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  • From: "Doug Belot" <dbelot AT bigpond.net.au>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>, "Rolf Furuli" <furuli AT online.no>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Holy Name Unpronounced
  • Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 09:49:57 +1000

Hi Rolf , do we have any consensus as to what does constitute blasheming the name of the Lord. I assume that we agree that the name is as yet unknown , as such how could we blaspheme such name.

doug belot.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Rolf Furuli" <furuli AT online.no>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 5:01 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Holy Name Unpronounced




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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