format_quote Originally Posted by
Grace Seeker
You've been doing pretty good on this, Khan. But, if you don't mind, a small correction on who uses the term Jehovah. No Jews that I know use this term. It is actually a concotted term created when trying to translate the God's name into English.
As Jews found God's name so sacred that they would not even speak it aloud, but always substituted the word "Lord" for it, and also because of it's sacred nature when writing it they would not write in the vowel marks, lest someone should be reading the Torah and accidently see the vowel marks and speak God's name, no one knew (or even today knows) exactly how to speak God's name -- the one he declared himself by to Moses. All that the translators of the first English bibles had was the tetragram of the Hebrew Bible, and those letters are YHWH. Because of irregularities in writing English script characters, they were at the time written as JHVH. But they still didn't have any vowels to put in with them, so the editors of the English Bible just decided to use the vowels from LORD and they ended up with Jehovah as the term used in the first English bibles, and the though most English bibles now use YAHWEH, the use of Jehovah has stuck for many groups of people. However, the Jews are not among that group. Jews still don't like using God's name, and so will continue to use euphemisms instead of referring to him directly. Some of our Jewish friends around here have explained this in the past, if I can find it, I'll provide a link.
You are correct in asserting that no Jew would ever conceive of God as a man (well, with the exception of the Jew, Jesus and his Jewish disciples, but now I'm showing my prejudices).
Thanks, I totally forgot they don't utter his name. I recall the scene from
Life of Brian.
--[As Brian and his mum come over the top of a hill, they see a large number
of people stoning some unfortunate. Mandy hurries Brian along to get to the
next victim in time. When he is, we see that he crowd consists entirely of
women wearing fake beards. An elder stands in front of the next prisoner
holding a scroll as he waits for the crowd to settle down.]
ELDER PRALINE
Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath.
MATTHIAS
[to a guard] Do I say yes?
LIMESTONE
Yes.
MATTHIAS
[To the elder] Yes.
ELDER PRALINE
You have been found guilty by the elders of the town of uttering the name of
our lord, and so as a BLASPHEMER...
CROWD
Ooooh.
ELDER
... you are to be stoned to death!
--[The crowd looks anxious to kill Matthias, growling in a feminine way]
MATTHIAS
Look. I'd had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was 'That piece of
halibut was good enough for Jehovah'.
CROWD
Oooooooh!
ELDER PRALINE
BLASPHEMY!!!! He said it again!
CROWD
Yes! Yes, he did! He did!...
ELDER PRALINE
Did you hear him?
CROWD
Yes! Yes, we did! We did!...
MR. CINDY (high-pitched)
Really.
--[There is a moment of silence as the elder thinks, after hearing the
woman's voice.]
ELDER PRALINE
Are there any... women here today?
CROWD
(guilty mumbling)
ELDER PRALINE (convinced)
Very well. By virtue of the authority vested in me...
--[One of the more impatient women throws a stone and hits Matthias on the
head.]
MATTHIAS
Oh! Lay off... we haven't started yet.
ELDER PRALINE
Come on. Who threw that? Who threw that stone? Come on.
CROWD
She did! She did! Er, he, he, he, him, him, him, he did... [Their voices
drop as they realize their mistake.]
MR. STEPHANIE
Sorry, I thought we'd started.
ELDER PRALINE
Go to the back.
MR. STEPHANIE
Oh, dear.
ELDER PRALINE
Always one, isn't there? Now, where were we?
MATTHIAS
Look, I don't think it ought to be blasphemy, just saying Jehovah.
CROWD
[Shocked] He said it again!
ELDER PRALINE
You're only making it worse for yourself.
MATTHIAS
Making it worse? How could it be worse? Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah!!
CROWD
Oooooooh!
ELDER PRALINE
I'm warning you...! If you say Jehovah once more...
[A stone flies by and hits the elder.] Right. Who threw that? Come on. Who
threw that?
CROWD
She did! She did! Er, he, him, him, him, him, him, him...
ELDER
Was it you?
MR. VICTORIA
Yes.
ELDER
Right...
MR. VICTORIA
Well, you did say Jehovah. [She gets stoned]
ELDER (out of breath and furious)
Stop! Stop, will you?! Stop that! Stop it! Now, look! No one is to stone
anyone until I blow this whistle! Do you understand?! Even, and I want to
make this absolutely clear, even if they do say 'Jehovah'.
--[The women rapidly stone the elder to death, ending in the dropping of a
huge boulder on his fallen body. Much applause.]