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b-hebrew - Re: Re[5]: YHWH vs. Yahweh

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  • From: GregStffrd AT aol.com
  • To: peter_kirk AT sil.org
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Re[5]: YHWH vs. Yahweh
  • Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 10:41:36 EDT


In a message dated 5/1/99 4:28:58 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG writes:

<< But this is no evidence for a three syllable pronunciation
with a middle long O or U vowel, which was I think your earlier
preference. Very short vowels may have been left out in
transliteration, but long O's were not. >>


Dear Peter:

Thank you for your reply and the examples you have listed. I will consider
them closely over the next couple of days while I am out of town.

I do not have a dogmatic position on this issue, as mentioned previously. The
evidence from the Hebrew Bible, concerning theophoric elements in compound
names, supports a trisyllable pronunciation, not a bisyllable pronunciation,
as was also noted by Buchanan, in my posts to Henry.

As for the Greek transliteration of Hebrew names, and regarding the Greek
IABE and IAOUE (there are others, of course), I believe, as I stated, that it
is possible for the divine name to have contained a short vowel sound, as
opposed to a long middle vowel. But, again, the evidence from Hebrew compound
names does not seem to support this view. Still, I have no particular
preference, other than to what the accumulated evidence seems to point, and
it is not in the direction of Yahweh, as being the ancient HEBREW (not
Samaritan) pronunciation.

Best Regards,

Greg Stafford




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