Nehemia Gordon, in his book "Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence", argues that "Yehovah" is God's name pronunciation and it has never got completely lost, giving a linguistic explanation. What do you think about that?
What do you think about Nehemia Gordon theory regarding "Yehovah" as God's name pronunciation that never got completely lost?
by psyco 12 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Bobcat
Have you read the book? If so, I was curious what you think about it.
What is the gist of his argument about the Name?
Curious posters want to know.
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LoveUniHateExams
Well, I'd like to see his working out.
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slimboyfat
Watchtower have quoted George Buchanan as supporting Yehowah in the past. (w99 2/1 p. 30)
But Watchtower hasn’t cited Nehemia Gordon, or Gerard Gertoux (a JW) who both support Yehowah.
It’s a bit surprising to me that Watchtower hasn’t made a stronger claim for Jehovah/Yehowah as the correct pronunciation, because it seems to me there is a good case for it. They seem to have accepted Yahweh as a likely original pronunciation without much of a fight. (I use the terms “correct” and “original” here advisedly, well aware that they are contested concepts.)
In reality it is likely that many different forms of the divine name were in use ancient times: perhaps Yehowah among early Hebrew speaking Jews, Yahweh among Samaritans, Yaho and Yah among second temple Aramaic speaking Jews and early Christians, and Latin form Jehovah from medieval times. Then we’ve got the various substitutes that arose: Lord, God, Heaven, The Name, Eternal and so on.
In German the name Jehova is pronounced as Yehova, pretty much identical to how we would say Yehowah proposed by Gordon, Buchanan, and Gertoux.
I have not read very deeply on the pronunciation issue so, for any experts reading, while I have attempted to be accurate I may not have all the details correct here,
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psyco
I found the explanation really interesting and credible, but I am not an expert in linguistics...
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oppostate
Good recap Slim!
Nehemia though, insists that the sound of the letter waw in Hebrew was always like English V, which is just not linguistically accurate. It makes him sound ignorant. Otherwise his arguments would be somewhat convincing, but then there's that pesky Jehovih which with an i at the end does give credence to a qere form for Elohim.
However, I see the form Yehowah as very plausible. Judah's name Yehudah is only different by that middle D, which when taken out gives Yehuah, pronounced about exactly with Yehwah or Yehowah. Besides most ancient texts that use niqqud vowels don't have a Holem vowel point in the word, so if you spell it without the Holem O letter it also gives Yehwah.
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slimboyfat
I did a couple of courses in Hebrew and our tutor told us it was either vav or waw, that vav is the traditional pronunciation, and waw increasingly popular and viewed as original, but neither is certain—and that it didn’t really matter. It was compared with Latin where v has been pronounced as w. It’s not anything I have looked at for over 15 years.
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oppostate
But the H is for a certainty pronounced in ancient times so when people pronounce YHWH as Yaa-wey this is totally wrong, there are two H sounds in the name and both were pronounced in ancient times, one clue is Arabic where one of the names for Allah is Yahwah, and is pronounced Yahh-WaHH with emphasis on the last syllable and the H sonds quite audible both times.
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EverApostate
So most of us here were once worshipping a god who didnt reveal the correct pronounciation of his name nor prevent his name from being erased in his Holy book
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slimboyfat
Another way of looking at it is that “Jehovah” is pretty close to an early likely pronunciation of Yehowah or Yehovah, so the divine name was preserved down the centuries.
Most names change a bit in translation anyway, including Jesus that was probably pronounced Yeshua or Yehoshua by the early Christians. Does that mean the name Jesus hasn’t been preserved either?