Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Henry Churchyard <churchyh AT ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>]

> Subject: David
> From: "Tony Costa" <tmcos AT hotmail.com>
> Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 07:05:37 PDT

> Can anyone comment on the fact that the name "David" is variously
> written as(DVD) 'daleth', 'vav(waw)', 'daleth' and/or (DVYD)
> 'daleth', 'vav', 'yod', 'daleth'.

That's because in early 1st millenium B.C.E. orthographic practice,
the letters _waw_ and _yodh_ were generally only used to write
consonant sounds.  But when vowel+_w_ and vowel+_y_ sound sequences
sometimes became long vowels, due to historical sound changes, the
orthography usually remained the same, so that the letters _waw_ and
_yodh_ now seemed to be writing long vowels.  This lead to the
somewhat general use of the letters _waw_ and _yodh_ for long vowels
which did not originate in earlier vowel+semivowel sequences.  However
this use of _matres lectionis_ was never carried through consistently
in good Biblical manuscripts.

So the answer is that the long vowel in the second syllable of
"Dawidh" [David] is not of the type that originated from a historic
vowel_+y sound sequence, and so would have been written without a
_yodh_ in early orthography, and at least sometimes with a _yodh_ in
late orthography.  Within the Hebrew Bible, the broad generalization
is that in Samuel the name is spelled D-W-D, but in Chronicles
D-W-Y-D, and this can be seen as an early/late contrast.  For more
detail, see these references:

Francis I. Andersen and A. Dean Forbes. (1986), _Spelling in the
Hebrew Bible (Dahood _Memorial Lecture, Biblica et Orientalia 41)_.
Rome: Biblical Institute Press.

David Noel Freedman, A. Dean Forbes, and Francis Andersen
eds. _Studies in Hebrew and Aramaic Orthography (Biblical and Judaic
Studies from the University of California, San Diego, 2)_.


> Furthermore, does anyone know the numerical value of the name
> "David" in the MT?

Go to your handy-dandy Gematria chart (which is included in a number
of Hebrew grammars, since the letters are used as a kind of "Roman
numeral" system in many Jewish reference works, in writing year
numbers, etc.), and you'll see that DWD=4+6+4=14 and DWYD=4+6+10+4=24.

--
Henry Churchyard   churchyh AT ccwf.cc.utexas.edu   http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/