The Moabite Stone

The traditions of the ancient world ascribe to Phoenicia the glory of the invention of letters. The only living representative of the Phoenician alphabet in a book is the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Sacred Script of the few families who still worship on Mount Gerizim. With this exception, the alphabet is known to us only by inscriptions which have been discovered. Of these there are two varieties, the Moabite and the Sidonian. The most important relic of the first is the celebrated Moabite Stone, discovered in 1868, on the site of the ancient capital of Moab. Portions of it are now preserved in the Louvre. Good impressions have been made of its inscription (in ancient Phoenician), and it is valuable as the oldest specimen of alphabetic writing now known to scholars. It contains every letter of the ancient alphabet but one. It gives an account of the revolt of the King of Moab against Jehoram, King of Israel, 890 B. C. Mesha, King of Moab, set up this pillar in his native city of Dihon. His inscription is a curious counterpart of the scriptural narrative in II. Kings, third chapter: "It came to pass when Ahab was dead that the King of Moab rebelled against the King of Israel," etc.