Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Richard" <aaa AT endlyss.com>]

Robert Shannon Sumner wrote: >>>what does the exact pronunciation matter?<<<

Good question. Though I would think it does matter greatly. I, personally,
am not dogmatic about it though "Yahweh" just does not sit well with me.

But "The Name" is the most common word in the entire Tanach unless I'm being
led astray by multiple sources. And how often does He speak about His Name?
Very often.

So, yes it is important and I for one look to the day soon when it will be
revealed and He reveals Himself to the world.

Richard Conaway





> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew- 
> bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of robertsumner0110 AT wmconnect.com
> Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 8:31 PM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [b-hebrew] The logic of the Yahweh discussion (or lack 
> thereof)
> 
> 
> Just a few observations:
> 
> 
> 
> 1.  No matter how logically consistent your arguments are, if you 
> begin with a false assumption you are still building a castle in the 
> clouds.  It may be a well-constructed castle, it may be an enticing 
> castle, but, unless I really do not understand gravity, it will not be a
particularly safe castle.
> 2.  The Masoretic text must be regarded as essentially fossilized 
> Hebrew.  By the time the text came into existence, Hebrew had been 
> essentially a 'dead' language for eight centuries or so.  It is, 
> moreover, the fossilization of only one dialect of Hebrew.  More 
> accurately, it is the fossilization of a 'form' of Hebrew (since 
> dialect implies a common-place, spoken language) as it was pronounced 
> by a specific rabbinical group. I do not know exactly how David would 
> have addressed his good friend, but I doubt Moshe ben Naphtali would 
> have pronounced it the same eighteen hundred years later.  Consider the
pronunciation of the Latin Georgius and its Spanish derivative, Jorge.
> 3.  Also take into consideration the simple fact that the 
> pronunciation of the tetragrammaton was purposefully suppressed.  It 
> has not been part of Jewish public worship since the destruction of 
> the second temple.  Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the 
> originators of the Masoretic text had a clue as to how it was to be
pronounced.
> 4.  Unless you are an orthodox Jew striving to avoid offending the 
> deity, or up to some Harry Potter stuff, what does the exact 
> pronunciation matter?  We do not know how the term was pronounced by 
> Moses, and we cannot know how the term was pronounced by Moses, but we 
> have a wonderfully complete presentation of the Person to whom the name
refers.
> 
> 
> Robert Shannon Sumner
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