do515127@longs.lance.colostate.edu (David A. Olson) (07/02/90)
I've been enjoying Michael Card's new album, "The Beginning." It's an
excellent artistic work based on the Old Testament and how the
Old Testament portrays God's grace and Savior.
I started to look at the words for the song "Meditation #3, Shema" which
is the Jewish confession of faith (as well as the Christian) and
affirms of the LORD being one God. (The entire Shema, which Moses
commanded to be read "when you lie down, and when you get up" is found in
Deut 6:4-9, 11:13-21; and Num. 15:37-41)
The Hebrew words enclosed in the lyric sheet are these:
Shema, Isreal,
Shema, Isreal,
Shema, Isreal, (three times)
Adonai Eluhenu Adonai
Adonai Eluhenu Adonai
Adonai Eluhenu Adonai
Echad
or
Hear, O Isreal
""
""
\
The Lord, your God, the Lord
""
""
Is One.
Deuteronomy 6:4 (NIV) states:
"Hear, O Isreal: The LORD our God, the Lord is one.
and as a foot note notes that is may also be translated:
"The LORD our God is one LORD" or
"The LORD is our God, the LORD is one" or
"The LORD is our God, the LORD alone".
The use of LORD in capitals signifies that is represents the personal
name of God, Jehovah, where Lord means just that, the Hebrew word
Adonai.
My question is, what is the correct Hebrew? Is it Jehovah or Adonai?
Is it proper to say "one LORD"?
It is interesting to note that since Adonai is a title,
saying "the Lord" represents the one and only true lord, whereas one
would never say "the Jehovah" ("the LORD")
any more than one would say "the Jesus" (although "the Christ is correct.
God, or Elohim, (which by the way is plural), is also a title,
hence "the God" is the one true God. It is interesting that in English
we seem to have it backward. We should say "the God" and simply "LORD
said ..."
Of course I'm no expert (or even novice) in Hebrew so please feel free
to correct me.
Sincerely,
DAvid Olson | "I have come that they might have life, and have it to
INET: do515127@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu | the full." -- Jesus, John 10:10b
UUCP: boulder!ccncsu!longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu!do515127
[In modern English translations, LORD represents the personal name of
God, whatever it is. We don't know. We know the consonants, which
are YHWH. We don't know the vowels. We don't know the vowels because
fairly early Jews came to believe that it was improper to pronounce
God's name. Thus where the Name occured in the text, they would read
Adonai, which is "Lord". Originally the OT was written with
consonants only. By the time the vowels were written down, the Name
was always being read as Adonai. Since the vowels were primarily aids
to reading, the vowels from Adonai were put in. So what appears on
the paper is the consonants from the Name (whatever it was) and the
vowels from Adonai. If you try to read it as a word, you get
something like Jehovah. But Jehovah is not a Hebrew word. It's a
misunderstanding by Christians looking at the text and not realizing
the tradition behind it. Scholars theorize that the original name was
something like Yahweh. There are good grounds for this guess, but
it's only a guess. Some translations actually use Yahweh. But most
Christians have no desire to go back to using God's name. Partly
because since we only believe in one, he doesn't really need a name.
(In OT times, there were enough gods around that a name of some sort
was needed, either a personal name or "the God of Abraham".) Partly
because it seems somehow sleasy to use what is only an academic guess.
And maybe there's even some remaining appreciation for the Jewish
point of view that we'd just as well avoid saying the Name. Anyway,
normally we do the same as the Jews: we say "the Lord" in place of the
Name. It's printed LORD just so people know that what is really in
the text is the Name. You can decide whether you want to continue
with that tradition or use the Name.
--clh]YZKCU@cunyvm.bitnet (Yaakov Kayman) (07/05/90)
The proper translation of "the Shema'" is "Hear, O Israel, The L-rd *IS* Our G-d, The L-rd Is One." Yaakov K. -------- Yaakov Kayman (212) 903-3666 City University of New York BITNET: YZKCU@CUNYVM "Lucky is the shepherd, and lucky his flock Internet: YZKCU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU about whom the wolves complain"
charlie@lindy.stanford.edu (Charlie Channel) (07/08/90)
In article <Jul.5.01.00.49.1990.29896@athos.rutgers.edu> YZKCU@cunyvm.bitnet (Yaakov Kayman) writes: >The proper translation of "the Shema'" is "Hear, O Israel, The L-rd >*IS* Our G-d, The L-rd Is One." Is it not more accurate to indicate that the tetragrammaton apears where "L-rd" appears, above -- thus: "Hear, O Isreal, YHWH is Our God, YHWH is One."