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I. In ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Chinese writing, the inscription for God or deity carried a direct meaning beyond referring to phonetics that in turn meant "God".
For example, the Sumerians developed a phonetic alphabet, but for the word God/deity, they used a single eight pointed star, referring to heavens, highness, brightness, shiningness. Consequently, they associated these meanings with God, who was seen as high in the heavens. The inscription was actually used for both "deity" (ie. the gods) and for their pantheon's supreme God. The Babylonians (AKA "Akkadians") then adopted and developed the Sumerian alphabet for themselves.
The Ancient Scripts website explains how in ancient writing a letter can have a phonetic meaning, a logographic meaning referring to a whole word, and a determinative meaning referring to a title). It explains how the babylonians used their inscription for God in these ways:
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One common sign that can be used as all three types of signs is , which is a phonetic sign denoting the syllable an.
In addition, it also stands for three logograms: the word ilum which means "god", the god of heaven Anum, and then by extension the word šamû which means "heaven". And on top of all this, it can also function as a determinative for names of deities. Ancient Scripts: Akkadian
That is, the Babylonians used their word for God
phonetically (pronounced "An")
as a logogram (to mean "heavens" or "god" or the heavens' god)
as a determinative (as a title)
English has some analogies. "A" is both a word and a vowel sound.
♥ could refer to a physical heart, the word "love", or the symbol on a pack of cards called "hearts".
Since I am fascinated by ancient religions, and also Judaism, I would like to see if anything similar exists in its name for God, YHWH.
Of course, Hebrew writing is not Babylonian, so one can't assume that the same writing practices applied. II.Ancient Hebrew also developed based on logograms and pictographs. The aleph, for example, was drawn as an ox's head.
this script is kind of pictographic in origin, and its pictographs appear to be related to basic notions or building blocks in the earliest root fabric of the Proto- (West-)Semitic language. ... every symbol represents a notion, which we encounter in the meanings of the words composed with them.
...
The mentioned period of 1900 to 1000 BC covers about the Biblical period from Abraham until David or Solomon. ... So, in all likelihood, several books of the [TaNaKH] were written originally in this old script.
...
Originally, the symbols of the old Semitic script probably formed a pictographic/ ideographic as well a s phonemic representation of these basic notions or building blocks of the early Proto-Semitic language. Later the old Semitiic script developed into a pure alphabetic script ( possibly with a logo-syllabic intermediate step).
...
Around... 1000 BC ( that’s just after the transition from the bronze to the iron age ), we observe the further division of this alphabet script into a number of different branches, such as Phoenician and Paleo-Hebrew (in Judaism this is called Ketav ‘Ivri ; a ‘semi-vocal’ script and not a pure consonant script...
(pages 4-5,7) http://www.hallelu-yah.nl/Early-Semitic.pdf
[CLICK ABOVE FOR A PASSAGE FROM HIS TEXT]
Roosma also shows a photo of the Moabitic Mesha stele with ancient Hebrew writing from c. 840 BC.
III. This raises the next question of whether the ancient Israelites considered there to be any mystical meaning in any of their letters beyond simple phonetics. One case that comes to mind is the way that Shin is drawn with four prongs on the Tefillim instead of three, and is sometimes drawn with tiny crowns on the top.
Joel Hoffman in his book In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language proposes that the letters Y,H,W were written vowels unique to Hebrew and that this is why they were introduced into names like Abram (Abraham), Saray (Sarah), Elym (as Elohim), and why he thinks the Hebrews arrived at the divine name YHWH:
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The theory that the letters of the tetragrammaton were chosen for their symbolic value, rather than their pronunciation, is further supported by a curious detail about the Dead Sea Scrolls...
There were two different scripts used to write Hebrew, the older Phoenician script and the modern Aramaic or square script. Some DSS such as the ... Psalms Scroll are written in the newer script but revert to the older Phoenician script for the tetragrammaton, as depicted in the photograph in Figure 4.1 ... We might assume that out of reverence God was written in the older script, but elhym, the other word for God was written in the newer script, like the rest of the text. But the tetragrammaton is the only word that was written solely in the older script in some DSS.
Hoffman shows a photo from the DSS where YHWH is spelled in pre-Assyrian/pre-Ashurite letters and proposes
Quote:
that the point of the tetragrammaton was not its pronunciation (for which modern letters would have been required) but rather the letters themselves. The author of the DSS... tried to preserve the old letters in their original form.
The Septuagint - the 3rd c. BC translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek - further buttresses this theory. While the tetragrammaton was usually translated as the Greek equivalent of Lord (Kurios), in some old copies we find instead Hebrew letters, written... in the old Hebrew script. The tetragrammaton is the only word in the Septuagint written in the old Hebrew script.
One final bit of evidence suggests that the tetragrammaton was not simply a name for God. God is frequently referred to as "the name of God". For example, Psalms commonly exclaims "may Adonai's name be blessed", rather than the seemingly more straightforward "may Adonai be blessed." THat curious expression is used primarily with yhwh, seldom with elohim, and never with the name adonai spelled out. ... what we clearly see is an asymmetry between the tetragrammaton and other ways of expressing "God." This fact adds tot he likelihood that yhwh was not simply another name for God.
IV. The written Tetragrammaton ("four letters") in Hebrew, YHWH, also had major mystical significance in Jewish tradition. Centuries after the writing of the Torah and David's Psalms, the Israelites replaced YHWH in writing with Adonai, meaning Lord. There was also a Jewish tradition that Solomon had a seal or amulet that he used for mystical, supernatural purposes and in some versions of the legend, it was inscribed with the Tetragrammaton.
On another section of the City Data Forum, users made interesting comments about this:
Quote:
REPLY #21
Original Hebrew is not written with vowels, but the letters yod hey vav hey -YHWH- all serve as aspirated 'consonants' in YHWH [whose name means Breath/Life], and Josephus states that they are that -"four "vowels", written on the turban of the High Priest, which means there are no consonants spoken and one "breathes" the name.
REPLY #58
Scripture also instructs us to give Yahweh the esteem ("glory") that is due unto His Name (Psalm 29:2, 96:8 & I Chronicles 16:29). ... In many Hebrew names you will find the short form for Yahweh as "Yah (iah)" within the names with a short message. ... Yeremyah (Jeremiah) means 'Yahweh exalts', the name Zecharyah (Zechariah) means 'Yahweh recalled', the name Zephanyah (Zephaniah) means 'hidden by Yahweh'
Whoppers, REPLY #90
the Essenes used the Paleo-Hebrew letters to write out YHWH in their non-Biblical writings, even though the scrolls were primarily written using the sqare script we are more familiar with today. That's an interesting solution to the problem they saw with using the name Yahweh. In the copies of works from the Tanakh, however, YHWH is written out in the same script as the surrounding text - the square script.
REPLY #93
But unto you that revere My Name shall the light of righteousness arise with healing in it's wings (Malakyah 4:2).
I will make Your Name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise You for ever and ever Psalm 45:17).
V. So this raises the question of whether Jewish tradition noted there to be a mystical significance to the writing of the Tetragrammaton itself.
Here is a chart of the letters of ancient Hebrew and their meanings in the link below: http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/files/alphabet_chart.gif
The meanings in the chart for the letters Y H W H are Nail(Y), Behold(H), Arm/Hand(W)
I saw a DVD that outlined how the paleo-hebrew letters have meanings which, when looked at on a word by word basis, reveal deeper insights into God's truth.
In this case, I believe based on the link you gave that the meaning of YHVH's letters is:
Worship and live in line with (work), The Revealed Spirit (Breath) and set your gaze upon Him. Add to yourself, and make it secure on yourself, that Revealed Spirit (Breath) and do not stray from gazing upon Him.
I'd be curious how an Orthodox Rabbi would interpret that.
From a New Testament perspective, this fits with the message being that we are to receive the Holy Spirit in us, live according to God's direction empowered by His Spirit. It also fits in well with something Paul said in 2 Corinthians about why setting our gaze on the Spirit is so important:
"And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
The fact that the nature and things of the Spirit has to be revealed to us also fits with 1 Corinthians 2:
"these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God."
I saw a DVD that outlined how the paleo-hebrew letters have meanings which, when looked at on a word by word basis, reveal deeper insights into God's truth.
In this case, I believe based on the link you gave that the meaning of YHVH's letters is:
Worship and live in line with (work), The Revealed Spirit (Breath) and set your gaze upon Him. Add to yourself, and make it secure on yourself, that Revealed Spirit (Breath) and do not stray from gazing upon Him.
I'd be curious how an Orthodox Rabbi would interpret that.
From a New Testament perspective, this fits with the message being that we are to receive the Holy Spirit in us, live according to God's direction empowered by His Spirit. It also fits in well with something Paul said in 2 Corinthians about why setting our gaze on the Spirit is so important:
"And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
The fact that the nature and things of the Spirit has to be revealed to us also fits with 1 Corinthians 2:
"these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God."
No Orthodox Jew would respond to this Chrstian thread. There's not one single Jewish concept in this thread. This thing is in the wrong forum.
The title seems apropos of this forum. Why don't you enlighten us on what Jewish concepts SHOULD be in the answer to this question, flipflop????
It would require an understanding of what shapes of what letters are actually relevant and how Judaism approaches the value of the shape of those letters (which is, mostly, it doesn't. Only in rare cases is the shape significant.)
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, which is a phonetic sign denoting the syllable an. 
