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  • From: "Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
  • To: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] yhwh pronunciation
  • Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 16:14:17 +0100

I sometimes wonder, but maybe I am just paranoid, if
there are modern day Hebrews in high standing who keep
the real pronunciation and meaning of yhwh as a closely
guarded secret and pass them down from generation to
generation to keep them alive.
I noticed before that someone mentiones that Josephus
commented that 'it was no longer lawful' for him to
pronounce the name, implying that it happened in his
lifetime and that the current pronunciation was known to
him. Does anyone know where exactly he says that? I
should be very interested in reading the account.
It was also questioned before why ehyeh (hyh) is related
to yhwh (hwh). I have reason to believe that as the name
had already been widely accepted as being pronounced in
certain way at the time of the penning of the Torah that
this is why yhwh remained as it was even though the common
usage in the Hebrew of that time was to use the hyh form.
The reason I have come to this conclusion is the patterns we
see in scripture before the widespread of the superstition
which banned its usage.
1) Early MSS of the LXX show a hebrew tetragrammaton amongst
Greek writing
2) DSS, in places, show archaic lettering of yhwh amidst the
by now widely accepted aramaic lettering of the rest of the
manuscripts
These factors led me to believe that the behaviour was to preserve
its ancient pronunciation against the flow of evolution of the
rest of the language. Thus Moshe wrote ehyeh as the normal way
of saying the verb form in his day while he wrote yhwh which had
already by now been written in stone (so to speak).

Does anyone know of extrabiblical semitic texts which attest to
the divine name as a foreign god?

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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] high priest on Yom Kippur -- no strings attached?
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Hi b-hebrew,

Soren

>> a tradition that the high priest on Yom Kippur was to wear a rope around
his ankle, so he could >> be hauled out if he was to die in the Holy of
Holies.
> .. I seem to have contributed to keeping a baseless tall story alive: ...
Some pretty
> knowledgeable people.... go out of their way to debunk it. apologies for
my gullibility

Schmuel
No apology necessary :-)
Who are some of these knowledgeable folks ?
Anybody from Aish or Orthodox circles ?

Liz Fried

I thought it was in Tractate Yoma but I can't seem to find it.


Rolf Furuli
The place is Yoma 6,2.

Schmuel

http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t03/yom11.htm
I don't see it, although I could check Soncino . or maybe I'm missing it.

A friend Craig posted on my email forum, saying it was otherwise an oral
tradition

The Zohar says:
"a cord was tied to feet of high priest before he entered the Holy of Holies"
(Zohar V (on Vayikra), 102a)

Shalom,
Steven Avery
Queens, NY
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic/




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