Tetragrammaton

Christian Alexander

I hope this is not too much background for the forum. I understand from research that there is evidence suggesting that the original manuscripts utilized YHWH in Hebrew letters, just as Septuagint copies did at the period. There is no direct proof for this theory as I can see reading very briefly. The conditions only imply such a possibility: It could be logical to follow the same custom as the Greek "Bible" of the time, the Septuagint. Then this custom was abandoned in Christian-made copies of the LXX. I think would have been sensible to abandon it in copies of the NT as well. The unusual variety of Lord - God - Jesus in NT manuscripts may have a rational explanation if the original manuscripts had Hebrew characters and later copyists had differing conceptions of how to remove them and use a Greek word instead. I would like to know if there is any firm evidence of pre-Christian Jews translating the Tetragrammaton as kurios. Am I not doing the correct search strategy? And resource suggestions would be the premier outcome of my analysis so I can get to reading on this theory. 

I have placed an ILL for this source

Rösel, Martin. “The Reading and Translation of the Divine Name in the Masoretic Tradition and the Greek Pentateuch.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 31 (2007): 411–28

https://app.logos.com/search?kind=all&q=Tetragrammaton+OR+kurios+NEAR+%22use+of+Hebrew+letters%22&resources=allResources&source=searchPanel&syntax=v2&tile=right 6 hits

https://app.logos.com/search?kind=all&q=Tetragrammaton+WITHIN+4+WORDS+%22use+of+Hebrew+letters%22&resources=allResources&source=searchPanel&syntax=v2&tile=right 2 hits

https://app.logos.com/search?kind=all&q=Tetragrammaton+NEAR+%22Hebrew+Letters%22&resources=allResources&source=searchPanel&syntax=v2&tile=right 1 hit

https://app.logos.com/search?kind=all&q=Tetragrammaton+NEAR+%22Hebrew+language%22&resources=allResources&source=searchPanel&syntax=v2&tile=right 2 hits

https://app.logos.com/search?kind=all&q=Tetragrammaton+OR+kurios+NEAR+%22Hebrew+letters%22&resources=allResources&source=searchPanel&syntax=v2&tile=right 8 hits

I have read these sources

Maas, Anthony John (1910). "Jehovah" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Metzger, Bruce M. "Names for the nameless in the New Testament: A Study in the Growth of Christian Tradition." In New Testament studies (philological, versional, and patristic), pp. 23-45. Brill, 1980. 

Hill, Charles E., and Michael J. Kruger, eds. The early text of the New Testament. OUP Oxford, 2012.

Pietersma, Albert (1984), "Kyrios or Tetragram: A Renewed Quest for the Original LXX", in Albert Pietersma; Claude Cox (eds.), De Septuaginta: Studies in Honour of John William Wevers on his sixty-fifth birthday, Mississauga: Benben

Howard, George. “The Tetragram and the New Testament.” Journal of Biblical Literature 96, no. 1 (1977): 63–83. 

Hazel W. Perkin, “God-Fearer,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988). 

Obermann, Julian. "The divine name YHWH in the light of recent discoveries." Journal of Biblical Literature (1949): 301-323.

Durousseau, Clifford Hubert. "Yah: A name of God." Jewish Bible Quarterly 42, no. 1 (2014): 21-27.

https://glanier.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/%CF%80%CE%B9%CF%80%CE%B9-and-the-use-of-hebrew-in-greek-manuscripts/ 

Goitein, Shelomo Dov. "YHWH the Passionate: The monotheistic meaning and origin of the name YHWH." Vetus Testamentum 6, no. Fasc. 1 (1956): 1-9.

Lammert, Richard A. "The Word of YHWH as Theophany." Concordia Theological Quarterly 73 (2009): 195-210. 

Gieschen, Charles A. "The YHWH Christology of the Gospel of John." Concordia Theological Seminary 85, no. 1 (2021).

Brueggemann, Walter. "Symmetry and Extremity in the Images of YHWH." The Blackwell Companion to the Hebrew Bible (2017): 241-257.

MacRae, George W. “The Ego-Proclamation in Gnostic Sources.” Pages 122–34 in The Trial of Jesus: Cambridge Studies in Honour of C. F. D. Moule. Edited by Ernst Bammel. Studies in Biblical Theology, Second Series 13. Naperville, Ill.: Alec R. Allenson, 1970.

Bietenhard,Hans. “Ὄνομα, Ὀνομάζω, Ἐπονομάζω, Ψευδώνυμος,” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–) 268.

MJ. Smith

the original manuscripts utilized YHWH in Hebrew letters

The original manuscripts of what? (I assume you mean Christian manuscripts but ...)

It could be logical to follow the same custom as the Greek "Bible" of the time, the Septuagint. Then this custom was abandoned in Christian-made copies of the LXX. I think would have been sensible to abandon it in copies of the NT as well.

 

These are your hypotheses which you need to prove. You have three choices:

1. Study what scholars have said about the material to see if they have reached a consensus Not all scholars provide arguments of equal weight. For each scholar, estimate the strength of their case by noting their assumptions and soundness of argument.
2. Study the data itself to determine if the actual manuscripts support your theories. This is detailed below. 
3. Accept uncritically your gut reaction after reading the resources you have listed. Be sure to note mentally that this is a gut reaction but that the issue is insufficiently important to you at this time to bother with serious proof.

Consider what would constitute data for inserting Hebrew letters for YHWH in the Greek text. They are listed in decreasing order of the strength of the evidence they supply.

1. Are there any Greek manuscripts/fragments of Christian origin that attest to the Hebrew tetragram? What are the dates, language, country of origin, author etc. of these instances... (repeat this after everything that follows.)
2. Are there any non-Tanakh manuscripts of Jewish origin in Greek that attest to the Hebrew tetragram?
3. Are there secondary source in any language from the appropriate period that describe the practice?
4. Are there textual variants in the Christian, Greek manuscripts that are best explained by positing the use of the Hebrew tetragram?

Repeat the above exercise for translating YHWH as kyrios, ιαω, or spaces (dots). Now apply standard statistics to your data to see if it supports your hypothesis.

In short, my response is to approach this like you would any other textual issue. There is nothing novel about it from the methodological perspective.