Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Patrina" <patrina AT bestmail.us>]

Dear Yigdal

Hezekiah's seals were featured in Biblical Archaeology Review
Volume 28, Number 4, July/August 2002, Pp 42-51, 60 and can be found in
a web article at:

http://rd.archaeological-center.com/articles/13.shtml

There are several pics of the seals there, all showing a spelling of
YHDH in paleo-hebrew between the wingtips of the scarab. If the verbal
root originally included a waw as suggested by HH, it would seem strange
to have dropped out during the time of Hezekiah extra-biblically, or to
have been spelled with a mater in the formal anals of his reign (and
priestly records such as the biblical texts) but not on official seals?

I've been thinking about the spelling issue for quite a while, because
it impacts on dating of all the texts containing the word YHWDH. 

Patrina Nuske Small
Adelaide, South Australia

On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 00:30:47 +0200, "Yigal Levin"
<leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il> said:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Patrina" <patrina AT bestmail.us>
> > Regarding the use of maters as vowel indicators, I'm a little puzzled
> > that the spelling of Judah throughout the Tanach is always YHWDH with a
> > mater waw (as far as I know... maybe I'm mistaken?).  Hezekiah's seals
> > spell Judah as YHDH (without a mater) around 7th century BCE.
> 
> Dear Patrina,
> 
> They may have slipped my memory, but what seals are you referring to? The
> only set of seals (actually stamp impressions) attributed to Hezekiah
> that I
> know of are the LMLK ("of the king") stamps, which include the names of
> four
> cities - HBRN (Hebron), SKH (Sochoh), ZYP (Ziph, with a Yod, BTW) and
> MM$T
> (there are various theories about that one), but none mention the name
> YHWDH.
> 
> Yigal
> 
> 
> 
> If there
> > were at least a few spellings of YHDH dotted throughout the Pentateuch,
> > Prophets and Writings as well as YHWDH, it would seem reasonable to
> > suggest that the defective spellings were older occurences, or that full
> > spellings represent later redaction as with the DWD and DWYD examples...
> >  it just seems unlikely to me that later redaction would have been 100%
> > thorough?!
> >
> > Patrina Nuske Small
> > Adelaide, South Australia
> >