Beyt Ministries

One of the major events in Bible history was the second exile to Babylon. As a punishment for not keeping the 7 sabbatical year, (in Hebrew sh’mittah) YHVH sent the southern kingdom of Judah into exile to repay their disobedience with 70 years in captivity in Babylon. With the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem, the Jewish people adapted to the new culture in exile.

One of the biggest changes in the Jewish culture was the language. Aramaic was the lingua franca of the Ancient Near East and was widely spread all through the Babylonian Empire. Aramaic is a sister language of Hebrew; it would be like comparing Italian with Spanish or Italian with Portuguese. These similarities in the language help the Jewish people to adapt easily to the new language spoken in Babylon, Aramaic.

Another thing that changed drastically was the use of the script. The Hebrew script used for centuries for writing the Hebrew language was the Ktav Ivri (Paleo-Hebrew), but in the time of the Babylonian captivity the scribes adopted the Aramaic script, called Ktav Ashuri (literally Assyrian writing). This script was developed around 539 B.C. and replaced almost totally the use of the Ktav Ivri.

The Great Isaiah Scroll – Chapter 13 Verses 2-4 Source: Israel Museum, Jerusalem

As the time passed, Aramaic became the primary language of the Jewish people making more difficult the reading of the Torah in the ancient Ktav Ivri. So to preserve the language and the reading of the Torah the Jewish scribes exchanged each one of the letters from the Ktav Ivri to the Ktav Ashuri. This change in the script didn’t change the content of the Torah and the Prophets, or the language in which they were written, only the script to be understood by the new generations of Jews born in exile.

The Talmud testifies about this changes in the Hebrew Script in Sanhedrin 21b:

“Mar Zutra or, as some say, Mar ‘Ukba said: Originally the Torah was given to Israel in Hebrew characters and in the sacred [Hebrew] language; later, in

the times of Ezra, the Torah was given in Ashshurith script and Aramaic language. [Finally], they selected for Israel the Ashshurith script and Hebrew language, leaving the Hebrew characters and Aramaic language for the hedyototh. Who are meant by the ‘hedyototh’? — R.Hisda answers: The Cutheans (Samaritans). And what is meant by Hebrew characters? — R. Hisda said: The libuna’ah script (from Lebanon).”

This witness account agrees with the archaeological findings all through the land of Israel. It is interesting that the Talmud mention that not only the script changed from Ktav Ivri to Ashuri, but the language itself in the time of the captivity. We can find this influence in the books of Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah that contain parts written in both Aramaic and Hebrew.

When the Jewish people returned to the land of Israel, a revival of the Hebrew language occurred. Ezra and Nehemiah were the main figures in the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem and the teaching of the Torah to their people. Even though the Hebrew language was revived, the script didn’t change back to the Ktav Ivri.

The Ktav Ivri was associated with the Samaritans. The Samaritan Torah is written in a variation of the Ktav Ivri and possibly this was one of the reasons for the Jewish people to keep the Torah in Ktav Ashuri. We have to remember that the Samaritans are a little remnant of the descendants of the 10 Tribes of Israel that were lost on the time of the exile to Assyria.

Some of the earliest developments of the Ktav Ashuri were recorded in the Dead Sea Scrolls. These scrolls were written between the end of Maccabean revolt and the destruction of the Second Temple. Back in Babylon, during the time of the diaspora the Jewish sages and rabbis wrote the Talmud and the Mishna using the Ktav Ashuri in Aramaic language. Throught the ages, the Jewish scribes preserved the Tanakh in the Ktav Ashuri as the standard Hebrew script.

Close Up. Lisbon Bible, Lisbon, Portugal, 1482 BL Or. MS 2626, Vol. 1, f. 23v
Copyright © The British Library Board

With the formation of the state of Israel in 1945, Hebrew became the official language of the land of Israel. Now is common to see that in Israel the use of Ktav Ashuri in every street. Newspapers, books and even digital media content this beautiful script learnt hundreds of years ago in the time of the Babylonian captivity.

What do the Rabbis teach about the Ktav Ashuri?

In Shanhedrin 22a the Rabbis taught that the original Torah was written in Ktav Ashuri:

“It has been taught: Rabbi said: The Torah was originally given to Israel in this [Ashshurith] writing. When they sinned, it was changed into Ro’az (Samaritan script). But when they repented, the [Assyrian characters] were re-introduced, as it is written: Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope; even to-day do I declare that I will bring back the Mishneh unto thee. Why [then] was it named Ashshurith? — Because its script was upright [me’ushshar]”

Basically what rabbis taught in the Talmud is that the original Torah was wrote in Ktav Ashuri and for disobedience the script was changed to Ktav Ivri and later in the time of Ezra the Torah was changed to Ktav Ashuri.

Archaeological evidence tell us that it is more likely that the Torah was written in Ktav Ivri than Ashuri. The main reason is that the development of the Ktav Ashuri was from a later period in history. We have evidence that elements like the tagin (crowns) attached to the letters and different decoration items were put into the Torah scrolls in a later period of time. So this makes it even more difficult to believe that the Torah was originally given in Ktav Ashuri.