Thoughts On The Lemnos Stele

[Ernest P. Moyer]

Brent:

I find Y'hawa in the Hebrew Pi'el verb table under Hawa = Form or Mold.
Literally, Y'hawa = "He shall Mold."  Future tense. Some people believe this is
the origin of the Hebrew name for God.

This form should be distinguished from Hawa = "He Molded." Past Tense.

In fact, the two forms, "El," common as a designator for God among the
northwest Semitic tribes, and "Howa," the Kal verb "to be," when coalesced,
become Elhowa, and this form is dangerously close to Eloah, the Biblical name
for God. (El Howa = "God Exists.")  Of course most the time Elhoim, the plural,
is used in the text.

So I am very distrustful of a supposed origin which sees the Hebrew name for
God as some primitive superstitious designation deriving out of mere sounds,
such as "Yah."

Ernest

"Brent J. Ermlick" wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 08, 2001 at 07:18:53PM +0100, Eduard Selleslagh wrote:

>> There are, however, a number of peculiarities about the ancient Jews that
>> distinguish them from other Semitic people: e.g. the legend of Noah's ark
>> stranded on Mount Ararat (a very high volcano in Turkish Armenia, 1300 km
>> from Jerusalem, the only mountain in the region with snow during the
>> summer), which

> I've heard (but don't have the reference at hand) that the Biblical
> name Ararat was assigned to this mountain during historical times,
> IIRC after the Christianization of Armenia.

>> seems to suggest some cultural relationship with E. Anatolia (the actual,
>> archaeologically attested great flood happened in the plains around the
>> Black Sea and is reflected in other peoples' legends in other versions).
>> They are also the only ones to use the word Yahwe for God, besides the
>> "normal" Semitic

> But Yahweh doesn't mean "god", but is rather the name of God.
> Compare the name "Yah" in the Eblaite mythology.

> --
> Brent J. Ermlick                Veritas liberabit uos
> brent at bermls.oau.org