Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lew Osborne" <osbo AT hn.ozemail.com.au>]

Rolf Furuli

These comments are getting more and more interesting... We have had a
dialogue on the rights of those that want to use Yahweh and the rights of
those that want to use G-d. We have had a treatise from a Rabbi and from
Luther, all very interestign stuff.

Isaiah 452:7 says "I am the Yahweh: that is my name:..." Exodus 3:15 says
"....Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Yahweh Elohim of
your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of
Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my
memorial unto all generations."

This is my name for ever... Forget the dialogue of Luther for get our
rights and the rights of others in this issue, the Christian Churches
through the translators and in neglect of the command of Yahweh decided
what was appropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.

>From a translation point of view, and this is the issue, it shgould be
translaterd where appropriate and transliterated also in conformity with
other namjes where appropriate.  If the Christian churches have got it
wrong, which they appear to have, then they can correct it.

Lew Osborne





----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Anglin" <billanglin11 AT msn.com>
To: <furuli AT online.no>; <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] LORD


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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