[B-Greek] YHWH into Greek
Rolf Furuli
furuli at online.no
Tue Dec 6 11:10:19 EST 2005
Dear Gene,
The words from Buchanan that you quote seem to be geniune, since they accord
with his article. The words regarding Samaritan custom that you quote may be
correct, but is is difficult to know. If Samaritan YABE, which some peoples
belive is the pronunciation of YHWH, comes from a word different from YHWH,
we may have a parallel in the Syriac Peshitta. The word used in the known
manuscripts of that version, where we in the Hebrew text find YHWH, is
MARYA. Some persons believe that the -YA element is taken from YAH, the
Hebrew abbreviation for YHWH. But evidently it is nothing but the Syriac
emphatic state of the noun (corresponding to the Greek article), which is
found at the end of the noun.
We must conclude that we know very little about the background of the
different writings of YHWH by early Greek writers.
Best regards
Rolf Furuli
University of oslo
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gene Gardner" <g_gardner1234 at yahoo.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 1:07 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] YHWH into Greek
Rolf stated:
An interesting discussion is found in G. W. Buchanan, "Some Unfinished
Business with the Dead Sea Scrolls" Revue de Qumran 1988, 13:49-52.
Rolf,
Thank you for your detailed explanations as well as putting forth your
opinions and theories. It is greatly appreciated. I found the quote below on
the internet from the author that you cited. Could you verify its accuracy?
"The original form of the divine name was almost certainly three
syllables, NOT two. The accumulated data points heavily in the direction of
a "three" syllable word."
George W. Buchanan,
"Some Unfinished Business With the Dead Sea Scrolls,"
RevQ 13.49-52 (1988), 416
I also found this quote on the internet from a Samaratin site, that stated
that the Greek IaBe was not an accurate rendering of the Divine Name:
Originally the Samaritans or Shamerim (keepers, as they
call themselves)were divided into two groups, Dosithean and Sabbuai. The
Sabbuai later became known as the Kushaniyya, the modern day Samaritans are
from this group. The Kushaniyya refused to pronounce the divine name and
supplanted it with the term Shema (Aramaic for "The Name"). The Dositheans
on the other hand used the divine name, but as they no longer exist it
cannot be known how they pronounced the divine name. Many scholars claim
that the pronunciation of the Divine Name as "Yahweh" is accurate due to
Samaritan inscriptions written in Greek which write the Divine Name as
"Yabe" The Samaritans in most instances pronounce beth, veth, waw, pe and fe
as a "b". But what these scholars fell to realize is that the Samaritans
like the Rabbinates subsituted a the Name with another word when they came
across the Name written in the Torah. The Samaritans unlike the Rabbinates
did not read Adhonai when they came
accross the Divine Name, but "yabe" or innon-Samaritan pronunciation "yafe"
(Beautiful). Therefore the pronunciation of the divine name as Yahweh is
inaccurate based upon the Samaritan/Kushaniyya desire 'not' to pronounce the
divine name. Thus, not even the Samaritans to our knowledge remained as one
group, who were in complete agreement with one another.
http://shomron0.tripod.com/2004/feb12.html
(bottom of page)
Just wondering if you had any thoughts pertaining to the above quote?
Thanks,
Gene Gardner
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