1) What’s the purpose of claiming that the name of the god of the jews is ineffable?
Answer: First of all, ¿what does “ineffable” mean?
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/ineffable
ineffable
(ɪnˈɛfəbəl)
adj.
1. Incapable of being expressed; indescribable or unutterable: “ineffable joy.”
2. Not to be uttered; taboo: “the ineffable name of God.”
3. too great or intense to be expressed in words; unutterable
4. too sacred to be uttered
5. indescribable; indefinable
You can’t hide the meaning of something by banning its reading; jews play the role of pious people in front of non-Jewish audiences when this topic comes to the table. Well, the fact that biblical Hebrew was written with no vowels works in their favor; the development of signs for the vowels came later. So, the proper pronunciation of YWHW remained concealed by the jews.
Jews showed so much commitment on hiding this knowledge from the unlearned that created a specific commandment on the Mosaic Law; many biblical and non-biblical scholars have observed this issue, but have failed on explaining the hidden motives. This “anomaly” resembles the history of Egyptian god Ra and his secret name, source of his power.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/egypt-secret-name-of-ra.html
By uttering the proper pronunciation of YWHW you can bless and you can curse, it works as a magical tool. You have to read between the lines on the Talmud to notice this; and that’s enough justification to keep away this knowledge from the “goyim”. So the leaders of Jewish religion had to solve the problem of using a word which stands for the same concept, but not powerful at all. They came up with a synonym that became mainstream, near the beginning of Hellenistic period (circa IV-III centuries BC): Adonai.
2) What does “Adonai” really mean?
Answer: Every dictionary, every biblical or non-biblical lexicon makes a plain explanation without further detail. “Adonai means my lord”.
However, on the Catholic Encyclopedia you can find the following, confirmed by the Jewish Encyclopedia: “Etymologically it is the plural of “Adon”, with the suffix of the possessive pronoun, first person, singular number… Other prefer to designate this form as plurale excellentiae, magnitudinis, or plural majestatis”” (just like the use of “Thou” on English).
Then, what or who is “Adon”? According to some scholars, this word derives from “Adonis”, the name of a Phoenician or Greek god, worshipped on many territories: Cyprys, Athens, Byblos, around IV and III centuries BC; his cult was assimilated on Tyre and Sidon. By coincidence, his name was used as an appellative for YHWH!
Something looks odd when you try to compose the word “my lord” using the stem “Adon” with the semantic rules of Hebrew and other languages linked to Hebrew, like Arabian: it happens that you should write “Adon-i” (my lord) or “Adon-im” (my lords). This means “Adonai” stands for a different idea. We can get some hints about the true meaning of “Adonai” from this paragraph, extracted from the work “Shulchan Aruch” (Set Table): you pronounce it by separating syllables as follows: Adon-Ai
What is “Ai” according to the bible?
On the book of Joshua, chapters 7 and 8, the bible mentions the two attacks by Joshua and its men to the city of Ai: the first was a lost because Achan had stolen some garments and stuff from the booty offered to YHWH for the destruction of Jericho (Joshua 6). The key passage for find out that the attack on the city of Jericho was actually a sacrifice is on Joshua 6:24.
To repair the curse over the Israelites (represented by the loss to the city of Ai) and appease the anger of YHWH, Achan was stoned to death. Then Joshua and his men took over Ai, just like they did with Jericho, but this time the murder of the inhabitants of Ai as sacrifice was enough to content YHWH, everything else was handed to the Israelites as booty. On Joshua 8:28 there is a pun about Ai and its meaning.
The different translations of the bible obscures this pun because of transliteration or periphrasis (using other words to express the same idea). On the contrary, there are other cases which are easier to deduct their meaning, for instance: Isaac (“laughter”, on Genesis 17:17-19), Rachel (“ewe”, on Genesis 29:6). Deeper readings and archaeological works were necessary to catch the meaning of Ai.
“Its geographical location, just to the east of Bethel, closely matched the biblical description. The site’s modern Arabic name, “et-Tell”, means “the ruin,” which is more or less equivalent to the meaning of the biblical Hebrew name Ai.” (The bible unearthed)
The Jewish Encyclopedia avails this interpretation, you can see more biblical references of Ai, with some variations on their spelling.
Ai: Joshua 7:11
Ai: Joshua 8:28
Aiath: Isaiah 10:28
Ai: Ezra 2:28
Aija: Nehemiah 11:31
Ayya: 1 Chronicles 7:28
Ai: Genesis 12:8, 13:3
We found these definitions on the nominum interpretation, linked to Ai.
| Ai | Vultur: vel devorator. |
| Aia, Ahia | Vultur eius: vel devorans eum. |
| Aiath | Vultur: vel condemnatio: sive vultur declinans: aut devoratio peccatorum. |
We can translate these definitions as follows:
“vulture” (vultur)
“devouring” (devorator)
“damnation” (condemnatio)
“falling vulture?” (vultur declinans)
“devoration/devorator of sins” (devoratio peccatorum)
Even though the key concepts change, the core idea of “destruction” or “ruins” remains.
Is it valid the statement that “Adonai” means “lord of ruin”?
Some scholars date the composition the biblical story detailed on chapters 6, 7 and 8 of the book of Joshua, as late as the period of Josiah kingdom, and claim that those events never took place (there are more references of the city of Ai on other biblical verses), the main idea of the narrative allow us to disclose the following conclusions.
The name “lord of ruins” fits perfectly with this character, who:
Commands the plunder of a city, claiming the whole wealth for himself. He will curse anyone who dares to steal a part of it. (Joshua 6:16, 18)
Takes as sacrifice to him the booty and the lives of the people and the animals on this story. (Joshua 6:17, 24)
Allows the murder of people and animals (Joshua 6:21)
Burns down a city, and curses anyone who dares to rebuild it (Joshua 6:24, 26)
Gets angry because someone stole from his loot, and orders to stone him to death (Joshua 7:1, 11, 14-15, 20-22, 24-26).
Offers another city as reward to those who killed on his behalf. (Joshua 8:1-2, 7-8, 18, 24-28)
Takes the lives of the entire people of Ai, slaughtered as sacrifice; this time the Israelites got permission to carry the plunder and the livestock. (Joshua 8:2).
Burns down another city; now the pun about his name and the name of the city becomes apparent. (Joshua 8:28).
No wonder if any of the readers of this post gives the following comments:
“On my bible that city is named “Hai” or “Hay”, while your whole explanation is about the word “Ai”, which is not the same.”
“Liar, liar, you did a wrong interpretation.”
“My pastor would never read the bible that way.”
“I rebuke the wicked spirit within you, you are distorting the word of the lord.”
“Damn you for offending the lord, Jehova Sabaoth”.
And others of the same kind.
I invite you to analyze the whole material, in order to get your own conclusions. Consider the picture attached to this post.
On the next days, I will post the full version of this work, with images of the sources, the links of this post included.
This is the translation of the following post:
rosariofatima.wordpress.com 