Rolf Furuli wrote:
The problem with the timbre of the first vowel in YHWH can be
illustrated by the syllables of cuneiform documents. There are
around 40 transcriptions of Jewish names with the theophoric
element YHW in New Babylonian and Late Babylonian documents.
Some of these names have been taken as evidence in favor of YAH
as the first element of the divine name. However, the sign which
represents IA can also represent IE, IU, and JI. Yehonatan is
written dIA-HU-U-NA-TA-NU or dIE-HU-U-NA-TA-NU and
Yehoiakin is written dIA-KU-U-KI-NU or dIE-KU-U-KI-NU. Even if the
first vowel is an "a" sound, that does not necessarily argue in favor
of a patah as the first vowel of YHWH, For example, the names
Gedalyahu and Gemaryahu both has the sign representing GA as
their first syllable, and these names have no theophoric elements
at the beginning. The same is true with Hezekiya which is written
HA-ZA-QI-A-A-A.
I have no knowledge of Babylonian and all of what I read is in
translations to Hebrew and English. So what I ask is, based on the
above, is your reconstruction of possible sounds based on comparing
the sound to the MT, ie, "GA" to "Gedalyahu" and "Gemaryahu", or
is it based on accepted Babylonian phonetics? All transcriptions
that I looked at, seem to use "ya" for the first syllable of the name,
whether it begins the name or comes as the second theophoric
element, and whether or not the MT counterpart is "ya" or "y:".
Also, it appears to me that one should view separately the
Neo-Babylonian and Late Babylonian transliterations so that
differences in pronounciation that became pronounced over time
will not be overlooked.
Personally, it appears to me that the Divine Name was originally
pronounced with a qamats like sound at the beginning. This would
explain the independent MT name "Yah", the theophoric MT ending
-yahu, the Greek transcriptions iabe, iaouee, etc, and the various
Babylonian transcriptions, of which I also came upon the following:
1) The name Hizqiyahu seems almost always quoted as
Ha-za-qi-ya-hu (ha-za-qi-a-u or ha-za-qi-ya-a-u (hazaq'iyahu) in the
article referenced above).
2) Yehu - ia-u'-a (Galil, Israel and Assyria, 2001, p. 116), Calah Bulls
of
Shalmaneser III 841 BCE . This appears to me to be a theophoric
name [similar to also attested "b(l)"] and the one whose pronounciation
is closest to the original pronounciation of the Tetragrammaton.
3) Joash - iu-'a-su (Galil, ibid, p. 125), Tell Rimah Stela of Adad-Nirari
III 797 BCE
The last two may be seen on the link at
http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/Assins.htm
But the transliteration quoted is from Galil.
It also appears to me that the second element was "ho" (heh with
holam) or "hu" (heh with qubuts). This would explain the theophoric
MT element y:ho-, the theophoric MT element yo-, the theophoric
MT element -yahu, all of the above Babylonian transliterations, and
many Greek transliterations.
Lastly, I think the final waw was a constant and not simply a holam
marker, as it appears prior to the heh in most First Temple period
spellings. In fact, the only place I saw "yhw" used as a singular
name (not compound element in theophoric names) is in Kuntillet
Ajrud. There sometimes both spellings are used in the same
inscription and it seems that yhwh is used for compound phrases
"yhwh $mrn" and "yhwh htmn" and "yhw" in all other cases.
Perhaps following the above transliteration of "yehu" one might
reconstruct "yahowa" or "yahuwa" or perhaps the final vowel was
based originally on the case ending in which the name was used.
Yitzhak Sapir
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