Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

   The following citation from a hymn to Amun-Re may be relevant to the 
discussion of YHWH, and the issue of not pronouncing his name:
 
       Amun,
 
   "...He is too hidden to reveal his majesty,
       he is too great to investigate,
          too powerful to be known.
 
    One falls down dead from terror,
       if one pronounces his secret name,
         intentionally or not.
     None of the gods knows how to call him by name,
        hidden Ba is his name,
          hidden it is."

    This is from Zandee's translation cited by De Moor in a section entitled 
The  new Kingdom in Egypt.

 Also, if memory serves, Herodotus when referring to an Egyptian main god 
states that he cannot mention the name because of its holiness. So the 
practice existed there from at least  his time.

  Uri


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From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Regnal resume variation in Kings
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Christopher:

In our modern, throwaway society, it is hard to imagine how carefully books=
 were preserved in the past. I have seen beautiful examples of manuscripts =
on vellum that predated Gutenberg where the soft beige of vellum contrasted=
 well with the black ink. Even the old rag papers often lasted centuries, u=
nlike wood pulp papers we use today which are laced with acids that turn pa=
per brown and brittle. What I am saying, is that there is no reason to assu=
me that the royal records were not still intact as late as the Persian peri=
od, and there are hints that they were still intact as late as the beginnin=
g of the Jewish revolt in 66 AD.

In the description of the taking of Jerusalem under Nebucadnezzar, it appea=
rs that the city was captured intact and systematically looted before it wa=
s burned. Unlike the Roman capture of Jerusalem centuries later, where larg=
e portions of it was burned before they were able to sieze control.

Both Ezra and Nehemiah mention that something as mundane as geneology recor=
ds were extent, records that extended centuries.=20

It is for these reasons that I think the differences in how the records wer=
e referenced does not mean much, much more a stylistic quirk than laden wit=
h deep meaning.

Karl W. Randolph.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Heard, Christopher" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>
>=20
> For example, if Karl is correct to date the composition of the book
> of Kings to the Persian era, could it be that the archives were so
> badly damaged that only tiny fragments survived? Could the phrase
> "behold them written" suggest that the author could actually lay eyes
> on those documents, while "are they not written?" is the author's
> extrapolation from the fact that "he" had a few fragments of annals
> actually available? That probably doesn't hold water, but it's an
> example of the sort of thing I'm wondering about: is there an actual
> reason for the "behold them written" vs. "are they not written"
> variation in the formula(e)?
>=20
> --
> R. Christopher Heard
> Assistant Professor of Religion
> Pepperdine University
> Malibu, California 90263-4352
> http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard
> http://www.iTanakh.org
> http://www.semioticsandexegesis.info

--=20
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