[b-hebrew] FW: Fw: Linguistic, historical, cultural origins of yahweh
Uri Hurwitz
uhurwitz at yahoo.com
Thu Dec 4 17:25:20 EST 2008
Gad, Here is a point of scholarly agreement: YHWH is a verbal form:
the participle or imperfect, that is the present or future 3rd. M. Sing.
of the verb HWH "to be" in Aramaic, a Semitic language . Thus the meaning
of this word is: "is/ will be". Of course, there will always be
disagreement -- whether this in the Qal verbal pattern (Binyan), or the
Hiph'il, in which case the meaning is causative.
From antiquity to the present day people have had difficulty
understanding it. See Ex. 3:13/14. I favor the interpretation that
it is an abbreviated personal name of a deified ancestor.
It would be a bit too much to elaborate on this here,
especially since the whole subject had been discussed
several times on this list.
It is important, however, to distinguish between the
meaning of the form YHWH, and the process that made it
become the name of a specific deity.
Uri Hurwitz Great Neck, NY
Uri,
Does any of the sources known to you argue or show that the 3 or 4 letters, or original letters are of semitic language, source or meaning, or do they 'simply' indicate various mentions of the name/word in various sources and/or cite actual names of places etc., but make no actual ligistic reference?
Gad Zack QC Canada
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