Originally posted by robrecht
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None are extant, of course, but we can work with scholarly theories about the process by which the Hebrew scriptures likely came into existence and eventually took their final form. Archaeology is not an exact science. What has been actually found is very sketchy, especially in terms of written texts and libraries. The JEDP documentary hypothesis has many detractors today, myself included, but it still provides one avenue of understanding a variety of differing perspectives that eventually made their way into and can still still to be found in the pentateuch and elements in the books of the prophets and other some other writings. Differing Northern and Southern kingdom perspectives, prophetic perspectives, priestly views from Jerusalem and perhaps elsewhere.
This is a bit of a false dichotomy. From about the 10th century CE, Hebrew writing at this time is pretty much the same as Canaanite and Phoenician writing. No one disputes that the Israelites and other Canaanite tribes adopted the Phoenician alphabet.
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