THE MYSTERIOUS NAME.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2417, 7 January 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MYSTERIOUS NAME.

Only the High Pi:iest Could Speak It.

Onok eaoli year, on tl. c Day of Atoneinoiifc, while the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem remained, tho High Priest was accustomed to pronounce upon the bowed and iiwe-striekcn multitude of worshippers the blessing which contained the mysterious name of God. On no other occasion, and from the lips of no other person, could this name be spoken, and when thts sacred city fell before the Romau annics, and the temple itself was razed to the ground, the ceremony likewise perished and tho name Was lost. A peculiar interest in this extraordinary mime has always beou oviuued by scholars and antiquarians. Thnro is something in tho my.itory that surrouudH it, that appeals iililio to tho strict religionist and to tho investigator whose only motive is tho drairo to explore the region of the obscure. What was this naino that could not even bo pronounced without blasphemy, unci which has, in consequence, passed away from the knowledge of mankind? As is well-known, tho consonants of the name are JTIVH or YHVH ; and since the time of tho Hebraist Galatinus the popular usago has been to pronouuoo it Jehovah, following , tho example of that scholar. Yet no one believed this to bo iu any way correct, and the ingenuity of hundreds of commentators has boon taxed to restore the original vowels. Tho name itself, howover it was primarily pronounced, is one of marvellous antiquity. It is derived from a verb, but was almost forgotten in the time of Moses, and its origin is absolutely lost in the mists of an antiquity that makes the pyramids seem insufferably modern. It was the essentially national.' name given to the Creator by the Jews —the name by which they thought of Him in the privacy of their own homes, in the presence of their own altars—too sacred to be spoken, save once each year, and by the lips of the consecrated priest of the Most High. So hedged about was it with reverence that the Rabbins do not even dare to write about it, but allude to it mysteriously as 'The Name,' or 'The Name of Four Letters,' in which the Samaritans likewise follow them. Yet, although it seems so wholly .Jewish, some of tho most singular coincidences are to bo found in the usage of other ancient languages. In tho Cliincso, some thousand years before Christ, there are allusions to a name of three mystical letters—' IHV,' denoting that which none can comprehend. Among Phoenicians the name bad equal reverence ; the Greek writers speak of the ' great name' which they imperfectly give as IEUO or lAO ; and an inscription in tho adytum by the tomplo of Isis at tho Egyptian Sals recalls tho snme dread of totragrammaton. It would scorn almost as though this were tho title by which primeval man was divinely taught to worship his Creator. As has been said, the name, so fas as can be learned, has never been pronounced since Titus destroyed tho Temple of Jerusalem in A,D. 70. Whether before that time it was even in any way fnlly committed to writing is quite unknown. Some of the Rabbins who are unable to deny that the recorded miracles of Christ were actually wrought, declared that he accomplished them by accidentally gaining pvwssion of a parchment iu which ' The Name " was fully written, and which thus conferred upon its owner extraordinary and supernatural powers. Whether previously written or not, it must have been so recorded after Jerusalem fell, for we learn of individuals who preserved the true pronunciation for many centuries. Joscphus, in his ' Antiquities,' speaks of the name, but says that it would be unlawful for him to explain it. The Jewish Mishna speaks of a Jew named Kamjiav, who was aware of tho sound of tho letters. In fact, as late us tho year 10-50 the Orientalist Leusdon !>:et a Jaw at Amsterdam who professed to be able to utter them correctly. His family, ho said, had preserved tho traditional pronunciation by moans of writing. Lcusdon offered tho man a largo sum of money if ho would utter tho word just once, and his offor was accepted; but shortly after, and beforo tho payment had boon made, so great a terror asized npon him as to seal his lips, nor could ho bo persuaded either by bribes or entreaties to perform his promise. The .secret, therefore, must be regarded as wholly lost; or, perhaps, would a spirit of reverence dosiro it to be discovered, though even tho most orthodox Christians regard tho Jewish feeling about tho name as nothing better than a superstition. Whatever one may think, tho mystery that surrounds the whole subject appeals very strongly to the imagination, as is seen in the melancholy end of a well-known Americau scholar who devoted his whole life to an investigation of the namo and upon whose mind tho question wrought so strongly as to produce insanity. It may be of interest to give the various pronunciations that different scholars have considered the most probable. Cappel would have it Yahoh ; Fii, Yeheveh ; Mercer, Yehveh ; and Wright, Yahaveh ; but perhaps the majority of Orieutalists incline to Yahvoh. In reading the Hebrew Scriptures the Jews themselves never pronounce the word at all, but substitute the ordinary Adonai or 'Lord.' —Home Journal.