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  • From: bhebrew AT shields-online.net
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] G.Gertoux and the Name...
  • Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 09:29:59 +1000

Dear Rolf,

I\'ll try and be brief because this really is crossing beyond B-Hebrew
territory into other realms. Your claims are not convincing for a number of
reasons:

1. There are numerous circumlocutions employed in the NT to avoid using the
divine name (e.g. Phil 2:9, etc).

2. There are no extant MSS of the NT which employ any form of the
tetragrammaton. No fragment, no scrap. Nothing.

3. The argument that the use of the nomina sacra KS in early NT MSS indicates
that they were altered proves nothing about what was in the autographs. The
fact that there are no extant MSS which preserve the tetragrammaton is the
only concrete evidence.

4. There are quite a few Hebrew MSS among the DSS sectarian literature which
consistently use adonay and never use Yhwh (e.g. 4Q526, 4Q527, 4Q507, 4Q459,
4Q521, 4Q437, 4Q435, 1Q34bis, 4Q410, 4Q577, 1QSb, 4Q504, 4Q432, 4Q508, 4Q428,
4Q392, 4Q384, 1QHa, 4Q200, 4Q509, 4Q434, 4Q506, 4Q269, 1QM). This suggests an
avoidance of the tetragrammaton in literature composed at the time. This, in
conjunction with the use of special forms in copies of biblical manuscripts
(where the desire to avoid using the tetragrammaton would be offset by the
desire to preserve the text) suggest that in a translation (such as the LXX)
the translators could easily have felt that the latter constraint was less
binding and so felt at liberty to employ kyrios for the divine name.

5. You\'ve represented Pietersma\'s arguments in an overly reductionistic
fashion.

6. What you fail to note is that there are (at least on Pietersma\'s count)
only 3 extant LXX MSS dated earlier than 50CE which provide any evidence over
the writing of the divine name. Given the questions Pietersma raises and
strong evidence that substitutions were common at the oral level, this is
rather scant evidence from which to derive such a dogmatic position as you
seem to have.

Regards,

Martin Shields.




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