Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

James,

Your theory about the use of PIPI for the divine name makes a lot of 
assumptions. Primarily, it assumes a general ignorance of Jewish reference to 
their God among gentiles. This is hardly the case, especially with the early 
gentile Christians who were largely drawn from the ranks of 'God-fearers' in 
the synagogues. The 'chain of events' you reconstruct strikes me as highly 
unlikely.

There is ample evidence for the shift to KYRIOS in the two centuries BCE. I 
doubt it was a universal shift, but it certainly seems to be quite prevalent. 
Notice also the paucity of the divine name in Hebrew/Aramaic documents from 
this time on, and the preference for other forms of reference (e.g. 'God', 
'Lord', 'Heaven', etc.). But, I won't rehash all the arguments.


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au