The Aramaic alphabet is ancestral to what alphabet known variously by scholars as the Jewish script?
Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet (Hebrew: אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי‎ , "Alefbet Ivri "), known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language, also adapted as an alphabet script in the writing of other Jewish languages, most notably in Yiddish (lit. "Jewish" for Judeo-German), Djudío (lit. "Jewish" for Judeo-Spanish), and Judeo-Arabic. Historically, there have been two separate abjad scripts to write Hebrew. The original, old Hebrew script, is known as the paleo-Hebrew alphabet (which has been largely preserved, in an altered form, in the Samaritan alphabet), while the present "Jewish script" or "square script" to write Hebrew is a stylized form of the Aramaic alphabet and was known by Jewish sages as the Ashuri alphabet (lit. "Assyrian"), since its origins were alleged to be from Assyria. Various "styles" (in current terms, "fonts") of representation of the Jewish script letters described in this article also exist, as well as a cursive form which has also varied over time and place, and today is referred to as cursive Hebrew. In the remainder of this article, the term "Hebrew alphabet" refers to the Jewish square script unless otherwise indicated.
Early editions of the Hebrew Bible Jewish printers were quick to take advantages of the printing press in publishing the Hebrew Bible. While for synagogue services written scrolls were used (and still are used, as Sifrei Torah are always handwritten), the printing press was very soon called into service to provide copies of the Hebrew Bible for private use. All the editions published before the Complutensian Polyglot were edited by Jews; but afterwards, and because of the increased interest excited in the Bible by the Reformation, the work was taken up by Christian scholars and printers; and the editions published by Jews after this time were largely influenced by these Christian publications. It is not possible in the present article to enumerate all the editions, whole or partial, of the Hebrew text. This account is devoted mainly to the incunabula (many of which were used as manuscripts by Kennicott in gathering his variants).