These serpent spells, written in hieroglyphic characters
and discovered in an Egyptian pyramid, are the earliest
continuous Semitic texts to have been deciphered.
Posted on 01/23/2007 7:40:26 AM PST by Alouette
A 5,000-year-old Semitic text dealing with magical spells and snakes has been deciphered from an ancient Egyptian pyramid inscription, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced Monday.
The texts, which were first discovered a century ago in a 24th Century BCE Egyptian pyramid, are the earliest continuous Semitic texts ever to have been deciphered, said Semitic languages Prof. Richard Steiner of New York's Yeshiva University in a premiere presentation at the Hebrew University.
The passages, serpent spells written in hieroglyphic characters, are estimated to have been written between the 25th to the 30th centuries BCE.
Steiner, a former fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University and a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, has deciphered a number of Semitic texts in various Egyptian scripts over the past 25 years.
The passages, which were inscribed on the subterranean walls of the pyramid of King Unas at Saqqara, Egypt, had puzzled scholars who tried to read them as if they were ordinary Egyptian texts.
Four years ago, Steiner received an e-mail message from Robert Ritner, professor of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, asking whether any of the passages could be Semitic.
"I immediately recognized the Semitic words for 'mother snake,'" Steiner said.
"Later it became clear that the surrounding spells, composed in Egyptian rather than Semitic, also speak of the mother snake, and that the Egyptian and Semitic texts elucidate each other."
Although written in Egyptian characters, the texts turned out to be composed in the Semitic language spoken by the Canaanites in the third millennium BCE, a very archaic form of the languages later known as Phoenician and Hebrew.
The Canaanite priests of the ancient city of Byblos, in present-day Lebanon, provided these texts to the kings of Egypt.
The port city of Byblos was of vital importance for the ancient Egyptians, and it was from there that they imported timber for construction and resin for mummification.
The new discovery shows that they also imported magical spells intended to protect royal mummies against poisonous snakes that were thought to understand Canaanite.
Although the Egyptians viewed their culture as far superior to that of their neighbors, their morbid fear of snakes made them open to the borrowing of Semitic magic.
"This finding should be of great interest to cultural historians, linguists and Biblical scholars" Steiner said.
"This is a sensational discovery," said Hebrew University Professor Moshe Bar-Asher who is the president of the Academy of the Hebrew Language.
"It is the earliest attestation of a Semitic language, in general, and Proto-Canaanite, in particular."
The texts also shed light on several rare words in the Bible, Steiner said.
WARNING! This is a high volume ping list.
ggg ping
Don't read it out loud - the mummy returns.
Before you earn the right for me to pay atttentino, you're gonna have to can all of that "BCE" talk. The proper terminology is B.C. = Before Christ. Anything else is anti-Christian hate speech progaganda and I refuse to even read it.
So Jews writing in a Jewish publication must acknowledge Christ or else it is "anti-Christian hate speech"?
CE and BCE have been used for at least 150 years, it is not a new "politically correct" thing.
Yup - like when Moses turned his staff into a snake, and Pharoe's "priests" did the same with their rods - until Moses' snakes ate all of the other ones.
Parseltongue?
This is an interesting claim, since the texts were written over 1,000 years before the traditional date attributed to the writing of the first five books of the Bible.
To insist that Alouette or I (for that matter) use "B.C" and "A.D." would be asking that we blaspheme our faiths. It would be, as if a Muslim insisted you refer to God as "Allah" before he would debate with you.
Yes, but 3000 BC corresponds to roughly the time of Noah.
The "rare words" claim was interesting, if something of a cliffhanger. What words?
That's right. On the Hebrew calendar, this is the year 5767, which starts with Adam, not "The Year of Our Lord" 2007.
"The new discovery shows that they also imported magical spells intended to protect royal mummies against poisonous snakes that were thought to understand Canaanite."
Egyptian snakes that understand Canaanite spells. I kinda like that.
So, knucklehead, when we use "Before Christ," which date do you mean? If you mean His birth, then we're in the year 2013, because most scholars agree He was born in 6 BC. If you'd rather use the date of His death and resurrection, then we're in the year 1980. If anything, we should go by the Jewish calendar, in which case it's the year 5767.
Perhaps seek forgiveness for your arrogance from our brothers and sisters of the Book, and from our common Maker.
These serpent spells, written in hieroglyphic characters
and discovered in an Egyptian pyramid, are the earliest
continuous Semitic texts to have been deciphered.
In the Garden of Eden snakes were able to converse with Adam and Eve.
The key here is "words" not "passages." Sometimes a word crops up in a document that cannot be defined or determined by researchers. This evidently happened in the Bible. This new document gives researchers a clue as to what those words mean.
Be fair. Christianity claims to be the One True Faith, unlike Islam, which claims to be the one true faith.
I'm curious, what was the original reason for switching to BCE and CE?
Anyone know?
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