Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

There are a number of problems with bringing in evidence from Greek
transliterations:

a) Greek has no way of representing a H consonant midword
b) Greek has a set of vowels which does not entirely overlap the Hebrew
vowels e.g. no schewa

But let's leave that aside for the moment. Which Greek transliterations are
you talking about exactly? I've seen none that support a form of YAHWEH. Are
you referring to IABA?

What do you make of these(copied and pasted from wikipedia)?


   - *Ιουώ* (Iouō): *Pistis Sophia<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistis_Sophia>
   
*[94]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah#cite_note-Charles_William_King_1887_p._285-93>
(2nd
   cent.)
   - *Ιεού* (Ieou): *Pistis
Sophia*[94]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah#cite_note-Charles_William_King_1887_p._285-93>
(2nd
   cent.)
   - *Ιεηωουά* (Ie-ee-ōoua): *Pistis
Sophia*[95]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah#cite_note-94> (2nd
   cent.)
   - *Ιευώ* (Ievō): 
Eusebius<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebius_of_Caesarea>
   [96] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah#cite_note-95> (c. 315)


James Christian

2010/1/9 Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>

> Hello James,
>
> The basis of the reconstruction "Yahweh" is not the assumption that the
> name
> should be vocalized as causative, but rather, that it fits with actual
> transliterations
> into Greek.  These transliterations are sound independent evidence, and
> while
> you may not like them, they are evidence that anyone serious with the
> pronunciation
> must explain.
>
> In Tiberian vocalization, schewa prior to He with seghol would be
> pronounced as
> a short [o] vowel.  So rather than "Yehova" it would be "Yohova."  Similar
> transliterations can already be found in the Septuagint.  For example,
> yhw)$ is
> transliterated as Ioas.
>
> This should already show that while Yahweh is a sound reconstruction based
> on
> actual evidence from ancient times, the reconstruction "Jehovah" (Yehova)
> is
> obviously wrong and based on modern European pronunciation.
>
> The reading Adonai is very ancient and IMO found already in Amos 7:7-9.  I
> think
> a very reasonable reading (and perhaps the simplest reading) of the
> interchange
> in those verses of )dny with Y' is that Adonai is the reading of Y'.
> So depending
> how late you date Amos would determine how early you date the practice of
> pronouncing Y' as Adonai.  Even the epigraphic Iron Age form xyhwh "As Y'
> lives", could be taken as support since compound words are rather rare in
> Hebrew.  But if Y' was normally pronounced as Adonai, the compound form
> indicates the wish of the author that the initial letter is to be
> pronounced Y.
>
> In Masoretic times, aside from reading it as Elohim whenever it comes
> before
> or after the word Adonai (as in Amos 7 above), there is also other
> evidence.
> For example, poems (piyyutim) where Y' rhymes with with words that end
> in -ai, and there is also a lot of evidence that the Masoretes themselves
> wrote describing their pronunciation.  Early Rabbinic texts also prohibit
> the
> pronunciation of the name outside the Temple.
>
> In light of all the above, it is clear that the Masoretes used the
> vocalization
> in the Bible to denote Adonai (as in the issue where it follows/precedes
> Elohim), it is very unlikely that they would have used the actual
> vocalization
> in reading the Torah (since already in Mishnaic times, it was considered
> something that could only be pronounced in the destroyed Temple), the
> pronunciation "Jehovah" is clearly wrong and based on modern European
> pronunciation, whereas Yahweh is based on sound evidence from
> transliterations from ancient times.
>
> Yitzhak Sapir
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