Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <davidlwashburn AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jun 16, 2013 at 10:47 AM, Chavoux Luyt <chavoux AT gmail.com> wrote:

Shalom everybody

While I found this discussion interesting, I must say that I do not see conclusive evidence one way or the other.

1. Did most Jews replace YHWH with Adonai already by the first century CE? Even if most did, there are evidence that not all of them did and some late evidence from the Talmud that at least the minim (probably Jewish Christians) of the first century did indeed pronounce the Name.

2. Did the Jewish authors of the New Testament use YHWH or IAO in their Greek quotations of the Tanach, however? Did diaspora Greek-speaking Jews (using the LXX) still pronounce YHWH or use Kurios instead? When exactly did they start using KS instead of YHWH in manuscripts (and did the pronunciation only change then or was this simply writing down what they already said normally)?

One possible piece of evidence I find missing in the discussion (maybe there are no early manuscripts?) is the Aramaic Targums... what did they do with regards to the Name? Would they not give a better indication to how Palestinian Jews pronounced the Name than the LXX?

Considering that virtually all the ancient "LXX" evidence we have is from the DSS, and the common agreement is that they were produced by a splinter group with its own rules, attitudes and forms of piety, I'm not even sure those can tell us anything about what the general public did. But there's something else I've been considering, and that's the use of the archaic script for the name, both in some of the Greek fragments and also in many of the Hebrew ones. The question that comes to mind is, what does this tell us about how they handled the name? Considering that the vast majority of the Judean populace probably couldn't read those characters any more, using them for the name looks an awful lot like a signal NOT to pronounce it and substitute a euphemism instead. Obviously we have no way to know what that euphemism might have been, but the use of the paleo script gives me a hint that they considered the name too sacred even to write in regular script, much less pronounce out loud. Thoughts, anyone? This could also apply to the IAW shorthand in that one document: more of a place holder than "say it this way." What think you all?


-- 
Dave Washburn

Check out my Internet show: http://www.irvingszoo.com

Now available: a novel about King Josiah!