Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 6/28/06, JAMES CHRISTIAN READ wrote:

> In addition to this I would like to make the observation
> that the phenomenon of the divine name seems to support
> this theory. yhwh being an aramaic name was the way
> Abraham called his god and was the way he taught his
> children to call his god. This was perhaps the only
> survivor of Abraham's language that managed to rest in
> the language all the way through the generations even
> though for the rest of everyday communication they
> adopted hebrew.

I am not sure why someone thinks that "yhwh" is Aramaic.
It could just as well be Hebrew.  I understand (based on
memory of past discussions here) that neither "hwh" nor
"yhwh" are attested or known prior to the 1st millenium
BCE.  Also, if "yhwh" is supposed to be an hiphil, then the
waw could just as well be part of the Hebrew conjugation of
the word.

Yitzhak Sapir
http://toldot.blogspot.com