People of Writing

Writing was an exquisite skill that required years of studies. Egyptian, Syrian and Mesopotamian scribes were highly trained professionals who had to know more than ten thousand signs to be able to read and write effectively. Often they were also artisans, skilled in art and making jewellery.


Moses the Stupido?
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates.
Deut  6:9

I mean, what is wrong with that guy?

The mezuzah command requires that you know to write.

And now this ex-shepherd goes and tells common people to write something to their houses and gates they build once settled in the Holy Land?

Does Mr xxx-mss not know that writing is a rare skill demanding academic training?
(mss is Egyptian for "giving birth" usually combined with some divinity, Ra-mss, Tut-mss that is missing from his name, moshe).

Of course, you can command a ram to fly but it does not necessarily obey you even if it wanted to - and kicking it off the cliff does not help either.

Impossible command from Moses the Stupido in Late Bronze world?


Not so fast!
Well, the Jews are often called People of the Book - for several very good reasons.

But not everyone knows that they are also People of the Writing!

They invented writing with letters.

For using an alphabet to write only the consonants (and some vowels) greatly simplifies writing. (Greatly is an understatement)

Instead of thousands of symbols that are difficult to remember or to write on some special material like papyrus or clay you only need to know less than thirty easy symbols you can easily scratch on your door with something sharp.


Alphabet
What?

Why alpha and bet?

Greek alfa and beta... okay


What?

Why Greek alfa and beta?

Hebrew/Phoenician aleph bet.

Yup.


The People of God invented alphabet in Sinai (Proto-Sinaitic script, simplified Egyptian) and were able to read and write long before other people (except for the simplified Ugarit of the Canaanites).

These letters in English alphabet you are reading derive from that invention and so does Greek and Arabic and Cyrillic.


Are you serious?

yes. 

A specimen of Proto-Sinaitic script containing a phrase which may mean 'to Ba'alat'. 
The line running from the upper left to lower right may read mt l b^clt. 
wikimedia  

 

Early Semitic alphabets

Main article: Middle Bronze Age alphabets

The first pure alphabets (properly, "abjads", mapping single symbols to single phonemes, but not necessarily each phoneme to a symbol) emerged around 1800 BC in Ancient Egypt, as a representation of language developed by Semitic workers in Egypt, but by then alphabetic principles had a slight possibility of being inculcated into Egyptian hieroglyphs for upwards of a millennium. These early abjads remained of marginal importance for several centuries, and it is only towards the end of the Bronze Age that the Proto-Sinaitic script splits into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet (ca. 1400 BC) Byblos syllabary and the South Arabian alphabet (ca. 1200 BC). The Proto-Canaanite was probably somehow influenced by the undeciphered Byblos syllabary and in turn inspired the Ugaritic alphabet (ca. 1300 BC).

wikipedia