Re: IAO--How's it said?

From: Dave (HoLogos@ilovejesus.com)
Date: Mon Nov 15 1999 - 13:04:19 EST


 "Mitchell Gray" <cowmonky@granbury.com> wrote:
>
>In one part it says that there are some Greek MS that use
>IAO as the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew YHWH. My question is, How would
>you translated IAO? Is that possible? If so, how would
>it be said in English?

That sure sounds like a cult I have encountered. If it is the same people,
their email names will be things like "Yaohul," or "Kanyao." Their main
reason for being is to enjoy denouncing all of us idolaters who invoke the
names of various heathen idols. For example, according to them, "Jesus" is
really another name for Zeus. If you call God "God," you are invoking a
Teutonic idol of some sort. When you ask them what the name of the son of
God is, they say "Yaohushua." If you pronounce it any other way, they rear
back wide-eyed and practically try to cast a demon out of you.

Regarding the name Jesus, it does no good to explain to them the
phonological assimilation that takes place when an unvoiced sybilant like
the "s" in "Jesus," assimilates the voicedness of the vowels around it, and
becomes "z," or that the "us" or "os" at the end of the name "Jesus" was a
required addition for masculine names in Greek and Latin.

After questioning one of their number who was a little more calm, I got the
impression that their knowledge of Hebrew and Greek is entirely from
converting Hebrew and Greek words and texts into transliteration fonts.
For example, they don't realize the difference between a vav and a holem
vav (or holem waw), so when some fonts transliterate a holem waw as "ow,"
this throws them off, and some vavs become 'ow's. Based on their first
misapprehensions, they extrapolate all kinds of new and hilariously
miss-voweled Hebrew words.

It does no good to appeal to lexical authorities regarding Hebrew, because
they will respond, "Well, that's modern Hebrew." They insist that they are
the only ones who know "classical Hebrew." They also insist that they are
in a direct line of succession from the original Hebrew people, and have
retained the knowledge of how YHVH was originally pronounced.

If they are the people I think they are, don't waste your time, unless you
are in need of some good laughs.

Dave Palmer
HoLogos@ilovejesus.com

---
B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:40:45 EDT