Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Karl,

Yet the Aramaic name YHW or YHH at Elephantine does not necessarily 
determine the pronunciation of YHWH in Hebrew because the short form 
could have been a different name, a slang form. At least, it is a 
different language, and we don't have the vowels. Here is some material 
from the Biblical Studies site:


KESLER:
According to a Biblical Archaeological Society
article,

The tetragrammaton YHWH (Yahweh), the name of the Israelite deity, never 
appears at
Elephantine. In the papyri, the regular form of the divine name
is written YHW; in the ostraca, the divine name is
YHH. It appears that this abbreviated version of the
divine name was confined to vernacular usage, while
sacred writings used the form YHWH."

See
http://www.basarchive.org/sample/bswbPrintPage.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume!&Issue=3&ArticleID=4

John Kesler
Charleston, WV

There are no sacred writings from Elephantine so
one cannot say that the name Yhw is confined to
the vernacular. I assume that the name of the god
of the Jews at Elephantine was Yhw, pronounced, as
you have, Yahu.
Liz Fried
Ann Arbor

HH: The Biblical Archeological Society archives address yields nothing.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard