Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rolf" <rolf.furuli AT sf-nett.no>]

Dear Doug,

The problem is that none of the oldest NT manuscripts, from the second, 
third, fourth, and fifth centuries contain the same word as the one that was 
written in the NT autographs where the name of God occurs. These manuscripts 
have KS, which is a later substitute for God's name. No one knows with 
certainty how God's name was written in the NT autographs, and therefore we 
must sift the evidence and find how God's name  most likely written. 
Therefore, your question should be reformulated: "What is the evidence in 
favor of YHWH in the NT autographs, and what is the evidence in favor of 
KURIOS?



Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway


Mandag 17. Juni 2013 11:17 CEST skrev "Belot" <dbelot AT bigpond.net.au>: 

> Great explanation Rolf , can you tell me when the English letters YHWH
> first appeared  in the earliest manuscripts.
>
> doug belot
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rolf
> Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 5:00 PM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] God's name
>
> Dear Yigal,
>
> Your observations regarding YHWH and 'adonay are correct. You ask: "Why is
> this really important?"
>
> Whether YHWH was written in the NT autographs and therefore should be
> included in modern translations of the NT is closely related to what is
> viewed as the most important doctrine of the Christian Churches, namely the
> trinity doctrine. (Please note that I am observing and not arguing for or
> against a particular religious doctrine.) Many persons believe that YHWH of
> the Old Testament is Jesus of the NT, and others believe that Jesus, God,
> and The Holy Spirit are parts of the same godhead—the trinity. Two proper
> names, YHWH and Jesus in the NT would suggest two different individuals,
> which would be problematic for the trinity doctrine. If KURIOS "the Lord" is
> used for both God and Jesus, there is no problem at all. There are about one
> hundred passages in the NT where we cannot know whether the referent is God
> or Jesus when "the Lord" is used. So the issue is very important, and it
> often stirs up strong religious feelings.
>
> The question of whether God's name should be included in the NT was a
> non-issue until the LXX fragments with YHWH and IAO were found. However,
> most English translations do not use the name of God in the Old Testament
> either. That may be for the same reason as I have mentioned above: I will
> illustrate the issue by a quote from H. Rosin, who was a speaker at a
> conference for Bible translators in Djakarta in 1952. H. Rosin believed that
> the substitution of YHWH by 'adonay was caused by God himself, and he wrote:
>
> "It might be disrespectful and disobedient, therefore, to restore something
> that God himself has demolished. It might mean that “Jehovah” would
> irrevocably become the strange God of the O.T. and that the cleavage between
> the two Testaments might also rend apart the church, for are not “Jehovah’s
> witnesses” anti-Trinitarians? We therefore feel that we should most strongly
> advise against a transcription of JHWH in a translation of the Bible."
> (Translating Divine Names "The Bible Translator" 3, 4 (1952), pp.180-87.
>
> The exact pronunciation of YHWH is not important, but to use or not to use
> the name in Bible translations is the burning issue.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Rolf Furuli
> Stavern
> Norway
>
>
> >
> > 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
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
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