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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Theophoric Name: Y:HOWYFQIYM
  • Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 12:19:56 -0600

Karl Randolph wrote:

Your sources are not as aurhoritive as you may want. See below.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Harold Holmyard" <hholmyard AT ont.com>

HH: All right. Thanks. You're saying that what seems quite certain to
you is that the divine name had three syllables, with the second one
being "o." Most scholars, according to reports both Catholic,
Protestant, and Jewish, apparently believe that two syllables is closer
to the original sound, though some allow that it could have been three
syllables:

http://www.bible-researcher.com/driver1.html


This researcher first said that the pronunciation was lost before 70 AD, then cited sources from after as proof.



HH: This is G. R. Driver, a well-known scholar, and he doesn't exactly say that the pronunciation was completely lost:

The true pronunciation was already passing into oblivion before A.D. 70; but Christian writers between A.D. 150 and A.D. 450 have Yaouai and Yabe (Yave) in Greek characters, and early magical texts have Yhbyh (Yahveh) in Aramaic characters, all pointing to Yahweh as the original pronunciation.

HH: He said it was passing into oblivion, not that it had passed. He doesn't give the next data to prove that it had passed into oblivion, but rather to show what may have been preserved.


http://www.jesuswalk.com/names-god/yahweh_jehovah.htm


This author simply takes the Yehweh pronunciation for granted, gives no evidence for it.



HH: The writer has a doctorate. He cites articles by recognized scholars, one by Anson Rainey and another by Barton Payne. Anson Rainey is Jewish and Barton Payne was Protestant.:

1 Anson F. Rainey, "How was the Tetragrammaton Pronounced?," Biblical Archaeological Review (July/August 1985), pp. 78-79. J. Barton Payne, ha-wa-, TWOT #484a.


http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08329a.htm


This author cites unnamed scholarly consensus and some of their reasons. But he acknowledges that this is not proof.



HH: You would have to show me that what you're talking about. This Catholic encyclopedia cites evidence, accepts it, and shows that scholars accept it, too, in his further remarks about the meaning of Yahweh after the following quote. This quote gives and accepts evidence (not because of the consensus but because of the evidence):

To take up the ancient writers:
. Diodorus Siculus writes Jao (I, 94);
. Irenaeus ("Adv. Haer.", II, xxxv, 3, in P. G., VII, col. 840), Jaoth;
. the Valentinian heretics (Ir., "Adv. Haer.", I, iv, 1, in P.G., VII, col. 481), Jao;
. Clement of Alexandria ("Strom.", V, 6, in P.G., IX, col. 60), Jaou;
. Origin ("in Joh.", II, 1, in P.G., XIV, col. 105), Jao;
. Porphyry (Eus., "Praep. evang", I, ix, in P.G., XXI, col. 72), Jeuo;
. Epiphanius ("Adv. Haer.", I, iii, 40, in P.G., XLI, col. 685), Ja or Jabe;
. Pseudo-Jerome ("Breviarium in Pss.", in P.L., XXVI, 828), Jaho;
. the Samaritans (Theodoret, in "Ex. quaest.", xv, in P. G., LXXX, col. 244), Jabe;
. James of Edessa (cf.. Lamy, "La science catholique", 1891, p. 196), Jehjeh;
. Jerome ("Ep. xxv ad Marcell.", in P. L., XXII, col. 429) speaks of certain ignorant Greek writers who transcribed the Hebrew Divine name II I II I.
The judicious reader will peceive 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.


http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc12/htm/ii.xxviii.ii.htmmm


Rehash of the same arguments as above.



HH: But this is from an authoritative, if old, Protestant source.


http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=52&letter=N


This author takes the HWH root as the reason for the pronunciation.

Is YHWH from the verb HWH? Conjecture, some would call it the root fallacy.



HH: This is the Jewish encyclopedia. These are authoritative sources from widely differing backgrounds showing broad agreement. The original pronunciation has been lost, so I suppose various things are possible.

Was the Hebrew pronunciation similar to the Samaritan? Contradicted by the early Greek transcriptions. The Samaritan pronunciation could have been a way to say the name without really saying it.



HH: The last sentence seems empty speculation. The early Greek transcriptions do not absolutely contradict the the Samaritan pronunciation. Epiphanius has the same thing as the Samaritan. Some of the other ones with "Jao" may reflect a sound similar to Yahweh.

James of Edessa has something very close (Jehjeh), though he is later (A.D. 633-705). Here is a word about James of Edessa:

He was not only familiar with Greek and with older Syriac writers, but he also had some knowledge of Hebrew, and willingly availed himself of the aid of Jewish scholars, whose views he often records. His writings, which are not all extant, were very varied and numerous. Among them may be noticed first, his important revision of the Old Testament.

Ancient Greek transliterations, while good enough to show that they contradict the Samaritan pronunciation, the lack of the H sound make them an uncertain source. In other words, they don't contradict my conjectured pronunciation of "Yahohe", nor "Yahwey", nor "Yahoweh". Or more accurately, evidence for all three of these pronunciations could be adduced from one or more of these trascriptions.



HH: The "h" sound does not even have to be pronounced, just as it isn't in Yahweh.

From the theophoric use in names, I come to the conclusion that
YHWH was originally pronounced Yahohe or something similar. But this is conjecture, no less so than the conjectured pronunciations listed above, and I expect other people to disagree.



HH: I don't mind what your view is, or Rolf's. If we want more details, we may have to go to scholarly articles in libraries, not necessarily at easy access on the Internet.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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