Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bill Anglin" <billanglin11 AT msn.com>]

Dear Christian Scholars,
I asked Rabbi Moshe Laurie, about the 'name in vain' commandment. We agrEed 
that a literal translation would be " NO MAKING / DOING A NAME OF THE LORD 
GOD".
I aked him what  it would mean to make (or do) a name, and he said "USE".(an 
idea thAt comes up in Amos 6:10), as in the Orthodox  Jewish tradition 
generally.Am I suposed to say "ALLE:U-ADONAI"? Anthropologists have studied a 
phenomenon that might be called name-referent confusion  Could that be 
playing a role here? As for invoking the doctrine of the Trinity to help 
"traanslate" the tetragrammaton, there are a number of heresies one might 
waant to svoid. Rendering the Tetragraammaaton as "Yesshua" or "Jesus" might 
leave one open to a charge of Sabellianism (A a "CONFUSION OF THE PERSONS" 
heresy).Perhaps the tetragraammaton is like the three dot ellipsis in  
1, 2, 3, ... .. The problem with translating or saying it is that it 
represents the infinte. Imaagine some poor translaator trrying to trranslate 
an English Math book into French. He or she would be ill-advised to attempt:
un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq,  
--and so on for hundreds of pages! Omitting the vowels in G-d or YHWH or YVVH 
puts us on the right track. In the spirit of a via negativa, wwe are 
referring to the One who  is beyond names. He is the one with a thousand 
names, the one we find in the perfec Silence.
Yours truly,
W. S. (Bill) Anglin
pS If anyone wishes to discuss Hebrew or ORthodox  Jewish traddition with an 
extremely talented and educated man, I reccommend  Moshse Laurie. He has HAS 
A PASSIONSTE INTEREST IN THE USE/trrraanslation of yhwh AAND HIS EMAIL IS 
moshe3 @aaol.com
.----- Original Message -----
From: furuli AT online.no
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 4:08 PM
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] LORD


Dear gfsomsel,


I disagree.  I respect the right for those who believe in the trinity  
to use "the Lord" instead of a transcription of YHWH, and I respect  
the right of those whoh only would write "G-od" to do that. At the  
same time I respect the right of the readers of the Biblical text to  
read what the text really says.  And the text of the Tanach uses YHWH  
as the proper name of God, and this should, in faithfulness to the  
text, be transcribed in English. In this way all parts would respect  
each other.


Best regards

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo




>In a message dated 2/8/2003 9:26:58 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
>furuli AT online.no writes:
>
>>I teach my students of Hebrew that they should read adonay or elohim
>>when they meet YHWH in the text, as you probably do as well. When
>>they translate the text, they are free to use "the Lord", "Yahweh",
>>or "Jehovah", or "Yahu".  Why would it be "a very unwelcome
>>situation" if people said Yahweh? I would view it as a very welcome
>>situation. With all respect of those who view the name as ineffable,
>>we must admit that this view goes contrary to linguistic and
>>translational rules just as much as the trinity doctrine. There is
>>absolutely nothing in the text of the Tanach itself that say that a
>>substitute should be used instead of the pronunciation of YHWH. To
>>the contrary, the use of it is encouraged.
>>
>
>
>Jewish tradition does have some objection to its usage.  A proper  
>respect for the sensibilities of other might be to avoid its use  
>except in academic situations where such matters must be discussed.
>
>gfsomsel
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From: "Charles David Isbell" <cisbell AT cox.net>
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] LORD
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I am feeling dense after reading all the postings about "LORD," but I guess
I just don't see anything here important enough to fight about.  Whom does
it hurt merely to transliterate YHWH or YHVH and allow people in various
traditions to observe whichever minhag ha-maqom they find appropriate?
Sermonizers around the world can then wax eloquent about how it must be
pronounced and why, and various congregations can be trained. Then we can
each leave our respective sanctuaries secure in the knowledge that WE have
said it right even if the folks down the street got it wrong [which is what
I plan to do anyway].  What a boost that should be to us all!

Charles
****************
You say po-TAY-to and he says po-TAH-to and down here in Louisiana we say
taters.  Let's call the calling off off, and let's all continue to eat and
enjoy.