Development of the Palaeo-Hebrew and Samaritan Alphabets

Although this chart represents a non-Aramaic alphabet, it definitely is a parallel development. The original Old Hebrew Alphabet was essentially identical to that of their Canaanite neighbours (the Phoenicians), but by the 8th Century BCE (as with Assyrian Aramaic) it began to develop its own distinctive features. It was only after the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria/"Ephraim") in 721 BCE, and then the Babylonian conquest of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (and the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem) in 586 BCE, that the exiled Babylonian Jews switched to using the Aramaic alphabet of their captors.

 

From the return to Jerusalem and the re-establishment of the (Second) Temple by Ezra in 516 BCE – to the end of the final (Bar Kokhba) Revolt against the Romans in 136 CE – the matter of which script to use in Judaea remained unresolved. The Samaritans retained a version of Palaeo-Hebrew, which they have used continuously to this day (majuscule shown only), whereas the Jews only "revived" its use for coins and inscriptions during the nationalist Revolts. Interestingly, a few of the Dead Sea Scrolls are also written in Palaeo-Hebrew or "Proto-Samaritan" – and even in some otherwise "Square" (i.e. Aramaic) Hebrew texts, the name of God (the Tetragrammaton "Y[a]hw[e]h" / "J[e]h[o]v[a]h") was still written in these letters, possibly originally embossed in gold.

 

References:

• Crown, A. D. (1981). Samaritan minuscule palaeography. Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester Manchester, 63(2), 330–368.

• Freedman, D. N. & Mathews, K. A. (1985) The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus scroll (11QpaleoLev). American Schools of Oriental Research.

• Garbini, G. (1979). Storia e problemi dell'epigrafia semitica. Annali. Istituto Orientale di Napoli Roma, 39(2), 1-100.

• Gnat, Yoram (2008). The Hebrew Samaritan Alphabet.

• Healy, John F (1990) - The Early Alphabet (Reading the Past) [University of California Press/British Museum]

• Naveh, J. (1982). Early history of the alphabet: an introduction to West Semitic epigraphy and palaeography. Brill Academic Pub.

• Yardeni, A. (2002). The book of Hebrew script: history, palaeography, script styles, calligraphy & design. British Library.

 

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Columns:

1. mid 8th C. BCE. – Samaria [Garbini (1979) fig. 4]

2.?

3. early 7th C. BCE (c. 700 BCE) – Siloam Tunnel

[Garbini (1979) fig. 5]

4. 7th century BCE

5. early 6th century BCE – Arad

6. early 6th century BCE – Hebrew Ostraca

[Healy, J. (1990) p.29]

7. early 6th C. BCE – Lachish ostraca (letters)

8. ca. 3rd cent. BCE (?) – [Leviticus scroll (11QpaleoLev)]

9. Exodus

10. 2nd century BCE – Exodus scroll fragment [Joseph Naveh]

11. 2 cent. BCE – Maccabean coins [M. Lidzbarski in Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition): "2 cent. B.C."]

12. 2-1 C. BCE – Hasmonean coins [M. Lidzbarski in Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition): "2-1 C. B.C."]

13. 2nd-1st C. BCE – Hasmonean coins and Abba inscription [Garbini (1979) fig. 5]

14. ca.90 BCE – Alexander Yannai

15. ca.70 CE – First Revolt

16. Leviticus – [Yardeni: "2nd cent. BCE"] {Proto-Samaritan}

17. ca.100 CE (1-2 c. A.D.) – Revolt coins [M. Lidzbarski in Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition): "1-2 C. A.D."]

18. ??

19. ca. 350 CE [stone inscription]

20. ca. 500 CE [?]

21. 4th-6th cent. AD. [inscriptions] – [G. K. C[hesterton(?)] (semitic alphabet chart); M. Lidzbarski in Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition): "4-6 cent. A.D."]

22. ca. 600 CE [amulet]

23. ?

24. ca. 1100 CE (?) – [G. K. C[hesterton(?)] (semitic alphabet chart); M. Lidzbarski in Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition): "MSS. majuscule"]

25. [Samaritan Bible: Leviticus, Ascalon, Israel, 1189 (MS 201)]

26. 13th cent. CE {*} – [Yardeni]

27. 14th C. CE {*} – [Gnat (2008). The Hebrew Samaritan Alphabet. (font)]

28. date uncertain, possibly much later – [Table: The development of the Samaritan script]

29. ca. 1500 CE {*} – [Exodus - modern facsimile]

30. ca. 1500 CE (?)

[Table: The development of the Samaritan script]

31. ca. 1600 CE (?)

[Table: The development of the Samaritan script]

32. 1596 CE [Crown (1981): MS. Huntington 350]

33. 1749 CE [Crown (1981): BL.MS. Add.19005]

34. 1832 CE [Crown (1981): MS. Sassoon 716]

35. 1902 CE [Crown (1981): MS. Rylands Sam. 43]

{*} = Classic Medieval Samaritan

Done