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  • From: Wesselius <jwwesselius AT mail.thuk.nl>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: RE: Curious abut "G-d"
  • Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 21:35:34 GMT


There are at least six different matters involved in Ken
Smith's question:
1. The substitution of Adonay, "my lord", or equivalents in
other languages for God's own name YHWH;
An interesting problem, the most recent study is by Martin
Roesel, Adonaj: Warum Gott "Herr" genannt wird (Tübingen
2000).
2. The interchange of YHWH with the designation
Elohim, "god", in the text of the Hebrew Bible;
The rabbis already noted that in many cases there is a
functional distinction between the two, Elohim being used
for the function of God as judge (middat ha-ddin) as
opposed to YHWH for his merciful aspect. Traditionally the
interchange in those cases where there is no functional
difference (i.e. long stretches of text with only one of
these indications) has been taken as proof of the
Documentary Hypothesis and related theories. Elsewhere I
have argued that a literary explanation is more likely in
the latter cases. Anyway, heaps of literature and everybody
disagrees with everybody.
3. The substitution of sounds in pronouncing other biblical
designations of God by orthodox Jews;
Outside of prayer and synagogue worship the biblical divine
names (including Adonay) are not to be pronounced and are
usually transformed by exchanging one of their letters for
another one: kel, elokim etc. Maybe another lister knows a
good reference for this?
4. The relation between ephemeral media such as computer
screens with the prohibition in Judaism to efface divine
names (which underlies habits such as writing the two yod's
(or three, or the single he of hashem, "the name") instead
of YHWH);
This is a recent halakhic discussion, I do not know where
it has ended or where it is now. The practical problem used
to be that if one has such a name on the screen one may do
nothing to remove it, such as pressing SEND or QUIT or
pulling the plug, basically leaving no other option (apart
from sinning) but to wait for a power outage.
5. The use of G-d to indicate YHWH, the God of Israel,
whether or not his own name is meant.
I know of no study devoted to this phenomenon, which
apparently started as a kind of code writing for YHWH (just
as in that name the vowels are not written...), but soon
spread to other cases of the word "god" and even to
compounds where the connection is remote.
6. The use of an Indo-Germanic word of uncertain etymology
(Gothic guth, I think) for designating the Jewish and
Christian God and for translating words such as elohim in
Hebrew, theos in Greek and deus in Latin.

I hope this clarifies things a little bit...
Jan-Wim Wesselius
Hoekenes 26A, 1068 MT Amsterdam
tel 0(031)20 619 1535; fax 619 1636
e-mail wesselius AT chello.nl

office: Theological University Kampen
POB 5021, 8260 GA Kampen
tel 0(031)38 3371 662; fax 3371 613
e-mail jwwesselius AT mail.thuk.nl


-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Smith [mailto:kens AT 180solutions.com]
Sent: zaterdag 19 januari 2002 2:51
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: RE: Curious abut "G-d"


Thanks for the response. I hadn't been aware of the
distinction between writings that were intended to last,
and writings that weren't.

But I guess I'm still curious. The "name" of God
isn't "God", nor is it "Elohim". According to various
passages in Exodus, it's the Tetragrammaton, right, i.e.,
YHWH? I'm familiar with, and at one level or another can
understand, the care about YHWH, but I wasn't aware that
the same care was taken with )LHYM. (Or is it?) If not,
why is it taken with the English "God"?

Sorry, hope I'm not being excessively dense here.

Ken Smith
-----Original Message-----
From: MGSKamerun AT aol.com [mailto:MGSKamerun AT aol.com]
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 1:10 PM
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Re: Curious abut "G-d"


Hi,
I think they don't want to write the name of God on a paper
(or in a mail) because they know that the concerned script
is not meant to last forever. In other terms: If you know
that you will delete your E-Mail or throw away your paper
you come in conflict with the one of the ten commandments
not to use the name of God in vain. There is a tradition
not to throw away or burn used Tora scrolls but to bury
them like a mortal remain because the name of God is
written on it.
There is also the tradition to write elokim instead of the
name of God, or two jod for the Tetragrammaton.
Yours sincerely
Martin Schroeder

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