Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Dave writes:

Thank you for the clarification,

Garth Grenache sent me an off-list email and said:

"Yigal's message reaffirms the stance of almost all scholars:
"The various M[a]soretic pointings of the name simply indicate 
which substitute pronunciation should be used, 
not that that is the "true" pronunciation of YHWH."

Dave writes:

While it may be true that God's true personal name is YHWH,
6 different variants of YHWH occur in Codex L.

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Dave, you're confusing the nikkud for the actual text. Remember that it is
the consonantal text that "counts" - the nikkid is just a reading aid. God's
name is YHWH, with no nikkud. The Mesoretes, following the tradition that
they had received about which substitute name should be used where, added
the various vocalizations in order to help the reader know how to read. In
Jewish tradition the "correct" reading is passed down, so that no reader who
is part of a community had to do much guessing.

Yigal Levin