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  • From: Steven Avery <stevenavery AT verizon.net>
  • To: "b-hebrew-lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Tetragram, Aleppo Codex, understanding of Nehemiah Gordon
  • Date: Sun, 02 Jun 2013 09:46:54 -0400

Hi,

> Curt Bussey wrote:
> years ago I used to pronounce the Name Yehovah due to Nehemia Gordon's book. ....

Yohanan bin-Dawidh
Nehemia Gordon believes the Tetragrammaton was/should be pronounced as Yehovah/Yehowah, based upon his notion that the Karaite Ba’al ha-Masorah, Aharon ben-Mosheh ben-Asher, would not have in good conscious defiled the Miqâra.

Steven
My recollection is that there are a number of reasons given by Nehemiah for his position.

Yohanan bin-Dawidh
This might very well be the case, but this does not account for the various places within the Aleppo Codex where the Tetragrammaton is written with different pronunciations (Y’howah is used 29 times | Yehwih is used 304 times | Yehowih is used once at Judges 16:28 | Y’howih is used 23 times | Y’hwih is used 207 times | Y’hwah is used 6,268 times). Then, again, maybe the name has different pronunciations at different locations due to the language used in those locations, but this still would not account for Nehemia Gordon's stance on the subject.

Steven
Looking at one page that has the Nehemia Gordon approach (I listened to him speak on this over a decade ago in Talpiot, it was a fine little seminar) does have a discussion that probably applies to some of the variants above.

The Pronounciation of the Name
Nehemia Gordon
http://www.slideshare.net/davehome/yehovah-pronounciation
http://lhim.org/blog/2010/03/11/the-pronunciation-of-the-name/
Another point worth noting is that in the Aleppo Codex, the most precise manuscript of the biblical text, the name YHVH gets the vowels Yehovih when it is juxtaposed to the word Adonai. It seems that the “i” (chiriq) in Yehovih is a reminder to the reader to read this word as Elohim (God), since reading it Adonai would result in Adonai twice in a row.

Thus Nehemiah is saying that not in every case are the vowels "Pronounced as it is Written" (Gertoux). And that some forms are specifically to indicate the word as Elohim.

See also:

https://www.facebook.com/NehemiaGordon/posts/10151590815363629
The Tetragrammaton in Ezekiel 28:22 in the Aleppo Codex. In this instance the name is juxtaposed to "Adonai" and traditionally read as "Elohim" to avoid reading "Adonai" twice in a row. Rather than inserting the vowels of Elohim, the scribe inserted the true vowels "Yehovah"!

https://www.facebook.com/NehemiaGordon/posts/368681429811291?comment_id=5222061
Psalms 68:27 in the Aleppo Codex (right) and the Leningrad Codex (left). A scribal error in the Leningrad resulted in the name YHVH being written instead of Adonai. The scribes who preserved the Hebrew text of Scripture had a master list of 134 places that the word Adonai is supposed to appear by itself without the name YHVH, precisely to prevent this type of error from happening. The scribe who copied the Leningrad transcribed the other 133 verses in accordance with the list but accidentally wrote YHVH in this verse. The total number of instances of the Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Bible is usually cited as 6,828 based on a digitized text of the Leningrad Codex. Because of this error, the true number should be revised to 6,827.

Now, it is possible that Nehemia does not have a full-orbed consistent position on the Aleppo Codex. However, he is clearly well aware of the scholarship issues, I would like to see the question addressed to him publicly (e.g. on his blog) and his response, before concluding that there is any gap.

Subject was:
Re: [b-hebrew] G.Gertoux and the Name...

Shalom,
Steven Avery
Bayside, NY





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