Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Saturday 27 September 2003 11:18, Pastor Mark Eddy wrote:
> One more answer to your post, from a slightly different perspective:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David P Donnelly" <davedonnelly1 AT juno.com>
>
> > Yehovah
> > [yod-shewa-he-holem-vav-qamets-he]
> > is a Hebrew form of God's name
> > that is preserved in both the Ben Chayyim Hebrew text,
> > and in the Leningrad Codex..
> >
> > It appears to be a Hebrew form,
> > that is pronounceable.
>
> Just because can be pronounced does not mean that it was ever intended to
> be pronounced. So you ought not
>
> to make the following statement:
> > It is pronounced "Yehovah" in Hebrew.
>
> It "could be" pronounced this way. And it "is" pronounced this way by some
> people who don't understand the Massoretic substitution of the word Adonai
> for YHWH as they read the biblical text.
>
> > Thus to be redundant,
> > I am trying to understand the "it is written" form of God's Hebrew name,
> > [e.g. Yehovah]
> > as it is preserved in the Ben Chayyim Hebrew text over 6000 times,
> > and as it is preserved in the Leningrad Codex 44 times.
>
> I think the question is, what do you mean by "the 'it is written' form of
> God's Hebrew name"? When the divine name was first written, it had no
> vowels. The Dead Sea scrolls have no vowels points. Some of the scrolls
> even write the name YHWH in ancient Hebrew script while the rest of the
> text is written in what we now call Hebrew script. 

[snip]
Still other DSS substitute four dots for the Name.  That should tell us 
something, as well.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"God does a lot of things in the Psalms
that He can't get away with in systematic theology."