha, king of Moab,  which dates from about 850 B.C.
It was this item that was used by the late-nineteenth-century higher critical writers,  for example,  Graf and Wellhausen,  as the earliest example of  writing in Palestine.

Evidence from Mesopotamia

This dates from about 3500 B.C.  and includes cuneiform tablets of  the Sumerians.
The successors to the Sumerians used the latter's cuneiform script in developing their own individual languages.

Egyptian discoveries

These confirm those found in Mesopotamia,  and they are dated about 3100 B.C.

There are,  in addition to those witnesses,  other testimonies that illustrate the use of writing in Egypt prior to the time of Moses,  Joseph,  and even Abraham,  regardless of  the dates ascribed to each of those individuals.

Furthermore,  the Israelites must have been aware of writing techniques prior to their exodus from Egypt,  for Moses was raised as a child with great position in the household of  the pharaoh during the New Kingdom period.  The New Testament record indicates the Hebrew traditional position,  as Stephen bears witness in his famous sermon when he relates that  "Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians,  and he was a man of  power in words and deeds"  (Acts 7:22).
That learning most likely included writing on papyrus,  as papyrus was used in writing earlier than Dynasty V
(c. 2500 B.C.).

East Mediterranean testimony

Leonard Woolley's discoveries at Atchana (in northern Syria) appear to have been contemporaneous to the records found by Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos,  Crete.  These records date into the mid-second millennium B.C. and they indicate that connection between the mainland of  Asia and the island bridge of Europe,  namely, Crete.

Early Palestinian and Syrian contributions

All of the above evidence is extant from the period prior to the Moabite Stone of  Mesha,  king of Moab.
The event recorded on the Moabite Stone is that revolt against Israel recorded in 2 Kings 1:1 and 3:4-27.
Although the preceding evidence is not direct,  it is overwhelming in its denunciation of the negative higher critical position.  It is also overwhelming in its demarcation of  the history of writing before the time of  Moses.
As a result,  the more than 450 biblical references to writing may be seen as reflective of  the cultural diffusion between Israel and her neighbors.

Activity of Biblical writers within literate history

The foregoing discussion makes the assertion that  "Moses and the other biblical writers wrote during the literate age of man"  almost redundant.
Nevertheless,  the biblical record itself asserts that its writers wrote.  Several of  the more 450 biblical references may be called upon to indicate this fact.

The Law
The Torah (Law) makes reference to several kinds of writing done by Moses and his predecessors:

The Prophets
The Prophets  (Nevi'im)  indicate that writing was employed by several individuals even prior to the time of the Moabite Stone.

The Writings
These Kethuvi'im  (Writings)  also relate that individuals were writing before the time of the Moabite insurrection recorded in 2 Kings 1:1 (2 Kings 1:1 - "Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.")
and  2 Kings 3:4-27.

The materials upon which the ancients wrote were also used by the writers of Scripture.

Clay

Clay was not only used in ancient Sumer as early as about 3500 B.C.,  but it was used by Ezekiel (4:1 - "You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem.).

This material would be inscribed while it was still damp or soft.
It would then be either dried in the sun or baked in a kiln to make a permanent record.

The clause  "this is the account of"  or  "the book of the generations of"  occurs twelve times in Genesis and probably indicates the divisions of early family records of the patriarchs:

Stone

This was used in Mesopotamia,  Egypt,  and Palestine,  as is evidenced by the

The biblical writers also made use of stone as a writing material

Also,  at the Dog River in Lebanon and at Behistun in Iran royal inscriptions were carved on cliff faces.

Papyrus

Papyrus was used in ancient Gebal (Byblos) and Egypt from about 3100 B.C.
It was made by pressing and gluing two layers of  split papyrus reeds together in order to form a sheet.
A series of  papyrus sheets were joined together to form a scroll.
It is that type of papyrus  "scroll"  that is mentioned in Revelation 5:1 (though it is translated "book" in NASB).
The apostle John used papyrus for his epistles  (cf. 2 John 12).

Vellum  -  Parchment  -  Leather

These are various quality grades of  writing material made from animal skins of:

Although these substances are not mentioned directly as writing materials in the Bible,  some kind of  animal skin may have been in mind in Jeremiah 36:23
It could hardly have been vellum,  for Frederic Kenyon has indicated that vellum was not known prior to about 200 B.C.  Most likely it was leather,  for the king used a knife on it.

Parchments are, on the other hand,  clearly mentioned in Paul's request to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:13).

Miscellaneous items

Writing also was done in the biblical narrative upon such things as -

Metal - (Ex. 28:36; Job 19:24; Matt. 22:19-20)

A wooden writing board recessed to hold a wax writing surface - (cf. Isa. 8:1; 30:8; Hab. 2:2; Luke 1:63);

Precious stones - (Ex. 28:9, II, 21; 39:6-14)

Potsherds - (Job 2:8), better known as ostraca, as found in such locations as Samaria and Lachish in Palestine.
They were broken bits and pieces of pottery.

Linen - Still another item used in ancient writing in Egypt, Greece, Etruscan and Roman Italy,  but not mentioned in the Bible, was linen.
 

Several different instruments were necessary in the production of written records on the various materials mentioned above:

Stylus

A three-sided instrument with a beveled head,  the stylus was used to make incursions into clay and wax tablets.
It was sometimes called a "pen," as in Jeremiah 17:1.

Chisel

A chisel was used in making inscriptions in stone, as in Joshua 8:31-32. Job wished that his words might be engraved with "an iron stylus" in the rock forever.

(Job 19:24).

Pen

A pen was employed in writing on papyrus,  vellum,  leather,  and parchment,  as indicated in 3 John 13 (above).

Penknife

This was used in Jeremiah 36:23 to destroy a scroll (see reference above),  the material of  which was probably tougher than papyrus.  It was also used to sharpen the writer's pen after it had begun to wear down.

Inkhorn and Ink

These were necessary concomitants of  the pen,  and they served as the container and fluid used for writing on papyrus,  vellum,  leather,  and parchment.  Thus,  just as writing and its materials were available for the biblical writers,  so were the instruments necessary for their vital task.

Bibliography