Posted on 08/11/2008 9:58:24 AM PDT by NYer
Fr. Jay Toborowsky, the Young Fogey himself, has a very interesting piece on an instruction sent out by Cardinal Arinze of the Congregation for Divine Worship prohibiting the literal Hebrew pronunciation of the name of God to be used in songs or prayers.
What is Rome talking about? The "Tetragrammaton". Confused? We're talking about the four Hebrew letters yod, heh, vav, and heh (יהוה) transliterated in English as "YHWH", and found in some translations of the Old Testament as well as the occasional hymn as "Yahweh". "Tetragrammaton" is a Greek word meaning "four letters", as in the 4 letters used to name God.The best part of this this instruction? A piece of Schutte gets the boot. Dan Schutte's "Sing A New Song" which has the line "Yahweh's people dance for joy," should no longer be used in the liturgy. Buh-bye.
In books of Scripture written in Hebrew, the name is certainly written, but never pronounced phonetically. Instead, the word "Adonai" ("God") is substituted, or even the words "Ha Shem" (literally, "The Name") are used. For Jews, even to say the proper name of God would be a violation of the third commandment (or second commandment to Christians), taking God's name in vain. The only time it was used in Judaism was once per year by the High Priest during Yom Kippur, when he alone had the privilege of pronouncing God's authentic name while offering prayers of atonement on behalf of the people.
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So what does this mean? First of all, directive one says that the word "YHWH" is not to be used in liturgical celebrations ... The second directive says that in future translations of Scripture into vernacular languages, the word YHWH be translated as "God". It's hard to say what this will affect in the future, but looking to the past, I believe it is the New Jerusalem Bible that used "Yahweh" in translations of the Psalms. In short, words like "God" or "Lord" should be used, rather than God's proper name.
There has to be more to this story, don’t you think?
As long as we can still address Him as our Father, I don’t have a problem.
Why interpolate something into the liturgy that is not supposed to be there, and additionally greatly offends our Jewish brethren?
And getting rid of that awful Schutte song is just a happy byproduct. There are so many other rotten songs out there that I don't see a deep, dark plot here.
You mean the one that goes Yaaaaaahhhhhweeeeehhhhh, Yaaaaaahhhhhweeeeehhhh? Talk about taking the Lord’s name in vain.
I do think there’s got to be more to it, but it’s overdue, in any case. The Jerusalem Bible’s use of “Yahweh” blighted what would otherwise be fairly adequate modern translations of the Psalms, and spread this unfortunate usage, which is foreign to the Christian literary and liturgical world. And certainly, it couldn’t be very fondly viewed by Jews.
I’m surprised that this happened now and I’d like to know what was behind it, but I’m just glad it’s finally happened!
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I don't know. What do you think it might be?
I have no problems with a restriction on pronouncing the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew, and saying instead “the Lord” or “Jehovah”, as it is usually translated.
Not that that's a BAD thing ...
But it also sounds like that one's out, too! Hurrah!
(This one is the one that goes, "Sing a new song unto the Lord,
Let your song be sung from mountains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord,
Singing, Alleluia.
Yahweh's people dance for joy,
O come before the Lord,
And play for him on glad tambourines
And let your trumpets sound.")
Etc. etc. That's from shuddering memory, so it may not be quite right.
The words are a pretty stupid (and not particularly accurate) paraphrase of Psalm 149. Of course the Jerusalem Bible is the only one that uses "Yahweh" here -- even Young's Literal uses the truncated form "Ja" or just writes out the old "Jehovah" (itself the product of a reading error).
Ja? Is Young a Rastafarian? ;-)
Beats me. Don’t know the guy, usually use him when I’m too lazy to grab the Lexicon and the Greek Bible. It sounds old, though, 19th century American protestant scholar would be my bet.
What annoys me is that they took a lot of the fluffy songs and gender-normed them.
Yeah: The word “Yahweh” is an invention of heretics, like “Jehovah,” which is similarly deemed inappropriate for church hymns. Now: can we ban having the congregation sing about God in the first person? Serious, “Christ, the Lord” would sound so much better than “I, the Lord,” anyway. (worst offenders: Here I Am, I Am the Resurrection, I Am the Bread of Life, Be Not Afraid)
I’m not slamming on the song-writing. “Be Not Afraid” is very beautiful to listen to when a soloist sings it. But it’s lousy as a choral hymn.
Is Young a Rastafarian?
No Way!
Ja, Weh!
“Seems reasonable to me.
Why interpolate something into the liturgy that is not supposed to be there, and additionally greatly offends our Jewish brethren?”
How many of our Jewish brethren participate in our worship services?
I don't think her Jewish friends are particularly observant and may even be Reform, but why offend them unnecessarily with something that is a modern (and unauthorized) interpolation into the liturgy?
A more precise answer: The very point of “YHWH” is that it’s unpronounceable according to Jewish phonemes. Ancient Hebrew did not include written vowels. Certain letter combinations implied certain possible vowels. Trying to fill in the vowels would be like trying to figure out which vowels belong between “q” and “t” in a name. You can choose “u” (”qut”) and pronounce it “cut,” but the truth is that isn’t really English.
And that’s for a reason: The only reason the word was ever used in Hebrew was precisely so that the Name of God could not be casually stated. For that reason, in English we construct a name from a word (”god”) rather than using an actual name.
>> How many of our Jewish brethren participate in our worship services? <<
It makes us look like we don’t understand God.
When I saw that, a line in Bob Marley’s “Is This Love” popped into my head: “We’ll share the same room, yeah! - for Jah provide the bread.” But as I just read/remembered, “Jah” is used in the Hebrew version of the Bible, hence “Hallelujah.” ;-)
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