Dear Rolf,
Years ago I read in a popular Egyptian enyclopedia that the name of one their chief gods - was it Amun? - is a held in such high respect that it is not pronounced.
Some time later I could not find this reference again when I tried to relocate it in the same source book. I do not remember if the source was a Greek Hellenistic writer or not.
Thus I found it very interesting that you stated:
"Because of superstition, probably based on the views of Plato, the
tetragram was not pronounced by some groups, but is was pronounced
by others B.C.E. "
Is it possible that the custom of not pronouncing the holy name was an imitation of Egtptian practice?
From the way YHWH is used in pre-exilic Hebrew inscriptional material it would seem that it was freely pronounced. But this is only an impression. Similarly it can be argued that since parts of this DN were used in many BCE theophoric personal names, such parts were freely pronounced.
Regards,
Uri
Uri Hurwitz Great Neck, NY
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