I’m presenting a paper at this year’s SECSOR in Atlanta that deals tangentially with the Tetragrammaton in first century Judaism, most notably in how it might have been translated and/or pronounced when incorporated into a Greek text (i.e. κύριος, transliteration, or something else?). Anyone out there in the biblioblogosphere have any suggestions on sources that I might want to consult before presenting? I’ve already got a few key ones (like Fitzmyer’s important chapter) but I have this nagging feeling that I’m missing a few biggies. Any suggestions—even if I already have checked it—are appreciated.
Sources on Tetragrammaton in LXX and First-century?
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At the risk of promoting my own book, I have a lot of information about the tetragrammaton — including information about its pronunciation and references to the LXX and DSS — in Chapter Four of my In The Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language, from NYU Press.
-Joel
Thanks, Joel. I hadn’t checked your book on this. I’ll take a look. Appreciate the help!
Thanks for sharing your paper. It’s well researched and written. It was a pleasure to read.
I would never have been able to do the research that you did, so thanks for saving me all the trouble trying to dig up resources that I don’t have access to and struggling through the Hebrew and Greek. Needless to say, I’m now convinced that Jesus = YHWH in Matthew & Luke (and the rest of the NT for that matter). The matter is now closed for me. Appreciate it!
A question: on page 9, 2nd paragraph, you reference Joel 3.32/3.5 as the basis of the Matthean reject ‘calling upon Jesus’. Is it possible that this was Jesus’ rejection of people who relied on magical incantations using ‘divine names’? I read some papers on magic during the 2nd Temple period, and apparently it was a big thing. What I got out of it was, in principle, today’s American AMA is essentially practicing one of those forms of magic, albeit the ‘government certified’ kind. There is much more to magic than use of drugs, which was well known during Jesus’ time. Simon the sorcerer is a prime example. He tried to purchase that power (the Holy Spirit) from the Apostles, obviously in order to make profits from his use of it. John Lightfoot talks about this in his Talmud and Hebraica commentaries. So, could 2nd Temple magic practices have had something to do with Jesus’ rejection of the ‘appellants’?
Correction: page 15, not page 9 (in above comment)
Another question: 1st sentence on page 16 regarding ‘profession + obedience’. What precisely is Jesus requiring obedience to? I ask this question b/c I’ve never heard a measurable answer to this question from the Christian churches and academics. They always provide vague generalities in reply. You hint at the answer further along in that paragraph by referring to blasphemy (see Numbers 15:30 & James 2:19). So I’m asking you what Jesus was referring to. Obedience to WHAT?
And on page 18 you make a point about addressing Jesus in a prayer (quoting Bovon). In ‘religious’ terms, that is far from the truth conveyed by Luke in this passage, as you correctly point out. But, from a political/legal perspective, “prayer” fits (but not in a religious sense). A ‘prayer’ to a ‘judge/king’ is an official address to a higher authority. So in effect, the person addressing Jesus is in fact ‘praying’, that is, making an official plea to a sovereign. That perspective reinforces your point even further, since all ‘prayers’ to YHWH intend to invoke His Authority to help the helpless, as is readily seen in the Davidic Psalms.
OOPS, I posted the above comments on the wrong blog.
They should’ve bene posted on your ‘Lord Lord’ blog.
This blog needs 2 additional features:
1) ability to edit/delete posts,
2) email notification when someone replies
Any chance you can add those functions to your blogs?
I don’t blog here anymore; this is an archive of old posts. My current posts all happen at Substack: jasonstaples.substack.com.
Nice to know.
Thanks.