[b-greek] Re: IAW = IAO, IAWE = IAVE

From: Eduardo M. Acuna (eacuna@mail.giga.com)
Date: Mon Feb 19 2001 - 09:22:07 EST



> Dear Eduardo,
>
> I would like to give some comments to your post:
>
> To be able to draw conclusions regarding phonetic transcriptions in Greek
> from a Hebrew original, we need to study Origen's Hexapla.
> -snip-
> Thus we cannot draw the conclusion that the A of IAW necessarily
> represents a Hebrew a-sound, it can just as well represent a Hebrew
> e-sound. All the proper names in the Hebrew Bible beginning with Ye- (or
> Je-) could suggest that the first syllable of the long form of the divine
> name was Ye- or Je- rather than Ya- or Ja-.
>
Therefore, Ye(houah) is more plausible than Ya(hweh)?
>
> I am not aware of a single piece of evidence which suggests that the
> phonetic transcription IAW in 4QLXXLevb was chosen as a substitute for YHWH
> because of some magic viewpoint.
>
The names Ia, Iao, are presented as connected to magic in literature and
amulets. Iao as a phonetic transcription of IAW provides the evidence.
>
> It is true that YAW *later* was used as a
> magic word - several papyrii from the third century C.E. at the University
> library of Oslo testify to this - but this is hardly the case in the LXX.
>
PMich 155,3 is dated second or third century A.D. very close to LXX.
>
> The phonetic transcription IAW evidently represents the real
> pronunciatiation of the shortened form of YHWH when the LXX-copy was made,
> just as YHW was used by Aramaic-speaking Jews on the Egyptian island of
> Elephantine in the 5th century B.C.E. Corroborating this are the forms
> PIPI and HEHE (not anything resembling IAW) in the marigin of old Syraic
> Biblical manuscripts. So I see no connection between IAW and magic or
> between the Masoretes and IAW.
>
For the connection of IAW and magic see Will Wagers post in August 7, 1997
(RE: IAW Kurios Pantokrator = Jehovah/YHWH?).
>
> As to the LXX manuscripts from the second century onward, several divine
> designations, such as for instance QS (for QEOS) are abbreviated, and magic
> cannot play any role in connection with these abbreviations. So why should
> it in connection with KS?.
>
There is no magic involved in KS. I did not implied it in my post.
>
> There is evidence that some groups, including
> the Qumran sect, stopped pronouncing the divine name at the beginning of
> the second century B.C.E. while others continued to pronounce it, perhaps
> as long as the middle of the first century C.E.
>
Eduardo.

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