Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> >Tony Prete quoted Niccacci as saying, in part: "This is done by a word-play
> >on God's personal Name based on verb *hayâ*."
> >
> >Is Exod 3 a word-play on the tetragrammaton, or vice versa?  That is, is
> >the holy Name based on the verb *hayah*, or does the Name stand on its own
> >without traceable etymology but one can make a pun on it using the verb
> >*hayah*?
> >
>
> It stands on its own.
>
> No one except the high priest even knew how to pronounce it
>
> And he placed himself in great danger by pronouncing it even the one
> single time per year that he was allowed, so that they had to tie a
> string around him, in case he died and had to be pulled out

For our purposes, we don't know how it was pronounced, and the
suggested derivation from HYH is a best-guess situation.  We
actually know neither its pronunciation nor its linguistic origin.


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"You just keep thinking, Butch.  That's what you're good at."