Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David P Donnelly <davedonnelly1 AT juno.com>]

Concerning the Catholic Church's teaching that God's name is "Yahweh",
Peter Kirk asks:

>>> 
Is this an official teaching of the Catholic Church? Or is it just 
 that  the Church has not objected to its scholars following the
scholarly 
 consensus here?
>>>

I don't know if it is the official teaching of the Church, but the New
Jerusalem Bible, 
which appears to translate YHWH as "Yahweh" 100% of the time,
does have the "Nihil obstat" seal of approval.

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 also says:

>>>
The judicious reader will perceive that the Samaritan pronunciation Jabe
probably approaches the real sound of the Divine name closest; the other
early writers transmit only abbreviations or corruptions of the sacred
name. 

Inserting the vowels of Jabe into the original Hebrew consonant text, we
obtain the form Jahveh (Yahweh), which has been generally accepted by
modern scholars as the true pronunciation of the Divine name. 

It is not merely closely connected with the pronunciation of the ancient
synagogue by means of the Samaritan tradition, but it also allows the
legitimate derivation of all the abbreviations of the sacred name in the
Old Testament.
>>>

It almost seems that the Catholic Church has created a hybrid name
"Yahweh",
which has the vowels of "Jabe" and the consonants of "YHWH".

Peter,

Did the Samaritan language resemble the Hebrew language in about 400
A.D.? 

Do the letters yod and he, and waw look the same in the Samaritan
language?

Dave Donnelly 

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 11:45:18 +0100 Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
writes:
> On 10/08/2005 11:19, David P Donnelly wrote:
> 
> > ...
> >
> >I find it interesting that the Catholic Church, 
> >which teaches that God's name is "Yahweh", ...
> >  
> >
> 
> Is this an official teaching of the Catholic Church? Or is it just 
> that 
> the Church has not objected to its scholars following the scholarly 
> 
> consensus here?
> 
> >... quotes Clement of Alexandria as using the spelling "Jaou" [i.e. 
> Iaou]
> >(in Stromata Book V. in Migne's P.G. col 60).
> >
> >Clement of Alexandria is a canonized Roman Catholic saint,
> >yet they don't quote him as writing "Iaoue" in Stromata Book V. 
> Chapter
> >6:34.
> >  
> >
> 
> Perhaps because the textual situation is uncertain. As I understand 
> it, 
> different manuscripts of Clement have IAOU, IAOUE and IAOUAI.
> 
> >The Catholic Church appears to base its belief that God's name is
> >"Yahweh" 
> >on the Samaritan name "Jabe" alone. 
> >  
> >
> 
> Not necessarily. Gesenius had other reasons for preferring this 
> form, 
> including the possible derivation from the verb form. Anyway, I 
> don't 
> think the Catholic Encyclopedia should be taken as official teaching 
> of 
> the Catholic Church, but rather as the teaching of individual 
> Catholic 
> scholars which has been found objectionable by the Church.
> 
> -- 
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
> 
> 
> 
>From g_gardner1234 AT yahoo.com  Wed Aug 10 07:45:56 2005
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Here is another thought form a website that appears to
be Samaritan.


Thoughts of A Karaite: Yohanan Shalom Jacobson

  Originally the Samaritans or Shamerim (keepers, as
they call themselves)were divided into two groups,
Dosithean and Sabbuai. The Sabbuai later became known
as the Kushaniyya, the modern day Samaritans are from
this group. The Kushaniyya refused to pronounce the
divine name and supplanted it with the term Shema
(Aramaic for "The Name"). The Dositheans on the other
hand used the divine name, but as they no longer exist
it cannot be known how they pronounced the divine
name. Many scholars claim that the pronunciation of
the Divine Name as "Yahweh" is accurate due to
Samaritan inscriptions written in Greek which write
the Divine Name as "Yabe."  The Samaritans in most
instances pronounce beth, veth, waw, pe and fe as a
"b".  But what these scholars fell to realize is that
the Samaritans like the Rabbinates subsituted a the
Name with another word when they came accross the Name
written in the Torah.  The Samaritans unlike the
Rabbinates did not read Adhonai when they came accross
the Divine Name, but "yabe" or innon-Samaritan
pronunciation "yafe" (Beautiful). Therefore the
pronunciation of the divine name as Yahweh is
inaccurate based upon the Samaritan/Kushaniyya desire
'not' to pronounce the divine name. Thus, not even the
Samaritans to our knowledge remained as one group, who
were in complete agreement with one another. 

http://shomron0.tripod.com/2004/feb12.html   

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