Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Alexander Oldernes <alexander AT oldernes.no>]

Peter Kirk wrote:
> A huge range of views on the divine name can be found on the Internet, 
> some unfortunately based on incorrect facts and bad argumentation.

What you say is true.
But I'm not so sure you can say this about what professor Gertoux is writing.
Have you actually read his book? There is not many who know more about the 
tetragrammaton than he does.

I was about to quote page 144 of his book, but I see that Donnelly already 
has done it.
I will still make a quotation since I include some more information from that 
page...

QUOTE:

This complex system of multiple qeres produced numerous errors within the 
same codex. For example, in the codex B19a, which is considered by 
specialists to be one of the best copies, there are seven different pointings 
of the Tetragram. The most frequent error is the transformation of the vowels 
e, a of the qere into e, o, a (Gn 3:14 9:26 18:17; Ex 3:2 13:3,9,12,15 
14:1,8; Lv 23:34 25:17; Dt 31:27 32:9 33:12,13; 1S 1:11; 1K 3:5; Jr 2:37 
3:1,21,22,23,25 4:1,3,4,8; 5:2,3,9,18,19,22,29; 6:9; 8:13 30:10 36:8; Ezk 
33:23 44:5 46:13; Os 10:3; Na 1:3; Ml 3:23; Ps 15:1 40:5 47:6 100:5 116:5,6; 
Pr 1:29), or the vowels e, i into e, o, i (1K 2:26; Is 50:4; Jr 1:6 7:20; Ezk 
2:4 3:11,27 5:5 8:1 12:10 13:16 14:21,23 16:36 17:9 20:39 21:33 22:31 23:32 
24:6,14; 26:21 28:2 30:22 33:25 35:11 36:2 39:17 43:27 46:16; Za 9:14; Ps 
73:28).

QERE         ADONAY            ÈLOHIM    
usual         hw:hy³  (e, ,a)    hwIhy³  (e, ,i)    
Gn 3:14    h/:hy³  (e,o,a)       hwIhyO  (è, ,i)    Gn 15:2, 8
Ps 144:15 hw:hy}  (a, ,a)    h/Ihy³  (e,o,i)  1K 2:26
                       h/IhyO  (è,o,i)  Jg 16:28

   The situation is identical for other codices. The most frequent error is 
the transformation e, a into e, o, a, thus the changing of the form YeHWaH 
into YeHoWaH, which one finds in the Aleppo codex (Ezk 3:13; etc.) and in the 
Or4445 codex (Ex 16:7; 40:29; etc.) These errors are very old and can be 
observed on reproductions of biblical fragments (P. Kahle - Masoreten des 
Westens Stuttgart 1927 Ed. V.V.W. Kohlhammer  p. 17/1 sheet 930 p.19/3 sheet 
946 p.24/8 sheet 1017) dated between 700 and 900. Something that doubtless 
facilitated this kind of error, in spite of the scrupulous attention of the 
copyists, was the presence of a sign of cantillation, the rebia, which was 
very difficult to differentiate from the point representing the vowel o. So, 
from the twelfth to the fifteenth century CE the qere e, a (kept by the 
present BHS) changed into e, o, a (kept by the former BHK) which would become 
the standard qere in Jewish Bibles.

END OF QUOTE

I'm not arguing in favour of professor Gertoux, I just want to encourage to 
read this book before arguing against it.

Alexander Oldernes


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
To: "Alexander Oldernes" <alexander AT oldernes.no>
Cc: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2005 7:13 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Questions about YHWH


> On 16/07/2005 12:17, Alexander Oldernes wrote:
> 
>>... In 
>>actual fact, before 1100 CE , the Tetragram has been pointed with only the 
>>two vowels e, a of the Aramaic word Shema which means "The Name".The vowel 
>>o 
>>appeared, after 1100 CE , owing to the influence of the reading of the word 
>>Adonay.
>>  
>>
> 
> In actual fact, this is untrue. In Codex Leningradensis from around 1000 
> CE, a small minority of instances of the divine name are pointed with 
> holam over the middle.
> 
> A huge range of views on the divine name can be found on the Internet, 
> some unfortunately based on incorrect facts and bad argumentation.
> 
> -- 
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
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