On the Origin of Writing Scripts

I was browsing through one of my favorite blogs today, when I came across a very interesting thesis. The thesis, by and large, attempted to point out the similarities between Japanese and Hebrew writing scripts. The blogger concluded that, based on these similarities, Japanese people must be one of the lost tribes of Israel. I must say that this blogger is asleep because he is awake in some else’s dream of deception. How could anyone attempt to plug his or her glorious ancient history to another that never was?

According to the available historical records, there was never a lost tribe of Israel. In fact, Israel never existed as a physical location in the ancient times, but did exist as a fictitious location in the created scriptures of the middle ages – this is not my focus at this time. My focus at this time is to present an intellectual argument against the plausibility of the claim made in the thesis supra.

Firstly, every well-known writing script today came from a common origin. That there are obvious similarities between Hebrew and Japanese writing scripts does not mean Hebrew and Japanese people came from the same Hebrew tribes, and certianly does not mean that Hebrew and Japanese languages are the same, it just means that Hebrew and Japanese writing scripts came from the same origin. A writing script is a system which, just like any other systems, can only be invented once.

For example, the Wright brothers invented the first air plane in the United States. Although there are various modifications and designs of the original air plane around the world today; be that as it may, they all came from a common origin. Similarly, Karl Benz invented the first modern automobile in 1886. Today, we have various automobile models and designs, but they are all obvious modifications of Karl’s original automobile. Writing scripts, just like air planes, automobiles or any other systems can only be invented once. If this is true, where did all the known writing scripts we have today originate?

Every writing script we have today originated from the ancient Egyptian writing scripts: the pictographic Hieroglyphs, the Phonetic I alphabet or Heratic script, and lastly the Phonetic II alphabet or demotic script. I shall illustrate my point in the enclosed tables below.

Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, and Greek, placed side by side - notice the similarities. They all came from one source, Pharaonic Egyptian script i.e., Phonetic.  The Greek and Latin scripts are probably the oldest on the list, whereas Hebrew and Arabic are more recent creation. I maintain that Hebrew and Arabic are scripts not languages, and were created as early as 10^th - 15^th century A.D, not in the B.C era as now implied.

  

The Alphabet Chart
Showing the first writing system by the ancient Egyptians: the Hieroglyphic, Hieratic-demotic and the phonetic. It's from the phonetic Pharaonic Egyptian alphabet that the Greek/Latin alphabets developed.



Why is it important to understand the origin of writing scripts? Understanding the origin of writing scripts would help put information in the proper historical perspective. For example, a group of nomads claimed their culture and history dated back to 3500 B.C. The validity of their claim rests on ancient scrolls they had found in the middle of the dessert. The first intellectual question to ask in order to challenge the validity of this claim is: what is the writing script used in these scrolls? If their answer is a script other than the Pharaonic Egyptian script, the scrolls can be said to be fictitious, and this group claim to ancient culture can be dismissed because the only script that existed in 3500 B.C was the Pharaonic Egyptian script.

I must mention that serious scholars had used this approach to challenge the authenticity of the ancient Homeric writings. The writings attributed to Homer (i.e., Iliad and odyssey) were supposedly written when the Greek script was not fully developed. How is it possible that one can compose beautiful poems in a writing form without a writing script? With this question, the “Homeric scholars” have now changed course and concluded that Iliad and Odyssey were originally composed orally, but were translated into a written form at a much later date. This is the power of knowing  the origin of writing scripts.



A Comparison of Hebrew and ancient Japanese. While the similarities are astounding, it does not mean Hebrew and Japanese languages are the same or Hebrew and Japanese people are the same. It simply means that Hebrew and Japanese scripts came from a common origin, the ancient Egyptian script.