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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew pronunciation before the Masoretes

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  • From: "Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>
  • To: "Sesamo m." <sesamox AT hotmail.com>, "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew pronunciation before the Masoretes
  • Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:33:03 -0600



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From: "Sesamo m." <sesamox AT hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 2:32 PM
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [b-hebrew] Hebrew pronunciation before the Masoretes

Considering these former examples, it seems that the first vowel had a tendency to be weakened. Another example that seems to agree with this is Capernaum. The name Capernaum seems to be a transliteration of "Kefar Nahum". This might indicate that the word "Kefar" was pronounced "Kafar" in the 1st cent. at least in Galilee.
This makes me wonder if the names beginning with "Yeho-" could have been "Yaho-" originally. But in this case, the LXX puts "Yo-" which doesn't seem to support my suspicion. Any ideas?

The name of Moses' succesor was pronounced "Yesu" by the 2nd cent. b.C., or maybe "Yesua", if the Greeks considered the final sound just as a gutural consonant (the final -s is just a peculiarity of Greek, it was added to any name ended in a vowel), and that seems to be the pronunciation in the 1st cent. A.D. And it was "Yehoshua" by the 7th century (it seems strange to me the change from "Ye" to "Yeho"; could it be a kind of archaization on the part of the Masoretes?).

Actually, the "ye" did not change to "Yeho" exactly. The Yeho changed to Ye (as I will explain) but then it changed back in Mishnaic times to avoid the name of Yeshua for obvious reasons.
In pre-exilic times, it was common practice to include יהוָהas part of names such as "YHWH is my Salvation" which was the name YESHAYAHU (Isaiah). The pre-exilic Hebrew name that we know as "Joshua" was יְהֹושֻׁעַ Yehoshua which means "YHWH is my help." The inclusion of the name of God in a personal name was common practice in the ancient middle east and is called the "Theophoric" noticeable in names like Michael (EL) Balshazar (Baal) and Yahweh Yahosef (Joseph).

In the second temple period it became blasphemy for a mortal to pronounce the name of God (Shem haMeforash), even accidentally, hence the theophoric was either removed or shortened. Mattityahu (Matthew) became Mattaya and Yehoshua became Y'shua (Yeshua). Yeshua was one of the most common names during the 2nd temple period including Yeshua ben Sira and a number of High Priests and many of the general population. The Hebrew word for "salvation" is YESHA and it is from the same root as the second part of Y'shua, SHUA, which means "To call for Help." Jesus' Aramaic name means "YHWH will help."

In the Galilee, Aramaic was pronounced differently and Galileans dropped their alefs and ayins like Cockney English drop their H's. Jesus' Galilean friends would have called him Yeshu. In Judea and formally, his name was Yeshua, yehSHOO-ah (kind of a gulp), and in the Galilee his name was pronounced Yeshu, pronounced YEHshoo. Because of strong Hellenistic influence in Palestine at the time, some Jews with the name of Yeshua used a Greek transliteration of the name. Yeshua ben Sirach was one of them who went by the name Ἰησοῦς, pronounced YAYsoos. Greek had no sound for SH and the
masculine ending S was added.

shlama

Jack Kilmon




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