Posted by Real JW on March 23, 1999 at 21:03:43 {MWODvUIGVhUX.}:
In Reply to: Okay Big Mouth posted by Janey to J.H. on March 23, 1999 at 06:09:43:
" After all, we think nothing of our taking the Greek trisyllable Iesous, pronounced ee-aye-soos, with emphasis on the final syllable) and writing the English, shortened form of it, namely, the two-syllable "Jesus." "
Is this actually true? I was taught - and a check of the Greek grammars on my shelves confirms it - that an initial letter "iota" ("i") is pronounced in Greek as an initial "y" in English. This would mean that it NOT pronounced as "ee." The word is NOT a trisyllable! In addition, it is only in recent times (a few hundred years) that the Greek "Iesous" came to be written with a J in English and pronounced differently. The letter J is the last letter to be added to the English alphabet. Originally it was just a capital "i,"( which is why it is placed next to "i" in the alphabet) and was pronounced as an initial "Y" just as in Greek. So, in fact, the word "Jesus" would have been pronounced "Yesous."
As for the ancient pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, I notice that the testimony of Epiphanius is not cited. He, writing in Greek, said that the Hebrews called their God "iabe", which at that time would have been pronounced as "Yaveh." This is also spelling given by Theodoret as the pronunciation used by the Samaritans - who did not have the same objection as the Jews to using the name.
That the Jews themselves did not normally pronounce the name is witnessed by a
number of sources. One particularly interesting one is Abba Shaul ("Sanhedrin" ch.11, section 1, in the edition of the "Mishna" by Surenhusius, vol.4, p.159). He includes among those of Israel who will NOT obtain eternal life, "him who
shallpronounce the name by its own letters."