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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] YHWH
  • Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:10:48 +0200

Dear Ted,

1. Please remember to sign your posts with your full name.

2. In my oppinion, 'EHYEH ASHER 'EHYEH is a pun, not an etymology.

Yigal Levin


----- Original Message ----- From: <TedBro AT aol.com>
To: <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>; <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 5:32 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] YHWH



Yitzhak:

I agree that there is no reason to think that YHWH is idiomatic for superior
or that it is semantically connected to ANI. Also seeing YHWH as a Hiphil of
HYH is speculative as it is, to my knowledge, unattested elsewhere. However,
don't you think the expression 'EHYEH ASHER 'EHYEH (Exodus 3:14) shows some
kind of verbal etymology, even though the proper name itself would clearly be
a noun.

Cheers,
ted

In a message dated 12/25/2007 8:57:02 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com writes:

YHWH is not used in these verses at all.
YHWH is not equivalent to ANI in any way or form. YHWH is the divine name
of God. It is a noun, not a verb. The suggestion to read it as
Hiphil of HYH is
problematic because the verb doesn't seem to have an Hiphil. While a Hiphil
may have developed later on, the divine name is attested already in the 9th
century BCE and perhaps even earlier. Also, the name is probably present in
the name of the king Jehu. This seems to indicate that the first three
letters
are consonantal, and the last is not. Therefore, the proposal that the
divine
name is connected to any verbal form of HYH is rather weak. Even if it is,
the verb's sense is definitely future, third person, and probably causative.
I don't see how an equivalence to ANI would get you "superiority." ANI is
just
a pronoun. It has no sense of superiority.
HYH as a verb is not equivalent to ANI. Possibly we can suggest that HYH is
used for "I was" "I will be" whereas ANI is used for "I am," but this doesn't
mean that they are equivalent. It means that Hebrew and English have
different
syntax and express these terms in different ways syntactically.
The short answer to your question is a definite no, and it wouldn't make YHWH
idiomatic for superiority or anything close anyway.

Yitzhak Sapir
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