Origins - The Alphabet

It's debated as to where the alphabet originated, and which culture was responsible for creating and using the first one. Egypt is typically credited with creating the first alphabetic writing system. However some contend the first alphabetic system was Hebrew.

Let's look at the first 2 letters of the Hebrew alphabet: א-aleph, and ב-bet. It's believed that these first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet were later converted to Alpha and Beta (respectively) in the Greek alphabet. Put these two letters together and you get "Alphabeta". Look familiar? I personally never really questioned where the word "Alphabet" came from, but this makes sense.

Furthermore, it's interesting to note that the presumably oldest alphabetic cave writing is found in Egypt, however the writing is Hebrew. The next oldest alphabetic cave writing is found in the Sanai region, again in Hebrew. And the next oldest alphabetic cave writing is found in the (then) Canaanite region, again in Hebrew. Does this route sound familiar? Can you say... Exodus?!

Origins - Aramaic

I've come across many interesting origins in studying, and jot them down here for future review. One worth mentioning is that of the Aramaic language. This was a dominant language spoken during Jesus' time. The dialogue of the movie "The Passion" was in Aramaic with english subtitles.

Aram was a region located in what is now Syria. What is interesting, however, is that Aram was actually a person mentioned in the Bible. Noah had three sons - Shem (the origin of the word Semite), Ham, and Japheth. One of Shem's sons was Aram. So the current country of Syria actually traces all the way back to a grandson of Noah.

It is interesting to note how some current countries of the world actually descended from one person, and that lineage can often times be traced all the way back.