Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Doug Belot" <dbelot AT bigpond.net.au>]

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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