Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Linguistic, historical, cultural origins of yahweh
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:27:28 -0800
A few points about the name YHWH:
1. As I recall there are older instances of deity names Yah and Yahva
from places as far away as India (Yahva in Rig Veda), Egypt (moon god
Yah in papyrus of Ani) and Hatti/Syria (-yahu names in Sam'al).
Therefore I think it unlikely that the name should be viewed as an
original invention of "southern" or Shasu tribes. By the time that the
precursor populations of the Israelite kingdoms achieved
self-identification in contrast to Edomites, Philistines and Canaanites,
they had chosen Yah(u or weh) in contrast to Chemosh, Baal, etc. But no
one seems to know the prehistory to that.
2. Guy Zed asked whether the use of the name in the "J" sources can be
used to trace its development. Here I want to say, first, that the name
is also present in "E" texts, as identified by most experts, including
Friedman and, I believe, Noth. What one finds in "E" texts is a very
SPARING use of the name, only in a few crucial instances.
This suggests something to me that I've never seen discussed elsewhere:
the possibility that the "E" writer represents the earliest case of the
reticence to speak the name, which became dominant several centuries
later. Martin Buber said that the name may at one time have been a
war-cry. This might have been the real origin of the idea that the name
can be used only on special occasions.
I also want to add that in my study of the Documentary Hypothesis I have
become convinced that "E" preceded "J". (I guess 9th-8th centuries for
"E" and 8th-7th for "J". Reasons available on request.)
3. Regarding the pronunciation of the name, I want to float a guess for
your assessment: based on the text that derives YHWH from "ehyeh asher
ehyeh", isn't it reasonable to assume a kind of rhyme between ehyeh,
yihyeh and yahueh? What I mean to stress might be indicated by using an
apostrophe to mark the aspiration in the middle -- so I would write
yih'yeh to show that there are, so to speak, two and a half syllables
there rather than two; and similarly I would write yah'ueh to show an
aspiration before the u/w sound. (Maybe this is already assumed, but
when I hear English speakers pronounce "yahweh" they just have two
syllables, with no indication of the "u" sound or aspiration. Then it
becomes puzzling as to why the contraction would be yahu.)