Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Dave Donnelly wrote:

> I have decided to drop out of any further discussions on this issue.
>
> I will probably look for a new Christian Bible that I can live with,
> that uses "The LORD" and "GOD" when translating variants of "YHWH".
>
> While I am still somewhat skeptical about this method of translating the
> variants of YHWH,
> this method seems to be the rule and not the exception in Christian
> Bibles.
>
> I thank you for the information that you have provided me with on this
> issue,
> in your various posts to me.

Hello Dave,

I think in retrospect it is easier to understand the whole motivation of
your query.  It seems to me, that the whole purpose all along has
been to see if you can "live with" a translation that translates the
tetragrammaton as Jehovah.  Coming with a clear denunciation of
such a practice by dictionaries even 100-200 years old, you were
hoping to see if this really was a problematic translation.  For some,
the name of God might be so fundamental an issue in translation
that it might make the whole use of the translation problematic.
It seems to me that in light of the recent evidence I have provided
you are willing to accept that standard denunciation of the
translation Jehovah may indeed be with some foundation.  After
many years that you've looked into the issue, I think this is
commendable and refreshing.

So, I wanted to suggest that in my opinion the best translation is
the original -- the Hebrew.

Barring that, I would suggest making use of modern translations.
New discoveries are helping us understand the Bible all the time
so that new translations have a better chance at making use of
these discoveries in their translations of the Bible.

Another one to consider is the New English Translation of the
Septuagint.  This is available online at -
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/

This is both a modern translation but it also makes available the
ancient translation made by Hebrew-speaking Jews who lived
closest to the events in the Bible.  Their understanding and
translation of the Bible is also very important even if you can
read the original Hebrew.

Yitzhak Sapir

P.S. I hoped to understand why people on this list think that
Hebrew theophoric names furnish evidence for a trisyllabic
pronunciation but I guess in light of the way the threads
turned, I'll have to wait for another time to find this out.