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reverence . Indeed , I-cannot conceive how a proper answer could have been given to the question proposed by the
Scribe , without the introduction of this name : for , if Jesus , on this occasion , used the language commonly spoken by his countrymen , ( which , if not pure Hebrew , was at least a dialect of the Hebrevv , ) the words of the
Evangelists are as much a translation of those used by our Saviour , as the Greek of the Septuagint is a translation of ; the original Hebrew . But , supposing that the language of Palestine in the time of . our Saviour was
Greek , that the dialogue recorded by the Evangelists was held in Greek , and that the quotation was made in Greek ; even this does not , in my opinion , prove the point which Mr .
Frend appears anxious to establish . Let any person be at the trouble of comparing the quotation , as given by the Evangelists , with the Septuagint Version ; and he cannot fail , I think , to be convinced that they are in substance one and the same translation .
Whether Kt ^ o $ vyas identical word used by our Saviour or not , is quite immaterial . But if it was , it is perfectly clear to my mind that he . must have used it as equivalent to Jehovah in the original ; not because he felt any repugnance to the pronunciation of that sacred name , ( which is a
completely gratuitous assumption on the part of Mr . Frend , ) but because , in making a quotation in Greek , he would , for obvious reasons , adopt the language of the Greek Version already in general use , rather than have
recourse to a new translation . Besides , according to Luke ' s account of this conversation , Jesus introduces the passage by two very pointed questions : " What is written in the law ?
How reddest thou ? 3 > ( x , 26 ) ; and it can hardly be supposed that , in referring to what was already written , and what the Scribq must have beea perfectly familiar with , that Jesus would do otherwise than quote the very wbrds of scripture , either in the original , or in some public and wellknown version .
But I have cal led the Jewish practice of avoiding to write or pronounce the word Jehovah , superstitious \ and , if I have erred in using this epithet , I haye the authority of great
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names to plead In extenuation of my fault ; This superstitious fear of discovering " v the name with four let ? i ters , " says Whiston , —" this super- ( stition , m not pronouncing that name , has continued among the Rabbinical Jews tothisday . " €€ Josephus /* he * adds , "durst not set down the very words of the Ten Commandments ; ( Antiq . B . III . eh . v . § 4 ;) which su- * perstitious silence , I think , has yet not been continued , even by the Rabbins . It is , however , no doubt , but
both these cautious concealments were taught Josephus by the Pharisees , a body of men at once very wicked and very superstitious \ "The snpexsti- * tion" says Kennicott , which long- ago prevented all the Jeivsfrom , pn *~
nouncing' that awful name , increasing , more arid more , has , in the later cen- *> turies , prevented some of the Jews even from writing it . " And a ^ ain , " The Jews , after having all of them for many ages ( perhaps from the Babylonish Captivity ) avoided pronoun- > cing the incommunicable name « Jjb- >
hovah , became at last , some of them , so superstitious , as not to write it . " If any further justification of the term superstitious , as applied to this practice , should be deemed necessary , the reader is referred to the following ingenious remarks upon the subject , by the last-mentioned writer .
"The original cause of this superstition ( the not pronouncing the name Jehovah ) probably was , that Jehovah was the uame of the God of the Jews , in contradistinction to all the deities , or false gods , of other nations ; as bein ^ c the name of the necessaril y *
existent . Being . And the Jews , perhaps , had learnt at Babylon , amongst other heathenish superstitions , to conceal the true name of the god of their country , to prevent its destrue- *
tion . For the Heathens had very early a superstitious notion ,, that a country or city could not be taken , till the tutelar god or presiding genius was invited out of it , by invoking him in his real name . The Jews ,
finding tins a sacred custom observed by other nations , absurdly adopted the same precaution ; and resolved , that the true name of their God should also be a secret , by declaring it unlawful to pronounce it . That such a custom did obtain in the world
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MrsfyaUace on the Reverence of the Jews for the Name of God . W 9 t ¦ " ' ' '
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1824, page 159, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2522/page/31/
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