The Nash Papyrus is written in a form of Hebrew script known as the “Square Script,” which is the same script form used in modern Hebrew today. It is not written in Paleo-Hebrew, which was an older script form used primarily before the Babylonian exile. The Nash Papyrus is dated to approximately the 2nd century B.C.E. and contains portions of the Ten Commandments and the Shema prayer. It serves as one of the oldest known manuscripts containing text from the Hebrew Bible.
The Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet
The Paleo-Hebrew script is an early form of the Hebrew alphabet and is closely related to the Phoenician alphabet, from which it is believed to have originated. This script was used in ancient Israel and Judah from around the 12th century B.C.E. until the Babylonian exile in the 6th century B.C.E., after which it gradually fell out of common use. However, it continued to be employed for specific religious and monumental inscriptions for some time even after the exile.
Paleo-Hebrew signet ring discovered in Jerusalem’s City of David. City of David Archive, Eliyahu Yannai
Characteristics
The Paleo-Hebrew script is more “pictographic” in nature compared to the Square Hebrew script that replaced it. Each letter was originally based on a picture that represented a specific object or concept. For example, the letter “Aleph” originally represented an ox head, and “Bet” represented a house.
Textual Evidence
One of the most well-known texts that used Paleo-Hebrew script is the Gezer Calendar, dated to the 10th century B.C.E., which is a sort of agricultural almanac. The script is also found in various inscriptions and on coins. The Dead Sea Scrolls offer another intriguing glimpse into the use of Paleo-Hebrew, as a few of the texts, particularly those considered highly sacred like the Tetragrammaton (Jehovah’s name), were written in this script.
Religious Significance
Interestingly, the Paleo-Hebrew script held special significance in religious contexts. For instance, some Jewish coins from the period of the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 C.E.) featured Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions. This usage was likely an expression of nationalistic and religious identity during a time of revolt against Roman rule.
Paleo-Hebrew Script: The Gezer calendar is a small limestone tablet with an early Canaanite inscription discovered in 1908 by Irish archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister in the ancient city of Gezer, 20 miles west of Jerusalem. It is commonly dated to the 10th century BCE,
Transition to Square Script
The Square Script, which was likely adapted from the Aramaic script, became the more commonly used form of writing after the Babylonian exile. The Jews were exposed to Aramaic culture and language during the exile, and the Square Script became standardized for writing Hebrew. It is this script that we find in most extant copies of the Hebrew Bible and which is used in modern Hebrew today.
Conclusion
The Paleo-Hebrew script is an important part of the linguistic and religious history of the Hebrew Bible. Although it has been largely replaced by the Square Script, its presence in various inscriptions and sacred texts provides valuable insights into the cultural and religious practices of ancient Israel and Judah.
The Square Script developed during the post-exilic period after the Jews returned from Babylon. It gradually replaced the Paleo-Hebrew script for most purposes, although Paleo-Hebrew continued to be used for special occasions and specific religious contexts for some time.
Therefore, the Nash Papyrus is an important artifact that offers insights into the Hebrew script as well as the religious practices and textual traditions of its time, but it is not written in Paleo-Hebrew.
Paleographical Dating
How do paleographers place an accurate date on very old ancient Hebrew Old Testament Bible manuscripts? In 1948, this was the problem that was before Dr. John C. Trever (1916 – 2006) was a Biblical scholar and archaeologist, who was involved in the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. When Dr. Trever first laid eyes on the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, he pondered just this question. He was well aware that it was the intriguing Hebrew letters themselves that would give him the age of the manuscript. Yet, with what manuscripts could it be compared. He rightly concluded that he must compare them with the script of the Nash Papyrus. You are likely asking, why, what is the Nash Papyrus?
The Nash Papyrus is a collection of four papyrus fragments acquired in Egypt in 1898,[1] inscribed with a Hebrew text which mainly contains the Ten Commandments and the first part of the Shema Yisrael prayer,[2] in a form that differs substantially from the later, canonical Masoretic text and is in parts more similar to the chronologically closer Septuagint. It has been suggested that the text might have been the daily worship of a Jew living in Egypt at the time.[3] The fragments comprise a single sheet and are not part of a scroll. The papyrus is of unknown provenance, although it is allegedly from Fayyum.[4] The text was first described by Stanley A. Cook in 1903. The value of this papyrus fragment is its age. Though dated by Cook to the second century C.E., subsequent reappraisals have pushed the date of the fragments back to about 150-100 B.C.E.[5] The papyrus was by far the oldest Hebrew manuscript fragment known at that time, before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.[6] The papyrus fragments were acquired by W. L. Nash in 1902, the secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, who attained them from an Egyptian dealer. It was published by S. A. Cooke in 1903 in that society’s Proceedings and was presented to Cambridge University Library, England, where it has continued until this day.[7]
The Contents of the Nash Papyrus
The Nash Papyrus merely contains four fragments of 24 lines of Hebrew text, measuring some three by five inches [7.5 by 12.5 cm]. These 24 lines with a few letters missing at each edge contain the Ten Commandments in Hebrew and a short middle text, followed by the start of the Shema Yisrael prayer.[8] The text of the Ten Commandments combines parts of the version from Exodus 20:2-17 with parts from Deuteronomy 5:6-21. A curiosity is its omission of the phrase “house of bondage,” used in both versions, about Egypt — perhaps a reflection of where the papyrus was composed.
Textual Basis
Some (but not all) of the papyrus’ substitutions from Deuteronomy are also found in the version of Exodus in the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Pentateuch from about 280-150 B.C.E, made in Alexandria. The Septuagint also interpolates before Deuteronomy 6:4 the preamble to the Shema found in the papyrus, and the Septuagint also agrees with a couple of the other variant readings where the papyrus departs from the standard Hebrew Masoretic text. The ordering of the later commandments in the papyrus (Adultery-Murder-Steal, rather than Murder-Adultery-Steal) is also that found in most texts of the Septuagint.
The papyrus preamble before Shema Yisrael,[9] also found in the Septuagint, is taken from Deuteronomy 4:45, which is the only time the recurring formula “This is the commandment(s) and rules and teachings…” mentions the Exodus from Egypt. The Nash preamble correctly cites Moses as the speaker rather than God as in the Septuagint. The insertion of Deuteronomy 4:45 before Shema Yisrael in the papyrus and especially the Septuagint, which has two preambles in the same section: Deuteronomy 6:1 and the interpolation to Deuteronomy 6:3, was probably done to distance the central Shema Yisrael prayer from its context: sections dealing with the entry to the Promised Land of Canaan. A section of scripture beginning with Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, was frequently repeated. The verse reads: “Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.” The Tetragrammaton (four letters), JHVH, “Jehovah,” in this verse is observable twice on the last line of the papyrus. It can also be found in five other places. In addition, it appears once with its first letter missing.
The Nash Papyrus is 2,200 years old and is a collection of four papyrus fragments acquired in Egypt in 1898, inscribed with a Hebrew text which mainly contains the Ten Commandments and portions of Exodus and Deuteronomy. God’s personal name in Hebrew characters (the Tetragrammaton) appears seven times in the fragment.
Likely Use
According to the Talmud it was once customary to read the Ten Commandments before saying the Shema. As Burkitt put it, “it is therefore reasonable to conjecture that this Papyrus contains the daily worship of a pious Egyptian Jew, who lived before the custom came to an end.”[10] It is thus believed that the papyrus probably consisted of a liturgical document, specifically the constituents of a Phylactery,[11] which may have purposely synthesized the two versions of the Commandments, rather than directly from Scripture. However, the papyrus’ similarities with the Septuagint, support a possibility that a Hebrew text of the Pentateuch was in circulation in Egypt in the 2nd century B.C.E., and served both the Nash papyrus and the Septuagint translation as a source, but which differs significantly from the modern Jewish Masoretic Text. Even though the Nash Papyrus is no longer the earliest-known Hebrew Old Testament manuscript, it is still of great interest and very valuable.
We now return to 1948, when Dr. Trever was examining a color slide of the Nash Papyrus with the Dead Sea Isaiah scroll, he meticulously paid special attention at how the individual letters were formed and shaped. Beyond any reasonable doubt, they were very similar to one another. Yet, the skeptic part of his mind was in overload that this incredible newly discovered manuscript could perhaps be dated as early in date as the Nash Papyrus. However, in time, this would prove to be the case, as the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah also dated to the second century B.C.E.!
By Edward D. Andrews and Wikipedia
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[1]“Nash Papyrus”. Cambridge Digital Library. Retrieved Tuesday, August 13, 2019.
[2] F. C. Burkitt (April 1904). “The Nash Papyrus. A New Photograph”. The Jewish Quarterly Review. University of Pennsylvania Press. Vol. 16, No. 3: 559–561.
[7]“Nash Papyrus”. Cambridge Digital Library. Retrieved Tuesday, August 13, 2019.
[8] F. C. Burkitt (April 1904). “The Nash Papyrus. A New Photograph”. The Jewish Quarterly Review. University of Pennsylvania Press. Vol. 16, No. 3: 559–561.
[9]Shema Yisrael (or Sh’ma Yisrael; Hebrew: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל; “Hear, [O] Israel”) is a prayer. It is also the first two words of a section of the Torah and is the title (better known as The Shema) of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services.
the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, he pondered just this question. He was well aware that it was the intriguing Hebrew letters themselves that would give him the age of the manuscript. Yet, with what manuscripts could it be compared. He rightly concluded that he must compare them with the script of the Nash Papyrus. You are likely asking, why, what is the Nash Papyrus?
