When Moses brought down the 10 Commandments from Mt Sinai had written language been developed yet?

Question

I saw a special on Mt Sinai last night on PBS and I thought about that... if nobody could read yet then why were they written?

Atheists... just please hold back your smug comments aiight!

Answer 1

Well, I guess I'll put my atheist butt on the line when I say that though a written language had yet to be devised by the Egyptians, the Jews had their own form of pictographic language, let's see, I think they called it Hebrew. Have you considered that all written language (and language in general ) is symbolic at best in it's purest form. So who's really to say ?

Answer 2

I don't know when Moses was supposed to have brought down the tablets but written language has existed for an estimated 5-6,000 years. The first written language is supposedly from Mesopotamia (I think). The oldest writings were used for accounting, inventorying, etc. The Jews that followed Moses may have been illiterate but that doesn't mean the writing system hadn't been invented yet. I would imagine the tablets could have been written in Egyptian heiroglyphics, Hebrew, perhaps Aramaic or possibly even Greek but of course we don't have them so we don't know for sure.

Answer 3

Lets see, there are the Egypt hieroglyphics which predate the Commandments, and would have been known to Moses since he was educated in Egypt. They are a written language, just with a different grammar then we use today.

The Code of Hammurabi is written and predates Moses. Would also have been known to him.

There are the Samarian Tablets which predate the Exodus by 400-500 years, and would have been known to the Hebrews, who lived in the area at that same time.

There are many other examples of writing that predate the time of Moses, but these are ones that would have been explicitly know to the Jews.

Answer 4

When was this Ten Commandments actually written. It would seem that most of the Mosaic law was copied from the Hammurabi Code. The written language was well established before the time of Moses. The Egyptians were using Hieroglyphs both as a symbolic language and as a phonetic script. The Greeks had written languages and so did the Mesopotamians.

Answer 5

Moses was commanded by God to write down the history of the battle between the Israelites and Amalekites, while on their desert journey. Jesus Himself agreed that Moses also wrote the first five books of the Old Testament. "And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me." (Luke 24:44)

Many will say that writing hadn't yet been invented by the time of Moses, so that couldn't possibly have happened. This is a bunch of hooey. Writing has been discovered (depending on which you believe to be first) in Egypt, circa 3300-3400 B.C., or in the Euphrates/Tigris regions around 3200-3300 B.C. Moses didn't arrive on the scene until well into the 14th century B.C.

Hope that helps!

Answer 6

There might have been the written language of Cunieform at that time, which was developed by the Phoenicians, who are regarded as being the first to develop any writing system. Cunieform was written with triangle based shapes, made with a pointed stick, pressed into clay and allowed to dry to preserve the writing.

Answer 7

I think the story itself is an clear indication that they had language. How would they have written the 10 commandments? There are historical writings that predate Moses time.

Answer 8

The Jews are called "the people of the book" for a reason. They had the Talmud and the Torah. The Hebrew language has been around for thousands of years, so yes, it is possible, although this story may be allegorical for all we know.

Answer 9

There has always been symbols that mean things since the beginning of time. Over time, different languages or symbols came and took over the old ones, like Latin
English and most other languages comes from a derivative of Latin

Answer 10

nicely for one the ten commandments may be no longer be commandments in any respect they may be greater like a itemizing of issues gay cowboys like .for 2 you will possibly in no way capture Moses putting out with cowboys !and final Moses might have broke the horse's back with those stone pills!