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The predominate writing material used in the
ancient Near East was clay, formed into small tablets and impressed with
wedge-shaped symbols called cuneiform writing, and then baked in an oven
or dried in the sun. Thousands of clay writing-boards have been uncovered
by archaeologists.
Cuneiform is the earliest -known system of writing. It was
invented in Sumer around 3000 B.C. The name cuneiform
comes from the Latin word "cuneus", meaning wedge.
The ancient Sumerians introduced their word system
throughout the Near East. Cuneiform was so diverse and adaptable to
various languages that it spread quickly and survived up until the first
century B.C.
According to Babylonian beliefs Nabu, the god of scribal
arts gave cuneiform to them.
Writing was mentioned often in the Bible:
"And the vision of all is become
unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one
that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot;
for it is sealed"
- Isaiah
29:11
And all the host of
heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a
scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from
the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
- Isaiah
34:4-
"Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile,
and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even
Jerusalem"
- Ezekiel
4:1
"Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take
thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning
Mahershalalhashbaz. And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah
the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah."
- Isaiah
8:1
"Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi
the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch,
saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of
the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his
hand, and came unto them. And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read
it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.
"
- Jeremiah
36:14-15
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