Saturday, January 31, 2009

On Not Pronouncing "The Name of God"




Well, I did not know this, and so perhaps you don't either.  In June of 2008 there went forth a letter from the  Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Arinze, to the effect that we should refrain from pronouncing the divine tetragrammaton [YHWH].  This should be done as  the sacred tetragrammaton was never pronounced in Christian contexts, from the earliest times, nor was it left untranslated in amy Biblical translation (always another honorific was substituted for the proper Name of God--i.e. Dominus, Kyrios, LORD).

Now that I have seen this instruction, I will, of course, obey it.  And now that it is shown to me I must admit that it makes perfect sense.

Here is a link to a pdf of the letter from Cardinal Arinze

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