Iaoue

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Iaoue [i-a-u-ɛ'] or [ja-wɛ'] is the transliteration in Roman letters of koine Greek Ἰαουέ, which in turn is a transcription of the ancient Hebrew יהוה‎. Hebrew does not have vowel letters and vowel pointings were not added to Hebrew manuscripts until the Middle Ages, centuries after the Old Testament was first written. Moreover Jews were not permitted to utter the holy name of God, and so manuscripts were pointed with vowels of other words to remind the reader to read them, rather than the holy name. Greek however, did have vowel letters and Greeks were not prohibited from uttering the holy name. Greek manuscripts did spell out Jewish names for God; in Christian texts these spellings fall into two classes corresponding to proper names ending in Ia (or Yah) and in the holy name Yavé (or Yahweh).

In the Encyclopædia Britannica of 2006, in its article on Yahweh, the importance of Greek transcription is explained:

The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai or Elohim. Thus, the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) came into being. Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19th and 20th centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh. Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used a form like Yahweh, and this pronunciation of the tetragrammaton was never really lost. Other Greek transcriptions also indicated that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh.

Contents 1 Greek ecclesiastical writings 1.1 Greek forms corresponding to Ia/Yah 1.2 Greek form representing יהוה [ =Yavé ] 1.3 Greek form representing יהוה [ =Yahweh ] 1.3.1 The Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911 1.3.2 Professor Anson F. Rainey 1.3.3 On-line Ante Nicene Fathers Vol II 2 Greek magical papyri 2.1 Greek forms that represent יהו‎ and אהיה‎ and יה‎ 2.2 Greek forms that represent יהוה‎ 3 Ia/Yah: short form of Yahweh or "King of Heaven?" 3.1 The short form 3.2 "King of Heaven" 4 References 5 See also

[edit] Greek ecclesiastical writings

[edit] Greek forms corresponding to Ia/Yah

The Semitic nominative ending was -u or -hu, also written -o or -ho. (In Greek ου = 'oo' and 'Ι = 'ee' or 'y'.)

• Diodorus Siculus writes Ἰαο, Ia-o (I, 94);
• Irenaeus ("Against Heresies.", II, xxxv, 3, in P. G., VII, col. 840), Ἰα-οθ, Ia-oth (the Gnostics formed a compound with the last syllable of Sabaoth);
• the Valentinian heretics ("Against Heresies", I, iv, 1, in P.G., VII, col. 481), Ἰαο, Ia-o;
• Clement of Alexandria ("Stromata", V, 6, in P.G., IX, col. 60), Ἰαου, Jaou [e.g. Latin];
• Origen ("In John", II, 1, in P.G., XIV, col. 105), Ἰαο, Ia-o;
• Porphyry (Eus., "Praep. evang", I, ix, in P.G., XXI, col. 72), Ἰευο, Ie-uo;
• Pseudo-Jerome ("Breviarium in Psalms.", in P.L., XXVI, 828), Ἰαὅ, Ia-ho — this witness is particularly valuable in that it includes the rough-breathing mark, establishing it as the same as Biblical Hebrew Yaho/Yahu.^[1]

[edit] Greek form representing יהוה [ =Yavé ]

• Epiphanius ("Against Heresies", I, iii, 40, in P.G., XLI, col. 685), Ἰα, Ia or Ἰαβέ, Yavé;
• the Samaritans (Theodoret, in "Ex. quaest.", xv, in P. G., LXXX, col. 244), Ἰαβέ, Yavé.^[2]

[edit] Greek form representing יהוה [ =Yahweh ]

In section # 1.1, the editors of the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 note that in Clement of Alexandria's Greek Stromata Book V. Chapter 6 [ as found in Migne's P.G., IX, col. 60 ], "Iαου" is found.

"Iαου" supports the pronunciation "Yahu", but "Iαου" does not support the pronunciation "Yahweh".

"Iαου" is one of three variants that can be found in various editions of Clement's Greek Stromata Book V. Chapter 6. Most 20th century scholarly sources believe that Clement actually wrote "Iαουε" not "Iαου" in that particular verse.

The Greek form "Iαουε" supports the English pronunciation "Yahweh".

[edit] The Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911

Iαουε is found in Clement of Alexandria's Stromata Book V. Chapter 6

On page 312 of the article JEHOVAH (YAHWEH) in the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911 the editors write:

"The early Christian scholars, who inquired what was the true name of the God of the Old Testament, had therefore no great difficulty in getting the information they sought. Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 212) says that it was pronounced Iαουε"⁵

Footnote # 5 at the bottom of page 312 of the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911 reads:

"Strom. v. 6. Variants: Iα ουε, Iα ουαι; cod. L. Iαου."

Note that Footnote # 5 says that variants are found at Stromata Book v. Chapter 6 in different editions of the Greek writings of Clement of Alexandria.

The variant Iαου.", is found in the 11th century Greek Codex L.

[edit] Professor Anson F. Rainey

Professor Anson F. Rainey, of Tel-Aviv University in Israel provides a translation of one famous sentence found in Clement of Alexandria's Greek Stromata Book V. Chapter 6. Professor Rainey quotes Clement of Alexandria as writing:

"The mystic name which is called the tetragram­maton … is pronounced Iaoue,

which means ‘Who is, and who shall be.’ "

[edit] On-line Ante Nicene Fathers Vol II

In the on-line Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II :
Scroll down to the heading "Clement of Alexandria", and then click on [ Book V ]:

Under the heading "Book V" scroll down to:

"Chapter VI.-The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture."

In the 5th paragraph of Chapter VI, the editors have written:

"Further, the mystic name of four letters which was affixed to those alone to whom the adytum was accessible, is called Jave, which is interpreted, 'Who is and shall be.' "

Professor Rainey believes that Iαουε favors the pronunciation "Yahweh", however the person who translated Iαουε for the Ante Nicene Fathers Vol II used the English translation Jave.

[edit] Greek magical papyri

Besides the witness of the numerous Christian manuscripts, magical also papyri spell-out the tetragrammaton among other divine names. In its article Church Fathers and Magic Papyri, The Jewish Encyclopedia groups these transcriptions into four types of related words appearing in ancient papyri involving magical invocations:

It was in connection with magic that the Tetragrammaton was introduced into the magic papyri and, in all probability, into the writings of the Church Fathers, these two sources containing the following forms, written in Greek letters.^[3]

[edit] Greek forms that represent יהו‎ and אהיה‎ and יה‎

1. "Iao," "Iaho," "Iae" represent יהו‎
2. "Aia" represents אהיה‎
3. "Ia" represents יה‎^[4]

[edit] Greek forms that represent יהוה‎

1. "Iaoue"
2. "Iabe,"

The editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia assert that the two forms quoted (above), when written in Greek letters, are merely two ways of writing the Tetragrammaton, although "Iabe" is designated as the Samaritan pronunciation.

Thus in the view of the editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Hebrew tetragrammaton when written in Greek letters was spelled Ιαβε, which is pronounced "ya⋅VEH." or Iαουε which favors the pronunciation "Yahweh". [5]

[edit] Ia/Yah: short form of Yahweh or "King of Heaven?"

[edit] The short form

In addition to Yahweh (יהוה‎), the Divine name is also recorded in proper names as Yahu and Yeho represented as a suffix -ia, -iyah, or -yah. Among scholars, there are two interpretations of the variant forms Yahu and Yahweh found in the Hebrew Bible. The traditional and majority position is that Yahu is the short form of Yahweh.

[edit] "King of Heaven"

The second view has been periodically asserted by different scholars for at least the past century and is currently maintained with new evidence from Assyriology. This interpretation holds that Yahu and Yahweh are in fact separate names for God, the former being the Semitic King of Heaven and the latter the Biblical Hebrew ineffable Name.

The second view rests on three arguments:

1. In Greek, Yaho (Ἰαὅ) cannot be confused with Yavé (Ἰαβέ), and the latter appears only in later texts;
2. There is no reliable reason that the second syllable, -weh, should be dropped -- indeed Yahu is no shorter than Yahweh;
3. Yahu can now be identified with Ea as the Semitic King of Heaven.

If true, the last argument (as maintained by world-class Assyriologists such as Jean Bottéro and W.G. Lambert) would be the most compelling of the three. To summarize, the new scholarship concludes that West Semitic Yah corresponds to Babylonian Ea. Scholars agree that Ia, Iah, Yah, and Yahu are the same word with the same pronunciation. What Bottéro et al. add is their conclusions from their field, Assyriology, that the word is the equivalent of Ea.^[5][6][7][8]

Neither theory -- short form or "King of Heaven" -- presents much theological difficulty, since God in the Old Testament has many names praising his divine and holy nature. If Yahu means "King of Heaven," it adds nothing new to God's numerous divine aspects.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Yaw - this article discusses important theories involving the origin of the word Yahweh in the context of archaic, regional polytheism.