Nigel Tomes' response to VoiceInWilderness
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Hi Voice in the Wilderness,
I read your post. I'm glad to see that you were inspired to look into this topic , especially since you have some facility & interest in the Hebrew language. I hope that you would delve into this topic more. There is an extensive academic literature on these issues. What I quoted is just the "tip of the iceberg."
May I suggest that you look into these things more before appearing to come to some definite conclusions?
Your current conclusion seems to be:
"I do not see how these scholars can say that the Name was almost definitely pronounced Yahweh. I think Jehovah is a better guess than Yahweh."
To me this conclusion seems premature. I only quoted part of the literature discussing the Hebrew tense (etc) of the Heb. verb "to be" There are different views among Hebrew scholars on these & related issues. The imperfect tense is only one possibility. (I simply didn't want to complicate matters by bringing these points into the paper) Why don't you check out the articles, books etc which I cited? Some of these people who conclude that YHWH implies God's personal name is Yahweh are respected Hebrew scholars with academic credentials. I don't think they should be lightly dismissed by saying: "
I think Jehovah is a better guess than Yahweh." That seems to me to be an unwarranted & cavalier statement.
Consider the following quotes & sources:
: “
The words "I AM" express the meaning of God's name, but they are not the name itself. God's name is revealed in [Exo. 3] verse 15 as
Yahweh. The Hebrew name Yahweh is probably best understood as derived from a third-person form of the Hebrew verb "to be", emphasizing, as in the case of "I AM," that He is the self-existent One.” [J. Carl Laney, “GOD'S SELF-REVELATION IN EXODUS 34:6-8,” BIBLIOTHECA SACRA, Vol. 158 (Jan.-Mar. 2001) pp. 36-51]
"Some object that we don’t really know how the Tetragrammaton was pronounced. But according to
D. N. Freedman, “The form yahweh is now accepted almost universally” (D. N. Freedman, “יהוה YHWH,” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986], 5:500). According to the Encyclopedia Judaica (L. F. Hartman, “God, Names of,” Encyclopedia Judaica [1971], 7:680), the divine name was “regularly pronounced with its proper vowels” at least until 586 BC (when the Babylonian exile began). We have archaeological evidence for this from the Lachish Letters. A clue to its pronunciation is the names that have the divine name in them,
like Zechariah, which in Hebrew is zachar-yah, which means “Yahweh remembers.” Scholars recognize yah as a shortened form of the divine name.
The Encyclopedia Judaica again says, “The true pronunciation of the name YHWH was never lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian church testify that the name was pronounced ‘Yahweh’.” The Christian theologian, Clement of Alexandria (d. AD 215), for example, was apparently familiar with the Jewish tradition for how the divine name was pronounced, for he regularly uses (in Greek) ‘Iaoue, which would be pronounced “Yahweh.” (Also see the summary of the evidence in L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, and M. E. J. Richardson, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament [5 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1995], 2:395.)
Professor D. N. Freeman explains, “The Tetragrammaton YHWH is the personal name of the God of Moses. The correct pronunciation of the name was lost from Jewish tradition some time during the Middle Ages...Early in the modern period scholars attempted to recover the pronunciation. The form Yahweh is now accepted almost universally.”17 The following are corroborating statements from other scholars:
· “It is almost certain that the name YHWH was originally pronounced Yahweh.” [Prof. Joze Krasovec, Transformation of Biblical Proper Names, p. 57]
· “It is almost if not quite certain that the Name was originally pronounced ‘Yahweh’.” [Prof. Bruce M. Metzger, "Theory of the Translation Process,” Bibliotheca Sacra (1993) p. 150]18
· There is “general agreement among scholars that the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton [YHWH] was probably Yahweh.” [Nehemia Gordon, “Pronunciation of the Name,” pp. 1-2]19
“The name Yahweh...is the closest thing we have to a proper, personal name for God. The name occurs 6,823 times in the Bible. In Hebrew, Yahweh is written with only 4 consonants—YHWH—and no vowels.” [Ken Hemphill, “How Excellent Are Thy Names,” CHRISTIANITY TODAY, (Oct. 22, 2001) p. 96]
·“There is almost universal consensus among scholars today that the sacred Tetragrammaton (YHWH) is to be vocalized and pronounced Yahweh.” [Kenneth L. Barker, “YHWH Sabaoth: ‘The Lord Almighty”]21
· “His name is Yahweh. For the first time God used...the famous four consonant: YHWH...This was to be his ‘name’ forever.” [Professor Walter Kaiser Jr., Exodus, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 321]
· “While ‘God’ with its capitalization respectfully acknowledges that there is only one true ‘god,’ it does not name him with his proper name, Yahweh. The personal name of God is Yahweh.” [Dr. David J. A. Clines, “Yahweh & the God of Christian Theology,” in Clines, “OT Essays 1967-1998, Vol. II” p. 499]
Please go to the original sources & read the quotes in context, plus (if you have the time & interest) access the sources which these people cite. This further investigation on your part might help you see why "these scholars can say that the Name was almost definitely pronounced Yahweh."
These scholars have not come to this conclusion based on cursory or superficial investigation & therefore their conclusions should not be lightly dismissed on the basis of our own cursory or superficial investigation.
Plus, on this issue--YHWH implies Yahweh--among qualified scholars there is a rare overwhelming academic consensus--(of course not 100%, that never happens)--but still a consensus.
·“There is almost universal consensus among scholars today that the sacred Tetragrammaton (YHWH) is to be vocalized and pronounced Yahweh.” [Kenneth L. Barker, “YHWH Sabaoth: ‘The Lord Almighty,’” The NIV: The Making of a Contemporary Translation ,]
·The consensus of mainstream scholarship is that ‘Yehowah’ (or in Latin transcription "Jehovah") is a pseudo-Hebrew form which was mistakenly created when Medieval and/or Renaissance Christian scholars misunderstood this common qere perpetuum; the usual Jewish practice at the time of the Masoretes was to pronounce it as "Adonai," as is still the Jewish custom today. Pronouncing it as ‘Jehovah,’ ‘Yehowah’ or similar would be a mistake.
·There is “general agreement among scholars that the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was probably Yahweh, and that the vowel points now attached to the Tetragrammaton [a Greek word, meaning ‘4 letters’] were added to indicate that Adonai was to be read instead, as seen in the alteration of those points after prefixes. He also wrote: "There is a virtual scholarly consensus concerning this name" and "this is presented as fact in every introduction to Biblical Hebrew & every scholarly discussion of the name.” [Nehemia Gordon, “The Pronunciation of the Name,” pp. 1-2 (emphasis added)]
I look forward to reading the results of your further investigation
Nigel
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