Meaning, the Jews were the first to introduce literature to the world.
Is Hebrew the world’s first alphabet? Israelites in Egypt may have turned hieroglyphs into letters 3,800 years ago
The language of the world’s first alphabet could have been Hebrew. This is according to an archaeologist who has spent the past four years piecing together the letters of the alphabet. Pictured is the tablet Sinai 375a containing the name Ahisamach (mentioned in Exodus 31:6)
- Dr Douglas Petrovich looked at 16 Hebrew letters from Egyptian tablets
- He combined earlier identifications of some letters in the ancient alphabet with his own interpretation of disputed letters create the ‘Hebrew 1.0’ script
- He found names of three biblical figures – Asenath, Ahisamach and Moses
- But the theory is controversial as some historians dispute the Israelites’ presence in Egypt, and others suggest the biblical dates used are unreliable
The language of the world’s first alphabet could have been Hebrew.
This is according to an archaeologist who has spent the past four years piecing together the letters of the alphabet from inscriptions on Egyptian tablets.
In his controversial theory, Dr Douglas Petrovich claims Israelites in Egypt took 22 ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and turned them into the original Hebrew alphabet – over 3,800 years ago.
For years scholars have known the world’s oldest alphabet was a Semitic language, but exactly which one it was has remained a mystery.
Dr Petrovich from the Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada told MailOnline: ‘I have no doubt whatsoever that Hebrew is the world’s oldest alphabet’.
He believes Israelites living in Egypt transformed the civilisation’s hieroglyphics into the first version of Hebrew around 3,800 years ago.
This, he says, is around the time the Old Testament describes Jews living in Egypt.
He says it was a way for Hebrew speakers to have their own written expression of their language, just as the Egyptians around them had.
In 2012, Dr Petrovich was conducting research from his home when he found evidence of a tablet called Sinai 115, from 1842 BC.
