Jehovah vs Yahweh
Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2015 11:47 pm
Why are scholars fairly sure that God's name is pronounced Yahweh? Is it just a guess? Is Jehovah just as good a guess?
Thanks.
Thanks.
bhebrew.biblicalhumanities.org
http://bhebrew.biblicalhumanities.org/
http://bhebrew.biblicalhumanities.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=767
This is one of the few words, if not the only one, where scholars admit uncertainty in the pronunciation. It is generally recognized that the points for Adonai were added when YHWH was found in the text, which come out as “Jehovah” in English. This is probably the most common Kethib/Qere pair in Tanakh.SteveMiller wrote:Why are scholars fairly sure that God's name is pronounced Yahweh? Is it just a guess?
Well, in actuality, yes.SteveMiller wrote:Is Jehovah just as good a guess?
Thanks.
Does it need to have a vowel after the H?SteveMiller wrote:I can see that as a good reason for the "Yah" part of Yahweh, but why does Yahweh have no vowel sound with the H?
Did it not? I don't think we actually know how ancient Hebrew/Greek was pronounced.I still don't see why the vav is transliterated to a W, since omega did not sound like a W.
I would guess it would be pronounced Ee-ah-ou - but that's just how I pronounce itHow would the Gk Ιαω/Ιαο be pronounced?
I don't believe there're any Greek manuscripts at Qumran that have Joshua transliterated. I know that the Greek Minor Prophets scroll doesn't have the name extant amongst its pages.For comparison, do you know how Qumran transliterated the name Joshua into Greek?
I believe the basic reason for this pronunciation is taken from the Samaritan pronunciation, [jɑ-vɛ'], taken from the Greek transliteration, Ἰαβέ. In my opinion it was probably pronounced with a /β/ (voiced biblabial fricative). Try to say a /v/ with both lips, instead of using your upper teeth touching the lower lip.SteveMiller wrote:Thanks Ste,
I can see that as a good reason for the "Yah" part of Yahweh, but why does Yahweh have no vowel sound with the H?
If the vav was a consonant, then it most surely was a /w/, not a /v/. However, it seems that by the time of the 2nd Temple period, that the Samaritans pronounced the vav at least as a /β/.SteveMiller wrote:I still don't see why the vav is transliterated to a W, since omega did not sound like a W.
[yao].SteveMiller wrote:How would the Gk Ιαω/Ιαο be pronounced?
I have seen more than one indication that in Biblical Hebrew, i.e. before the Babylonian Exile, that the writing was not an alphabet, rather a syllabary. As a syllabary, every consonant was followed by a vowel. That’s why indications of which vowels was not included, because people who were native speakers could recognize which vowels to include.SteveMiller wrote:Thanks Karl,
Why do you think “Yehowahe” is probably most accurate?
The New Testament, one example Hebrews 4:8, mentions Joshua but transliterates that name as ιησους “Jesus”.S_Walch wrote:I don't believe there're any Greek manuscripts at Qumran that have Joshua transliterated. I know that the Greek Minor Prophets scroll doesn't have the name extant amongst its pages.For comparison, do you know how Qumran transliterated the name Joshua into Greek?
Ancient Greek also didn’t have the “v” sound, so transliterated that as “b”. When we look at names transliterated into Greek, the ו is almost always transliterated as a vowel, or omitted listing only its vowel, rather than giving a hard consonant.SteveMiller wrote:Why do scholars say that the vav sounded like a w rather than a v?
Could the final ה not be a vowel, rather than a consonant?kwrandolph wrote:I have seen more than one indication that in Biblical Hebrew, i.e. before the Babylonian Exile, that the writing was not an alphabet, rather a syllabary. As a syllabary, every consonant was followed by a vowel. That’s why indications of which vowels was not included, because people who were native speakers could recognize which vowels to include.
Jst lk ths sntnc, a ntv spkr of Englsh wd rcgnz whch vwls t insrt.
So a word with four letters would have had four syllables, four consonants each followed by a vowel. Hence the pronunciation would probably have been similar to Yehowahe.
Well technically, it uses the nomen sacrum ι̅ς̅ (Papyrus 13) / ι̅η̅ς̅ (Papyrus 46), rather than doing a full transliteration.The New Testament, one example Hebrews 4:8, mentions Joshua but transliterates that name as ιησους “Jesus”.