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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Variants of YHWH in the BHS Text
  • Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 11:21:18 -0700

On 27/09/2003 16:21, Dave Washburn wrote:

On Saturday 27 September 2003 15:22, Peter Kirk wrote:

On 27/09/2003 13:42, Dave Washburn wrote:

... I have a friend
named John; if he moved to Mexico he would probably be called Juan, while
if he moved to Russia he'd be called Ivan. ...

Not true, actually. I know of several Americans and Brits called John
who have lived in Russia and other Russian speaking countries. They are
never called Ivan. No one ever tried to call me Pyotr. It is not a
Russian custom to Russianise names of foreign men, though oddly they do
tend to do it with women's names which are similar to common Russian
ones e.g. Cathy becomes Katya.


Okay, I overstated. What I meant was, diachronically they're all the same name (John, Juan, Ivan, and I'll even throw in French Jean and German Johann). ...

And how about Anglicised Hebrew Jehohanan (e.g. Neh 12:13) while you are at it? For actually this illustrates what can happen to the divine name, as part of a longer name, in various languages.

... My Russian example actually came from a snippet of a Tom Clancy novel, ...

I can't often fault Tom Clancy, but I had noted before that the way his Russian character gives Russian names and patronymics to Americans, even while speaking English, is either a sign of a very special close affection or else plain wrong.

... but the point remains the same: how a name is pronounced is largely a matter of culture and native language, and how one pronounces YHWH - or whether one does - really doesn't matter. Like Liz, I tend to go with Yahweh myself for the sake of convenience.


Agreed.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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