Yigal, As Sancho Panza said, in Bialik's peerless version of Don Quixote, 'I would sign what you said with two hands.'
Just a couple of remarks. On Yahwistic prefixes - these are much more common than the suffixes. As for the name Yokheved (Alt's suggestion, if memory serves). This would mean honor to Yahweh. That the root KBD was used in PNs is evident of the deragotary ")iy KBWD" , as a name, 1 Sam 4:21, 14:3. Your statement that from inscriptions we know that "YHW was more common in pre-exilic Judah, and YH in post-exilic Judah", is a very important element in the continuing debate about diachronic development in the language of the HB. Just to amplify this a bit: all pre-exilic inscriptional YHWH suffixes end in -YHW (Ahituv). All post-exilic such names found in the inscriptions end in -YH (Tal Ilan). As for the names of the early kings of Judah and Israel -- have you seen any discussion or attempted explanation on the absence of YHWH theophoric elements? Uri Hurwitz 1. Theophoric names that include the name of YHWH may also have Yahwistic prefixes. As such, the first to have such a name was YEHOshua (Joshua), who appropriately received his name from Moses (having previously been called Hoshea). One might argue that Yochebed, mother of Moses, Yehudit, daughter of Ishmael and Yehudah, son of Jacob also have such names, but that can be debated. After Yehoshua, there is of course also Yehonatan (Jonathan) son of Saul. 2. YHWH can also be abbreviated as YW, YHW and YAH. From inscriptions, we know that YW was more common in northern Israel, YHW was more common in pre-exilic Judah, and YH in post-exilic Judah. The Bible, being a Judahite book which was at least heavily edited in the post-exilic period, uses them almost interchangeably, as in Yehonatan/Yonatan or Eliyahu/Eliyah (Elijah). 3. While David may have had a son with a Yawhistic name, most early kings in both Kingdoms did not, The first king in Judah to have a Yahwistic name was Yehoshaphat, and the king who really popularized such names was none other than Ahab, who called his sons Ahazyahu (Ahaziah) and Yehoram/Yoram (Joram). From that time on, almost all of the kings in both kingdoms had Yahwistic names. Now please, what's your point? Yigal Levin _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
