The last card of the week covers another large branch of Christianity, Judaism, and they believe that not only is there but one holy figure, he is so sacred that they should never speak of his name. In addition his writings, which appear in their holy book, are locked away most of the time, and when they are read, no human finger is allowed to touch them, they have to use a special pointer tool to trace the words with.
There are many similarities between the two religions, as is demonstrated by a comparison of their holy books. The Jewish faith calls their book the Tanakh, but the first five books, which they know as the Torah, are identical to the Christian Bible`s Old Testament. Both books also carry the words of the prophets, Joshua and Isaiah. However the Jewish scriptures end with different writings, and there are not just the ten commandments we know, there are over six hundred.
Another difference is that most of the Christian faith believe that their holy day is Sunday, whilst the Jewish faith consider theirs to run from the sunset on a Friday to the sunset on Saturday, and between those times is when they attend their Synagogue, or temple of religion.
The religion started in the Middle East, with a man called Abraham. He was a Hebrew, and he was told by this holy man to call his grandson Israel. This led to the Hebrews deciding, pretty much en masse, to rename themselves Israelites. They also decided that in future their religion would centre around obeying the holy scriptures to the letter, by way of thanking this holy man for looking after them.
This is a very similar set to the one above, and it was also issued in several countries, in Belgium, and France (as "Historique de l’Ecriture (Ecritur Phonetique), in Italy (as "Scriture Storiche"), and in the Netherlands (as "Geschiedenis der Schrijfkunst (Klankschriften)". However, in Germany, it tells a different tale, for their set, showing here today, is entitled "Zur Geschichte der Schrift II (Phonetische Schriften)", and that "II" shows us that there was an earlier set still entitled "Zur Geschichte der Schrift (Ideographische)"
The cards here, on phonetics, show
- Arabic
- Cyrillic
- Greek
- Hebrew
- Latin
- Sanskrit
Below each phrase in these languages comes a translation of that phrase into the language where that particular version of the set was issued, hence our card shows this in Hebrew and in German.
As far as the difference, phonetics, the subject of today`s set, is concerned with the way words sound, and the way they feel in your mouth as they are spoken. Whereas the other set, on ideographies, show the way symbols are used to represent an idea, soundlessly, conveyed not by words but by visualising what that symbol stands for.
The cards in that other set, on ideographies, are
- Assyrian-Babylonian cuneiform
- Chinese logographs
- Egyptian heiroglyphics
- North American Indian petroglyphs
- Peruvian guipos or knot writing
- Scandinavan runes