ARTICLE VII.

. יהוה THE MEANING OF

BY PROF. PAUL DE LAGARDE, D D., PH.D., oF GÖTTINGEN. TRANSLATED BY A. DUFF, JR., OF MONTREAL.

[THE following was published in Latin by Prof. Paul de Lagarde as a part of a Corollarium at the end of his edition of Jerome's Psalter (Psalterium juxta Hebraeos Hieronymi e recognitione Pauli de Lagarde, to be procured through Ch. Trübner, of Strassburg, Alsatia), in 1874. Two other valuable parts of the Corollarium may also be read there. We have sought eagerly for permission to give this interesting investigation to the American theological public. We are glad not only to make that public acquainted with men who are steadily doing thoroughly scientific work in the theological field, thus showing to those who do not know the fact, that theology is not "effete," but is a busy and an exact science, quite as much so as most other sciences; we are glad not only to present for example and encouragement to workers in this country a piece of genuine Semitic work, done by one who is really fit for his profession; but we are glad also to present a result which has such evident practical, and we may say homiletical value. For it is easy to see the point given by Prof. de Lagarde's result to the multitude of passages in which it is recorded that the Hebrew preachers declared, God will do so and so, "that ye may know his name is ";" and the like. Or, again, see what strength the verse of the poet has, "He restoreth my sake"; or his plea, "Hear me for thy name's sake." This translation was made for the Bibliotheca Sacra with the express sanction of the Author, and was revised by him. -- ED.].

soul for his name's

In the Journal of the German Oriental Society (Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft) xxii. 331,1 for January 1868, I showed that means Creator, Tòv Toû eivai altiov. When I wrote that demonstration I was not aware that Johannes Clericus had held the same opinion. long before me, and that Wilhelm Gesenius, in his Thesaurus ii. 577 foot-note, published in 1839, had come very near

1 Lagarde, Symmicta 104.

commending the same view. I had listened, in 1844 and 1845, to the lectures of Hengstenberg, a most severe critic of Clericus,1 and afterwards had read the letters of R. Bentley; and I had concluded that Clericus was not worthy of much esteem, especially as I noticed that he had a very limited knowledge of Greek, and yet had a proud opinion of himself. I owe it to a mere chance that I now think better of him. For I saw in a note on Petavius' Theological Dogmas viii. 9, 7, in the Antwerp ed. of 1700, i. 342, written by Theophilus Alethinus, the nom de plume of Clericus, as follows: "De nomine tetragrammato egit nuperus pentateuchi interpres ... ostenditque eo significari eum qui facit ut res sint, yeveσcoupyov seu creatorem et effectorem rerum" (i.e. a recent interpreter of the Pentateuch discusses the tetragram, the Divine name ... and shows that it signifies "He who causeth things to be, Creator or efficient cause of all things"). Upon reading this, I at once turned to Clericus' Commentary on Exodus at this passage (vi. 3), and to my great joy found that there Clericus had advanced much concerning (for so he pronounced it) which I had long taught in my lectures as something of which I had been the first discoverer. Let me ask those to read this to whom truth is dear, and who desire that every man receive the praise due to his own. merits. But since I have learned that my opinion, as it was briefly published in 1868, has been disseminated as public property, and that my name has been suppressed, I purpose to set forth here those arguments for my view which I have been wont to give in my lectures. I shall omit several things which Clericus made known before me.

was

In the first place, then, it is very certain that pronounced Jahwe. Clement of Alexandria gives 'Iaové in his Stromata v. 6, 34 [240, 34 Sylburg ed.]. Compare what I published in the Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen for 1870, p. 807 [Lagarde, Symmicta, p. 14]. Epiphanius gives

1 Consult concerning Clericus Abraham des Amorie van der Hoeven de Joanne Clerico et Philippo a Limborch Dissertationes. Amsterdam, 1843. 1 See Lagarde's edition of the Clementine's, p. 23, towards the end. VOL. XXXV. No. 139.

69

λάβε

'Iaßé in his Panarium, 40, 5 [132, 12, 15, Basle ed.]; where the Venetian Ms. gives láve, and the Basle MSS. vary and give both láße and laßé. Theodoret, in his Epitome, on Ex. xv., Roman ed. 116 [78 in Paris ed. of 1558] ascribes laßé to the Samaritans. Everybody can see that it is, and not. Nor can I imagine it possible that while the Hebrews were accustomed to distinguish between the first and fourth forms of the verb, and while they knew, for example, that differed in meaning from p, they would regard Jahwe, a derivative of the fourth (bn) form as identical with Jihwe.

names.

Again, derivatives of the fourth form were used for proper That this was customary is seen in the well-known word (see Num. xxxii. 41; Judges x. 3; and in Mark v. 22 the equivalent is 'Iάepos), which name was used at a later period in the form 8, now often heard in Jewish families in Germany (written Meyer). Whether J, the name of a deity, which has been preserved in Julie (Pococke, specimen 78), may be adduced here in illustration, I am not sure. But we may compare the following appellative nouns (See Lagarde's Abhandlungen 52, 29), meaning mel igne concretum, from cl (See Butrus Bustânî 1438 a, at the end); (see Butrus Bustânî 17362, 5; Abdallathif 129) which means planta erecto caule carens, and P (Cf. Amos viii. 5; and cf. also the notes which H. L. Fleischer has written on S. de Sacy i. 129, 13). In Syriac (See Bar Ali 4480) belongs to the root p, II.=IV.; cf. Isa. xxxiii. 15; Matt. xiii. 15 (from this the Arabs have taken Love). For is (rheum ribes, the sharp, acid juice of which was used for healing eye diseases (Avicenna Arab. i. 254 Lat. [Venetian ed. of 1582] ii. 581), and it is very natural that the eyes should

=

=

لة قوة خماص ار وال be made to shut by the juice الاترح والحصرم

possessing the sourness of the lemon and the unripe grape. It is, therefore, clear that in calling a derivative of the fourth form we are following correct analogy.

It is very natural to remark here that the notion of Being" or "essential existence "could not have been employed in early times to express the nature of the Deity. I pointed this out publicly six years ago. I said that this notion was too abstract to be thought of as occurring to the minds of simple men who were utter strangers to scholastic teaching. If any insist on thinking differently they may possibly please this fickle and ignorant age by their persistence in boasting, and even by their very ignorance; but they will certainly be always a laughing stock among prudent people. Swhich means cecidit.

- חוה - היה,Further

illustration, note that in Syriac accidit ei (cf. Bar Ali 3283); and

In

may bear the meaning among the Syrians (cf.

Ps. lxix. 2, 15; Luke xvi. 26; Bar Ali 3284) is the same as

هوة the Arabic

=

χάσμα,

Bólpos, Prov. xxii. 14, and Luke xvi. 26. Therefore the notion of "being" or "existence" is not what lies originally in ; so that those who explain as meaning The Existing One, or He who is, and assert that this is an ancient name, are not up to the mark. Since takes the place of among the Arabs and

Phoenicians, one sees at once that

is the same as

1 Kings vii. 21), or, according to later usage, 12.

But now, thirdly, there exists a trace of this interpretation which I have given in the sacred book itself. For the author of Exod. vi. 3 certainly could not have meant to say, that the name of Jahwe was unknown to the first founders of the Jewish people. For then he would have removed all mention of Jahwe from Genesis, which he himself edited (cf. Goetting. gelehrte Anz., 1870, 1558 [= Lagarde, Sym. 55]). But we know that he left the name standing there in a great many instances. If, however, we may suppose that the name which the ancients used as meaning Creator, καλῶν τὰ μὴ ὄντα ὡς ŏvra, Rom. iv. 17, was used by this editor and writer in one particular application, viz. to mean ὁ στήσας τὰς ἐπαγγελίας, then all is plain and harmonious. I am confident that the correct meaning of Exod. vi. 2-6 is given by the following paraphrase; I am called Jahwe; and I am the same who

gave to your fathers tokens great enough and many enough of my power; but I could not prove myself to be the fulfiller of promises, because, of course, in the very nature of things, it is impossible to make a promise and to fulfil it both at the same time. But I remember the covenant which I made (Gen. xv.), and I will show that I am rightly called Jahwe; for I am he who causeth things to be which are not.

in his exordium and in

one of the downcast, the

Fourthly, it seems to me that with this interpretation of Jahwe, we can explain how the name came to be no longer used in speech. This took place, I think, in times of disturbance, when it seemed almost sacrilege in the eyes of devout men to call God a performer of promises, while they saw him turning away his face in anger from his own people. He who withheld from his servants the promised rewards of piety and virtue was not . So it began to be considered impious to use the name. I rather think, too, that the author of the Jobeid, who uses the name his conclusion, shows that he was doubting hearts of his time, by his use of alone in the dialogue of the disputants. He had lost faith in God as one who peculiarly favored the Jewish race; he had lost faith in him as, as one who loved them in times long gone by, and established among them his own congregation. Weighed down with sorrow, they paid no attention to the various manifestations of divinity which shine forth throughout the whole earth (x). But they did not deny that there was some sort of a Deity (b), and yet they did not perceive any benefit arising from his worship. We know that in the latter years of the Jewish commonwealth the high-priest used to pronounce the name Jahwe at the feast of the atonement only, and this in the holy of holies. On this one day they felt it possible to thank God for remembering his promise: τάλλα πάντα φροῦδα.

Having given this exposition, I have then usually turned to Exod. iii. 14. For there the words man hun mon1 dó not

1 Concerning which passage, see E. W. Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon, II. 1544, midd.