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  • From: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] IaBe equals Yahweh?
  • Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:58:59 +0100

Dear Dave,

Gesenius was a very fine scholar. But the form Yahweh is an artificial construction that has absolutely no basis in ancient Hebrew sources. As a matter of fact, today we have no knowledge as to how YHWH was pronounced i the day of the first or second temple. However, on the basis of the use of a part of YHWH in personal Hebrew names (also seen in Akkadian transcriptions of some of these names), the name of God probably had three syllables and not two, as is the case with Yahweh.

To try to find the original vowels of YHWH on the basis of Greek transcriptions is a futile exercise; we cannot use an Indo-European language to throw any light on the pronunciation of ancient Hebrew words. (Just look at how many different Greek vowels are used by the LXX, Josephus, Hieronymys, and Origen to transcribe the same Hebrew vowels.) Som LXX fragments have the form IAW (final omega). We find a seemingly similar Aramaic form, YHW in the Elephantine papyri, but we do not know whether the final WAW was used as a consonant or a vowel. If it was a consonant, the name had three syllables with three vowels (YOD+vowel, HE+vowel, and WAW+vowel). If the Greek form IAW is based on a form similar to the one from Elephantine, and the final WAW was used as a consonant there, the Greek scribe misunderstood the final HE and took it as a vowel.

BTW, both the W(ay) of WAYYIQTOL and the W(e) of WEYIQTOL was transcribed as "ou" in Origen's Hexapla, and not as omega.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo


Hi all,
I have been lurking in the backgound with my kindergarten understanding
of Hebrew, and wondering if either James Christian or Yitzhak Sapir would
be willing to discuss in any way Gesenius's Scholarly Reconstruction of
YHWH [i.e. yod-patah-heh-shewa-waw-segol-heh] which seems to have been
accepted by many scholarly sources as possibly accurately representing
the original pronunciation of God's name.
The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon of 1905 boldly posts
Gesenius's proposed Hebrew punctuation of YHWH, followed by it's
letter-by-letter English Transliteration "Yahweh"
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/bdbandstrong290.jpg
The same Hebrew Punctuation can be found in William Smith's 1863 "A
Dictionary of the Bible",
which gives credit to Gesenius for having proposed this Hebrew
punctuation.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-/264290/YahwehfromSmithsBibleDictiona
rylowres.JPG
William Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible" also notes that
Gesenius's proposed punctuation was supposed to be represented by the
"IaBe" of Epiphanius.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/yahwehfromiabe660pixels.JPG
William Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible" also notes their 1863
evidence that Clement of Alexandria had written "Iaou" and not "Iaoue" in
his Stromata Book V, chapter 6:34. [Iaou is preseved in the 11th century
Greek Codex Laurentianus V 3
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/1863Smithsoniaou.JPG
FWIW
Dave Donnelly
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