Written Communication versus Spoken Communication

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

People seeking to read the Bible in the original languages study biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek. Most of the biblical texts appear in these languages.

Koine Greek was the language of the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Byzantine Empires. It was the language of trade, education, and the New Testament. 

Some texts in both the Old Testament and the New Testament appear in Aramaic, the ancient language spoken by many in Jesus' time and before. Portions of Ezra and Daniel are in Aramaic. 

None of these languages were spoken by Abraham and his Hebrew ancestors. They are relatively recent forms of communication. 

The languages of trade, education, and religion in Abraham's time were Ancient Akkadian and Proto Egyptian. Ancient Akkadian is the oldest known Semitic language. "Proto-Egyptian" predates the emergence of Egypt as a political entity. Both Ancient Akkadian and Proto-Egyptian diverged from the Afroasiatic language family, the oldest known language family.

The older material in the Bible contains some words that scholars have identified as Akkadian. Understanding that material requires considering roots or radicals that are older than the Hebrew language. We may speak of those roots as "Proto-Semitic".

Dr. Christopher Ehret believes that pre-Proto-Semitic roots are closely related to the Proto-Afroasiatic roots, making consideration of the Semitic etymology secondary rather than a prerequisite for the reconstructive work of comparative linguistics.

The relationship of ancient spoken languages is difficult to trace. Linguistic affinities have been verified among Berber, Ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Chadic, Semitic and Cushitic languages. These are classified as Afroasiatic. All of these spoken languages suggest connection to the Ancient Nile River Valley (ANRV). 

The Early Hebrew Used More than One Language

Abraham and his Hebrew ancestors lived in many parts of the Ancient World and spoke the languages of the peoples among whom they lived. They were a caste of ruler-priests who probably had a secret language used exclusively among themselves. This is not uncommon among castes. For example, the Inadan metal working caste uses a secret language which they call TeNeT (TNT), and they claim to be related to David of Judah (National Geographic, Aug. 1979, p. 389).

Further, the linguistically skilled Hebrew served as royal scribes. They used different scripts depending on the recipient of the ruler's missive. However, the scripts they used do not indicate the languages they spoke.

As Ahmed Achrati notes, "The names used for the designation of ancient scripts are sometimes purely taxonomic inventions, with no known connection to the referent ethnic group. The vexing question of identifying the people who used a given script is further complicated by the fact that people who use a script do not necessarily speak the language of that script."

There is a clear connection between the scripts used in the Nile Valley and the Indus Valley, two regions where the Hebrew were influential. Compare the Egyptian and Indus pottery inscriptions above. 

There is linguistic and archaeological evidence pointing to the African origin of the Dravidian speakers in India (Aravanan 1980; Winters 2007). The Indian archaeologist B.B. Lal (1963) believes that the Dravidian speaking people may have belonged to the C-Group people who dispersed from Nubia into Arabia, Iran, and India as evidenced by the presence of their distinctive Black-and-Red Ware (BRW). The C-Group people lived in northern Nubia, southern Egypt, and southward to the modern Sudan between 2300-1500 B.C. 

Lal explains: "At Timos the Indian team dug up several megalithic sites of ancient Nubians which bear an uncanny resemblance to the cemeteries of early Dravidians which are found all over Western India from Kathiawar to Cape Comorin. The intriguing similarity extends from the subterranean structure found near them. Even the earthenware ring-stands used by the Dravidians and Nubians to hold pots were identical."

The Nubian megaliths of which Lal speaks date to about 3000 years before the present.

There are linguistic connections between the ancient languages spoken by Abraham's ancestors and the Dravoid peoples. They share ancient Akkadian roots, as has been recognized by Hindu scholars. The Indian scholar, Malati J. Shendge, concluded that the language of the Harappans of the Indus Valley was Akkadian.

Ajay Pratap Singh has written, "Comparisons of Akkadian and Sanskrit words yielded at least 400 words in both languages with comparable phonetic and semantic similarities. Thus, Sanskrit has, in fact, descended from Akkadian."

 

Pre-Islamic Arabian scripts

Numerous scripts have been found throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Some of the oldest Arabic scripts are called "Dedanite" because the highest concentration of these scripts has been found in the region of Dedan. The Dedanites were involved in trade and commerce, as mentioned in Isaiah and Ezekiel. They are described as descendants of Cush and Abraham by his cousin wife, Keturah. The Dedanites were kin to the people of Sheba and Tema,

At least one of these scripts also has been found in East Africa. The "monumental script" on the Almaqah altar found near the city of Wuqro in the region of Tigray, Ethiopia has been identified as Thamudic (Giovanni Garbini, 1976). Approximately 11000 Thamudic inscriptions have been found scattered from Syria to Ethiopia. Most are found in Yemen.

The bulk of the Thamudic texts, about 9000 of the inscriptions, were collected by the Philby-Ryckmans-Lippens expedition in central Arabia. The remaining Thamudic inscriptions come from north-west Arabia. These have been divided by Winnett into three groups: Thamudic B, C, and D. A fourth group E has been added by G. King.

Related reading:  Thamudic and Nabataean Inscriptions from Umm Al-Rasas by M.C.A. Macdonald; Thamudic Scripts; Early Written Signs; Religious and Cultural Exchanges Between Africa and India; Nimrod and the Nile-Indus Connection