On Thu, Apr 03, 2003 at 11:22:09AM -0800, Tim May wrote:
YHWH is the Tetragrammaton. Jews (and some others) believe the name of
their god may not not be spoken. Vowels are usually left out in Semitic
languages, with sometimes placeholder consonants. In this case, various
transcriptions of YHWH come out as "Yahweh," "Jehova," "Jehovah," etc.
Correct, except for the Jehovah part. The use of jehovah has been entirely
refuted by pretty much all bible scholars and the only translation you'll find
it in is, IIRC, the King James. Jehovah's Witnesses still use it, of course,
but..
Nonsense. Do a Google search. It shows up in many texts, for many flavors of religion.
The theory that the vowels were some of the ones in the Greek name for "Lord" is just one of several theories. Inasmuch as there are several main vowel sounds, nearly any attempt to speak "YHWH" out loud is going to lead to some sound that is a variant of "Yah-way" or "Ya-ho-way" or "Ya-ho-vah," given the usual Y/J and V/W and suchlike shifts.
The "Yah" part is familiat to those familiar with Rastafarians, as Ja or Jah.
Well, sort of -- but actually for them Jah is just the shortened version of
Jah Ras Tafari, meaning Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethopia, direct descendant of
the King David.
Again, nonsense. I said "Jah" is another variant of the name of their god, and this is exactly what "Jah Ras Tafari" contains. And the word "Jah" pre-dated that Ethiopian politician by thousands of years.
To claim that the "Jah" in a name applied mid-20th century is part of the "shortened version of Jah Ras Tafari" is silly.
Get a clue, Harmon.
As for silly claim that "no Jewish mother ever named her son Jesus," Ken Brown and others have already dealt with how languages and alphabets shift around. The shifts between consonants (like J and Y, like D and T in German, and so on) are well known to all etymologists.
Ah yes, I totally understand all that -- what you (and the christers and some
others here) don't seem to grasp is the inviolate nature of the fucking *HOLY
NAME* and what that means. It was, after all, a jewish thing, and -- if you
want to play their game, you gotta play by their rules -- meaning you don't mess
around with the name of the god.
None of the variant spellings of "Jesus" had _anything_ to do with "the name of the god" (in terms of the "jewish thing" you cite).
The Jews did not confuse Joshua/Yeshua/Iosus/Jesus/whatever with their desert vengeance god YHWH. Neither should you.
You're letting your mystical/Wiccan/pagan superstitious drivel interfere with scholarship.
--Tim May"That government is best which governs not at all." --Henry David Thoreau
