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  • From: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Holy Name Unpronounced
  • Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 20:01:50 +0100



Dear Uri,

Your memory is correct. There is an Egyptian hymn to Amun-Ra "whose name is hidden from all his creatures." If you read the article "Nameless gods" in Volume IX of James Hasting's "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics" (1917) you can see how widespread nameless gods were all over the ancient world, including Amun-Ra. There were links between Egypt and Israel, and Egyptian views may absolutely have contributed to the superstitious view of YHWH. A. Marmorstein "The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God" (1927) is also worth reading. Among other things, Marmorstein wrote: "Greek philosophy, Christian apology and Gnostic lore concur in the idea of God's namelessness. That God had no name was taught by Aristotele, Seneca, Maxim of Tyre, Celsus, and Hermes Trismegistus" (p. 77). We may also mention Philo, who was heavily influenced by Platonism, where namelessness was very important. In addition to this, magical arts evidently played an important role. At the University Library in Oslo there are lots of magical papyrii with IAW written in many different combinations, and similar papyrii are found in numerous other libraries. One reason for not pronouncing the name of God could have been to prevent its use in magical arts.

It is also interesting that the rabbis never used Leviticus 24:16 as a proof that the name should not be pronounced ) G. F. Moore "Judaism in the first Three Centuries of of the Christian Era: The Age of the Tannaim Judaism". (1955) vol 1, p 428. Neither did they use Exodus 20:7 (L. Finkelstein "New Light on the Prophets 1969, p. 428.) Curiously enough, the passage they did use to prove non-pronunciation, is that passage that most clearly says that the name should never cease to be pronounced, namely, Exodus 3:15. The reasonings of the rabbis are found in M. M. Kasher "The Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation".(1967) vol II, p. 109.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo




Dear Rolf,

Years ago I read in a popular Egyptian enyclopedia that the name of one their chief gods - was it Amun? - is a held in such high respect that it is not pronounced.

Some time later I could not find this reference again when I tried to relocate it in the same source book. I do not remember if the source was a Greek Hellenistic writer or not.

Thus I found it very interesting that you stated:

"Because of superstition, probably based on the views of Plato, the
tetragram was not pronounced by some groups, but is was pronounced
by others B.C.E. "

Is it possible that the custom of not pronouncing the holy name was an imitation of Egtptian practice?

From the way YHWH is used in pre-exilic Hebrew inscriptional material it would seem that it was freely pronounced. But this is only an impression. Similarly it can be argued that since parts of this DN were used in many BCE theophoric personal names, such parts were freely pronounced.

Regards,

Uri

Uri Hurwitz Great Neck, NY










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