The Bible and the Deciphering of Cuneiform

Cuneiform is the descriptive name for the ancient form of writing in wedge-shaped characters. It was in use for centuries in Sumer, Assyria and Babylon, and is the oldest form of writing that has been discovered and de­ciphered. It was usually inscribed on tablets of moist clay with a wedge-shaped stylus and then dried. For this reason vast numbers of these tablets have been perfectly preserved, some of them for over 3,000 years. Cuneiform was also inscribed on blocks of stone, many of which have been found intact.

The problem of deciphering

The problem of reading cuneiform writing was only solved in the middle of the nineteenth century, and it was largely the work of one man—Henry Rawlinson (1810-95). It came about this way. Rawlinson had been sent to Persia with a British military mission. While there he saw the great inscriptions carved on the face of the rock of Behistun. Cuneiform was one of three languages used on this inscription. He succeeded in climbing the cliff face and making a copy of the inscription—no mean task.

Rawlinson found that one of the three languages was Old Persian, similar to the Zend language, with which he was already familiar. With this knowledge he was eventually able to correlate the Old Persian version with the cuneiform version.

The clue came from the names of kings, from which he was able to decipher fourteen of the characters of the unknown alphabet. From this beginning he was able, in about ten years, to complete his translation of the Behistun inscriptions.

Babylonian tablets

With this knowledge he began work on newly-discovered Babylonian cuneiform tablets. But Rawlinson’s confidence in the correctness of his translations was put to the test by a challenge from the Royal Asiatic Society. All scholars of ancient scripts were asked to produce a translation of a newly found inscrip­tion of Tiglath-pileser. This was to be done independently of one another.

Rawlinson and three others submitted their translations, and, when all were compared and found to be in accord, the Society was then satisfied that the code had been cracked, and that cuneiform could indeed be correctly translated. From that beginning, nearly 150 years ago, vast numbers of cuneiform tablets and inscriptions have been translated and published. Our knowledge of the ancient kingdoms of Sumer, Assyria and Babylon has been augmented to an extent that seemed impossible at one time.

Tell el-Amarna

Some of the most interesting cuneiform tablets were discovered in an unexpected location at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt. From these it was revealed that cuneiform had become the international language for written communi­cations between monarchs of the time. The information in this cache of tablets has thrown new light on the history and the customs of 3,500 years ago.

Vast libraries of cuneiform tablets, number­ing tens of thousands, have been found in the cities and palaces of Assyria and Babylon. Not least in importance is the information revealed that has a bearing on Bible history. The unusual and unique names of kings and cities are found to be strictly correct in the Bible, when compared with the ancient records in cuneiform. The details of customs, laws and wars confirm the accuracy of the information in the Bible. The scribes who wrote the Hebrew Holy Scriptures were very well informed. What they wrote was factual, and not merely folklore and mythology as has been alleged by critics. The deciphering of cuneiform has provided remarkable confirmation of the veracity of Scripture in these days when its truth has been called in question.

The Bible in cuneiform?

If the text of God’s Word is so valuable, its wording so important, why was it not all engraved on stone, or inscribed on tablets, like the cuneiform literature of the Sumerians and Babylonians? Surely this would have avoided the need for copying and recopying, and there would have been no questions as to the integrity of the text.

In fact the Decalogue was written on stone and preserved in the ark of the testament. But for the whole of Moses’s extensive writings to have been inscribed on stone, or baked clay tablets, would have been impractical for a people on the move, as Israel were for so long. The obvious writing material available to them was parchment, the prepared skins of sheep and goats—a by-product of the flocks that accompanied them. Although it was compara­tively light in weight, it had the disadvantage that in the course of centuries it would perish. It was eventually necessary to copy the writing onto fresh parchment. This is why the critic says : “Errors must have arisen in the process of copying”.

The Qumran scrolls

This criticism was answered by the discovery of the Qumran (Dead Sea) Scrolls, which predated all existing scrolls by 1,000 years. There was plenty of time for errors in copying to have crept in during so long a time, yet the Qumran Scroll of Isaiah proved to be virtually identical to the scrolls of ten centuries later. The minor changes do not alter the meaning, and are negligible.

When God gave His Law through Moses He knew and foretold that the nation of Israel would not be in the Promised Land for long, and would be scattered far and wide in the earth. Hence it was vital that their Scriptures should be transportable. Scrolls of parchment were more easily carried than heavy clay tablets or engravings on stone. The result is that thousands of carefully written copies of the Hebrew Holy Scriptures have been pro­duced and have accompanied the people of Israel into every land into which they have been driven. Cuneiform engravings were not a suitable medium for the writing of God’s Word to Israel.