Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Chavoux,

The claim made in your book seems to be correct. Based on the (not all that
many) inscriptions that we have, it would seem that the preferred Yahwistic
abbreviated form in Iron-Age northern Israel was indeed YW, while the
Judahite equivalent was YHW. Strangely enough, in post-exilic times, the
form YH was used in both Judah and Samaria. 

These distinctions are not reflected in the MT of the Bible. The YW ending
does not appear at all. Names in which the theophoric element is a prefix,
such as Yonatan or Yoram, are just as often spelled Yehonatan and Yehoram.
Names with YHW endings are often rendered YH - Eliyahu/Eliyah. This
apparently reflects the post-exilic editing of whatever pre-exilic sources
the biblical writers were using.

Interestingly enough, in the most recent issue of Israel Exploration Journal
- 60,2 (2011), pp. 188-203, Gary Rendsburg and Bill Schniedewind suggested
that such features as the spelling R(W "his fellow" - instead of the
expected R(HW - in the  Siloam tunnel inscription might mean that the
writers, and thus also the workmen who dug the tunnel itself, were northern
Israelite refugees who had come to Jerusalem. 

Yigal Levin 

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Chavoux Luyt
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:50 PM
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] Northern and Southern Hebrew?

I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but maybe
somebody could point me in the right direction?

In one of my Biblical Archaeology books the claim is made (pretty
convincingly) that a difference in dialect between the Northern (Israel) and
Southern (Judah) kingdom can be seen in Iron Age (split kingdom era)
archaeological remains. Specifically, the bullae (seals) with personal names
shows that names with the divine Name as part of it, use mostly Yod Waw in
the North, but Yod He Waw in the South.

Is there any indication in the Hebrew Bible of a similar difference? (E.g.
between the prophets in the North vs. those in the South). Or has all
differences between the two "dialects" been removed by later scribes?

Regards
Chavoux Luyt
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