According to contemporary scholars, the original Hebrew script developed alongside others in the region during the course of the late second and first millennia BCE; it is closely related to the Phoenician script, which itself probably gave rise to the use of alphabetic writing in Greece (Greek). It is sometimes claimed that around the 10th century BCE[1][verification needed]
a distinct Hebrew variant, the original "Hebrew script", emerged, which was widely used in the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah until they fell in the 8th and 6th centuries BCE, respectively. It is not straightforward, however, to distinguish Israelite/Judahite scripts from others which were in use in the immediate area, most notably by the Moabites and Ammonites.
Following the Babylonian exile, Jews gradually stopped using the Hebrew script, and instead adopted the Aramaic script (another offshoot of the same family of scripts). This script, used for writing Hebrew, later evolved into the Jewish, or "square" script, that is still used today. Closely related scripts were in use all over the Middle East for several hundred years, but following the rise of Christianity (and later, the rise of Islam), they gave way to the Roman and Arabic alphabets, respectively.
According to Jewish Tradition[2] however, the block script seen today in Hebrew Torah Scrolls, known as Kthav Ashurith, was the original Hebrew script carved into the Ten Commandments[3]. The masses however used Paleo-Hebrew and its cousins, known as Kthav Ivri, for day to day writing, just as Jews today use a non block script for everyday writing.
As time progressed, during the days of the Judges and Kings of Israel, only the priests and scribes still knew how to read the original holy script, Kthav Ashurith. Others did not even recognize it, as demonstrated when King Yoshiyahu of the Davidic Dynasty needed a priest to read to him from the Torah scroll found in the Temple[4]. After the destruction of the first temple, when the famous hand came down and wrote on the wall in Kthav Ashurith, Daniel was the only one King Belshazzar could find who could read it. Later when Ezra and other Jews returned to Israel, Ezra saw how the knowledge of Kthav Ashurith was forgotten and enacted decrees that all writing of scrolls must be in Kthav Ashurith, and that day to day writing should be in an Aramaic form of Kthav Ashurith[5], so it should not be forgotten. The Samaritans however rejected the Oral Tradition, and in defiance of Ezra's Law, have continued till this day to write their scrolls in Kthav Ivri.
^Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 104a, Tractate Megilla 2b. "Rav Chisda says that the (final) mem and samech in the tablets were miraculously hanging in the air." This can only happen in Kthav Ashurith and not in Kthav Ivri.
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