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  • From: "Rolf Furuli" <furuli AT online.no>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] yhwh pronunciation
  • Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 14:47:50 +0100

Dear Peter,

See my comments below.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
To: "Rolf Furuli" <furuli AT online.no>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 3:08 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] yhwh pronunciation


On 19/07/2005 23:03, Rolf Furuli wrote:

...

The form YHW is found in the Aramaic Elephantine Papyri from the fifth
century B.C.E. Wowels are lacking, so we do not know whether it was
peronounced as YEHU, YAHU, YEHO, YAHO, or even with other vowels. ...


Or indeed this form could have been pronounced YAHWE, as these letters
predated the wide use of matres lectionis, and most interpreters
understand the final he of YHWH (however it is pronounced) as a mater
lectionis.

I cannot imagine that any Hebrew linguist would suggest that the YHW in the
Elephantine papyri was pronounced YAHWE. In that case we would expect a
final H. And please remember, there is absolutely no evidence for the
pronunciation YAHWE in ancient Hebrew or Aramaic sources. So I simply do not
understand why this form keeps coming up over and over again when its basis is pure speculation.


A little less than 150 names in the OT ends in YAH, and a few begins with
YAH. But those beginning with YAH never have "o" or "u" as the next vowel
(e.g. YAHO-; YAHU-). But there are several names that begins with YEHO-.
This means that an argument in favor of shewa being the first vowel of
YHWH is much stronger than the argument in favor of "a". ...


Not at all. There is a general phonological rule by which an original
qamats in this position is reduced to sheva, and a patah is impossible in
this position.

Your words are both right and wrong. The Masoretes used the rule you mention, and it
may have been very old, because the Masoretic vowel tradition seems to go
back to the B.C.E. There is good evidence that the tetragrammaton existed
before the matres were invented, and this means that all the four letters were used as consonants
and not as vowels.

The two independent forms of the divine name found in the Tanakh are YH and YHWH. My point was that the form YH in proper nouns as a rule comes at the end of the name. In the few instances were these letters are the first element of the name ( I count 14 such names with a Yah-element that can refer to the abbreviated divine name), there is no vowel following the H. So the particular name is formed on the basis of the abbreviated divine name YH and not on the basis of the full name YHWH. To argue that the "a" vowel (actually qamets and not patah) of this YAH-element suggests that the full name YHWH was pronounced YAHWE betrays a lack of phonological knowledge. One cannot on the basis of a mono-syllabic word argue whether a word with four consonants has two or three syllables and what the vowels of these syllables are. So the form YAH tells us absolutely nothing about the pronunciation of YHWH.

Then back to your reference to the Masoretic rule of the reduction of qamets to shewa. I have looked at the names starting with yod in the DSS, and they suggest that this rule was valid at that time. Further, they show two variants in names beginning with YH and which the Masoretes vocalized with a shewa following the yod. Below are a few examples:

4Q331f1i:7 - Yohanan (yod, waw, het, nun, nun)
4Q348f1:9 - Yehohanan (yod, he, waw, heth, nun, nun)

4Q523f1_2:2 - Yehonatan (yod, he, waw, nun, taw, nun)

4Q1751:21 Ye$ua (yod, shin, waw, ayin)
CD 5:4 - Yehosh(u)a (yod, he, waw, shin, ayin)

Neither shewa not patah are written as matres in the DSS (save one or two examples), but the "o" following the he is clear from three of the examples (those with "o" following yod represent a reduction of an unaccented syllable). The presence of the "o" after he suggests that the form of the divine name used in these proper nouns was not YAH (which has no vowel following the H), but a fuller form, or the full form of the divine name. And further, the presence of "o" after he suggests that the Masoretes were correct when they vocalized the divine YH element in proper nouns YEHO, with a shewa following the yod and a holem following the he.

The crucial point here is that the divine element is YEHO. One can argue that the shewa after yod in names such as Yehonatan is the result of a vowel reduction because the first syllable does not precede the stressed syllable. This is a good argument, although I will state the case a little differently: When an open word-initial syllable is separated from the stressed syllable by one or more syllables, shewa is used in the word-initial syllable (laryngeals are exceptions). This will explain the shewa in the YE-syllable in the word Jehonatan, but it will also explain the initial YE in the name Yeho$ua. In the BHS I find 227 examples of Yeho$ua, always with "o" as a mater in the second syllable, and I find no examples without this mater.

The name Yeho$ua is interesting in our context because it has four consonants just as YHWH, and because the the first syllable of the divine element has shewa and the second syllable has holem. This shows that the short vowel shewa would be found in such a word with three syllables and not only in longer words. So again, we cannot know the old pronunciation of YHWH, but the clues we have suggest that the first two syllables were YEHO.


Best regards

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo

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






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