They showed one of those “Mysteries of the Bible” program last night on the History Channel, and one of the stock footage pieces they had was a close up of some one writing Hebrew. The calligrapher was writing very carefully for two (I suppose) reasons: First, he was writing calligraphy (duh), and second (again I suppose), because he didn’t want to get ink all over his hand as he was writing right to left with his right hand.
This got me to thinking: Were the ancient Israelites (or at least the priests) predominantly left handed? If they weren’t, how many scrolls were ruined because the scribe, tired from holding his wrist above the page for hours now, dragged his hand across the still wet ink.
I’m assuming they didn’t have quick drying ball-point pens or graphite pencils.