THE UNITY OF GENESIS. 



339 



that of the Pharaoh, it could only be that of the Canaanite 

 governors. 



The correspondence of Tel el Amarna, which is later than the 

 first settlement of the Hebrews in Canaan, is not all we have of 

 cuneiform documents from Palestine. A rich find of tablets 

 was gathered at Boghaz Keui, in Asia Minor, the capital of the 

 Hittites. From Palestine itself originated a series of letters 

 and edicts, written both in Assyrian and Hittite, concerning the 

 Amurru, the Amorites. In the land of the Israelites two contracts 

 have been found at Gezer, of the years 650 and 647, and eight 

 tablets or fragments at Taannek. As one of the excavators, Dr. 

 Sellin,says: ''Even supposing that Babylonian cuneiform was used 

 only by the rulers and their officials, and that the people could 

 not read or write, this fact is certain : in the already extensive 

 excavations carried on in Palestine no document was ever found 

 except in Babylonian writing. As for the Phoenician old 

 Hebrew writing ... it cannot be asserted with certainty that 

 it existed before the ninth century." 



Thus we know now for certain that at the time of Moses, and 

 perhaps as late as the reign of David and Solomon, Babylonian 

 cuneiform was the literary language and writing of the whole of 

 Western Asia, and we do not know with certainty of any other 

 book language at that time. 



Let us now revert to Moses. He had been brought up at the 

 court of Pharaoh, and instructed in all the wisdom of the 

 Egyptians. He could write, and certainly the Semitic writing 

 which he learnt at Pharaoh's court was not the Canaanite or 

 Phoenician or Old Hebrew, which did not exist, even in Phoenicia, 

 otherwise the Phoenician officials would have used it in their 

 letters and reports to their sovereign. The answers which 

 Pharaoh sent to the officials, of which we have several, were not 

 in Egyptian, which these officials would not have understood : 

 they were in their own language, in Babylonian cuneiform. 

 Therefore it was necessary that Pharaoh should have at his 

 court men who could write the lancmao-e of Abd-Hiba of Jeru- 

 salem, Gitia of Ashkelon, and all the other governors, dragomans 

 like those of the embassies of the present day. If Moses was 

 taught a Semitic writing, which seems natural considering his 

 origin and position, it is obvious that he learnt Babylonian 

 cuneiform, a writing which allowed him to have intercourse 

 with the Semitic world of his time. 



Besides, this language was eminently adapted to the books 

 of Moses. He had to write God's words, God's commands, 

 inspired laws, and Babvlonian was not onlv the language spoken 



z 2 



