ʾĒl (written aleph-lamed, e.g. Ugaritic: 𐎛𐎍, Phoenician: 𐤋𐤀,[3] Classical Syriac: ܐܠ, Hebrew: אל, Arabic: إل or إله, cognate to Akkadian: ilu) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "deity".
In the Canaanite religion, or Levantine religion as a whole, El or Il was a god also known as the Father of humanity and all creatures, and the husband of the goddess Asherah as recorded in the clay tablets of Ugarit (modern Ra′s Shamrā—Arabic: رأس شمرا, Syria).[4]
The bull was symbolic to El and his son Baʻal Hadad, and they both wore bull horns on their headdress.[5][6][7][8] He may have been a desert god at some point, as the myths say that he had two wives and built a sanctuary with them and his new children in the desert. El had fathered many gods, but most important were Hadad, Yam, and Mot.
Linguistic forms and meanings[edit]
Cognate forms are found throughout the Semitic languages. They include Ugaritic ʾil, pl. ʾlm; Phoenician ʾl pl. ʾlm; Hebrew ʾēl, pl. ʾēlîm; Aramaic ʾl; Akkadian ilu, pl. ilānu.
In northwest Semitic use, El was both a generic word for any god and the special name or title of a particular god who was distinguished from other gods as being "the god".[9] El is listed at the head of many pantheons. El is the Father God among the Canaanites.
However, because the word sometimes refers to a god other than the great god Ēl, it is frequently ambiguous as to whether Ēl followed by another name means the great god Ēl with a particular epithet applied or refers to another god entirely. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, ʾil mlk is understood to mean "Ēl the King" but ʾil hd as "the godHadad".
The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic ʾilāh, Aramaic ʾAlāh, ʾElāh, Hebrew ʾelōah) may be ʾl with a parasitic h, and ʾl may be an abbreviated form of ʾlh. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning "gods" is ʾilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ʾelōhîm "powers". But in Hebrew this word is also regularly used for semantically singular "god".
The stem ʾl is found prominently in the earliest strata of east Semitic, northwest Semitic, and south Semitic groups. Personal names including the stem ʾl are found with similar patterns in both Amorite and South Arabic which indicates that probably already in Proto-Semitic ʾl was both a generic term for "god" and the common name or title of a single particular god.
Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Hittite texts[edit]
The Egyptian god Ptah is given the title ḏū gitti 'Lord of Gath' in a prism from Lachish which has on its opposite face the name of Amenhotep II (c. 1435–1420 BCE) The title ḏū gitti is also found in Serābitṭ text 353. Cross (1973, p. 19) points out that Ptah is often called the Lord (or one) of eternity and thinks it may be this identification of ʼĒl with Ptah that lead to the epithet ’olam 'eternal' being applied to ʼĒl so early and so consistently.[11] (However in the Ugaritic texts, Ptah is seemingly identified rather with the craftsman god Kothar-wa-Khasis.)[12]
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A Phoenician inscribed amulet of the seventh century BCE from Arslan Tash may refer to ʼĒl. The text was translated by Rosenthal (1969, p. 658) as follows:
However, Cross (1973, p. 17) translated the text as follows:
In some inscriptions, the name ’Ēl qōne ’arṣ meaning "ʼĒl creator of Earth" appears, even including a late inscription at Leptis Magna in Tripolitania dating to the second century (KAI. 129). In Hittite texts, the expression becomes the single name Ilkunirsa, this Ilkunirsa appearing as the husband of Asherdu (Asherah) and father of 77 or 88 sons.[15]
In a Hurrian hymn to ʼĒl (published in Ugaritica V, text RS 24.278), he is called ’il brt and ’il dn which Cross (p. 39) takes as 'ʼĒl of the covenant' and 'ʼĒl the judge' respectively.[16]
Amorites[edit]
Amorite inscriptions from Zincirli refer to numerous gods, sometimes by name, sometimes by title, especially by such titles as Ilabrat 'God of the people'(?), Il abīka 'God of your father', Il abīni 'God of our father' and so forth. Various family gods are recorded, divine names listed as belong to a particular family or clan, sometimes by title and sometimes by name, including the name Il 'God'. In Amorite personal names, the most common divine elements are Il ('God'), Hadad/Adad, and Dagan. It is likely that Il is also very often the god called in Akkadian textsAmurru or Il Amurru.
Ugarit[edit]
For the Canaanites, Ēl or Il was the supreme god, the father of mankind and all creatures.[17] His sons were Hadad, Yam, and Mot, each sharing similar attributes to the Greco-Roman Gods: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades respectively.
Three pantheon lists found at Ugarit begin with the four gods ’il-’ib (which according to Cross (1973; p. 14) is the name of a generic kind of deity, perhaps the divine ancestor of the people), Ēl, Dagnu (that is Dagon), and Ba’lṢapān (that is the God Haddu or Hadad).[18] Though Ugarit had a large temple dedicated to Dagon and another to Hadad, there was no temple dedicated to Ēl.
Ēl is called again and again Tôru ‘Ēl ("Bull Ēl" or "the bull god"). He is bātnyu binwāti ("Creator of creatures"), ’abū banī ’ili ("father of the gods"), and ‘abū ‘adami ("father of man"). He is qāniyunu ‘ôlam ("creator eternal"), the epithet ‘ôlamappearing in Hebrew form in the Hebrew name of God ’ēl ‘ôlam "God Eternal" in Genesis 21.33. He is ḥātikuka ("your patriarch"). Ēl is the grey-bearded ancient one, full of wisdom, malku ("King"), ’abū šamīma ("Father of years"), ’El gibbōr ("Ēl the warrior"). He is also named lṭpn of unknown meaning, variously rendered as Latpan, Latipan, or Lutpani ("shroud-face" byStrong's Hebrew Concordance).
The mysterious Ugaritic text Shachar and Shalim tells how (perhaps near the beginning of all things) Ēl came to shores of the sea [Dagon, Maytsha/Vhisnu/Khidr?] and saw two women who bobbed up and down. Ēl was sexually aroused and took the two with him, killed a bird by throwing a staff at it, and roasted it over a fire. He asked the women to tell him when the bird was fully cooked, and to then address him either as husband or as father, for he would thenceforward behave to them as they called him. They saluted him as husband. He then lay with them, and they gave birth to Shachar ("Dawn") and Shalim ("Dusk"). Again Ēl lay with his wives and the wives gave birth to "the gracious gods", "cleavers of the sea", "children of the sea". The names of these wives are not explicitly provided, but some confusing rubrics at the beginning of the account mention the goddess Athirat, who is otherwise Ēl's chief wife, and the goddess Raḥmayyu ("the one of the womb"), otherwise unknown.
In the Ugaritic Ba‘al cycle, Ēl is introduced dwelling on (or in) Mount Lel (Lel possibly meaning "Night") at the fountains of the two rivers at the spring of the two deeps. He dwells in a tent according to some interpretations of the text which may explain why he had no temple in Ugarit. As to the rivers and the spring of the two deeps, these might refer to real streams, or to the mythological sources of the salt water ocean and the fresh water sources under the earth, or to the waters above the heavens and the waters beneath the earth.
In the episode of the "Palace of Ba‘al", the god Ba‘al Hadad invites the "seventy sons of Athirat" to a feast in his new palace. Presumably these sons have been fathered on Athirat by Ēl; in following passages they seem be the gods (’ilm) in general or at least a large portion of them. The only sons of Ēl named individually in the Ugaritic texts are Yamm ("Sea"), Mot ("Death"), and Ashtar, who may be the chief and leader of most of the sons of Ēl. Ba‘al Hadad is a few times called Ēl's son rather than the son of Dagan as he is normally called, possibly because Ēl is in the position of a clan-father to all the gods.
The fragmentary text R.S. 24.258 describes a banquet to which Ēl invites the other gods and then disgraces himself by becoming outrageously drunk and passing out after confronting an otherwise unknown Hubbay, "he with the horns and tail". The text ends with an incantation for the cure of some disease, possibly hang-over.[19][20]
Hebrew Bible[edit]
The Hebrew form (אל) appears in Latin letters in Standard Hebrew transcription as El and in Tiberian Hebrew transcription as ʾĒl.
El is a generic word for god that could be used for any god, including Hadad, Moloch,[21] or Yahweh.
In the Tanakh, ’elōhîm is the normal word for a god or the great god (or gods, given that the 'im' suffix makes a word plural in Hebrew). But the form ’El also appears, mostly in poetic passages and in the patriarchal narratives attributed to the P source of the Documentary Hypothesis. It occurs 217 times in the Masoretic text: seventy-three times in the Psalms and fifty-five times in the Book of Job, and otherwise mostly in poetic passages or passages written in elevated prose. It occasionally appears with the definite article as hā’Ēl 'the god' (for example in 2 Samuel 22:31,33–48).
The theological position of the Tanakh is that the names Ēl and ’Ĕlōhîm, when used in the singular to mean the supreme god, refer to Yahweh, beside whom other gods are supposed to be either nonexistent or insignificant. Whether this was a long-standing belief or a relatively new one has long been the subject of inconclusive scholarly debate about the prehistory of the sources of the Tanakh and about the prehistory of Israelite religion. In the P strand, YHVH says in Exodus 6:2–3:
Before El's revelation with the name of Yahweh, it is said in Genesis 14:18–20 that Abraham accepted the blessing of El, when Melchizedek, the King of Salem and high priest of its deity El Elyon blessed him.[22] One scholarly position is that the identification of Yahweh with Ēl is late, that Yahweh was earlier thought of as only one of many gods, and not normally identified with Ēl. However, the name Yahweh is used in the Bible Tanakh as early as Genesis 2:4; and Genesis 4:26 says that at that time, people began to "call upon the name of the LORD".[23][24]
In some places, especially in Psalm 29, Yahweh is clearly envisioned as a storm god, something not true of Ēl so far as we know (though true of his son, Ba'al Hadad). It is Yahweh who fights Leviathan in Isaiah 27:1; Psalm 74:14; Job 3:8 & Job 40:25–41:1, a deed attributed to both Ba’al Hadad and ‘Anat in the Ugaritic texts, but not to Ēl.
Such mythological motifs are variously seen as late survivals from a period when Yahweh held a place in theology comparable to that of Hadad at Ugarit; or as latehenotheistic/monotheistic applications to Yahweh of deeds more commonly attributed to Hadad; or simply as examples of eclectic application of the same motifs and imagery to various different gods. Similarly, it is argued inconclusively whether Ēl Shaddāi, Ēl ‘Ôlām, Ēl ‘Elyôn, and so forth, were originally understood as separate divinities. Albrecht Alt presented his theories on the original differences of such gods in Der Gott der Väter in 1929.[25] But others have argued that from patriarchal times, these different names were in fact generally understood to refer to the same single great god, Ēl. This is the position of Frank Moore Cross (1973).[26] What is certain is that the form ’El does appear in Israelite names from every period including the name Yiśrā’ēl ("Israel"), meaning "El strives" or "struggled with El".
According to The Oxford Companion to World Mythology,
The apparent plural form ’Ēlîm or ’Ēlim 'gods' occurs only four times in the Tanakh. Psalm 29, understood as an enthronement psalm, begins:
Psalm 89:6 (verse 7 in Hebrew) has:
Traditionally bênê ’ēlîm has been interpreted as 'sons of the mighty', 'mighty ones', for ’El can mean 'mighty', though such use may be metaphorical (compare the English expression [by] God awful). It is possible also that the expression ’ēlîm in both places descends from an archaic stock phrase in which ’lm was a singular form with the m-enclitic and therefore to be translated as 'sons of Ēl'. The m-enclitic appears elsewhere in the Tanakh and in other Semitic languages. Its meaning is unknown, possibly simply emphasis. It appears in similar contexts in Ugaritic texts where the expression bn ’il alternates with bn ’ilm, but both must mean 'sons of Ēl'. That phrase with m-enclitic also appears in Phoenician inscriptions as late as the fifth century BCE.
One of the other two occurrences in the Tanakh is in the "Song of Moses", Exodus 15:11a:
The final occurrence is in Daniel 11:36:
There are a few cases in the Tanakh where some think ’El referring to the great god Ēl is not equated with Yahweh. One is in Ezekiel 28:2, in the taunt against a man who claims to be divine, in this instance, the leader of Tyre:
Here ’ēl might refer to a generic god, or to a highest god, Ēl. When viewed as applying to the King of Tyre specifically, the king was probably not thinking of Yahweh. When viewed as a general taunt against anyone making divine claims, it may or may not refer to Yahweh depending on the context.
In Judges 9:46 we find ’Ēl Bêrît 'God of the Covenant', seemingly the same as the Ba‘al Bêrît 'Lord of the Covenant' whose worship has been condemned a few verses earlier. See Baal for a discussion of this passage.
Psalm 82:1 says:
This could mean that Yahweh judges along with many other gods as one of the council of the high god Ēl. However it can also mean that Yahweh stands in the Divine Council (generally known as the Council of Ēl), as Ēl judging among the other members of the Council. The following verses in which the god condemns those whom he says were previously named gods (Elohim) and sons of the Most High suggest the god here is in fact Ēl judging the lesser gods.
An archaic phrase appears in Isaiah 14:13, kôkkêbê ’ēl 'stars of God', referring to the circumpolar stars that never set, possibly especially to the seven stars of Ursa Major. The phrase also occurs in the Pyrgi Inscription as hkkbm ’l (preceded by the definite article h and followed by the m-enclitic). Two other apparent fossilized expressions are arzê-’ēl 'cedars of God' (generally translated something like 'mighty cedars', 'goodly cedars') in Psalm 80:10 (in Hebrew verse 11) and kêharrê-’ēl'mountains of God' (generally translated something like 'great mountains', 'mighty mountains') in Psalm 36:7 (in Hebrew verse 6).
For the reference in some texts of Deuteronomy 32:8 to seventy sons of God corresponding to the seventy sons of Ēl in the Ugaritic texts, see ’Elyôn.
Sanchuniathon[edit]
Main articles: Sanchuniathon and Philo of Byblos
Philo of Byblos (c. 64-141 A.D.) was a Greek writer whose account Sanchuniathon survives in quotation by Eusebius and may contain the major surviving traces of Phoenician mythology. Ēl (rendered Elus or called by his standard Greek counterpart Cronus) is not the creator God or first God. Ēl is rather the son of Sky and Earth. Sky and Earth are themselves children of ‘Elyôn 'Most High'.[citation needed] Ēl is brother to the God Bethel, to Dagon, and to an unknown god equated with the Greek Atlas, and to the goddesses Aphrodite/’Ashtart, Rhea (presumably Asherah), and Dione (equated with Ba`alat Gebal). Ēl is father of Persephone and of Athena (presumably the goddess [[ |‘Anat]]).
Sky and Earth have separated from one another in hostility, but Sky insists on continuing to force himself on Earth, and attempts to destroy the children born of such unions. At last Ēl, son of Sky and Earth, with the advice of the god Thoth and Ēl's daughter Athena successfully attacks his father Sky with a sickle and spear of iron. So he and his allies the Eloim gain Sky's kingdom. In a later passage it is explained that Ēl castrated Sky. One of Sky's concubines (who was given to Ēl's brother Dagon) was already pregnant by Sky. The son who is born of this union, called Demarûs or Zeus, but once called Adodus, is obviously Hadad, the Ba‘al of the Ugaritic texts who now becomes an ally of his grandfather Sky and begins to make war on Ēl.
Ēl has three wives, his sisters or half-sisters Aphrodite/Astarte (‘Ashtart), Rhea (presumably Asherah), and Dione (identified by Sanchuniathon with Ba‘alat Gebal the tutelary goddess of Byblos, a city which Sanchuniathon says that Ēl founded).
Eusebius of Caesarea, through whom Sanchuniathon is preserved, is not interested in setting the work forth completely or in order. But we are told that Ēl slew his own son Sadidus (a name that some commentators think might be a corruption of Shaddai, one of the epithets of the Biblical Ēl) and that Ēl also beheaded one of his daughters. Later, perhaps referring to this same death of Sadidus we are told:
A fuller account of the sacrifice appears later:
The account also relates that Thoth:
This is the form under which Ēl/Cronus appears on coins from Byblos from the reign of Antiochus IV (175–164 BCE) four spread wings and two folded wings, leaning on a staff. Such images continued to appear on coins until after the time of Augustus.
Poseidon[edit]
Main article: Poseidon
A bilingual inscription from Palmyra (KAI. 11, p. 43; KAI 129) dated to the 1st century equates Ēl-Creator-of-the-Earth with the Greek god Poseidon. Going back to the 8th century BCE, the bilingual inscription (KAI 26) at Karatepe in the Taurus Mountains equates Ēl-Creator-of-the-Earth to Luwian hieroglyphs read as da-a-ś,[28] this being the Luwian form of the name of the Babylonian water god Ea, lord of the abyss of water under the earth. (This inscription lists Ēl in second place in the local pantheon, following Ba`al Shamîm and preceding the Eternal Sun.)
Poseidon is known to have been worshipped in Beirut, his image appearing on coins from that city. Poseidon of Beirut was also worshipped at Delos where there was an association of merchants, shipmasters, and warehousemen called the Poseidoniastae of Berytus founded in 110 or 109 BCE. Three of the four chapels at its headquarters on the hill northwest of the Sacred Lake were dedicated to Poseidon, the Tyche of the city equated with Astarte (that is ‘Ashtart), and to Eshmun.
Also at Delos, that association of Tyrians, though mostly devoted to Heracles-Melqart, elected a member to bear a crown every year when sacrifices to Poseidon took place. A banker named Philostratus donated two altars, one to Palaistine Aphrodite Urania (‘Ashtart) and one to Poseidon "of Ascalon".
Though Sanchuniathon distinguishes Poseidon from his Elus/Cronus, this might be a splitting off of a particular aspect of Ēl in a euhemeristic account. Identification of an aspect of Ēl with Poseidon rather than with Cronus might have been felt to better fit with Hellenistic religious practice, if indeed this Phoenician Poseidon really is Ēl who dwells at the source of the two deeps in Ugaritic texts. More information is needed to be certain.
See also[edit]
Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language.
When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or "powers".[1][2] It is generally thought that Elohim is a formation from eloah, the latter being an expanded form of the Northwest Semitic noun il (אֵל, ʾēl[3]). It is usually translated as "God" in the Hebrew Bible, referring with singular verbs both to the one God of Israel, and also in a few examples to other singular pagan deities. With plural verbs the word is also used as a true plural with the meaning "gods".[3] The related nouns eloah (אלוה) and el (אֵל) are used as proper names or as generics, in which case they are interchangeable with elohim.[3]
Mark S. Smith said that the notion of divinity underwent radical changes throughout the period of early Israelite identity. Smith said that the ambiguity of the term Elohim is the result of such changes, cast in terms of "vertical translatability" by Smith (2008); i.e. the re-interpretation of the gods of the earliest recalled period as the national god of the monolatrism as it emerged in the 7th to 6th century BCE in the Kingdom of Judah and during the Babylonian captivity, and further in terms of monotheism by the emergence of Rabbinical Judaism in the 2nd century CE.[4] A different version was produced by Morton Smith. Despite the -im ending common to many plural masculine nouns in Hebrew, the word when referring to the Name of God is grammatically singular, and takes a singular verb in the Hebrew Bible.
The word is identical to the usual plural of el meaning gods or magistrates, and is cognate to the 'l-h-m found in Ugaritic, where it is used for the pantheon of Canaanite gods, the children of El and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim". Most use of the term Elohim in the later Hebrew text imply a view that is at least monolatrist at the time of writing, and such usage (in the singular), as a proper title for the supreme deity, is generally not considered to be synonymous with the term elohim, "gods" (plural, simple noun). Hebrew grammar allows for this nominally-plural form to mean "He is the Power (singular) over powers (plural)", or roughly, "God of gods". Rabbinic scholarMaimonides wrote that the various other usages are commonly understood to be homonyms.[5] The plural form ending in -im can also be understood as denoting abstraction, as in the Hebrew words chayyim ("life") or betulim ("virginity"). If understood this way, Elohim means "divinity" or "deity".[citation needed]
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[hide]Etymology[edit]
The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible defines "elohim" as a plural of eloah, an expanded form of the common Semitic noun "'il" (ʾēl).[3] It contains an addedheh as third radical to the biconsonantal root. Discussions of the etymology of elohim essentially concern this expansion. An exact cognate outside of Hebrew is found inUgaritic ʾlhm, the family of El, the creator god and chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon, in Biblical Aramaic ʼĔlāhā and later Syriac Alaha "God", and in Arabic ʾilāh "god, deity" (or Allah as " The [single] God").
"El" (the basis for the extended root ʾlh) is usually derived from a root meaning "to be strong" and/or "to be in front".[3]
Canaanite religion[edit]
Further information: Canaanite religion
The word el (singular) is a standard term for "god" in other related Semitic languages including Ugaritic. The Canaanite pantheon of gods was known as the elohim (the gods [plural]).[citation needed] For instance, in the Ugaritic Baal cycle we read of "seventy sons of Asherah". Each "son of god" was held to be the originating deity for a particular people. (KTU2 1.4.VI.46).[6] A memory of this myth is contained in Genesis, describing the "sons of God" who lay with the "daughters of men". In post-exilicapocrypha these were identified as Nephelim, or fallen angels.[citation needed]
Elohist[edit]
Further information: Elohist
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2011) |
Elohim occurs frequently throughout the received text of the Torah. In some cases (e.g. Exodus 3:4, "... Elohim called unto him out of the midst of the bush ..."), it acts as a singular noun in Hebrew grammar, and is then generally understood to denote the single God of Israel. In other cases, Elohim acts as an ordinary plural of the word Eloah, and refers to the polytheistic notion of multiple gods (for example, Exodus 20:3, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.").
The choice of word or words for God varies in the Hebrew Bible. According to the documentary hypothesis these variations are evidence of different source texts: Elohim is used as the name of God in the Elohist and the Priestly source, while Yahweh is used in the Jahwist source. The difference in names results from the theological point being made in the Elohist and Priestly sources that God did not reveal his name, Yahweh, to any man before the time of Moses.
While the Jahwist presented an anthropomorphic God who could walk through the Garden of Eden looking for Adam and Eve, the Elohist frequently involves angels. For example, it is the Elohist version of the tale of Jacob's ladder in which there is a ladder of angels with God at the top, whereas in the Jahwist tale, it is just a dream in which God is simply above the location, without the ladder or angels. Likewise, the Elohist describes Jacob actually wrestling with God.{Genesis 32:28}
The classical documentary hypothesis as developed in the late 19th century assumed that the Elohist portions of the Torah were composed in the 9th century BCE (i.e. during the early period of the Kingdom of Judah). This is far from universally accepted today, as there is evidence of a later "Elohist redaction" (post-exilic) during the 5th century BCE which makes it difficult to determine whether a given passage is "Elohist" in origin, or only as a result of late redaction.
Hebrew Bible[edit]
The word Elohim occurs more than 2500 times in the Hebrew Bible, with meanings ranging from "god" in a general sense (as in Exodus 12:12, where it describes "the gods of Egypt"), to a specific god (e.g., 1 Kings 11:33, where it describes Chemosh "the god of Moab", or the frequent references to Yahweh as the "elohim" of Israel), to demons, seraphim, and other supernatural beings, to the spirits of the dead brought up at the behest of King Saul in 1 Samuel 28:13, and even to kings and prophets (e.g., Exodus 4:16).[3] The phrase bene elohim, usually translated "sons of God", has an exact parallel in Ugaritic and Phoenician texts, referring to the council of the gods.[3]
Further information: Names of God in Judaism
Elohim occupy the seventh rank of ten in the famous medieval Rabbinic scholar Maimonides' Jewish angelic hierarchy. Maimonides said: "I must premise that every Hebrew knows that the term Elohim is a homonym, and denotes God, angels, judges, and the rulers of countries, ...[5]
Grammar – singular or plural[edit]
Main article: Hebrew grammar
In Hebrew the ending -im mainly indicates a masculine plural. However with Elohim the construction is grammatically singular (i.e. it governs a singular verb or adjective) when referring to the Hebrew God, but grammatically plural elohim (i.e. taking a plural verb or adjective) when used of pagan divinities (Psalms 96:5; 97:7).[citation needed]Similarly, the Quran uses alīha as the plural of īlah for pagan divinities, and occasionally uses "Allahuma" (O God! - plural) for the sole god (as opposed to "Allah"). The exact equivalent of Elohim would be Īlahīn (إلاهين), although it is rarely used in Arabic parlance. Note that human beings can also have names with plural endings, such asEphraim, the son of Joseph.
Plural "gods", with plural verb[edit]
The noun elohim is used with a plural verb in 1 Samuel 28:13. The witch of Endor told Saul that she saw "gods" (elohim) ascending (olim עֹלִים, plural verb) out of the earth.[7]
God of Israel, with singular verb[edit]
In the Hebrew Bible Elohim, when meaning the God of Israel, is mostly grammatically singular. Even in Genesis 1:26 "Then God said (singular verb), 'Let us make (plural verb) man in our image, after our likeness'", Elohim is singular. Wilhelm Gesenius and other Hebrew grammarians traditionally described this as the pluralis excellentiae(plural of excellence), which is similar to the pluralis majestatis (plural of majesty, or "Royal we").[8]
Gesenius comments that Elohim singular is to be distinguished from elohim plural gods and remarks that:
There are a number of notable exceptions to the rule that Elohim is treated as singular when referring to the God of Israel, including Gen. 20:13, 35:7, 2 Sam. 7:23 and Ps. 58:11, and notably the epithet of the "Living God" (Deuteronomy 5:26 etc.), which is constructed with the plural adjective, Elohim Hayiym אלהים חיים but still takes singular verbs.
In the Septuagint and New Testament translations Elohim has the singular ὁ θεὸς even in these cases, and modern translations follow suit in giving "God" in the singular. The Samaritan Torah has edited out some of these exceptions.[9]
Abraham's "the gods caused me"[edit]
In Gen 20:13 Abraham, before the polytheistic Philistine king Abimelech, says that "the gods (elohim) caused (plural verb) me to wander".[10][11][12] The Greek Septuagint(LXX) and most English versions usually translate this "God caused", possibly to avoid the implication of Abraham deferring to Abimelech's polytheistic beliefs.[13]
Angels and judges[edit]
In a few cases in the Greek Septuagint (LXX), Hebrew elohim with a plural verb, or with implied plural context, was rendered either angeloi ("angels") or pros to kriterion tou Theou ("before the judgement of God").[14] These passages then entered first the Latin Vulgate, then the English King James Version (KJV) as "angels" and "judges", respectively. From this came the result that James Strong, for example, listed "angels" and "judges" as possible meanings for elohim with a plural verb in his Strong's Concordance, and the same is true of many other 17th-20th century reference works. Both Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon and the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon list both angels and judges as possible alternative meanings of elohim with plural verbs and adjectives.
The reliability of the Septuagint translation in this matter has been questioned by Gesenius and Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg. In the case of Gesenius, he lists the meaning without agreeing with it.[15] Hengstenberg stated that the Hebrew Bible text never uses elohim to refer to "angels", but that the Septuagint translators refused the references to "gods" in the verses they amended to "angels."[16]
The Greek New Testament (NT) quotes Psalm 8:4-6 in Hebrews 2:6b-8a, where the Greek NT has "ἀγγέλους" (angelos) in vs. 7,[17] quoting Ps. 8:5 (8:6 in the LXX), which also has "ἀγγέλους" in a version of the Greek Septuagint.[18] In the KJV, elohim (Strong's number H430) is translated as "angels" only[19] in Psalm 8:5.
The KJV has elohim translated as "judges" in Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:8; and twice in Exodus 22:9.[20]
Ambiguous readings[edit]
Sometimes when elohim occurs as the referent or object (i.e. not subject) of a sentence, and without any accompanying verb or adjective to indicate plurality, it may be grammatically unclear whether gods plural or God singular is intended. An example is Psalm 8:5 where "Yet you have made him a little lower than the elohim" is ambiguous as to whether "lower than the gods" or "lower than God" is intended. The Septuagint read this as "gods" and then "corrected" the translation to "angels",[citation needed] which reading is taken up by the New Testament in Hebrews 2:9 "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (full quote and compare)
Other plural-singulars in biblical Hebrew[edit]
The Hebrew language has several nouns with -im (masculine plural) and -oth (feminine plural) endings which nevertheless take singular verbs, adjectives and pronouns. For example Ba'alim "owner": "He is lord (singular) even over any of those things that he owns that are lordly (plural)."[citation needed]
Jacob's ladder "gods were revealed" (plural)[edit]
In the following verses Elohim was translated as God singular in the King James Version even though it was accompanied by plural verbs and other plural grammatical terms.
Here the Hebrew verb "revealed" is plural, hence: "the-gods were revealed". A NET Bible note claims that the Authorized Version wrongly translates: "God appeared unto him".[21] This is one of several instances where the Bible uses plural verbs with the name elohim.[22][23]
The Divine Council of Elohim[edit]
Main article: Divine Council
Marti Steussy, in Chalice Introduction to the Old Testament, discusses: “The first verse of Psalm 82: ‘Elohim has taken his place in the divine council.’ Here elohim has a singular verb and clearly refers to God. But in verse 6 of the Psalm, God says to the other members of the council, ‘You [plural] are elohim.’ Here elohim has to mean gods.”[24]
Mark Smith, referring to this same Psalm, states in God in Translation “This psalm presents a scene of the gods meeting together in divine council...Elohim stands in the council of El. Among the elohim he pronounces judgment:...”[25]
In Hulsean Lectures for..., H. M. Stephenson discussed Jesus’ argument in John 10:34–36 concerning Psalm 82. (In answer to the charge of blasphemy Jesus replied:) "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods. If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" – "Now what is the force of this quotation 'I said ye are gods.' It is from the Asaph Psalm which begins 'Elohim hath taken His place in the mighty assembly. In the midst of the Elohim He is judging.'"[26]
Sons of God[edit]
Main article: Sons of God
The Hebrew word for a son is ben; plural is benim (with the construct state form being "benei"). The Hebrew term benei elohim ("sons of God" or "sons of the gods") in Genesis 6:2[27] compares to the use of "sons of gods" (Ugaritic b'n il) sons of El in Ugaritic mythology.[28] Karel van der Toorn states that gods can be referred to collectively as bene elim, bene elyon, or bene elohim.[3]
In Jewish tradition, the Torah verse, that was the battle-cry of the Maccabees (Hebrew: מקבים Machabi, מקבים), "Mi chamocha ba'elim YHWH" ("Who is like You among the heavenly powers, YHWH"[29]),[30] is an acronym for "Machabi" as well as an acronym for "Matityahu Kohen ben Yochanan".[31] The correlating Torah verse, The song of Moses and the Children of Israel by the Sea, makes a reference to elim, but more with a mundane notion of natural forces, might, war and governmental powers.
English Bible translations[edit]
Hebrew elohim in English translations of the Bible is generally rendered as gods when occurring with a plural verb or referring to pagan deities, and as God when occurring with a singular verb or referring to the God of Israel. [32]
See also[edit]
Yahweh (/ˈjɑːhweɪ/, or often /ˈjɑːweɪ/ in English; Hebrew: יהוה), was the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The name may have originated as an epithet of the god El, head of the Bronze Age Canaanite pantheon ("El who is present, who makes himself manifest"),[1]:94–95 and appears to have been unique to Israel and Judah,[2]:184 although Yahweh may have been worshiped south of the Dead Sea at least three centuries before the emergence of Israel (the Kenite hypothesis). The earliest reference to a deity called "Yahweh" appears in Egyptian texts of the 13th century BC that place him among the Shasu-Bedu of southern Transjordan.[3]
In the oldest biblical literature (12th–11th centuries BC), Yahweh is a typical ancient Near Eastern "divine warrior" who leads the heavenly army against Israel's enemies; he and Israel are bound by a covenant under which Yahweh will protect Israel and, in turn, Israel will not worship other gods.[4]:158–159 At a later period, Yahweh functioned as the dynastic cult (the god of the royal house)[5]:69–70 with the royal courts promoting him as the supreme god over all others in the pantheon (notably Baal, El, and Asherah (who is thought by some scholars to have been his consort)).[6][7]:917 Over time, Yahwism became increasingly intolerant of rivals, and the royal court and temple promoted Yahweh as the god of the entire cosmos, possessing all the positive qualities previously attributed to the other gods and goddesses.[5]:69–70 [7]:917 With the work of Second Isaiah (the theoretical author of the second part of the Book of Isaiah) towards the end of the Babylonian exile (6th century BC), the very existence of foreign gods was denied, and Yahweh was proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos and the true god of all the world.[7]:917
By early post-biblical times, the name of Yahweh had ceased to be pronounced. In modern Judaism, it is replaced with the word Adonai, meaning Lord, and is understood to be God's proper name and to denote his mercy.[8]Many Christian Bibles follow the Jewish custom and replace it with "the LORD".
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[hide]Name[edit]
See also: Tetragrammaton and Names of God in Judaism
In the Hebrew Bible, the name is written as יהוה (YHWH), as biblical Hebrew was written with consonants only. The original pronunciation of YHWH was lost many centuries ago, but the available evidence indicates that it was in all likelihood Yahweh, meaning approximately "he causes to be" or "he creates".[9]:2 The origins of the god are unclear: an influential suggestion, although not universally accepted, is that the name originally formed part of a title of the Canaanite supreme deity El, el dū yahwī ṣaba’ôt, "El who creates the hosts", meaning the heavenly army accompanying El as he marched out beside the earthly armies of Israel; the alternative proposal connects it with a place-name south of Canaan mentioned in Egyptian records from the Late Bronze Age.[9]:2[10]:24, fn. 23
By early post-biblical times, the name Yahweh had ceased to be pronounced aloud, except once a year by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies; on all other occasions it was replaced by Adonai, meaning "my Lord". [8] Some of the surviving Septuagint manuscripts from the first century BC replace the Tetragrammaton with the Greek word Kyrios, meaning "lord".[11][12] In modern Judaism, it is one of the seven names of God which must not be erased, and is the name denoting God's mercy.[8] The Catholic Church never used the name Yahweh in liturgical texts or bibles before Vatican II, after which it began to see limited use in the Jerusalem Bible and certain contemporary hymns. In 2001, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments directed that the word "Lord" and its equivalent in other languages be used instead.[13] In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI ordered thePontifical Biblical Commission to investigate whether the use of the name Yahweh was offensive to Jewish groups, and in 2008 the Vatican recommended against the use of the word in new bibles and prohibited its continued use in vernacular worship.[14][15] In the King James Version and many older versions of the Bible, the transliteration JHVH is translated as Jehovah in some places, but almost all modern Bibles substitute "the LORD" or "GOD" for the tetragrammaton,[16] although the Sacred Name Movement, active since the 1930s, promotes the use of the name Yahweh in Bible translations and in liturgy.[17]
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
Early worship of Yahweh likely originated in southern Canaan during the Late Bronze Age.[18]:74–87 It is probable that Yahu or Yahweh was worshipped in southern Canaan (Edom, Moab, Midian) from the 14th century BC, and that this cult was transmitted northwards due to the Kenites. This "Kenite hypothesis" was originally suggested by Cornelius Tiele in 1872 and remains the standard view among modern scholars.[19]
In its classical form suggested by Tiele, the "Kenite hypothesis" assumes that Moses was a historical Midianite who brought the cult of Yahweh north to Israel. This idea is based on an old tradition (recorded in Judges 1:16, 4:11) that Moses' father-in-law was a Midianite priest of Yahweh, as it were preserving a memory of the Midianite origin of the god. According to Exodus 2, however, Moses was not a Midianite himself, but a Hebrew from thetribe of Levi. While the role of the Kenites in the transmission of the cult is widely accepted, the historical role of Moses finds less support in modern scholarship.
The "Kenite hypothesis" supposes that the Hebrews adopted the cult of Yahweh from the Midianites via the Kenites. This view, first proposed by F. W. Ghillany, afterward independently by Cornelis Petrus Tiele (1872), and more fully by Stade, has been more completely worked out by Karl Budde; it is accepted by H. Guthe, Gerrit Wildeboer, H. P. Smith, and G. A. Barton.[20]
Egyptian[edit]
The earliest putative reference to Yahweh in the historical record occurs in a list of Bedouin tribes of the Transjordan made by Amenhotep III (c. 1391 – 1353 BC) in the temple of Amon at Soleb. Therein, the name Yhw is included in a passage referencing "the land of Š3sw-yhw," or "the land of Shasu-y/iw"[21] The place name appears to be associated with Asiatic nomads in the 14th to 13th centuries BC. In 1979, Michael Astour suggested that the hieroglyphic rendering of Yhw corresponded very well with what would be expected if the term signified Yahweh.[22] A later mention from the era of Ramesses II (c. 1279 BC – 1213 BC) associates Yhw with Mount Seir. From this, it is generally supposed that this Yhw refers to a place in the area of Moab and Edom.[23] Whether the god was named after the place, or the place named after the god, is undecided.[24]
Donald B. Redford[25] thinks it reasonable to conclude that the demonym 'Israel' recorded on the Merneptah Stele (1208 BC) refers to a Shasu enclave, and that, since later Biblical tradition portrays Yahweh "coming forth from Se'ir"[26] the Shasu, originally from Moab and northern Edom, went on to form one major element in the amalgam that was to constitute the "Israel" which later established the Kingdom of Israel. Rainey has a similar view in his analysis of the el-Amarna letters.[27]
Semitic[edit]
The oldest West Semitic attestation of the name is the inscription of the victory stela erected by Mesha, king of Moab, in the 9th century BC. In this inscription, Yahweh is not presented as a Moabite deity, but as the national god of Israelite people. Mesha rather records how he defeated Israel, and plundered the temple of Yahweh, presenting the spoils to his own god, Chemosh. This is an alternate vision of the events described in 2 Kings 3.
The name Yahweh does not occur in Canaanite texts and inscriptions.[28] The only North-West Semitic evidence that can plausibly be linked to the Hebrew name 'Yahweh' are some male Amorite names with syllables -yaffwi or -yawi, which may resemble the -jah in Hebrew names such as Abijah. Friedrich Delitzsch Babel and the Bible (1903) was the first to make the proposal that Amorite names with -yawi indicated the existence of an Amorite Yawhi deity equivalent to Hebrew Yahweh. This was supported by Huffmon (1965).[29] However modern scholars such as Toorn (1996) note that such names do not attest to the existence of worship of a Yaffwi.[30] Yahweh or Yahu appears in many Hebrew Bible theophoric names, including Elijah itself, which translates to "my god (el) is Yahu", besides other names such as Isaiah (Yesha'yahu "Yahu saved"), Jesus (Yeshua "Yahweh's Salvation"), Ahaz (Yahu-haz "Yahu held"), and others found in the early Jewish Elephantine papyri.
Yw in the Baal Cycle[edit]
Main article: Baal cycle
More recently, the damaged Ugaritic cuneiform text KTU 1.1:IV:14-15 is also included in the discussion:[31]
From KTU II:IV:13-14
- tgr.il.bnh.tr [ ] wyn.lt[p]n il dp[id...][32] [J yp 'r] Sm bny yw 'ilt
- My son [shall not be called] by the name of Yw, o goddess, [Jfc ym smh (?)] [but Ym shall be his name!]
- wp'r $m ym
- So he proclaimed the name of Yammu.
- [rbt 'atrt (?)] t'nyn
- [Lady Athiratu (?)] answered,
- lzntn ['at np'rt (?)]
- "For our maintenance [you are the one who has been proclaimed (?)][33]
Many scholars[who?] consider yw a reference to Yahweh. Others[who?] consider that yw is unlikely to have be derived from yhw in the second millennium. However the Ugaritic text is read, the verbal play on the similarity between yw and ym (the sea-god Yam) is evident.[34]
Alternative theories[edit]
Charles Tilstone Beke originally believed Mount Sinai to be a volcano but gave up this idea when he saw a mountain he thought to be Mount Sinai and wrote that "from its manifest physical character, it appears that my favourite hypothesis that Mount Sinai was a volcano must be abandoned as untenable."[35] Jacob Dunn suggested in "A God of Volcanoes: Did Yahwism Take Root in Volcanic Ashes?" that the holy mountain of the Abrahamic god was originally a volcano in Saudi Arabia.[36]
Adoption as national god of Israel[edit]
Scholars agree that the archaeological evidence suggests that the Israelites arose peacefully and internally in the highlands of Canaan.[18]:31 In the words of archaeologist William Dever, "most of those who came to call themselves Israelites ... were or had been indigenous Canaanites."[37] What distinguished Israel from other emerging Iron Age Canaanite societies was the belief in Yahweh as the national god, rather than, for example, Chemosh, the god of Moab, or Milcom, the god of the Ammonites.<ref=Hackett/>:156 This would require that the Transjordanian Yahweh worshipers not be identified with Israelites, but perhaps with Edomite tribes who introduced Yahweh to Israel. One longstanding hypothesis is that Yahweh originated as a warrior-god in the region of Edom and Midian, south of Judah, and was introduced into the northern and central highlands by southern tribes such as the Kenites; Karel van der Toorn has suggested that his rise to prominence in Israel was due to the influence of Saul, Israel's first king, who was of Edomite background.[38]:248
Yahweh was eventually hypostatized with El. Several pieces of evidence have led scholars to the conclusion that El was the original "God of Israel"—for example, the word "Israel" is based on the name of El rather than on that of Yahweh.[10]:32 Names of the oldest characters in the Torah further show reverence towards El without similar displays towards Yahweh. Most importantly, Yahweh reveals to Moses that though he was not known previously as El, he has, in fact, been El all along.[39]
El was the head of the Canaanite pantheon, with Asherah as his consort and Baal and other deities making up the pantheon.[10]:33 With his rise, Asherah became Yahweh's consort,[40] and Yahweh and Baal at first co-existed and later competed within the popular religion.[10]:33–34
Yahwism and the monarchy[edit]
In the monarchic period the king functioned as head of the national religion.[9]:90 The kings used national religion to exert their authority, but gods other than Yahweh continued to be worshiped.[7]:917 Evidence increasingly suggests that many Israelites worshiped Asherahas Yahweh's consort.[41]:395
Both the archaeological evidence and the Biblical texts document tensions between groups comfortable with the worship of Yahweh alongside local deities such as Asherah and Baal and those insistent on worship of Yahweh alone during the monarchal period (1 Kings18, Jeremiah 2)[42][43] The Deuteronomistic source gives evidence of a strong monotheistic party during the reign of king Josiah during the late 7th century BCE, but the strength and prevalence of earlier monotheistic worship of Yahweh is widely debated based on interpretations of how much of the Deuteronomistic history is accurately based on earlier sources, and how much has been re-worked by Deuteronomistic redactors to bolster their theological views.[43]:151–154[44] The archaeological record documents widespread polytheism in and around Israel during the period of the monarchy.[42]
Archaeologists and historical scholars use a variety of ways to organize and interpret the available iconographic and textual information. William G. Dever contrasts "official religion/state religion/book religion" of the elite with “folk religion” of the masses.[45] Rainer Albertz contrasts "official religion" with "family religion", "personal piety", and "internal religious pluralism".[46] Jacques Berlinerblau analyzes the evidence in terms of "official religion" and "popular religion" in ancient Israel.[47]
Patrick D. Miller has distinguished three broad categories of Yahwism: orthodox, heterodox, and syncretistic.[9]:46–62 Orthodox Yahwism demanded the exclusive worship of Yahweh (although without denying the existence of other gods). The powers of blessing (health, wealth, continuity, fertility) and salvation (forgiveness, victory, deliverance from oppression and threat) resided fully in Yahweh, and his will was communicated via oracle and prophetic vision or audition. Divination, soothsaying, and necromancy were prohibited. The individual or community could cry out to Yahweh and would receive a divine response, mediated by priestly or prophetic figures.[9]:48
Sanctuaries were erected in various places and were used to express devotion to Yahweh by means of sacrifice, festival meals and celebrations, prayer, and praise. Toward the end of the seventh century (BCE) in Judah, worship of Yahweh was restricted to the temple in Jerusalem, while the major sanctuaries in the northern kingdom were at Bethel (near the southern border) and Dan (in the north). Certain times were set for the gathering of the people to celebrate the gifts of Yahweh and the deity’s acts of deliverance and redemption.[9]:48–50
Everything in the moral realm was understood as a part of relation to Yahweh as a manifestation of holiness. Family relationships and the welfare of the weaker members of society were protected by divine law, and purity of conduct, dress, food, etc. were regulated. Religious leadership resided in priests who were associated with sanctuaries, and also in prophets, who were bearers of divine oracles. In the political sphere the king was understood as the appointee and agent of Yahweh.[9]:50–51
Heterodox Yahwism is described by Miller as a mixture of elements of orthodox Yahwism with particular practices that conflicted with orthodox Yahwism or were not customarily a part of it. For example, heterodox Yahwism included the presence of cult objects rejected by orthodox expressions, such as the Asherah, figurines of various sorts (females, horses and riders, animals and birds, and the calves or bulls of the Northern Kingdom). The "high places" as centers of worship seems to have moved from an acceptable place within Yahwism to an increasingly condemned status in official and orthodox circles. Efforts to know the future or the will of the deity could also be understood as heterodox if they went outside the boundaries of orthodox Yahwism, and even commonly accepted revelatory mechanism such as dreams could be condemned if the resulting message was perceived as false. Consulting mediums, wizards, and diviners was often employed by heterodox Yahwists.[9]:52–56
Syncretism covers the worship of Baal, the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, and stars), the "Queen of Heaven" and other deities as well as practices such as child sacrifice: "Other gods were invoked and serviced in time of need or blessing and provision for life when the worship of Yahweh seemed inadequate for those purposes."[9]:58–59 Evidence increasingly suggests that many Israelites worshipped Asherah as the consort of Yahweh, and various biblical passages indicate that statues of the goddess were kept in Yahweh's temples in Jerusalem, Bethel, and Samaria.[41]:395 Further evidence includes the many female figurines unearthed in ancient Israel, supporting the view that Asherah functioned as a goddess and consort of Yahweh and was worshiped as the Queen of Heaven.[45]
Yahweh after the monarchy[edit]
Following the destruction of the monarchy and loss of the land at the beginning of the 6th century (the period of the Babylonian exile), a search for a new identity led to a re-examination of Israel's traditions. Yahweh now became the only god in the cosmos.[43]:193
The fifth century Elephantine papyri suggest that, "Even in exile and beyond, the veneration of a female deity endured."[18]:185 The texts were written by a group of Jews living at Elephantine near the Nubian border, whose religion has been described as "nearly identical to Iron Age II Judahite religion".[48] The papyri describe the Jews as worshiping Anat-Yahu (or AnatYahu). Anat-Yahu is described as either the wife[49][50] of Yahweh or as a hypostatized aspect of Yahweh.[41]:394[48]
During the Second Temple Period, Yahweh's name ceased to be vocalized. Rabbinical sources indicate that there was an exception for the temple liturgy, where the name was only pronounced once a year, by the high priest, on the Day of Atonement.[51] Others argue that the name was also pronounced in the liturgy of the Temple in the priestly benediction (Num. vi. 27) after the regular daily sacrifice.[52] Maimonides relates that only the priests in Temple in Jerusalem spoke the name of Yahweh aloud, when they recited the Priestly Blessing over the people daily.[53] Since the destruction of Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Yahweh is no longer spoken within Judaism.
History of Yahweh worship[edit]
The oldest plausible non-Biblical occurrence of a name which can be linked with the Hebrew Yahweh comes from 14th century BCE Egyptian texts which mention the "Shosu (i.e., nomads) of the land of YHW". Many scholars follow Mark S. Smith, who identifies this YHW with YHWH and places it in the region of Edom and Midian, south of Israel and Judah, in accordance with the biblical traditions which trace Yahweh to this region (e.g., Numbers 23,24; Deuteronomy 32; Judges 5; and Psalm 82), although the identification is not certain.[54][55]
An 8th century BCE pottery shard (or ostracon) inscribed "Berakhti etkhem l’YHWH Shomron ul’Asherato" (Hebrew: בירכתי אתכם ליהוה שומרון ולאשרתו "I have blessed you by Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah") was discovered by Israeli archeologists at Quntilat 'Ajrud in the course of excavations in the Sinai desert in 1975. Another inscription, from Khirbet el-Kom near Hebron, reads: "Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh and by his Asherah; from his enemies he saved him!".[56][57] These and other discoveries, together with a reassesment of the biblical texts, have led the majority of contemporary scholars to the conclusion that the original god of Israel was the common West Semitic father-god El, as witnessed by the religious history of Shechem, the home of "El Berit", (El of the Covenant, a Late Bronze Age title of El). Yahweh and El later merged at religious centres such as Shechem, Shiloh and Jerusalem, and the priesthood of Yahweh inherited the religious lore of El.[43]:140 As a member of the original Israelite pantheon Yahweh had his own consort, the goddessAsherah.[58] The emergence of Yawheh-centred monotheism in ancient Israel has thus come to be seen as a late and gradual phenomenon, passing through several stages of development before consistent monotheism became the norm in the Babylonian Exile or even later.[59]
Contrary to the practice of their pagan neighbors, Hebrews worshiped Yahweh without an idol to represent the deity. King Hezekiah (8th to 7th century BC) enacted sweeping religious reforms, during which he removed non-Yahwistic elements from the Jerusalem temple,[60] such as the brazen serpent. He also focused worship of Yahweh at the Temple, shutting down the various high places where Yahweh had also been worshiped.
Jehovah /dʒɨˈhoʊvə/ is a Latinization of the Hebrew יְהֹוָה, a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, which has also been transcribed as "Yehowah" or "Yahweh".[1]
יְהֹוָה appears 6,518 times in the traditional Masoretic Text, in addition to 305 instances of יֱהֹוִה (Jehovih).[2] The earliest available Latin text to use a vocalization similar to Jehovah dates from the 13th century.[3]
Most scholars believe "Jehovah" to be a late (c. 1100 CE) hybrid form derived by combining the Latin letters JHVH with the vowels of Adonai, but there is some evidence that it may already have been in use in Late Antiquity (5th century).[4][5] The consensus among scholars is that the historical vocalization of the Tetragrammaton at the time of the redaction of the Torah (6th century BCE) is most likely Yahweh, however there is disagreement. The historical vocalization was lost because in Second Temple Judaism, during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE, the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided, being substituted with Adonai ("my Lord").
"Jehovah" was popularized in the English-speaking world by William Tyndale and other pioneer English Protestant translators,[6] but is no longer used in mainstream English translations, with Lord or LORD used instead, generally indicating that the corresponding Hebrew is Yahweh or YHWH.[7][8]:5
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[hide]Pronunciation
Most scholars believe "Jehovah" to be a late (c. 1100 CE) hybrid form derived by combining the Latin letters JHVH with the vowels of Adonai, but some hold there is evidence that the Jehovah form of the Tetragrammaton may have been in use in Semitic and Greek phonetic texts and artifacts from Late Antiquity.[4][5] Others say that it is the pronunciation Yahweh that is testified in both Christian and pagan texts of the early Christian era.[4][10][11][12]
Karaite Jews,[13] as proponents of the rendering Jehovah, state that although the original pronunciation of יהוה has been obscured by disuse of the spoken name according to oral Rabbinic law, well-established English transliterations of other Hebrew personal names are accepted in normal usage, such as Joshua, Isaiah or Jesus, for which the original pronunciations may be unknown.[13] They also point out that "the English form Jehovah is quite simply an Anglicized form of Yehovah,"[13] and preserves the four Hebrew consonants "YHVH" (with the introduction of the "J" sound in English).[13][14][15] Some argue that Jehovah is preferable to Yahweh, based on their conclusion that the Tetragrammaton was likely tri-syllabic originally, and that modern forms should therefore also have three syllables.[16]
According to a Jewish tradition developed during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE, the Tetragrammaton is written but not pronounced. When read, substitute terms replace the divine name where יְהֹוָה appears in the text. It is widely assumed, as proposed by the 19th-century Hebrew scholar Gesenius, that the vowels of the substitutes of the name—Adonai (Lord) and Elohim (God)—were inserted by the Masoretes to indicate that these substitutes were to be used.[17] When יהוה precedes or follows Adonai, the Masoretes placed the vowel points of Elohim into the Tetragrammaton, producing a different vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יֱהֹוִה, which was read as Elohim.[18] Based on this reasoning, the form יְהֹוָה (Jehovah) has been characterized by some as a "hybrid form",[4][19] and even "a philological impossibility".[20]
Early modern translators disregarded the practice of reading Adonai (or its equivalents in Greek and Latin, Κύριος and Dominus)[21] in place of the Tetragrammaton and instead combined the four Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton with the vowel points that, except in synagogue scrolls, accompanied them, resulting in the form Jehovah.[22] This form, which first took effect in works dated 1278 and 1303, was adopted in Tyndale's and some other Protestant translations of the Bible.[23] In the 1611 King James Version, Jehovah occurred seven times.[24] In the 1885 English Revised Version, the form "Jehovah" occurs twelve times. In the 1901 American Standard Version the form "Je-ho’vah" became the regular English rendering of the Hebrew יהוה, all throughout, in preference to the previously dominant "the LORD", which is generally used in the King James Version.[25] It is also used in Christian hymns such as the 1771 hymn, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".[26]
Development
The most widespread theory is that the Hebrew term יְהֹוָה has the vowel points of אֲדֹנָי (adonai).[27] Using the vowels of adonai, the composite hataf patah ֲ under the guttural alef א becomes a sheva ְ under the yod י, the holam ֹ is placed over the first he ה, and the qamats ָis placed under the vav ו, giving יְהֹוָה (Jehovah). When the two names, יהוה and אדני, occur together, the former is pointed with a hataf segol ֱ under the yod י and a hiriq ִ under the second he ה, giving יֱהֹוִה, to indicate that it is to be read as (elohim) in order to avoid adonaibeing repeated.[28][27]
Taking the spellings at face value may have been as a result of not knowing about the Q're perpetuum, thus resulting in the term "Jehovah" and its spelling variants.[29][30] Emil G. Hirsch was among the modern scholars that recognized "Jehovah" to be "grammatically impossible"[28]
The pronunciation Jehovah is believed to have arisen through the introduction of vowels of the qere—the marginal notation used by the Masoretes. In places where the consonants of the text to be read (the qere) differed from the consonants of the written text (the kethib), they wrote the qere in the margin to indicate that the kethib was read using the vowels of the qere. For a few very frequent words the marginal note was omitted, referred to as q're perpetuum.[20] One of these frequent cases was God's name, which was not to be pronounced in fear of profaning the "ineffable name". Instead, wherever יהוה (YHWH) appears in the kethib of the biblical and liturgical books, it was to be read as אֲדֹנָי (adonai, "My Lord [plural of majesty]"), or as אֱלֹהִים (elohim, "God") if adonai appears next to it.[citation needed] This combination produces יְהֹוָה (yehovah) and יֱהֹוִה (yehovih) respectively.[citation needed] יהוה is also written ’ה, or even ’ד, and read ha-Shem ("the name").[28]
Scholars are not in total agreement as to why יְהֹוָה does not have precisely the same vowel points as adonai.[citation needed] The use of the composite hataf segol ֱ in cases where the name is to be read, "elohim", has led to the opinion that the composite hataf patah ֲ ought to have been used to indicate the reading, "adonai". It has been argued conversely that the disuse of the patah is consistent with the Babylonian system, in which the composite is uncommon.[20]
Vowel points of יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי
The table below shows the vowel points of Yehovah and Adonay, indicating the simple sheva in Yehovah in contrast to the hataf patah in Adonay. As indicated to the right, the vowel points used when YHWH is intended to be pronounced as Adonai are slightly different to those used in Adonai itself.
| Hebrew (Strong's #3068) YEHOVAH יְהֹוָה | Hebrew (Strong's #136) ADONAY אֲדֹנָי | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| י | Yod | Y | א | Aleph | glottal stop |
| ְ | Simple sheva | E | ֲ | Hataf patah | A |
| ה | He | H | ד | Dalet | D |
| ֹ | Holam | O | ֹ | Holam | O |
| ו | Vav | V | נ | Nun | N |
| ָ | Qamats | A | ָ | Qamats | A |
| ה | He | H | י | Yod | Y |
The difference between the vowel points of ’ǎdônây and YHWH is explained by the rules of Hebrew morphology and phonetics. Sheva and hataf-patah were allophones of the same phoneme used in different situations: hataf-patahon glottal consonants including aleph (such as the first letter in Adonai), and simple sheva on other consonants (such as the Y in YHWH).[28]
Introduction into English
The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon suggested that the pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520 when it was introduced by Galatinus, who defended its use.
In English it appeared in William Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch ("The Five Books of Moses") published in 1530 in Germany, where Tyndale had studied since 1524, possibly in one or more of the universities at Wittenberg,Worms and Marburg, where Hebrew was taught.[31] The spelling used by Tyndale was "Iehouah"; at that time, "I" was not distinguished from J, and U was not distinguished from V.[32] The original 1611 printing of the Authorized King James Version used "Iehovah". Tyndale wrote about the divine name: "IEHOUAH [Jehovah], is God's name; neither is any creature so called; and it is as much to say as, One that is of himself, and dependeth of nothing. Moreover, as oft as thou seest LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing), it is in Hebrew Iehouah, Thou that art; or, He that is."[33] The name is also found in a 1651 edition of Ramón Martí's Pugio fidei.[34]
The name Jehovah appeared in all early Protestant Bibles in English, except Coverdale's translation in 1535.[6] The Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible used "the Lord", corresponding to the Latin Vulgate's use of "Dominus" (Latin for "Adonai", "Lord") to represent the Tetragrammaton. The Authorized King James Version also, which used "Jehovah" in a few places, most frequently gave "the LORD" as the equivalent of the Tetragrammaton. The name Jehovahappeared in John Rogers' Matthew Bible in 1537, the Great Bible of 1539, the Geneva Bible of 1560, Bishop's Bible of 1568 and the King James Version of 1611. More recently, it has been used in the Revised Version of 1885, theAmerican Standard Version in 1901, and the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1961.
At Exodus 6:3-6, where the King James Version has Jehovah, the Revised Standard Version (1952),[35] the New American Standard Bible (1971), the New International Version (1978), the New King James Version (1982), theNew Revised Standard Version (1989), the New Century Version (1991), and the Contemporary English Version (1995) give "LORD" or "Lord" as their rendering of the Tetragrammaton, while the New Jerusalem Bible (1985), theAmplified Bible (1987), the New Living Translation (1996, revised 2007), the English Standard Version (2001), and the Holman Christian Standard Bible (2004) use the form Yahweh.
Hebrew vowel points
Modern guides to biblical Hebrew grammar, such as Duane A Garrett's A Modern Grammar for Classical Hebrew[36] state that the Hebrew vowel points now found in printed Hebrew Bibles were invented in the second half of the first millennium AD, long after the texts were written. This is indicated in the authoritative Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius,[37][38]
"Jehovist" scholars, largely earlier than the 20th century, who believe /dʒəˈhoʊvə/ to be the original pronunciation of the divine name, argue that the Hebraic vowel-points and accents were known to writers of the scriptures in antiquity and that both Scripture and history argue in favor of their ab origine[39] status to the Hebrew language. Some members of Karaite Judaism, such as Nehemia Gordon, hold this view.[13] The antiquity of the vowel points and of the rendering Jehovah was defended by various scholars, including Michaelis,[40] Drach,[40] Stier,[40] William Fulke (1583), Johannes Buxtorf,[41] his son Johannes Buxtorf II,[42] and John Owen [43] (17th century); Peter Whitfield[44][45] and John Gill[46] (18th century), John Moncrieff [47] (19th century), Johann Friedrich von Meyer (1832)[48] Thomas D. Ross has given an account of the controversy on this matter in England down to 1833.[49] G. A. Riplinger,[50] and John Hinton[51] and Thomas M. Strouse (21st century).[52] are more recent defenders of the authenticity of the vowel points.
Jehovist writers such as Nehemia Gordon, who helped make a translation of the "Dead Sea Scrolls", have acknowledged the general agreement among scholars that the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was probablyYahweh, and that the vowel points now attached to the Tetragrammaton were added to indicate that Adonai was to be read instead, as seen in the alteration of those points after prefixes. He wrote: "There is a virtual scholarly consensus concerning this name" and "this is presented as fact in every introduction to Biblical Hebrew and every scholarly discussion of the name."[53] Gordon, disputing this consensus, wrote, "However, this consensus is not based on decisive proof. We have seen that the scholarly consensus concerning Yahweh is really just a wild guess," and went on to say that the vowel points of Adonai are not correct.[54] He argued that "the name is really pronounced Ye-ho-vah with the emphasis on 'vah'. Pronouncing the name Yehovah with the emphasis on 'ho' (as in English Jehovah) would quite simply be a mistake."[55]
Proponents of pre-Christian origin
18th-century theologian John Gill puts forward the arguments of 17th-century Johannes Buxtorf II and others in his writing, A Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel-Points and Accents.[56] He argued for an extreme antiquity of their use,[57] rejecting the idea that the vowel points were invented by the Masoretes. Gill presented writings, including passages of scripture, that he interpreted as supportive of his "Jehovist" viewpoint that the Old Testament must have included vowel-points and accents.[58]He claimed that the use of Hebrew vowel points of יְהֹוָה, and therefore of the name Jehovah /jəˈhoʊvə/, is documented from before 200 BCE, and even back to Adam, citing Jewish tradition that Hebrew was the first language. He argued that throughout this history the Masoretes did not invent the vowel points and accents, but that they were delivered to Moses by God at Sinai, citing[59] Karaite authorities[60][61] Mordechai ben Nisan Kukizov (1699) and his associates, who stated that "all our wise men with one mouth affirm and profess that the whole law was pointed and accented, as it came out of the hands of Moses, the man of God."[40] The argument between Karaite and Rabbinic Judaism on whether it was lawful to pronounce the name represented by the Tetragrammaton[59] is claimed to show that some copies have always been pointed (voweled)[51] and that some copies were not pointed with the vowels because of "oral law", for control of interpretation by some Judeo sects, including non-pointed copies in synagogues.[62] Gill claimed that the pronunciation/jəˈhoʊvə/ can be traced back to early historical sources which indicate that vowel points and/or accents were used in their time.[63] Sources Gill claimed supported his view include:
- The Book of Cosri and commentator Rabbi Judab Muscatus, which claim that the vowel points were taught to Adam by God.[64]
- Saadiah Gaon (927 AD)[65]
- Jerome (380 AD)[66]
- Origen (250 AD)[67]
- The Zohar (120 AD)[68]
- Jesus Christ (31 AD), based on Gill's interpretation of Matthew 5:18[69]
- Hillel the Elder and Shammai division (30 BC)[70]
- Karaites (120 BCE)[59]
- Demetrius Phalereus, librarian for Ptolemy II Philadelphus king of Egypt (277 BCE)[71]
Gill quoted Elia Levita, who said, "There is no syllable without a point, and there is no word without an accent," as showing that the vowel points and the accents found in printed Hebrew Bibles have a dependence on each other, and so Gill attributed the same antiquity to the accents as to the vowel points.[72] Gill acknowledged that Levita, "first asserted the vowel points were invented by "the men of Tiberias", but made reference to his condition that "if anyone could convince him that his opinion was contrary to the book of Zohar, he should be content to have it rejected." Gill then alludes to the book of Zohar, stating that rabbis declared it older than the Masoretes, and that it attests to the vowel-points and accents.[68]
William Fulke, John Gill, John Owen, and others held that Jesus Christ referred to a Hebrew vowel point or accent at Matthew 5:18, indicated in the King James Version by the word tittle.[73][74][75][76] Fulke argued that the words of this verse, spoken in Hebrew, buttransliterated into Greek in the New testament, are proof that these marks were applied to the Torah at that time.[77][78] John Lightfoot (1602–1675) claimed the Hebrew vowel points were of the Holy Spirit's invention, not of the Tiberians', characterizing the latter as "lost, blinded, besotted men."[79]
In Peter Whitfield's A Dissertation on the Hebrew Vowel-Points,[44][45] the author examined the positions of Levita and Capellus, giving many biblical examples to refute their notion of the novelty of vowel points. In his introduction, he claimed that the Roman Catholic Church favored Levita's position because it allowed the priests to have the final say in interpretation. The lack of authoritative vowel points in the Hebrew Old Testament, he said, leaves the meaning of many words to the interpreter. Citing the meaning of the Hebrew word for "Masoretes"—māsar, which means "to hand over", "to transmit"[80]—, Whitfield gave 10 reasons for holding that the Hebrew vowel points and accents have to be used for Hebrew to be "clearly understood":
- I. The necessity of vowel-points in reading the Hebrew language (pp. 6–46). Without vowels, he said, simple pronunciations so necessary in learning a language are impossible. He reproved as naïveté Levita's suggestion that the master could teach a child with a thrice-rehearsed effort (pp. 22–23). He gave several biblical examples as proving this necessity.
- II. The necessity for forming different Hebrew conjugations, moods, tenses, as well as dual and plural endings of nouns (pp. 47–57). That both Hebrew verbs, including the seven conjugations, the moods and tenses, and the Hebrew nouns, with singular, dual and plural endings, are based on vowel diagnostic indicators is, he claimed, without controversy. The tremendous complexity of the Hebrew language without vowels argues against any oral tradition preservation inscripturated through the recent invention of vowels. Whitfield argued: "Whoever will consider a great many instances of these differences, as they occur, will own, he must have been a person of very great sagacity, who could ever have observed them without the points" (p. 48).
- III. The necessity of vowel-points in distinguishing a great number of words with different significations which without vowel-points are the same (58-61). Whitfield gave many examples of the same consonants with different points constituting different words. The diacritical mark (dot) above the right tooth or the left tooth of the shin/sin letter makes a great difference in some words. He said that if he gave all the examples, he would need "to transcribe a good part of the Bible or lexicon" (p. 58).
- IV. The inconsistency of the lateness of vowel-points in light of the Jew's zeal for their language since the Babylonian captivity (62-65). The Jews were zealous for their language, Whitfield observed, and they would not have been careless to let the inscripturated vocalization disappear through careless or indifferent oral tradition from the time of the captivity onward. He cited several ancient authorities describing the Jews' fanaticism about protecting the minuteness of their Scripture.
- V. The various and inconsistent opinions of the advocates for the novelty of vowel-points concerning the authors, time, place, and circumstances of their institution (66-71). Whitfield argued that the advocates for the recent vowel system had a wide variety of suggestions. Concerning the authors, some maintained that the inventor[s] were the Tiberian Jews while others suggested that it was Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh (c. AD 230). Some said the points were invented after the Talmud (c. AD 200-500), by the Masoretes (AD 600), or in the 10th or the 11th century. For the place some had posited Tiberias whereas others had suggested the Asia Minor.
- VI. The total silence of the ancient writers, Jew and Christian, about their recent origin (72-88). Whitfield cited both early rabbins and Jerome as neglecting to refer to the late (post-Mosaic) origin of vowel-points.
- VII. The absolute necessity to ascertain Divine authority of the Scripture of the OT (89-119). Whitfield affirmed that Scripture is based on words, and words are based on consonants and vowels. If there are no vowels in the Hebrew OT originals, then there is no Divine authority of the Hebrew OT Scriptures, he argued, citing 2 Tim. 3:16. He then gave a vast listing of passages that change meaning when points are lost, and thereby undermining divine authority.
- VIII. The many anomalies or irregularities of punctuation in the Hebrew grammar (120-133). This objection by Whitfield to the novelty of vowel-points was the many exceptions to vowel-point rules, anomalies and irregularities that demand a codified system for their exceptions to emphasize a particular point of grammar and truth.
- IX. The importance of the Kethiv readings versus the Keri marginal renderings (134-221). The existence of Kethiv (Aramaic for "write") readings in the Hebrew text and Keri (Aramaic for "call") readings in the margin of Hebrew manuscripts showed, he said, that the rabbins were serious about preserving the original words, including the vowel-points, when a questionable word arose in a manuscript. The pre-Christian antiquity of the Keri readings in the margin demanded the pre-Masoretic antiquity of the vowel points.
- X. The answer to two material questions (222-282). Whitfield responded to two of three significant questions in this section: 1) why does the LXX and Jerome's version differ from the Hebrew text in corresponding vowels on proper names? 2) Why the silence of the Jewish writers on the pointing prior to the 6th century of Christianity? and 3) Why were unpointed copies used in the Jewish synagogues? Briefly, he responded to the first questions by stating that the differences in the translations and the Hebrew pointed texts cannot be attributed to the vowels, since he said that the translators obviously did use the pointed copies, and that the Jewish commentators, coeval with the Masoretes, did in fact refer to the points. The third question, answered later in his book, was responded to by saying that there is no historical proof that unpointed copies were used exclusively in the synagogues.[52][81]
The 1602 Spanish Bible (Reina-Valera/Cipriano de Valera) used the name Iehova and gave a lengthy defense of the pronunciation Jehovah in its preface.[40]
In Thomas D. Ross' book, The Battle over the Hebrew Vowel Points, Examined Particularly As Waged in England, he presents the various points of view regarding the Hebrew Vowel-Points down to the 19th century. He states that the overwhelming majority of present-day Hebrew scholarship believes that the vowel points were added by the Masoretes, but notes that some sections of fundamentalism still hold that they were part of the original text.
Proponents of later origin
Despite Jehovist claims that vowel signs are necessary for reading and understanding Hebrew, modern Hebrew (apart from young children's books, some formal poetry and Hebrew primers for new immigrants), is written without vowel points.[82] The Torah scrolls do not include vowel points, and ancient Hebrew was written without vowel signs.[83][84]
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1946 and dated from 400 BC to 70 AD,[85] include texts from the Torah or Pentateuch and from other parts of the Hebrew Bible,[86][87] and have provided documentary evidence that, in spite of claims to the contrary, the original Hebrew texts were in fact written without vowel points.[88][89] Menahem Mansoor's The Dead Sea Scrolls: A College Textbook and a Study Guide claims the vowel points found in printed Hebrew Bibles were devised in the 9th and 10th centuries.[90]
Gill's view that the Hebrew vowel points were in use at the time of Ezra or even since the origin of the Hebrew language is stated in an early 19th-century study in opposition to "the opinion of most learned men in modern times", according to whom the vowel points had been "invented since the time of Christ".[91] The study presented the following considerations:
- The argument that vowel points are necessary for learning to read Hebrew is refuted by the fact that the Samaritan text of the Bible is read without them and that several other Semitic languages, kindred to Hebrew, are written without any indications of the vowels.
- The books used in synagogue worship have always been without vowel points, which, unlike the letters, have thus never been treated as sacred.
- The Qere Kethib marginal notes give variant readings only of the letters, never of the points, an indication either that these were added later or that, if they already existed, they were seen as not so important.
- The Kabbalists drew their mysteries only from the letters and completely disregarded the points, if there were any.
- In several cases, ancient translations from the Hebrew Bible (Septuagint, Targum, Aquila of Sinope, Symmachus, Theodotion, Jerome) read the letters with vowels different from those indicated by the points, an indication that the texts from which they were translating were without points. The same holds for Origen's transliteration of the Hebrew text into Greek letters. Jerome expressly speaks of a word in Habakkuk 3:5, which in the present Masoretic Text has three consonant letters and two vowel points, as being of three letters and no vowel whatever.
- Neither the Jerusalem Talmud nor the Babylonian Talmud (in all their recounting of Rabbinical disputes about the meaning of words), nor Philo nor Josephus, nor any Christian writer for several centuries after Christ make any reference to vowel points.[92][93][94]
Early modern arguments
In the 16th and 17th centuries, various arguments were presented for and against the transcription of the form Jehovah.
Discourses rejecting Jehovah
| Author | Discourse | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| John Drusius(Johannes Van den Driesche) (1550-1616) | Tetragrammaton, sive de Nomine Die proprio, quod Tetragrammaton vocant (1604) | Drusius stated "Galatinus first led us to this mistake ... I know [of] nobody who read [it] thus earlier..").[5] An editor of Drusius in 1698 knows of an earlier reading in Porchetus de Salvaticis however.[clarification needed][6] John Drusius wrote that neither יְהֹוָה nor יֱהֹוִה accurately represented God's name.[95] |
| Sixtinus Amama(1593–1659)[96] | De nomine tetragrammato(1628) [7] | Sixtinus Amama, was a Professor of Hebrew in the University of Franeker. A pupil of Drusius. [8] |
| Louis Cappel(1585–1658) | De nomine tetragrammato(1624) | Lewis Cappel reached the conclusion that Hebrew vowel points were not part of the original Hebrew language. This view was strongly contested by John Buxtorff the elder and his son. |
| James Altingius(1618–1679) | Exercitatio grammatica de punctis ac pronunciatione tetragrammati | James Altingius was a learned German divine[clarification needed]. [9]| |
Discourses defending Jehovah
| Author | Discourse | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Nicholas Fuller(1557–1626) | Dissertatio de nomine יהוה | Nicholas was a Hebraist and a theologian. [10] |
| John Buxtorf(1564–1629) | Disserto de nomine JHVH(1620); Tiberias, sive Commentarius Masoreticus(1664) | John Buxtorf the elder [11] opposed the views of Elia Levita regarding the late origin (invention by the Masoretes) of the Hebrew vowel points, a subject which gave rise to the controversy between Louis Cappeland his (e.g. John Buxtorf the elder's) son, Johannes Buxtorf II the younger. |
| Johannes Buxtorf II (1599–1664) | Tractatus de punctorum origine, antiquitate, et authoritate, oppositus Arcano puntationis revelato Ludovici Cappelli(1648) | Continued his father's arguments that the pronunciation and therefore the Hebrew vowel points resulting in the name Jehovah have divine inspiration. |
| Thomas Gataker(1574–1654)[12] | De Nomine Tetragrammato Dissertaio (1645) [13] | See Memoirs of the Puritans Thomas Gataker. |
| John Leusden(1624–1699) | Dissertationes tres, de vera lectione nominis Jehova | John Leusden wrote three discourses in defense of the name Jehovah. [14] |
Summary of discourses
In A Dictionary of the Bible (1863), William Robertson Smith summarized these discourses, concluding that "whatever, therefore, be the true pronunciation of the word, there can be little doubt that it is not Jehovah".[97] Despite this, he consistently uses the name Jehovahthroughout his dictionary and when translating Hebrew names. Some examples include Isaiah [Jehovah's help or salvation], Jehoshua [Jehovah a helper], Jehu [Jehovah is He]. In the entry, Jehovah, Smith writes: "JEHOVAH (יְהֹוָה, usually with the vowel points of אֲדֹנָי; but when the two occur together, the former is pointed יֱהֹוִה, that is with the vowels of אֱלֹהִים, as in Obad. i. 1, Hab. iii. 19:"[98] This practice is also observed in many modern publications, such as the New Compact Bible Dictionary (Special Crusade Edition) of 1967 andPeloubet's Bible Dictionary of 1947.
See also[edit]
 | Wikiquote has quotations related to: Yahweh |
 | Wikisource has the text of a1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article aboutJehovah (Yahweh). |
Footnotes[edit]
- ^ Fletcher, Elizabeth. "Canaanite Religion". Retrieved 11 August 2013.
- ^ Sitchin, Zecharia. "Riders of the Clouds".
- ^ Princeton.edu s.v. "El (god)"; Online Phoenician Dictionary
- ^ Matthews 2004, p. 79.
- ^ Caquot, André; Sznycer, Maurice (1980). Ugaritic religion. Iconography of religions. 15: Mesopotamia and the Near East. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. p. 12.ISBN 978-90-04-06224-5. LCCN 81117573. OCLC 185416183.
- ^ van der Toorn 1999, p. 181.
- ^ Schwabe, Calvin W. (1978). Cattle, priests, and progress in medicine. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-8166-0825-6.LCCN 77084547. OCLC 3835386.
- ^ Falk, Avner (1996). A psychoanalytic history of the Jews. Cranbury, NJ:Associated University Presses. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-8386-3660-2. LCCN 95002895.OCLC 32346244.
- ^ Smith 2001, p. 135.
- ^ du Mesnil du Buisson, Robert (1969). "Le décor asiatique du couteau de Gebel el-Arak" (PDF, 4.6 MB). BIFAO (in French) (Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale)68: 63–83. ISSN 0255-0962.
- ^ Cross 1973, p. 19.
- ^ Wyatt 2002, p. 43.
- ^ Rosenthal 1969, p. 658.
- ^ Cross 1973, p. 17.
- ^ Binger 1997, p. 92.
- ^ Cross 1973, p. 39.
- ^ Kugel 2007, p. 423.
- ^ Cross 1973, p. 14.
- ^ Palmer, Sean B. "El's Divine Feast". inamidst.com. Sean B. Palmer. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
- ^ McLaughlin, John L. (June 2001). The Marzeah in the Prophetic Literature. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. pp. 24–26. ISBN 978-90-04-12006-8.LCCN 2001025261. OCLC 497549822.
- ^ Barrs, Jerram (Spring 2006). "Audio Transcription for Lesson 21: Apologetics & Communication" (PDF, 0.1 MB). Apologetics & Outreach. Covenant Theological Seminary. Archived from the original on 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
- ^ Coogan, Michael David (2009). A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-19-533272-8. LCCN 2008034190.OCLC 243545942.
- ^ "Genesis 3 (Blue Letter Bible/ KJV - King James Version)". Retrieved 8 May 2013.
- ^ "Genesis 4 (Blue Letter Bible/ KJV - King James Version)".
- ^ Alt, Albrecht (1929). Der Gott der Väter; ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte der israelitischen Religion [The God of the patriarchs; a contribution to (the study of) the (pre)history of Israelite religion] (in German). Stuttgart, Germany: Kohlhammer Verlag. LCCN 49037141. OCLC 45355375.
- ^ Cross 1973.
- ^ Leeming, David (2005). The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 118. ISBN 978-0-19-515669-0. LCCN 2005014216.OCLC 60492027.
- ^ Jones, Scott C. (2009). "Rumors of wisdom: Job 28 as poetry". BZAW (Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter) 398: 84. ISBN 978-3-11-021477-2. ISSN 0934-2575.
References[edit]
- Binger, Tilde (July 1997). Asherah: goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old Testament. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-85075-637-8.LCCN 97205267. OCLC 37525364.
- Kugel, James L. (September 2007). How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now. New York, NY: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-3586-0.LCCN 2007023466. OCLC 181602277.
- Matthews, Victor Harold (August 2004). Judges and Ruth. New Cambridge Bible Commentary. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00066-6.LCCN 2003053218. OCLC 52380969.
- Smith, Mark S. (January 2001). The origins of biblical monotheism: Israel's polytheistic background and the Ugaritic texts. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-513480-3. LCCN 99058180. OCLC 53388532.
- van der Toorn, Karel; Becking, Bob; van der Horst, Pieter Willem (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2nd ed.). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.ISBN 978-90-04-11119-6. LCCN 98042505. OCLC 39765350.
- Wyatt, Nicolas (October 2002). Religious Texts from Ugarit. The Biblical Seminar 53 (2nd ed.). Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-6048-6.LCCN 2002489996. OCLC 48979997.
Further reading[edit]
- Bruneau, Philippe (1970). Recherches sur les cultes de Délos à l'époque hellénistique et à l'époque imperiale (in French). Paris: E. de Broccard. LCCN 78851163.OCLC 2349270.
- Cross, Frank Moore (1973). Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-09176-4. LCCN 72076564.OCLC 185400934.
- Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy (1959). Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-04091-5.LCCN 59005144. OCLC 4089770.
- Rosenthal, Franz (1969). "The Amulet from Arslan Tash". In Pritchard, James. Trans. in: Ancient Near Eastern Texts (3rd ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 658. ISBN 978-0-691-03503-1. OCLC 5342384.
- Teixidor, Javier (1977). The Pagan God. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-07220-3. LCCN 76024300. OCLC 2644903.
External links[edit]
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