Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Dear Wondell,

As the Bard once said through one of his juvenile protagonists, "that which
we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Amongst the
Christians of the English speaking world one of the most important
celebrations is named after a pagan goddess. The name doesn't detract from
the solemnity or importance of the feast.

At 10.04 10/05/99 -0400, yahua'sef wrote:
>> Such words have been said in prayer and passed along for years and years,
>> but why was this chosen to substitute the ORIGINAL name in the beginning?

In this case adonai is not a name, but merely a means of referring to the
one whose name is ineffable. 

>> As far as I have researched, this false name for the Creator (Adonai)
>> really originated from the Phoencian word 'AdOn' which means 'Lord' but
>> is also employed in Greek mythology as 'Adonis' which is supposedly a
>> handsome young male, represented by the Male Phallus. 

The name is home-grown Asian, from up the coast a few hundred kilometres
from Palestine, so the Greek connection is not very important. But of
course the god, Adonis, was a representation of fertility. I don't however
see that that is too relevant to the use of Adonai as a means of referring
to God. Various forms of el are used as well, but don't they come from
another Semitic deity represented by a bull? Nevertheless, it is a means of
referring, not a name.

>> Why would the
>> Greeks allow this word introduced to them(Adon) to be converted into one
>> of indecency

I don't see the point of modern moralising on the matter the world was very
different then. Adonis was a representation of the seasons, being killed in
the autumn and resurrected in the spring. That's the god, not the title.

>> and why did this word later become adopted into Hebrew
>> language for replacing the name of 'YHWH' ??

Numerous means were employed to refer to God. I've seen a long list. One of
the earlier ones was probably ba'al, another title meaning "lord". In fact
there were biblical personalities with the title in their names. Saul's son
was originally called Ishba'al -- until some scribes decided late in the
act that that was no longer acceptable and changed his name to the
slighting Ishbosheth. It was probably with the overexposure to the
Phoenicians under the Persian epoch that lines were drawn between the
Phoenician use of ba'al and names acceptable for the god of Jerusalem --
though some of the ba'al traditions lived on in the allegorical vision in
Dan7 with Baal's defeat of Yam. 

In the centuries before this era it was pretty normal to use cultic terms
of your neighbours, to use their traditions and metaphors.

There's nothing wrong with the title adonai: it means lord as you know. All
else is pretty irrelevant. I remember teaching in a school in Italy long
ago, writing the word "winter" on the board. One student came and changed
it to "minter" and all the students laughed. There was a football team
called "Inter" and "W" is used to mean "up with", whereas if you invert it
it naturally becomes "down with". There was a bunch of kids whow ere going
to grow up with confusion about the word "winter", but it had nothing to do
with the term, merely what they brought to it.


Ian