Rolf,
You mentioned in passing that the Egyptians had
already the custom of not calling a god by his
name because of his holiness. I believe this
refers to Amun as you confirmed in an earlier
correspondence on the subject.
It would be interesting to speculate if this
ancient custom, and I believe it is among the
first attested in the ANE, had a direct influence
on the Israeli avoidance of pronouncing
the tetragammaton .
This becomes all the more interesting because
judging by the surviving extra-biblical material,
in the pre-exilic period YHWH was
treated as regular word. Whereas the Egyptian
custom is much earlier.
Uri Hurwitz Wilmington, VT
Re: [b-hebrew] G. Geroux and the Name
, (continued)