Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
Just for some more confusion to add, I note that with the distaste later Pharisaic Judaism had for the Old Hebrew script, there comes a fairly well-accepted, if unsupportable, thesis that the Law was actually *originally* given in Square Hebrew ("Assyrian Script"), which was then changed/forgotten when Israel sinned, and later still restored. See http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t08/t0805.htm for some Talmudic discussion of the matter.
"Who are meant by Idiots? Said R. Hisda: The Samaritans."
This passage does make me wonder if there wasn't something like a political motive for disunification 2,000+ years ago, and the Old Hebrew script was avoided for sacred texts just because the Samaritans used it (even though the translation of "Hediotim" by "Idiots" is probably too strong)
