Hebrew

The Hebrew alphabet is a close relative of North Semitic, one of the earliest alphabets -- even so, the shapes of the symbols have changed a great deal since its beginnings in the fifteenth century B.C.

The Old Hebrew alphabet, "The Script of the Prophets," was doubtless that in which most of the Old Testament of the Bible was originally written. It was the same, or nearly the same, as the original North Semitic, with 22 letters-- all consonants.

When the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile, they had become accustomed to the Aramaic speech and alphabet. Many no longer understood Hebrew. When Ezra the Scribe read the Hebrew scriptures to them, he translated into Aramaic (Nehemiah 8:8). Ezra is credited with starting to write Hebrew with the Aramaic script. This is the origin of the modern Square Hebrew alphabet (450 B.C.).

The 22-letter set can be expanded by the addition of dots to change some consonants to others. Five of the letters have two forms. The modern cursive (or handwriting) style is taken from Polish-German for Yiddish. There is no style of joined letters for written Hebrew.

Related Information

See Moses.