An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

e Tendency to revise the text. On the other hand, scribes, aiming to teach the people
by disseminating an understandable text, felt free to revise the script, orthography
(i.e., spelling), and grammar, according to the conventions of their own times.
Albright said, “A principle which must never be lost sight of in dealing with
documents of the ancient Near East is that instead of leaving obvious archaisms in
spelling and grammar, the scribes generally revised ancient literary and other
documents periodically. This practice was followed with particular regularity by
cuneiform scribes.” 49 The many differences between synoptic portions of the
Hebrew Bible strongly suggest that those entrusted with the responsibility of
teaching felt free to revise texts (cf. 2 Sam 22 = Ps 18; 2 Kgs 18:13–20:19 = Isa
36–39; 2 Kgs 24:18–25:30 = Jer 52; Isa 2:2–4 = Mic 4:1–3; Pss 14 = 53; 40:14–18
= 70; 57:8–12 = 108:2–6; 60:7–14 = 108:7–14; Ps 96 = 1 Chr 16:23–33; Ps 106:1,
47–48 = 1 Chr 16:34–36; and the parallels between Samuel-Kings and
Chronicles). These variant forms are best taken as mutually dependent final texts,
sometimes involving primary literary variants, as well as secondary,
transmissional variants.
f Language and script development. From the Amarna correspondence, Ugaritic
texts, and other evidence, we can infer with reasonable confidence that before the
Amarna period (ca. 1350 B.C.E.) Hebrew possessed final short vowels, which
would have differentiated cases with nouns (see 8.1) and distinguished various
prefix conjugations (see 29.4). The grammar preserved by the Masoretes,
however, represents a later period, after these vowels had been dropped.
g From the epigraphic evidence it appears that in its earliest stages the text was
written in the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, such as is found at Serābîṭ el-Khādem. At
a later stage it would have been recorded in the Hebrew script (a descendant of the
Proto-Canaanite script) and still later in the form of the Aramaic script (another
descendant of the Proto-Canaanite script, sometimes called the “square script”)
known as the Jewish script.
h Epigraphy also enables us to reconstruct the history of the text’s orthography. 50
Before 1000 B.C.E. the Phoenician practice of phonetic consonantism (that is,
the[Page 18] representation of only consonants) was observed. Shortly after the
Arameans borrowed the alphabet from the Phoenicians (ca. 11th-10th centuries
49 Albright, Stone Age, 79.
50 For the basic statement of the orthographic development, see F. M. Cross and D. N.
Freedman, Early Hebrew Orthography: A Study of the Epigraphic Evidence
(American Oriental Series 36; New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1952); on the
linguistic background, see M. O’Connor, “Writing Systems, Native Speaker Analyses,
and the Earliest Stages of Northwest Semitic Orthography,” The Word of the Lord
Shall Go Forth: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman, ed. C. L. Meyers and M.
O’Connor (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1983) 439–65