The humble source of the world’s alphabet
Today, more than half of the world’s inhabitants use the same basic alphabet to express their languages in writing. The origins of our letters are surprisingly humble: a small group of traders living in the Land of Israel way back in the days of the Bible. These speakers of ancient Hebrew ingeniously invented a small number of simple written pictures to represent spoken sounds. When combined together, these pictures could express whole words!
Getting started with aleph and bet
The first two letters of the alphabet, A and B, are great examples of this major revolution in writing. The ancient shape of the Hebrew letter א- aleph (A) represented an ox’s head, which stands for the Hebrew word aluf אַלּוּף meaning “bull.” The shape of the Hebrew letter ב- bet (B) was a square, which stands for the Hebrew word bayit בַּיִת meaning “house.” Now you already know two Hebrew words: aluf and bayit. You also know where the term “alpha-bet” comes from.
Get the genuine picture of the Bible
The story does not end here. There are so many more examples of fascinating Hebrew words hiding inside the letters of our alphabet. In fact, Hebrew is absolutely foundational to everything about our culture. If you are curious to learn more about where words come from, and understand the deepest meanings of the Holy Scriptures, you need to return to the source: the Hebrew Bible. Enroll today in our online Biblical Hebrew course and get back to the origins of Western Civilization.
