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  • From: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Fw: Re: Fw: Re: Reading Jehovah in Psalm 16:2 and in Psalm 110...
  • Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:34:58 +0200

Dear Ted,

Research without presuppositions is impossible; an atheist or an agnostic may be just as sectarian as a person belonging to a Christian denomination, or one being an orthodox Jew or a Muslim. And a scholar who belongs to a religious denomination may be more balanced than one who does not have any religious faith.

I take issue with your claim that a preference for the form "Jehovah" must be faith-based and sectarian. A few years ago I translated many Ugaritic Baal-texts into Norwegian, and I also translated several Biblical passages dealing with Baal. In these passages I transliterated God's name as YHWH, because I took the target group into consideration.

I have worked a lot with the name YHWH, since I wrote a thesis about it for my MA degree many years ago. Recently I have completed a study of all the uses of YHWH and its substitutes in the Dead Sea scrolls (the principal purpose was to find if )DNY was ever used as a substitute for YHWH in B.C.E.-the conclusion was negative).

I have written several times before that the form "Yahweh" is an artificial construction, which has no basis whatsoever in ancient Hebrew manuscripts. Today we cannot know how YHWH originally was pronounced, but on the basis of my work with the issue for more than two decades, my view as a scholar is that the YEHOWA (the last he being taken as a vowel) is the best reconstruction we can make on the basis of the evidence. This is not a sectarian but a philological conclusion! I would even say that there is evidence that the Aramaic form YHW from Elephantine may have been pronounced as YEHOWA rather than YAHO, which is the universal viewpoint.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo


Hi, All:

snip

To be specific, some of our list members are inseparably attached to the form Jehovah due to their religious affiliation. As far as I'm concerned they
are most welcome to participate on this list with their faith-based
orientation intact. But they should know that others will often find their perspective preachy and sectarian. Let's try to facilitate understanding rather
than polarization.

Peace,
Ted Brownstein


In a message dated 6/29/2010 8:53:31 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, davedonnelly1 AT juno.com writes:

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>
To: davedonnelly1 AT juno.com
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:11:44 +0300
Subject: Re: Fw: Re: [b-hebrew] Reading Jehovah in Psalm 16:2 and in
Psalm 110:1 ]
Message-ID:
<AANLkTikP0RanQGHOpLn3ofFhZY3Y8cqYQhlNSDldT58u AT mail.gmail.com>
References: <20100625.155916.7387.90925 AT mailpop09.dca.untd.com>






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