The Hebrew That Never Was: Rethinking Ancient Scripts and the Septuagint - By Thomas Richards and Artificial Intelligence

 

Note- Note: This is preliminary research. More detailed analysis with comprehensive source verification to follow. - LWR

What if everything you thought you knew about ancient Hebrew was based on a modern misunderstanding? What if the "Hebrew" Bible wasn't originally written in Hebrew at all, but in something much closer to Phoenician? Recent scholarship suggests we may need to fundamentally rethink our assumptions about biblical languages and the origins of one of history's most influential translations.

The Modern Invention of "Paleo-Hebrew"

Here's a surprising fact: the term "Paleo-Hebrew" didn't exist until 1954, when scholar Solomon Birnbaum coined it. Before that, what we now call "Paleo-Hebrew" was simply considered a regional variant of Phoenician script. Leading epigraphers like Joseph Naveh from Hebrew University have demonstrated that Paleo-Hebrew and Phoenician scripts are essentially "two slight regional variants of the same script."

This isn't just academic hair-splitting. The artificial distinction between "Hebrew" and "Phoenician" scripts creates a false impression of separate national writing traditions that likely didn't exist in the ancient world. When you examine inscriptions from this period, scholars often can't determine whether a text is "Phoenician" or "Hebrew" based purely on the script—the distinction is usually made based on where the artifact was found, not on the writing itself.

The timing of this terminological innovation is telling. Creating a distinct "Hebrew" script identity in 1954, shortly after Israel's establishment, served modern nationalist narratives about ancient continuity. But the archaeological evidence suggests something quite different: a shared Canaanite writing tradition that spanned the entire region.

Hebrew as a Canaanite Dialect

Even the biblical text itself provides clues about this linguistic reality. Isaiah 19:18 refers to Hebrew as the "language of Canaan," suggesting that ancient people understood what we call Hebrew as simply one dialect within a broader Canaanite language family. Modern linguistic analysis confirms this: Hebrew, Phoenician, and Moabite were "no more differentiated than geographical varieties of Modern English."

Archaeological evidence supports this view. The Gezer Calendar, often cited as one of the earliest "Hebrew" inscriptions, is linguistically nearly indistinguishable from other Canaanite texts. The Mesha Stele, written in Moabite, shows only minor dialectal variations from biblical Hebrew. These weren't separate languages but regional variants of a shared Northwest Semitic linguistic tradition.

The Babylonian Script Revolution

The Hebrew script we recognize today—the square, blocky letters of modern Hebrew texts—didn't originate with the ancient Israelites at all. It came from Babylon. During the Babylonian exile (6th century BC), Jews gradually adopted the Aramaic script used throughout the Persian Empire. This square script eventually became standard for Hebrew texts, while the older Canaanite script was largely abandoned.

Interestingly, the Samaritans, who remained in the land, continued using a variant of the old Canaanite script. This means that what we now call the "Jewish" script is actually Babylonian in origin, while the script that maintained geographical continuity in the land became associated with a religious minority.

This script transition represents more than just a cosmetic change. It occurred during a period of massive cultural transformation, when Aramaic was becoming the common language and Hebrew was increasingly reserved for liturgical use. The wholesale adoption of a foreign script for sacred texts reflects the complex cultural environment of the post-exilic period.

The Septuagint: Translation or Transformation?

The traditional story of the Septuagint's creation reads like mythology: 72 Jewish scholars, working independently in Alexandria, supposedly produced identical Greek translations of the Hebrew Torah in exactly 72 days. Later embellishments claimed they worked in separate cells yet achieved word-for-word identical results—clearly a legend designed to give the translation authority.

Modern scholarship has largely abandoned this account as historical fiction. The Septuagint likely developed gradually over 1-2 centuries through a complex process in multicultural Alexandria, where Phoenician traders, Egyptian natives, Greek colonists, and Jewish immigrants interacted regularly. This environment created natural conditions for cultural and linguistic exchange, not formal translation projects.

More significantly, the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal that many "Septuagint readings" previously thought to be translator innovations actually existed in the ancient Canaanite source texts. This suggests the translators weren't working with a standardized text but with diverse traditions of the original Canaanite writings—what we now call "Hebrew" but which were really part of the broader Phoenician-Canaanite linguistic family. The Septuagint represents authentic translation work from legitimate ancient sources, but these sources were in the Canaanite dialect we've artificially labeled as "Hebrew," not the distinct Hebrew language that modern terminology suggests.

A Fluid Linguistic Landscape

The picture that emerges from archaeology and linguistics shows that the ancient Levant wasn't divided into neat, separate languages. What we now label as "Hebrew," "Phoenician," and "Moabite" were really just regional dialects of the same Canaanite language family—like how Texan, Scottish, and Australian English are all recognizably the same language despite regional differences.

By the time of the Septuagint's creation (3rd-2nd century BC), the linguistic situation had become even more complex. Aramaic had become the administrative language across the Persian and later Greek empires, influencing local dialects. Meanwhile, Greek had spread throughout the Mediterranean world following Alexander's conquests.

For the Jewish communities scattered across the Greek-speaking world—especially in major centers like Alexandria—Greek had become their primary language. Many Jews could no longer read the ancient Canaanite texts in their original form. They needed their sacred writings in Greek, the language they actually spoke and understood in daily life.

This explains how the Septuagint came to exist: it wasn't a formal academic translation project, but a practical necessity. Jewish communities in Alexandria and other Greek-speaking cities gradually rendered their ancient Canaanite scriptures into the Greek they actually used. Rather than a discrete translation from one distinct language to another, this represented the natural cultural adaptation of ancient Semitic texts for Greek-speaking Jewish communities who had maintained their religious traditions while adapting to their new linguistic environment.

Rethinking Ancient Origins

Based on the evidence, AI said it would place the probability quite high—perhaps 70-80%—that the Septuagint was not translated from what we would properly call a "Hebrew" text in the sense that modern discussions use that term. Instead, it likely represents the natural evolution of Northwest Semitic textual traditions within the cosmopolitan environment of Hellenistic Alexandria.

This understanding helps us appreciate the true historical context of God’s Word. Rather than existing in linguistic isolation, God's revelations were given within the rich, interconnected world of ancient Canaan, using the common Canaanite dialect and script that people of that region would naturally understand.

Perhaps most importantly, this research reveals how modern terminology can obscure rather than clarify ancient realities. What we call the "Hebrew" Bible was originally written in what was essentially a Canaanite dialect using Phoenician-style script. Understanding this linguistic reality doesn't change that  the content is from God, but it does give us a clearer picture of the historical and cultural context God chose for revealing His word to humanity.

The complexity of ancient linguistic realities makes the preservation and transmission of these texts through diverse communities and changing circumstances all the more remarkable—a testament to their enduring significance across cultures and centuries.