"Original" Tanach?

It depends on which dialect the Hebrews spoke after leaving Egypt and

then coming to the Lord under Moses. He spoke that language and that would have been what the original would have been written in.

Tribe said:

1.) Whenever I am looking at my Hebrew language editions of Tanach, I have always looked ta the characters and thought, "Here I am, looking at the same letters that every Jew before me has looked at. This is the original, man!" But some things I have come across here and there have me rethinking that. In what language was Tanach originally written? Some claim Aramaic, I think.

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The vast majority of the T'NaKah were/are written in aramaic - a language that very closley resembles Hebrew, not the least of which being the letters are very similar and often nearly the same. Aramaic was picked up during one of the Exiles, I believe and I *think* Daniel and Ezra are 2 of the books written in Aramaic. Torah is all Hebrew I believe....Viva L'Torah!! LOL

2.) I have read somewhere that the current, "blocky" Hebrew alephbet was devised by Ezra (from another Semitic alphabet,?) Is this the case? What alphabet was Torah written in before Ezra did this?

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Every language form has suffered the change and evolution of it's letter forms - from primitive to contemporary to modern.... Even if you look at the English language over mearly 500 years you would find it VERY difficult to impossible to read Beowulf in it's original form, and if you were a modern Greek scholar you would find reading the Odessy just as difficult - because the letter forms and language structure change. Where you have an "original" text that is widely referenced and disseminate you will certainly find that much more of the "original" forms are maintained.

3.) I believe that portions of the Talmud are written in Aramaic, but using the Hebrew alephbet. Is this the case? If so, why not use the original alphabet?

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Yiddish is German, written and pronounced using the Hebrew alefbet, Ladino (the Sephardic equilivant of Yiddish) is Spanish, written and pronounced using the Hebrew alefbet. I *think* that Aramaic was a colloquial and idomatic language form brought into Judaism by the exposures during one or more Exiles and that, as with Yiddish and Ladino, they retained the Hebrew alefbet - Trust me IF I could learn a new language without having to learn a new alefbet, say Hebrew for instance, it would get my vote!!

Of course, I expect our resident linguist scholars to correct, modify and totally disprove some or all of my above assertions!!! LOL

4.) Are there any authentic copies of the Tanach in its original alphabet?

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I think the oldest extant sources of any real size are the Qumran documents and these date from around Yeshua's time. Even in them the alefbet is not exactly as it is today.....