Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

Dear Dave et.al.,
I pronounce the name Yahweh when I teach
largely because scholars have for the most
part decided that this is how it was pronounced.
As Peter says, it's based on the Greek where it was
written IAOUE. However, several things have always 
bothered me about this. 1) it doesn't conform to any of
the theophoric names that we have, 2) it doesn't conform
to what we know from Elephantine, and 3) the Greeks, to
my knowledge, do not have an aspirated H in the middle of
their words, so that sound if there could not have been expressed. 
herefore, it doesn't make sense to me that Yah-weh is correct.
Liz


> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Peter Kirk
> Sent: Sat, September 27, 2003 5:15 PM
> To: David P Donnelly
> Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Variants of YHWH in the BHS Text
> 
> 
> On 27/09/2003 12:15, David P Donnelly wrote:
> 
> > Peter Kirk said:
> >  
> > >>>
> > In my scholarly opinion,
> > rather than belief,
> > this is already happening. 
> >
> > What is probably the original pronunciation is well known,
> > and some people pray to God using that name.
> >  
> > I don't suggest this has any  special  significance.
> > >>>
> >  
> > Dave asks Peter Kirk:
> >  
> > Are you allowed to make known
> > "what is probably the original pronunciation" of YHWH,
> > on this discussion board?
> >  
> > Dave Donnelly
> >  
> >  
> 
> Well, out of respect for those who prefer not to see it written too 
> explicitly, I will just say that I would point it with 
> patah-sheva-segol. That seems to be the majority scholarly opinion, 
> based for example on a Greek rendering IAOUE - in which OU, 
> omicron-upsilon, is a digraph pronounced like English "oo" or sometimes 
> more like "w" (cf. French "oui" which is pronounced rather like English 
> "we").
> 
> -- 
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
> 
> 
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