Yhwh

The Tetragrammaton in Phoenician , Aramaic and ancient Hebrew square.

The Tetragrammaton (or tetragrammaton) . Often described as the "proper name" of God , this word is designated as the "Tetragrammaton". It is a form of the root end trilittrale (HYH) the verb "to be" . The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) reports that this phrase was heard by Moses on the summit of Mount Horeb in the wilderness of Sinai .

For Jews , this name - including vocalization, if it ever existed, is unknown - should not be pronounced under the Third Commandment, translated as: "Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH in vain. .. ". In contrast, Christians (such as Canon Crampon ) were transcribed in some translations as "Yahweh," "Yahweh" or "Jehovah" in the ruling. However, since the beginning of the XXI ^century , the Catholic Church recommends replacing "YHWH" with the name "the Lord" ^, .

The Tetragrammaton YHWH is, the general view of grammarians Jewish Middle Ages , reinforced by that of Baruch Spinoza , a verbal inflection artificial three-consonant root , HYH (be, become, arrive ").

King James Version translated by I am who I am, or by the phrase the Lord. Andre Chouraqui IHVH transcript rather than YHWH. In the German media is written YHWH.

On the other hand, Henry Meschonnic indicates that the Tetragrammaton would partly to do with the name of a deity Semitic older Yah .

The explanation of the Tetragrammaton in the Bible itself is in Ex 3. 13-14 (Burning Bush episode). Elohim told Moses: "Behold, I will find the Israelites and say to them:" Elohim of your fathers hath sent me unto you. " But if they tell me: "What's his name?" I tell them that? Elohim said to Moses: "I am what I am" (ehyeh Acher ehyeh ) And he said: "This is what you say to the Israelites: . The Rabbinate Bible translates as "Being invariant , what regrets Meschonnic , saying that it is a contamination of Theos Greek Septuagint.

The earliest mention of the tetragrammaton YHWH known inscription is a name theophoric dated -820 on the stele from Tel Dan , another inscription, expressed that one, dated -810 was found on the stele of Mesha .

Pronunciation

Pronunciation prohibited direct and names substituted in Judaism

The Jews needed a prohibition of pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, based on the third commandment : "Thou shall not take the Name of YHWH your God in vain" (Exodus 20:7). Chief Rabbi Lazarus Wogue , translator of the Torah says: "As the holy Tetragrammaton, we know that Judaism, from time immemorial and in all its sects without exception, abstained from the vote according to his true form: the Rabbinites or Pharisees said Adonai, the Samaritans Schima . When the reader encounters the Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Scriptures, other terms must be substituted in oral, usually Adonai (, "My Lord") from time to time Elohim ("Powers") . This substitution is called the Standing Qr and explains the vowel points used in modern transcriptions of the Pentateuch: eoa when to read eoi when to read In conversation preferably used Hachem ("Name" - cf. Leviticus 24:11). At school, we also use "q Elo im" .

For these two reasons, the exact pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, assuming it is possible, remains uncertain. The uncertainty does not consonants, but obviously the place and type of vowels.

The uncertainty also relates to the existence of this pronunciation. Joel M. Hoffman, for example, in In the Beginning, argues that the Tetragrammaton was never pronunciation. But most Hebrew scholars are of the opposite opinion. They support each other on the names theophorous , as Judah (Yehuda), and chapters of the Pentateuch containing the Tetragrammaton. In particular, a passage commonly known as The Dream of Isaiah, including prosody and assonance in "O" and "OR" suggest a pronunciation common at the time of writing the text, that is to say, before the prohibition as reported number of compounds with the name theophorous tetragrammaton .

In Biblical Hebrew the vowels are not recording and the player must rebuild or add memory (if it was learned) vowels appropriate to the context of reading. It was the Masoretes who created the middle of the first millennium the rating system currently used to transcribe the vowel sounds.

Pronunciation in Christianity

The prohibition of pronouncing the name of God is not only the ancient Jews, but also the first Christians who perhaps have never experienced its pronunciation .

The Tetragrammaton on the roof of the church Sant'Angelo, Milan

From the Middle Ages , "some Christians who read the Bible in its original version have read YHWH by applying the vocalization of the word Adonai, that is to say by intercalating its three vowels" a, "o" and 'a', and thus obtained the name Jehovah . The name, apparently scientific and archaeological, is historically and theologically very questionable . Long forgotten, the transcription Jehovah was popularized in the ^nineteenth century through the translation of the Bible John Nelson Darby , by Jehovah's Witnesses (twentieth century) and in French literature, for example: Victor Hugo ( Les Miserables , The Man Who Laughs , the poem Jehovah), Alphonse de Lamartine (poem Jehovah), Theophile Gautier ( The Romance of the Mummy ), Anatole France ( Thais , The gods are thirsty , The Revolt of the Angels , Queen of the Grill Pdauque , Mr. Bergeret in Paris ) and many works by other authors .

But Catholicism has used preferably transcription "Yahweh" throughout the ^twentieth century, for non-liturgical editions of the Bible, eg Bible. This transcript was advocated by the German linguist Wilhelm Gesenius (1786-1842). However, at the end of the ^twentieth century, the Catholic Church became increasingly reluctant to regard this transcript.

Thus, in 2001, "by directive of the Holy Father," the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments stated: "Furthermore, in accordance with immemorial tradition, evident already in the Septuagint , the name of God Almighty, expressed by the Hebrew Tetragrammaton and rendered in Latin by the word Dominus , must be rendered into any given vernacular by a word equivalent in meaning . "This directive was reiterated on 29 June 2008 , in a letter to bishops' conferences, and put into practice in October 2008 by the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church. The Tetragrammaton is translated as "the Lord" .

Tetragrammaton on a stained glass window (1868) in the Episcopal Church in Decorah, Iowa, USA.

Protestant Bibles, in turn, translate the Tetragrammaton as "Yahweh", as did King James.

In the ecumenical translation of the Bible (NIV), which combines the efforts of specialists mainly Catholics and Protestants but also Orthodox (especially in the Old Testament), the Tetragrammaton was translated as "Lord."

Attempted reconstruction of the pronunciation

We have two main sources to try to reconstruct the ancient pronontiation the tetragrammaton: the letters of Elephantine and Qumran. Then it seems that the pronunciation was Yahouh (W being then masters elections, that is to say, vowel). It can also be based on the fact that Elijah is pronounced in Hebrew Eliyahu.

Traditions and works related to Tetragrammaton

The Tetragrammaton, stained glass of Saint-Germain-des-Pres , Paris

The computation of a correct pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, and its effects of power - even his "magical" effects - has fueled much production mystical. The myth of the Golem is one of many instances, popularized in modern times by a novel by Gustav Meyrink , The Golem.

The Christian Kabbalah , founded by Pico della Mirandola in 1486, has meditated on the relationship between the Tetragrammaton and the name "Jesus." A scholar of Baden, Johannes Reuchlin , De verbo in mirifico (the verb admirable, 1494), argues that the name of Jesus, translated into Hebrew, which is transcribed with the five letters in the Pentagram or YHSVH IHSUH, equivalent to four letters of the sacred name of Yahweh, the Tetragrammaton, or YHVH IHUH the heart which was inserted s: (shin) A consonant is inserted between the four vowels and make the name pronounceable .

"Death and the Compass", news of Jorge Luis Borges in the collection Fictions , presents a series of murders designed with the Tetragrammaton and punctuated by "The first letter of the name has been articulated," "The second letter of the Name was articulated ... " The Aleph , by the same author, takes the themes of indirect "power" of the divine name.

The Adversary, detective story of Ellery Queen , offers "reading" of four crimes on the model of "reading" of the Tetragrammaton.

Yah Mo B There (in) is a song by R & B of James Ingram and Michael McDonald. It was written by Ingram, McDonald, Rod Temperton , produced by Quincy Jones. According to Michael McDonald, the original title was Lord be there.

References

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