To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: RE: God's name: was Curious abut "G-d"
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 16:23:43 -0800
I'm sure other folks on this list know far more than I do, but I'll jump in
anyway with what I do know. Shoshanna, I think it's pretty clear from the
evidence that, well, pretty much everybody knew how to pronounce the name, up
until the time of the Maccabees or later. The tradition that only the High
Priest could pronounce the name certainly isn't found in the Hebrew Bible
itself. Far to the contrary, given that many Israelites had theophoric
names, and that YHWH (or variations thereon) are found in purely secular
correspondence like the Lachish letters, it seems beyond dispute that the
restrictions on pronouncing or writing haShem are from a much later time than
the Biblical materials themselves.
In other words, if average, every day people pronounced the Name back in,
say, King David's time (as the Scriptures very clearly indicate they did), it
shouldn't (in theory) be beyond the scope of investigation to understand how
they pronounced it. Now, I suppose some might find it irreverent; and
everyone agrees that it is difficult and uncertain; but I guess I don't
understand why you think that it is beyond the possibility of investigation.
(Nor do I understand why being Jewish would have anything to do with the
possibility of the investigation succeeding or not.)