Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Doug,

 

YHWH is the transcription of יהוה  into English, based on modern English pronunciation of the Latin letters. In German it would be JHWH, since German pronounces J like the English Y. Since Y didn't exist in Classical Latin, that's probably what Jerome would have written as well, except that he used the title Dominus instead. Greek translations, if choosing to transcribe rather than to translate, would use Greek letters.

 

Yigal Levin  

 

From: Belot [mailto:dbelot AT bigpond.net.au]
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 9:35 AM
To: Yigal Levin
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] God's name

 

Thanks Yigal  , now can you tell me when this transcription YHWH of the Hebrew יהוה. Script first appeared , was it before the Septuagint in 300bc . Before the NT  , or before Jeromes Vulgate thus giving them the option of using YHWH instead of Kurious , or Dominus.

 

doug belot

 

From: Yigal Levin

Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 3:34 PM

To: 'Belot'

Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] God's name

 

Doug – that's exactly what YHWH is – a precise transcription of the Hebrew letters That this was what was written, hundreds of times, in ALL Hebrew mss. is not debated, the only question is how it was pronounced. And the Greek apparently reflects various pronunciations.

 

I suppose the question might be, whether the Greek translators considered YHWH to be a title or a proper name. "Elohim" and "Adonai" (where spelled out) were thought of as titles, and were thus translated, "Theos", "Kurios" and the like. YHWH was not translated, because as a word it doesn't really mean anything.

 

Yigal Levin

 

From: Belot [mailto:dbelot AT bigpond.net.au]
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 7:54 AM
To: Yigal Levin
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] God's name

 

Yigal just this point , I am mot looking to find out how this name was pronounced , but how it was written , I understood that all Manuscripts of the OT that we have are either Hebrew or Greek and wonder how YHWH could be in either of them .

 

YHWH does not seem compatible letters to ancient Hebrew or Greek.

 

doug belot

 

From: Yigal Levin

Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 12:54 PM

To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] God's name

 

Doug, I'm not sure where you get יְהוָ  from. Two things:

 

1. The niqqud was added to the text by the Masoretes, and reflects their way of reading. No pre-Mesoretic manuscripts have the niqqud.

2. YHWH – יהוה – is by far the most common form in all ancient manuscripts, including the DSS. The fact that it is also used widely in Iron Age (that is, First Temple or pre-exilic Period) Hebrew inscriptions shows that that is the form that was comment used by Israelites in that period as well. 

 

What we're discussing here, from my understanding, is not how the name was written but how it was pronounced. Presumably, during the First Temple Period YHWH was vocalized in some way, and we really do not have enough information to know exactly how. BTW, there may have been different precise vocalizations in different regions.

All the various Greek mss. can tell us, is how their writers could best approximate the way the name was pronounced in whatever circles they operated in during the various stages of the Second Temple Period. What we do know is that eventually, most Jews began saying "Adonai" instead of vocalizing "YHWH", and this practice was emulated buy the translations by using Kurios. We do not have enough information to trace the precise process by which this happened. In any case, why is this really important?

 

 

Yigal Levin

 

From: Belot [mailto:dbelot AT bigpond.net.au]
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 12:31 AM
To: Yigal Levin
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] statements of faith

 

Thanks Yigal , I do  not want to do that, I do not want to overstep your conditions.

 

Please could you tell me when Gods name  יְהוָ .,became rendered to YHWH .

 

Did the letters  YHWH appear in any manuscripts that we have before 600ad , and if they did when did they and by whom.

 

This question seems unanswerable  so far.

 

Is is possible .

 

Many thanks ....

 

doug belot

 

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