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Tetragrammaton - Wikipedia 12/25/2018 Tetragrammaton - Wikipedia Tetragrammaton The tetragrammaton (/ˌtɛtrəˈɡræmətɒn/; from Greek Τετραγράμματον, meaning " in Hebrew and YHWH in Latin script, is the four-letter יהוה ,("consisting of] four letters] biblical name of the God of Israel.[1][2] The books of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible (with the exception of Esther and Song of Songs) contain this Hebrew name. Religiously observant Jews and those who follow Talmudic Jewish traditions do not nor do they read aloud transliterated forms such as Yahweh; instead the , יהוה pronounce word is substituted with a different term, whether used to address or to refer to the God of Israel. Common substitutions for Hebrew forms are hakadosh baruch hu ("The Holy One, Blessed Be He"), Adonai ("The Lord"),[3] or HaShem ("The Name"). Contents The tetragrammaton in Phoenician (12th century BCE to 150 BCE), Four letters Paleo-Hebrew (10th century BCE to 135 CE), and square Hebrew (3rd Pronunciation YHWH and Hebrew script century BCE to present) scripts Yehowah Yahweh Theophoric names Textual evidence Non-biblical sources Hebrew Bible Scholarly texts of the Hebrew Bible Leningrad Codex Dead Sea Scrolls The occurrence of the Tetragrammaton in some manuscripts at Qumran Septuagint and other Old Greek translations Apocrypha Greek New Testament Patristic writings Peshitta Vulgate Usage in religious traditions Judaism Spoken prohibitions Written prohibitions Kabbalah Samaritans Christianity Christian translations Eastern Orthodoxy Catholicism See also Notes References Citations Bibliography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton 1/24 12/25/2018 Tetragrammaton - Wikipedia Four letters The letters, properly read from right to left (in Biblical Hebrew), are: Hebrew Letter name Pronunciation [Yod [j י [He [h ה (Waw [w], or placeholder for "O"/"U" vowel (see mater lectionis ו (He [h] (or often a silent letter at the end of a word ה Pronunciation YHWH YHWH and Hebrew script 0:00 MENU The letters YHWH are consonantal semi-vowels. In unpointed Biblical The pronunciation as it is vowel pointed in the Masoretic Text. The Hebrew, most vowels are not written and the rest are written only vast majority of scholars do not ambiguously, as certain consonants can double as vowel markers (similar to hold the pronunciation to be the Latin use of V to indicate both U and V). These are referred to as matres correct. lectionis ("mothers of reading"). Therefore, it is, in general, difficult to deduce Problems playing this file? See media help. how a word is pronounced only from its spelling, and the tetragrammaton is a particular example: two of its letters can serve as vowels, and two are vocalic place-holders, which are not pronounced. Thus the first-century Jewish historian and philosopher Josephus said that the sacred name of God consists of "four vowels".[4] The original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was, several centuries later, provided with vowel marks by the Masoretes to assist reading. In places that the consonants of the text to be read (the qere) differed from the consonants of the written text (the ketiv), they wrote the qere in the margin as a note showing what was to be read. In such a case the Transcription of the divine name as vowels of the qere were written on the ketiv. For a few frequent words, the marginal note ΙΑΩ in the 1st-century BCE Septuagint manuscript 4Q120 was omitted: these are called qere perpetuum. One of the frequent cases was the tetragrammaton, which according to later Jewish practices should not be pronounced but read as "Adonai" ("My Lord"), or, if the previous or next word already was Adonai, as "respectively, non-words that would spell "Yehovah" and "Yehovih יֱה ֹוה and יְה ָֹוה Elohim" ("God"). The combination produces" respectively.[5][6] The oldest complete or nearly complete manuscripts of the Masoretic Text with Tiberian vocalisation, such as the Aleppo Codex and yhwah), with no pointing on the first h. It could be because) ְיה ָוה the Leningrad Codex, both of the 10th or 11th century, mostly write the o diacritic point plays no useful role in distinguishing between Adonai and Elohim and so is redundant, or it could point to the qere being Shema, which is Aramaic for "the Name". Yehowah Adonai) are not identical. The shva in YHWH (the vowel " ְ" under the first letter) and the) ֲאד ֹנָי Yehowah) and) יְה ָֹוה The vowels in hataf patakh in 'DNY (the vowel " ֲ" under its first letter) appear different. The vocalisation can be attributed to Biblical Hebrew phonology,[7] where the hataf patakh is grammatically identical to a shva, always replacing every shva naḥ under a guttural letter. is not, the hataf patakh under the (guttural) aleph reverts to a יְה ָֹוה is a guttural letter while the first letter of ֲאד ֹנָי Since the first letter of regular shva under the (non-guttural) Yod. :Adonai), respectively) ֲאד ֹנָי Yehowah) and) יְה ָֹוה The table below considers the vowel points for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton 2/24 12/25/2018 Tetragrammaton - Wikipedia Hebrew word No. 3068 Hebrew word No. 136 YEHOWAH ADONAY ֲאד ֹ ָני יְה ֹוָה Aleph glottal stop א Yod Y י Simple Shewa e ֲ Hataf Patakh A ְ Daleth D ד Heh H ה Holem O ֹ Holem O ֹ Nun N נ Waw W ו Kametz A ָ Kametz A ָ Yod Y י Heh H ה In the table directly above, the "simple shewa" in Yehowah and the hataf patakh in Adonai are not the same vowel. The difference being, the "simple shewa" is an "a" sound as in "alone", whereas the hataf patakh is more subtle, as the "a" in "father". The same information is displayed in the table above and to the right, where YHWH is intended to be pronounced as Adonai, and Adonai is shown to have different vowel points. Yahweh The Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius [1786–1842] suggested The spelling of the tetragrammaton which is transliterated into and connected forms in the Hebrew , יַ ְה ֶוה that the Hebrew punctuation English as Yahweh, might more accurately represent the Masoretic text of the Bible, with pronunciation of the tetragrammaton than the Biblical Hebrew vowel points shown in red Wilhelm from which the English name Jehovah has ," יְה ָֹוה" Gesenius's punctuation see image to) " ַי ְה ֶוה" Hebrew been derived. His proposal to read YHWH as punctuation (i.e., the left) was based in large part on various Greek transcriptions, Yahweh) such as ιαβε, dating from the first centuries CE but also on the forms of theophoric names. In his Hebrew Dictionary, Gesenius supports Yahweh (which would have been pronounced [jahwe], with the final letter being silent) because of the Samaritan pronunciation Ιαβε reported by Theodoret, and because the theophoric name prefixes YHW [jeho] and YW [jo], the theophoric name suffixes YHW [jahu] and YH [jah], and the abbreviated form YH [jah] can is ַי ְה ֶוה be derived from the form Yahweh.[8] Gesenius's proposal to read YHWH as accepted as the best scholarly reconstructed vocalised Hebrew spelling of the tetragrammaton.[9] Tetragrammaton (with the vowel points for Adonai) on a Wittenberg Theophoric names University debate lectern Yeho or "Yehō-" is the prefix form of "YHWH" used in Hebrew theophoric names; the suffix form "Yahū" is just as common, which has caused two opinions: 1. In former times (at least from c.1650 CE), the prefix pronunciation "Yehō-" was sometimes connected with the full pronunciation "Yehova", derived from combining the Masoretic vowel points for "Adonai" with the consonantal tetragrammaton YHWH. 2. Recently, as "Yahweh" is likely an imperfective verb form, "Yahu" is its corresponding preterite or jussive short form: compare yiŝtahaweh (imperfective), yiŝtáhû (preterit or jussive short form) = "do obeisance".[10] The first argument is believed by George Wesley Buchanan in Biblical Archaeology Review; Smith's 1863 A Dictionary of the Bible;[11] . הוה Section # 2.1 The Analytical Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon (1848)[12] in its article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton 3/24 12/25/2018 Tetragrammaton - Wikipedia The second argument is supported on grammatical grounds because shortening to "Yahw" would end up as "Yahu" or something and the suffix "-yah",[13] as well as "Yeho-" or "Yo"[14] can most readily be ( ְיה ֹו) contracted from Yeho ( י ֹו) similar, and forms like Yo explained as derivatives of "Yahweh" rather than from "Yehovah". Textual evidence Non-biblical sources An image on the piece of pottery found at Kuntillet Ajrud is adjacent to a Hebrew inscription "Berakhti etkhem l’YHVH Shomron ul’Asherato" ("I have blessed you by Yahweh of Samaria and [his] Asherah") dated around 800 BCE, on the walls of the second tomb on the southern slope of the Khirbet el-Qom hill (VIII century BCE), on the seal from the collections of the Harvard Semitic Museum (VIII century BCE),[15] on ostracons from the collections of Shlomo Moussaieff (VII BCE),[16] on silver rolls from Ketef Hinnom (VII century BCE), on inscriptions in the tombs of Khirbet Beit Lei (VIII - VII century BCE), on ostracons from Tel Arad (2nd half of the seventh and the beginning of the 6th century BCE), on the Lachish letters (587 BCE) and on a stone from Mount Gerizim (III or at the beginning of the second century BCE).[17] YHWH on Lakis Letters The Elephantine papyri, on which the jhw form appears, with the form of jhh are found on Elephantine.[18] One time jh also appears, but originally it was a form of jhw in which the final letter in (Hebrew waw) disappeared.[19] In eight cases, the tetragram occurs in the formula of the oath: "God's jhh".[20] God's name appears in the Greek magical texts, the formation of which was established between the second century BCE to CE.
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