Adonai
Adonai ( Heb. אֲדֹנָי ădonāy "my (e) lord (s)"), in Ashkenazi pronunciation Adaunoi, Adoinoi, Adonoi , is one of the paraphrases for YHWH , God's proper name in the Tanach .
Adon and Adonai (Ketib)
The basic form of the word is אדון adon ("Lord"). It has been handed down in both the north-west Canaanian dialect Phoenician and the southern Canaanite dialect Hebrew and in the Hebrew Bible can refer to both people (e.g. Gen 45.8 EU ) and the God of Israel (e.g. Ex 34.23 EU ) . The plural form is used with the same meaning (e.g. Gen 42.33 EU for a person, Dtn 10.17 EU for the God of Israel).
Written אדני ( Ketib ) with the vocalizationאֲדֹנָי ădonāy (more than 400 occurrences in the Tanach) always designates the God of Israel in the Tanach (e.g. Gen 15.2 BHS ; Gen 18.27 BHS ) and is usually, but not only, encountered in situations of address. It is by the last vowel of the formאֲדֹנַי ădonăy , "gentlemen" ( Gen 19.2 BHS ) differentiated.
Adonai (Qere)
In the reading of biblical texts, Adonai established himself early on as a regular replacement reading ( Qere ) for the divine name YHWH in order not to accidentally misuse the name (cf. Ex 20.7 EU ). Therefore the Masoretes have the Tetragrammaton, so the consonants of the written, but not pronounceable name of God (YHWH as Ketib ) the vowels to be read in its place, but not the written word Adonai attached (Qere), mostly in abbreviated form (black simplex instead Schwa compositum at the first letter, omission of the o). This affects the vast majority, more than 6500 occurrences of the tetragram (YHWH) in the Tanach. The only exceptions are the slightly more than 300 cases in which Adonai is written and read immediately before or after the tetragram (i.e. אדני יהוה, e.g. Gen 15.2 EU or יהוה אדני, e.g. Hab 3.19 EU ). There is another substitute reading here : In order not to read Adonai adonai , as if the same word had been written twice, should be used here instead of the tetragramאֱלֹהִים elohim ("God") can be read (Qere), which in turn is indicated by the vowel signs (יְהוִה, with Chiriq under the Vaw, for the vowel i in the last syllable of elohim ).
Adonai in Jewish prayer
Since Jews do not pronounce the divine proper name "YHWH" out of respect for its holiness, they follow these reading traditions in the Torah reading and also use Adonai in place of God's name in prayer . Since Adonai is now perceived as a holy name through the use of the divine name in worship, it has become established in use outside of the divine service to reproduce the divine name through HaSchem ("the name"). Some godly Jews replace Adonai in everyday conversation with Adoschem , a combination of Adonai and HaSchem. However, this expression is also criticized because it is meaningless and therefore disrespectful.
Web links
- J. Cornelis de Vos: Mr / Adonaj / Kyrios. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Binyomin Forst, AD Twerski: The Laws of B'rachos: A Comprehensive Exposition of the Background and Laws of Blessings . Mesorah, Brooklyn 1990, ISBN 0-89906-220-2 , pp. 49 (Hebrew, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed May 3, 2015]).