Egyptian accounting symbols became a regular part of
Hebrew scribal communities beginning in the early Iron Age (that is, the
twelfth century BCE). There are many Hebrew inscriptions that use the Egyptian
hieratic accounting symbols, but these inscriptions mostly date to the eighth
and seventh centuries BCE. The earliest good examples of these Egyptian
accounting symbols appear in Hebrew inscriptions dating to 800 BCE, but there
is one fragmentary example from Tel Arad that might date as far back as the
tenth century BCE. A remarkable example of this borrowing is a school exercise
excavated at Kadesh Barnea in the southern Judean desert (Figure 2.4). A young
scribe was doing homework, practicing the writing of hieratic numbers in a
list. It is “Accounting 101” for scribes.
The symbols are borrowed from Egyptian by alphabetic
scribes as early as the twelfth century BCE. By analogy, we borrowed “Arabic
numerals,” and all European languages use them. The early Hebrews borrowed
“Egyptian numerals.” We knew these numerals were borrowed from Egypt, but
exactly when had been the subject of some debate.
Now we have the proverbial smoking gun in the Lachish jar
inscription. They were a legacy of the Egyptian scribal community working in
Canaan in the waning years of its hegemony in Canaan.
The borrowing from Egyptian scribal communities extended
beyond the hieratic numbers and symbols. It begins with the very technology for
writing—namely, the use of ink and papyrus (in contrast to the stylus and clay
for cuneiform writing). These were Egyptian technologies. They were invented by
the Egyptians and were borrowed by the early alphabetic scribes. Not
surprisingly, a whole host of Egyptian words related to the scribal enterprise
made their way into Hebrew. These include basic words relating to the
profession like “ink” (ḏeyô), “papyrus” (gōmeʾ), “scribal
palette” (qeseṯ), “seal” (ḥôṯām), and “signet ring” (ṭaḇaʿaṯ).
In addition, accounting terms related to measurement also come from Egyptian:
“ephah” (a measurement for grain), “hin” (a liquid measure), and “zeret” (a
span of measurement). It is worth observing here that there are relatively few
Egyptian loanwords in Hebrew, and most can be related to the scribal
profession.
We might question why Hebrew scribes did not just use
Egyptian hieroglyphs for their scribal communities. There are a handful of
Egyptian hieratic inscriptions that have been excavated in various locales in ancient
Canaan so it was at least a possibility. However, using hieroglyphs was not a
viable option for early Hebrew scribes. There are no Egyptian school texts
found outside of Egypt proper, even though some Egyptians working in Canaan
were left behind at the end of the New Kingdom. But hieroglyphs and hieratic
are purely Egyptian writing systems for the Egyptian language. They would have
been awkward to adopt and difficult to learn for Judean scribes. And they were Egyptian.
So it made sense to reject hieroglyphs in favor of the alphabet—a writing system
that they could make their own. (William M. Schniedewind, Who Really Wrote
the Bible: The Story of the Scribes [Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2024], 48, 50)
The following is taken from
ibid., 49:
