Rozumieć i tłumaczyć tetragrammaton

Abstract

The Hebrew theonym, YHWH (JHWH), written as the four consonants transliterated to Latin letters, is considered to be a proper name of the God used in the Hebrew Bible. Although it is not certain when the Tetragrammaton ceased to be pronounced in this form, ultimately, the lack of its use resulted in uncertainty over the tradition of vowel sounds in the name and hence in its meaning. The magic-letter theory developed by J.M. Hoffman accounts for the lack of etymological derivation for YHWH by specifically claiming that the Hebrews appreciated the value of their newly-found vowel letters [i.e. matres lectionis: waw, he, yod]. The Hebrew writers, by the connection between the name of God and the vowel letters, seem to tie the idea of heno/monotheism to their works. It must have been overlooked that the names had meaning, just as words do. When the Israelites saw the Tetragrammaton – YHWH, they saw it as a reference to their God. In some contexts, certain connotations of YHWH are essential to the meaning of the text, while in other contexts, YHWH should be transliterated as a sign. Elsewhere still, only the word “God” could be substituted without any loss of meaning. There is no conclusive early evidence that this form was ever pronounced “Yahweh”, but there is plenty of evidence for similar theophoric elements in proper names in the Hebrew Bible and in early Hebrew epigraphic, thus indicating that the Tetragrammaton YHWH had its own vocalized form which religious tradition has preserved. Similarly, the phonetic transcriptions of the Tetragrammaton presented in some Greek and Latin texts from the pre-Massoretic period, bear witness to pronunciation strictly associated with the letters of the Tetragrammaton (i.e. ’Ieuô, ’Iabe). In conclusion, it is possible to propose the understanding of the Tetragrammaton as the word for the sign describing God’s character, but not necessarily his proper name.