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The oldest known Hebrew text was found in November of 2008. it is a 3,000-year-old pottery shard with five lines of text was found during excavations of the Elah Fortress.

I am aware of (and have examined) a number of inscriptions dating from that period, most notably the Davidic inscription at Dan in northern Galilee. (I left Israel prior to 2008)

The Elah text certainly does not "prove" that there is no writing prior to that particular find. It is merely the earliest extant example of Israelite writing that has been found to date.

Indeed, it would be folly to claim that no prior writing exists, as further excavations are likely to reveal earlier examples. Only a tiny fraction of the archaeological sites in Israel and the Middle East have been excavated (and those which have been excavated have only been partially excavated).

Indeed, the whole theory of the Israelites existing for centuries without writing is based on a largely discredited 19th century German theory known as the Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis. This "Documentary Hypothesis" was taught years ago as unquestioned truth, but in reality the hypothesis has split into many squabbling factions as archaeological evidence renders it increasingly untenable.

BTW Wellhausen's original Documentary Hypothesis held that there was no Israelite writing prior to the sixth century BC. - much later than the theory to which you are referring.

Indeed, the whole theory of the Israelites existing for centuries without writing is based on a largely discredited 19th century German theory known as the Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis.

My point was about the creation narrative. If the world is 6,000 years old, and writing is any less than 6,000 years old there was of necessity a period of oral tradition. The oldest Hebrew writing found was 3,000 years old. So to avoid translation Hebrew writing would need to predate the earliest known writing by 3,000 years for there to have been no period of oral tradition.

I'm not saying that writing didn't exist earlier than the find. It might even get pushed back centuries further, but we are talking the necessity to push it back millenia.

Even then you introduce a translation problem. As the language found on the pot shard was quite different than classic Hebrew.

If writings as massive as the Torah were common 6,000 years ago. Common enough to be distributed to every wandering tribe. And if literacy was common enough to use them we should be finding more evidence of writing. As it is the finds drop of precipitously thousands of years short of the mark.