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This inscription is easy to decipher (J. Leclant - Le "Tétragramme" à l'époque d'Aménophis III in: Near Eastern Studies. Wiesbaden 1991 Ed. Otto Harrassowitz pp. 215-219). It can be transcribed:
t3 ¡3-sw-w y-h-w3-w (Shneider's transcription)
ta sha-su-w y-eh-ua-w (conventional vocalization)
'Land of the Bedouins those of Yehua' (literal translation)
It is interesting to note
that the Shasus (Bedouins) would have meant to the Egyptians specific
Bedouins staying with their bundles, in the region North of the Sinai.
Some specialists prefer to identify Yehua with an unknown toponym but
it is unlikely. Additionally, there is a very good agreement with the
conventional vocalization and all the Semitic names (see the work of J.
Simons - Handbook for the study of Egyptian topographical lists relating
to western Asia E.J. Brill 1937 et l'ouvrage de S. Ahituv - Canaanite
toponyms in ancient Egyptian documents E.J. Brill 1984). This document
is interesting because of its antiquity and also because of its vocalization.
This silver plaque
has been found at Ketef Hinnom near Jerusalem dated around 625 BCE. It
is interesting to note that it includes the blessing from Numbers 6:24-25,
thus this text is, at the present time, the oldest text of the Bible.
For example from line 14 to 18 the following text can be read: 'May Yehowah
bless you and keep you. May Yehowah make His face shine toward you, and
may He favor you'.
There is no Septuagint dated before 150 CE, which has the name Lord
that is Kurios in Greek.
In order to verify all the
documents of this time see :
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/earlypap.html
Even though the divine name is rare in Greek documents, it is found in a few papyri.
For example,
in this magical papyrus of the third century CE one can read the following
sentence élèié iéôa rouba (elhie iewa
rouba), which comes from Hebrew and that means 'my God Iéoa greater'.
The spelling elhie is closer to Hebrew
than to an Aramaic elwi (Marc 15:34).
Additionally, the words hlei (Codex D,
Q) and elei (papyrus 059) are found in
a few papyri dated around 300 CE.Some authors, such as Severi of Antioch (465-538), used the form IÔA in a series of comments on chapter eight of John's gospel (Jn 8:58), pointing out that it was God's name in Hebrew. Another book (Eulogy of John the Baptist 129:30) alluded to the name IÔA written in Greek iota, omega, alpha. In the codex Coislinianus (Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Coislin Gr. 1 fol. 1-4) dated 6th century, several theophoric names are explained owing to the Greek word aoratos (aorotoV) meaning 'invisible' and read IÔA. The word aoratos (found in the LXX in Genesis 1:2), or arretos (arrhtoV) meaning 'unspeakable', is equivalent to the Latin word 'ineffable'.
During their
controversies, some Jewish and Christian protagonists used Matthew's gospel
written in Hebrew (which seems to be a copy of a Hebraic original rather
than a translation from Greek). These Hebraic copies of Matthew's book are
very old, as they are found in works such as: The Book of Nestor the Idolatrous
Priest (Sepher Nestor Hakomer J.D. Eisenstein - Ozar Wikuhim Israel 1969
pp.310-315), which is dated from the 6th to the 9th century. (The priest
Nestorius lived from 380 to 451 CE, but the Book of Nestor was completed
later).Matthew 4:1-10
[wvy = Jesus, 'h = Hashem 'The Name']
Cultivated readers during the 15th century often explained the reasons of the vocalization Iehoua, which they used.
For example, an erudite theologian, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464),
in his sermon entitled In principio erat verbum (In the beginning
was the Word), written around 1428, he explained, based on rabbi Moyses's
works, the various names of God (Adonai, Jah, Sabaoth, Schaddai, etc.)
and the meaning of the Tetragram, which he vocalized Iehoua (Nicolai de
Cusa - Opera omnia. Sermo I In principio erat verbum Hamburg 1970 Ed.
Felix Meiner. Academia Heidelbergensis Tom.XVI,1 pp. 1-19, Nikolaus de
Cusa - Codex Cusanus 220 fol. 56,57 Berkastel-Kues (Germany) 1430 Bibliothek
des Cusanus Stites). Then in a sermon written in 1445, he explained in
detail the grammatical reasons permitting a link between these two names
Iesoua (Jesus in Hebrew) and Iehoua. God's name is the Greek Tetragram
which is spelt in Hebrew Ioth, He, Vau, He; these four letters serve as
vowels, corresponding to I, E, O, A in Greek, because in this language
there is no specific vowel for the sound OU (the letter U in Greek is
pronounced as the French Ü). So, in Greek, the transcription IEOUA would
be more exact and would better reflect the OU sound of the Hebrew name
Ieoua, becoming in Latin Iehova or Ihehova, because the letter H is inaudible
and the vowel U also serves as a consonant (V).
A few translators of the
Bible supposed that the letter H remained inaudible, consequently they
preferred the forms I-H-O-A and I-H-OU-A instead of I-E-O-A and I-E-OU-A.
Thus, Sébastien Chateillon constantly used the name Ioua in his Latin
translation of the Bible (1551) then in his French translation (1555).
Antoine Fabre d'Olivet used Ihôah in his French translation of the Book
of Genesis (1823) and Johann Babor sometimes used Ihoua in his German
translation of the New Testament (1805).