Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jerry Shepherd <jshepherd53 AT gmail.com>]

Hi Rolf,

 

Sorry I didn't reply to your last post to me any sooner.

 

I appreciate your finding "the situation a little amusing."  But I still think that what you refer to as "graphic evidence" is better characterized as "data" for which you have provided one plausible scenario.  However, while the scenario is plausible, I don't this it is the most likely proposal, for several reasons:

 

(1) As you yourself admit, we're dealing here with only three or four fragmentary manuscripts.  I think it is quite a stretch to argue these few manuscripts are completely representative of a much larger set.  Among these four mss there are two different practices: (1) Greek IAO; and (2) YHWH in paleo-Hebrew.   Additionally, there are other mss which simply have a lacuna where the divine name would be written, for which there are various suggestions as to what could have filled the lacuna (YHWH, IAO, KYRIOS, etc.).  I don't think there's enough of a sample here to rule out what I would consider to be the strong probability that there were other mss, existing at the same time, some of which had KYRIOS.

 

(2) It seems to me unlikely that KS would have been used immediately to replace YHWH or IAO as opposed to simply replacing KYRIOS.  It seems more likely that there were various options open to the Greek translators, and that KS is an abbreviation for KYRIOS in the mansucript tradidtion that had been using the full word.

 

(3) Again, I don't think there is enough representative evidence to talk about a corruption.  To argue for a corruption, you would need to demonstrate that the later "KS" mss are direct descendants of the aforementioned YHWH/IAO mss.  This seems very tenuous.  I would argue that it is more likely that they are descendants of KYRIOS mss.

 

(4) I haven't read enough of the argumentation on both sides to make a determination, but Pietersma's and others' suggestion that the use of the tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebrew in the DSS is archaizing seems very plausible.

 

With regard to the )DNY substitution, without trying to sound flip, let me just note that all the MP3 recordings of synagogue services from the last few centuries BCE appear to have been lost.  But there is substantial data from the DSS mss that Martin Shields listed, from Mishnaic and Talmudic statements (which, of course, have to be evaluated for their reliability with regard to describing earlier practices), and from Philo, which seem to me to converge and make it both plausible and probable that the vocal substitution of )DNY for YHWH was at least one of the practices employed in the last few centuries BCE to express reverence for the divine name.  By the way, note that I refer to this practice as being reverential, rather than, as you characterized it, "superstitious."

 

I appreciate our discussion on this.

 

Blessings,

 

Jerry

Jerry Shepherd

Taylor Seminary

Edmonton, Alberta

jshepherd53 AT gmail.com