Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Jim West wrote:
>
>In any event, my remarks are quite simple:  the reason that most folk dont
>buy the "Jehovah" pronunciation is the simple fact that it is based on a
>misunderstanding.  You are riding a dead horse, mr Joseph.

Dear Jim,

It is correct that the pronunciation "Jehovah" builds on the vowels of
)A:DONAY; thus it is a misunderstanding that the vowel points given by the
Masoretes represent the original pronunciation of the divine name. But we
should not stop with this, because that has lead some to another
misunderstanding, namely, that something close to "Jehovah" could not be
the original pronunciation, but rather Yahweh, and that this pronunciation
is backed by strong evidence.

Neither of these two misunderstandings has any bearing on the question of
the pronunciation in ancient Israel. I think we can use our time better
than to try to find the "original" pronunciation of the divine name, but
those wanting to review the evidence should be influenced by neither of the
two misunderstandings. To use your imagery: The horse died in the year 1000
CE, but could have been alive and well in 600 BCE.


Regards
Rolf


Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo