Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

David:

On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 10:03 AM, fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>wrote:

> Have you considered the possibility that the manufacturers of leningrad
> codex intentionally and incorrectly marked this name יהוה for
> pronunciation?
> And why?
>
> Because the correct pronunciation of this name by anyone other than כהן
> גדול
> = the no. 1 offense and wrong that can be committed by the intended
> consumers of the book?
>
> Hence, the name was intentionally pointed for erroneous pronunciation to
> avoid intentional and inadvertent correct vocalization of the name.
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>

This was the answer I was taught in first year Hebrew class, and up to now I
have seen no reason to doubt it.

After first year Hebrew class, I have since come to doubt the whole system
of vowel points, and that based on a) the Hebrew text itself, b) Greek
transliterations, c) transliterations into other languages. Now my
conclusion is that we don’t know what was the pronunciation of Biblical
Hebrew. If we can’t know it for the whole language, what makes one think
that he can know it for one word of that language?

Karl W. Randolph.