<< On Thu, 7 Aug 1997 LegoMan07@aol.com wrote:
> While researching in BAGD under "Eimi," there was a reference to PMich
155,3
> (2nd century) hO QEOS hO IAW KURIOS PANTOKRATOR. I think that IAW was a
> Greek transliteration of YHWH in the Koine period as "Jehovah" is an
English
> transliteration.
>
But please know that Jehovah is *not* the English
transliteration of the tetragrammaton (which by the way is YHWH). Rather
it is a guess, and a relatively late, not to mention a *very bad* one, of
how the divine name would have been pronounced, which illegitimately mixes
the vowels of ADONAI (Lord) with the four consonants of the
tetragrammaton.
Or perhaps you have misunderstood what "transliteration" means? >>
Dear Jeffrey,
Transliterations are: "words of another language presented in English, with
their individual characters converted into Roman letters. They approximate
the actual pronunciation and are generally syllabified and accented."
I appreciate your precision. Strictly speaking, it is true that "Jehovah" is
more a translation than transliteration. I thought about my phrasing before I
sent it, considering the sensitivity some have towards the Name and the scope
of b-greek. I had in mind, however, the transition of YHWH to JHVH and its
syllabification using the traditional vowels from Elohim and Adonay. English
translations/ transliterations of the Name (IAW) I believe to be within the
scope of b-greek.
In any case, the history of the English "rendition" of the name is that in
1278, the Name appeared in Latin in the work Pugio fidei (Dagger of Faith),
by Raymundus Martini, a Spanish monk. Raymundus Martini used the spelling
Yohoua. Soon after, in 1303, Porchetus de Salvaticis completed a work
entitled Victoria Porcheti adversus impios Hebraeos (Porchetus' Victory
Against the Ungodly Hebrews). In this he, too, mentioned God's name, spelling
it variously Iohouah, Iohoua and Ihouah. Then, in 1518, Petrus Galatinus
published a work entitled De arcanis catholicae veritatis (Concerning Secrets
of the Universal Truth) in which he spells God's name Iehoua.
The name first appeared in an English Bible in 1530. Tyndale included the
name of God, usually spelled Iehouah, in several verses, and in a note in
this edition he wrote: "Iehovah is God's name . . . Moreover as oft as thou
seist LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing) it is
in Hebrew Iehovah." From this the practice arose of using the name "Jehovah"
in just a few verses and writing "LORD" or "GOD" in most other places where
the Tetragrammaton occurs in the Hebrew text.
In 1543 Luther wrote with characteristic frankness: "That they [the Jews] now
allege the name Jehovah to be unpronounceable, they do not know what they are
talking about . . . If it can be written with pen and ink, why should it not
be spoken, which is much better than being written with pen and ink? Why do
they not also call it unwriteable, unreadable or unthinkable? All things
considered, there is something foul."
So, while "Yahweh" is fine as a "transliteration" of the Name, the English
"translation" "Jehovah" has been in use for many centuries, particularly in
Europe.
However, my question relates more to the Greek translation/
transliteration(?) IAW. Perhaps the Name was closer in pronunciation to this
than to the current "Yahweh," which takes its vowels from the Samaritan Jabe?
Does anyone have further information on this usage, particularly during the
first century?
Kindly,
Mitchell