Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

All this is assuming that:

A. This book from 1876 has the reading right.
B. That the king of Hamath's name really included the name of the God of
Israel. There is absolutely no evidence that YHWH was ever worshipped by
anyone but Israelites.

I certainly would not bank so much on this single appearance.

Yigal


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick J. Emsweller" <patrick AT clubgraves.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 12:48 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] yhwh pronunciation


> Per your request James: Pls note that this is taken out of context
somewhat,
> this paragraph is part of a bigger discussion, out of the Cuneiform
> Decipherment section of the book.  Hope this may be of some value to you.
>
>
>
> -patrick
>
>
>
> We read in the annals of the Assyrian kings of their wars and
conquests-what
> countries they subdued, what peoples they carried away into captivity, and
> with what kings they made covenants and alliance.  To every lover of the
> Bible it must be a source of great satisfaction to find mentioned made in
> the Assyrian inscriptions of Tyre and Sidon, and Jerusalem and Gaza, and
> Samaria (sometimes called Omri).  And not only names of Biblical places,
but
> of Biblical persons are to be found there; as Hezekiah and Jehoahaz, Ahab
> and Jehu, and Hazael, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Nebuchadezzar.  Under
> this head of scriptural illustration will come the deeply interesting
fact,
> that we now obtain evidence of the true pronunciation of the sacred and
> incommunicable name of God.  It is, we believe, generally admitted among
> Hebrew scholars, that the name Jehovah, as the designation of the supreme
> God, is incorrect.  The Jews never pronounced this name. (see note)  You
> never meet with it in the New Testament; showing that even at that time
> either the true pronunciation was lost, or it was considered unlawful to
> pronounce it, which is the statement of Philo Judaeus, confirmed by
> Josephus.  Some Hebraists contended for Yahveh as the lost pronunciation,
> but with little proof.  We learn, however, from an Assyrian inscription of
> Sargon's that the correct pronunciation of the most sacred name of God
> amongst the Semitic people was Ya-u, or Yahu.  In the Cyprus Inscription
of
> Sargon we read of a certain Ya-hu-bidi, king of Hamath.  Now as this
king's
> name is preceded by the sign indicating a god, it is evident that his name
> is a compound of some divine name, such as Yahu's servant, in which it
> resembles the Hebrew name Jehoahaz, more correctly Yeho-ahaz-"one who
holds
> to Yeho," or Jehovah.  In the book of Psalms, too, we are told to praise
God
> by his name Yah, which is an abbreviated form of Yahu.
>
>             That this was the most sacred name of God as taught in the
> mysteries we learn from Macrobius and Plutarch.  We may assume, therefore,
> from the vary accurate mode of Assyrian vocalization, that we have here
the
> correct pronunciation of a Semitic name as found in an Assyrian
inscription,
> and the Ya-hu, or Ya-ho, and not Jehovah, is the correct pronunciation of
> what has been called "the ineffable name" of the Most High.
>
>
>
> (note: See on this point the excellent observations of Dr. Ginsburg, in
pp.
> 22 and 23 of The Moabite Stone, 4to, Reeves & Turner, 2nd edition, 1871.)
>
>
>
> Preston Cory and E. Richmond Hodges (1876). Cory's Ancient Fragments of
the
> Phoenician, Carthaginian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Other Writers (pp.
> xxviii-xxx). Reprinted by Kessinger Publications 2003. ISBN 0-7661-5809-8
>
>
>
>   _____
>
> From: Read, James C [mailto:K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 2:58 PM
> To: Patrick J. Emsweller; b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] yhwh pronunciation
>
>
>
> Yes please.
> I would be most grateful.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Patrick J. Emsweller
> Sent: Wed 7/20/2005 6:25 PM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] yhwh pronunciation
>
> James,
>
>
>
> Yes, I believe in a chapter or in the prologue discussing recently
> interpreted hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts.  I would have to pull it off
> my shelf to be sure, but I could do that and type up the text for you if
you
> would like.
>
>
>
> -patrick
>
>
>
>   _____
>
> From: Read, James C [mailto:K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 12:58 PM
> To: Patrick J. Emsweller; b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] yhwh pronunciation
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanx. Do you know if yhwh is attested in these texts? And if so where?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Patrick J. Emsweller
> Sent: Wed 7/20/2005 5:49 PM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] yhwh pronunciation
>
>
> James wrote:
>
> Does anyone know of extra biblical Semitic texts which attest to the
divine
> name as a foreign god?
>
> Reply:
>
> I don't know if this has been mentioned or if you are already familiar
with
> it, if so I apologize.  If not, you might want to pick up "Cory's Ancient
> Fragments of the Phoenician, Carthaginian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Other
> Writers".  ISBN 0766158098.  This is a rare and expensive book, however
> Kessinger Publishing has reprinted it at a reasonable price with I think
> some added notes.  It is available through Amazon, or probably any online
> book store.
>
> Anyway just thought I would throw it out there for you.
>
> -patrick
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Read, James C
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 11:14 AM
> To: Harold R. Holmyard III; b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] yhwh pronunciation
>
> 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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