Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Segall [mailto:segall AT umich.edu]
> Sent: Wed 7/27/2005 9:00 PM
> To: Read, James C
> Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: YHWH pronunciation
>
>
> While many ancient sources have been used to try to understand the
> pronunciation of YHWH, there is one source that no one seems to be aware
> of in which an actual pronunciation has been preserved.
>
> After the Bar Kochba rebellion was crushed by the Romans in 135 CE many
> Jews fled the land of Israel to places that were not under Roman rule,
> such as the Arabian Penninsula and the lands of the Persian Empire. One
> group of Jewish refugees appears to have fled by boat as far as North
> America. Evidence for this includes Bar Kochba era coins discovered along
> the Ohio River and a Canaanite Hebrew inscription on a headstone in an
> undisturbed burial mound found in a controlled archeological dig conducted
> by the Simthsonian Bureau of Ethnology in the late nineteenth century.
>
> This might be considered nothing more than an interesting historical
> footnote except for the fact that the religion of the Cherokee Indians
> before the arrival of European settlers was very similar in beliefs to
> Phariseeic Judaism. Cherokee legends included the story of Adam and Eve,
> the Great Flood, the tower of Babel, Abraham, Moses and wandering in the
> wilderness. The number 7 had special meaning for the Cherokees who
> observed a sabbath every seventh day. They believed in a single spirit
> god, life after death and heaven and hell.
>
> One of the most interesting things about the Cherokee religion was the
> belief that the name of God was sacred and was only to be spoken by the
> high priest on special religious occasions. The name of the Cherokee god
> was Ye ho waah. To the extent that this name and its pronunciation have
> been accurately preserved by the Cherokees, we have evidence that the name
> YHWH had three syllables and was pronounced Ye ho waah at the time of the
> Bar Kochba rebellion. If this is the case, there is no obvious reason to
> believe that it was pronounced differently at earlier times.
>
> A chapter describing the Cherokee religion is included in the book
> "Understanding the Exodus and Other Mysteries of Jewish History" that can
> be obtained from the website www.etzhaimpress.com. A number of references
> are included in this chapter.
>
> Stephen Segall

I do not believe that these parallels are pre-European but the result of 
evangelization of Cherokees who were very much Old Testament ppeople.  A 
good site dedicated to Cherokee beliefs can be found at:

http://www.cherokeebyblood.com/religion.htm#F

Jack