Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>]

Regarding the DSS Isaiah scroll's use of divine names, Burrows first
addressed the issue in the 1949 BASOR, esp. page 31. He noted that three
forms: the tetragrammaton, Elohim, and Adonay, were used haphazardly in
1QIsaA. Sometimes the change is from the Tetragrammaton to Adonay (as in
3:18), and sometimes the reverse (3:17). His guess is that the scribe
was taking dictation, but he was not willing to draw any conclusions
about ineffability.

Ken Penner, McMaster/DSS
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PennerThesis

> The words you quote from Wurthwein are not found in my 1979-edition 
> of his work. If you quote correctly, this is a blatant example of a 
> misleading statement in a book by a fine scholar. Or rather, before 
> it is verified that Wurthwein himself wrote these words, I am 
> inclined to think that a misinformed translator or editor added the 
> words.

> >Commenting on the Habakkuk Commentary, he says, "In the period of 
> >these manuscripts it is evident that 'adonai was read for the 
> >tetragrammaton because the first Isaiah scroll, for example, reads 
> >)DNY where M [can't reproduce the symbol he uses] has YHWH (3:17), 
> >and conversely (6:11; 7:14; 9:7; 21:16; 28:2." (page 158).