Gérard Gertoux

Gérard Gertoux
Born	(1955-03-19) March 19, 1955 Lyon
🏳️ Nationality	French
🏫 Education	Master of Science Engineering physics
🎓 Alma mater	École nationale supérieure d'ingénieurs électriciens de Grenoble Lumière University Lyon 2 École normale supérieure de Lyon
💼 Occupation	Writer
Notable work	The Name of God Y.eH.oW.aH Which is pronounced as it is Written I_Eh_oU_Ah

Gérard Marcel Laurent Gertoux (born in 19 March 1955) is a French academic, physical engineer, and a Phd student in ancient near eastern archaeology.

Life

Gérard Gertoux was born in 19 March 1955 at Lyon. He obtained a Sc.M. 1 in Physical Engineering at École nationale supérieure d'ingénieurs électriciens de Grenoble (I.N.P.G.) in 1979. In 1985, he obtained a CAPES in Physics to become a certified professor, and he was a professor of national education until 2012. Gertoux has been president since 1991 of the Association Biblique de Recherche d'Anciens Manuscrits. From 1992 to 1993, and 2001, he studied Hebrew language at Académie des langues anciennes with Elie Cohen, at Sessions de langues bibliques with Jean Margain and at l'Institut des langues anciennes l'École normale supérieure of Paris with Jean-Claude Haelewyck and Georges Bohas. In 2005, he obtained a Sc.M. 2 of Archaeology and History of Ancient Worlds at the Bibliothèque de la Maison de l'Orient Université Lyon 2 with the thesis entitled: L'œil de l'histoire: la chronologie. Les éclipses dans l'antiquité: approche scientifique d'une chronologie absolue.

Views

The name of God YHWH

His principal work is The Name of God Y.eH.oW.aH Which is pronounced as it is Written I_Eh_oU_Ah, published in 2002 by University Press of America, which is a translation of Un Historique du nom divin: Un Nom Encens published by Editions L'Harmattan. Un historique du nom divin is the published thesis of יהוה in Fame Only: A historical record of the divine name by Institut Catholique de Paris.

Professor R. J. Wilkinson states that G. Gertoux deepened of treatment of Tetragrammaton, the Name of God, history of its translation and pronounciation over the centuries, since Eve, to whom he confidently attributes the date of 4000 BCE, until 1900 EC.

Pavlos D. Vasileiadis (Post-Doc Researcher at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) reports that "according to G. Gertoux, the Greek term Ιαω comes from the Hebrew Yahu, and the Samaritan term Ιαβε comes from the Aramaic Yaw." G. Gertoux says that the term Yahu means "Yah Himself", and (Jah) is an abbreviation of the name, with which the form Jehovah could still be possible, since it comes from the first and last letter of YHWH, an argument with which P. D. Vasileiadis agrees. P. D. Vasileiadis also considers the work of G. Gertoux as a source that presents "an overview of long-standing efforts to translate the Tetragrammaton into Greek".

In Religious Studies Review, the opinion of Won W. Lee (professor of religion and Asian studies at Calvin University) of Gertoux's work is present:

In contrast to the long-held Jewish tradition, the author claims that the name of God in the HB should be pronounced. His claim is based on Exod 9:16, "... to make my name resound through all the earth" and Maimonides' work stressing the impossibility of a deep, personal relationship with a nameless God. With a survey of the historical record from "Adam" to the American Standard Version, Gertoux argues that the letters Y, W, H are read as the vowels I (or E), U (or O), and A. For the H, a mute e could be added in order to be better heard. The tetragrammaton, YHWH, is therefore read I-eH-U-A (Iehoua), the equivalent of YeHoWaH in Masoretic punctuation. This means that the name is to be pronounced as it is written, or according to its letters. The result is that the tetragrammaton is the only Hebrew name constituted, not of four consonants, but of four vowels, as noted by Josephus. This detailed treatment of the Name is useful for those who are interested in the history of its translation over the centuries.

Didier M. Fontaine reports that G. Gertoux "shows how frequent the use of the Name has been, from the earliest times to around c.150, when the Jews began, both orally and in writing, to show serious reservations about the use of the divine name, especially with non-Jews."

R. J. Wilkinson in his work Tetragrammaton: Western Christians and the Hebrew Name of God makes "an attempt to chart Western Christian knowledge of the Hebrew divine name yhwh through to roughly the middle of the seventeenth century. The author intends his book as “a work of history,” and therefore eschews any theological comment “as inappropriate” (38)." In the introduction of his book, R. J. Wilkinson states: "the book is intended to be a work of history, and I have thus eschewed theological comment as inappropriate. I am unaware of any previous work with the scope of this book, unless it be found among those who wish to promote (or prohibit) a devotional or liturgical use of the Tetragrammaton or hold strong views about its pronunciation and meaning", and at the footnote of the page he points out that he considers that in the French version of G. Gertoux's book a chronological account of the tetragrammaton is offered, but "he is primarily interested in supporting his assertion that the Tetragrammaton has always been read "according to his letters," i.e. yhwh treated as matres lectionis and vocalized "Jehovah"." R. J. Wilkinson adds G. Gertoux believes that "the eclipse of the name was part of a satanic strategy and he believes that the Tetragrammaton appeared in the first New Testament texts."

Anne Pasquier (Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at Laval University) based on the book by G. Gertoux states that "the perfume is associated with the divine name", "theme of good smell is linked to the name in the Bible", and concludes that in Song of Songs 1,3: "there is indeed a play on words in Hebrew between the expression "your name" (sheméka) and "your scented oils" (shemanéka), the name of God being comparable to an incense."

François Bœspflug (professor emeritus of history of religions at the Faculty of Catholic Theology in Strasbourg ) wrote that G. Gertoux has provided "valuable indications" to the subject of the name of God, and suggest that "contrary to what is said, still frequently, especially in Catholic circles, and in spite of what can be read in some scientific work of contemporary Hebraism, the prohibition of the images of God did not lead to a formal prohibition of the pronunciation of the name of God. In a footnote F. Bœspflug thanks: "I warmly thank Gérard Gertoux who with his availability brought this theme to my attention and provided me with valuable indications (which I will use below); cfr. G. Gertoux, Un historique du Nom divin - un Nom encens, Paris 1999."

Influential professor Bruce M. Metzger call the Gertoux's web page as a "further scholarly information on the origins of sacred names."

Vocalization

G. Gertoux has proposed that the pronunciation of the name of God YHWH, has never been lost, and this is Yehowah.

According to G. Gertoux, Charles Perrot, (emeritus professor of Institut Catholique de Paris) said him in a letter that "remarks on the pronunciation of YHWH seem very relevant to me, even if, currently, it is in practice a little difficult to "back off."

Thomas D. Ross, (professor at the Biblical Institute of the Baptist Church in Mukwonago (Wisconsin)), agrees with G. Gertoux, who states that the Masoretic points must indicate the correct pronunciation, because it is inconceivable that God allows lose the correct pronunciation of his name, and that, despite the grammatical processes of mutation of the vowels when they are far from the accent (as dābār to the plural is made dəbārīm). T. D. Ross considers significant, like Gertoux, that the theophoric names do not contain the vowels of Yahweh but those of Jehovah. T. D. Ross also considers the work of G. Gertoux as "to defend the traditional translation of the Tetragrammaton."

Ren Manetti follows G. Gertoux on the idea that he "postulated that the perpetual qere was not for Adonai, but for Shema", and considers that some have recently pointed out "a number of problems with Gesenius's theory.

Daniel Faivre calls Yahweh the most frequent vocalization, "but considers that it is not formally consolidated" and therefore prefers to "use the tetragrammaton in its consonant integrity" and then quotes the work of G. Gertoux in its French version as "a more complete study."

In observations of 4Q120 and some Hebrew words among some scrolls, George Wesley Buchanan (Professor Emeritus at Wesley Theological Seminary) claim that "for many years scholars have mistakenly assumed that the Tetragrammaton was to be correctly pronounced Yáh-weh, treating the central vowel as if it were a consonant. This error has recently been corrected." G. W. Buchanan thinks that there are arguments for the pronounciation Yahowah, but agrees with G. Gertoux in that "based on this data, the divine name will be spelled arbitrarily Yehowah.

Sarah Lind reports the study of Gertoux and say that "G. maintains a website with excerpts at divinename.net.": Gérard Gertoux. 2002. The Name of God Y.EH.OW.AH Which is Pronounced as It is Written I_Eh_oU_Ah: Its Story. University Press of America. Translated from the French Un historique du nom divin. Un Nom Encens (L’Harmattan, 1999). G. follows Maimonides’ teaching that that YHWH “is read as it is written,” i.e., yehua, in the same way that yhwdh is vocalized yehuda—applying the (coincidentally correct) Masoretic vowels. G. first considers biblical treatment of “the name”: the power of the name; to know God’s name; Jesus, Satan, the controversy over the name; and “the name read distinctly” (reconstruction of the reading). Part 2 examines the historical record from Adam to the American Standard Version, and the name of Jesus and its connections to the name. There is a seven part appendix that includes “interpretation of the Hebrew names” and “lack of nomina sacra in the earliest Christian papyrus.” G. maintains a website with excerpts at divinename.net."

New Testament

D. Fontaine and R. J. Wilkinson affirm that G. Gertoux is one of who have proposed that in the autograph manuscripts of some works subsequently collected to form the New Testament the Tetragrammaton or related form was found. G. Gertoux speculated that in Papyrus 52 in the place of the term 'Lord' "the tetragram was written in full", but in Papyrus 90, "when the sacred name was absent the word ‘Lord’ had to be written without abbreviation."

Some citations in bibliographies

In The Encyclopedia of Christianity by emeritus professors Geoffrey W. Bromiley, emeritus professor Jaroslav Pelikan, full professor Jan Milic Lochman, honorary professor Erwin Fahlbusch, and writer John Mbiti, (published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing and by Brill Publishers) the work The name of God Y.eH.oW.aH which is pronounced as it is written I_Eh_oU_Ah: its story was selected as one of the ten references under the title Yahweh, in which it presents among other things textual, archaeological and theological aspects, etc.

Michael Gilligan (Catholic biblical scholar) quotes G. Gertoux to affirm that "in the world of the Bible, however, a person's name was expected to be as meaningful as possible," M. Gilligan states: "because God is wondrous and mighty—an object of awe—the name of God would also be wondrous and mighty, intended to be spoken or sung with reverence. In a biblical culture, the name of God would express God’s majesty and power" and adds: "to put it in other terms, a biblical name (in a sense) was an alter ego; it represented the person. To know someone’s name was to know who and what the person was: not only his or her character or qualities, but especially his or her power, role, or function—what the individual was empowered to do. To be without a name was to be worthless, of no importance."

Gertoux is also quoted by Jean Vernette, (Catholic scholar) in Les Sectes, Que sais-je?.

Some comments of his thesis

E. J. Revell (Professor emeritus at the University of Toronto) claim: I was very interested to read the copy of your work which you sent me. Before reading your study, had no particular opinion on the pronunciation of the name of God. As a student in the 50’s, I was told that scholars have determined that “Yahweh” was the ancient pronunciation. I did not find the argument wellgrounded, but the view was held almost as an article of faith by my instructors, and I had no superior argument, so I ignored the problem. I have occasionally thought about it since, but I have not acquired any information that you have not noticed in your study. You have certainly collected more information on the question than any other study I know, and you are to be congratulated on the production of a valuable work. Many thanks for sending it to me.

Henri Cazelles (Director of the Institut Catholique de Paris): "Thank you very much for sending me your "In Fame only?" a wealth of documentation. I will deposit it at the Biblical Library for the greatest benefit of the researchers... With my congratulations and thanks."

D. C. Hopkins (Editor of the Near Eastern Archaeology): "Thank you for submitting your rich and detailed study. Your topic is fascinating."

G. W. Buchanan (Editor of the Mellen Biblical Commentary and emeritus professor): "Let me thank you very much for sending me your excellent thesis. I trust that will soon have it published."

Shlomo Morag (Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem): "The study is full of important evidence and gives a good survey of the research."

Edward Lipiński (Professor, at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven): "I want to thank you for this sending and to congratulate you for the conscientious work of which this research makes proof. I'll be sure to use it if I ever come back to it."

M. Harl (Professor at the Université de Paris IV Sorbonne, translator and editor of the Bible d'Alexandrie): "Your sending fills me with admiration [...] Once again all my congratulations."

J. Bottéro (Director at the E.P.H.E. assyrian department): "You seem to me both very informed and very demanding: you will get out of it and we will do a great job, which will teach me a lot! (...) You have a beautiful subject of work: I would love to see your thesis appear and read. You may be the one solving the puzzles."

E. A. Livingstone (Doctor at the Oxford University): "I sent your kind letter and the copy of your thesis to one of my colleagues who gave me much guidance over Old Testament material in the third edition of the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (…), telling me that he found your thesis most interesting; he said your case was reasonable one, and well argued."

D. N. Freedman (Editor of the Anchor Bible): "I was pleased to hear from you and to have your detailed treatment of this valuable and interesting subject, on which I have written from time to time. I have never been entirely atisfied with my own analysis and interpretation of the divine name in the Hebrew Bible, or with that of others, including my own teacher, W. F. Albright and his teacher (from whom Albright derived his position), Paul Haupt. At the same time, I haven’t seen anything to persuade me of the superior value of another interpretation, but I will be glad to learn from your study and perhaps discover that you have finally solved this long-standing puzzle."

Antithesis

Steven Ortlepp, in his work Pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton: A Historico-Linguistic Approach argues against Gertoux's ideas.

Egyptologist John Laurence Gee (Research Professor of Egyptology at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship) makes a brief review, and agrees with G. Gertoux in "that the current consensus is unconvincing" but on the contrary, he finds his "arguments more passionate than persuasive", and thus he "also find his conclusions ultimately unconvincing." Gertoux and Gee has been indexed in Elenchus of Biblica

Ancient World chronologies

He has proposed Assyrian and biblical chronologies, of which, according to Hermann Hunger (Professor emeritus of Assyriology at the University of Vienna), G. Gertoux "offers new conclusions or refutes chronologies proposed by other scholars".

Dating of Herod's death

Main article: Herod the Great § Death

G. Gertoux is another one who propose that Herod the Great did not die in 4 BCE, as generally accepted, but in 1 BCE. Bruno Bioul writes that "breaking with this consensus in the 1960s, several specialists believe that Herod would have died only in 2 or 1 BC. J.-C. See G. GERTOUX, 2015."

According to Giuseppe Veneziano "the dating of Herod's death has become the center of a sometimes heated academic controversy". G. Veneziano describes several views by different scholars in which they propose that Herod's death was in 4 BCE or 1 BCE. G. Veneziano continues and claims that in 1 BCE "is supported, inter alia, by W. E. Filmer (Filmer 1966), A. E. Steinmann (Steinmann 2009), and by Gerard Gertoux (Gertoux s.d.)", and he adds that "however, Josephus himself, although very precise in describing the events, is a little less precise in their chronological framework and - as G. Gertoux (Gertoux 2010) recalls - provides us with at least a dozen information that contribute to making it inadequate or doubtful this date." Then G. Veneziano follows to A. Steinmann and G. Gertoux: "this and other anachronisms, widely discussed by Gertoux and by Steinmann in their writings (complete with schematics), would seem to demonstrate how the date of 1 BC it is more coherent than that which places Herod's death in 4 BC. However, without preconceptions, we now evaluate both hypotheses also from an astronomical and biblical point of view."

Dating Xerxes and Artaxerxes

In response to Gerard Gertoux, (2018). Dating the reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes in: Proceedings of the 61e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Geneva and Bern, 22–26 June 2015, Peter J. Huber wrote: "traditionally, it is assumed that Xerxes died in the year 465 BC. Recently, Gérard Gertoux (2018) has argued for a 10 years higher date. As explained in his abstract, he bases that date primarily on the Babylonian eclipse text BM 32234. Unfortunately, as I shall show in the following, a more careful scrutiny of that text does not support the higher date," and that "all eclipse observations of BM 32234 Rev. are compatible with calculations for the low chronology (death of Xerxes in 465 BCE). But at least five of them flatly contradict the calculations for Gertoux’s higher chronology." Gertoux reacts and publish an abstract of his work to refute Huber.

Carthage

Main article: Carthage

Stel Pavlou reports that "Gerard Gertoux argues that recent discoveries push this date back to at least 870 BC if not further. Prior to that, the Roman poet, Silius Italicus (100-200 AD), tells us that according to legend the land there had been occupied by Pelasgians".

Lectures

G. Gertoux has presented conferences at different universities:

• —2011, Lecture at University of Edinburgh: A New Achaemenid King: Darius B, owing to Synchronized Chronology.
• —2015, Lecture at Oxford University: Assyrian and biblical chronologies: are they reliable?,
• —2015, Lecture at Geneva University: Dating the Reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes which was published in 2018 in: Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis Series Archaeologica, 40, pp. 179–206.
• —2019, Invitation at the Collège de France by Dominique Charpin in order to promote his thesis Scientific approach to an absolute chronology through synchronisms dated by astronomy, July 11th, 2019, for the 65th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale — the annual conference of the International Association for Assyriology.
• —2019, invitation at American Schools of Oriental Research, (ASOR) Annual Meeting, The Westin San Diego, San Diego, California with the subject "Archaeology and Biblical Studies I". Chair: Jonathan Rosenbaum. November 20–23.

Historicities

Historicity of the Trojan War

Main article: Trojan War

In the journal Antrocom Online Journal of Anthropology, Xaris M. Koutelakis (awarded 2 times by the Academy of Athens and the Ministry of Culture) says that "known archaeological data are thoroughly reexamined." He states:

On the other hand, special ceremonies had been taking place in Delos since the 12th century B.C., when, following the dispersion of the naval groups in which they had participated (that is, the Peoples of the Sea), Lycian mariners, tradesmen and pirates chose Delos as an ultimate refuge (Koutelakis, X. 2014: 96 n. 43, 44) for the safekeeping of their loot and profits, perhaps having previously destroyed Koukounaries in Paros, Grotta in Naxos, Phylakope in Melos and Hagia Eirene in Kea (Gertoux G., 2015: 37-38), and captured the inhabitants of the undefended Daskaleio-Keros or forced them to abandon their island.

Walls of the Ruler

According to egyptologian Jozef Hudec (Research Executive at Slovak Academy of Sciences) and Miroslav Černý "it could have contained realistic topography" in story of Sinuhe. They propose that "the Wall of the Ruler could have been assumed in Wadi Tumilat (at Tell el-Retaba, which might be the point in the defence line/wall closest to Gebel el-Ahmar), if Sinuhe could have achieved almost 90 km during one November day." They adds:

The 7th day of the 3rd month of inundation (LICHTHEIM, M. Ancient Egyptian Literature. Vol. I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms, p. 223) would have been in November during the rule of Amenemhet I/Senwosret I. (GERTOUX, G. Absolute Chronology of the Ancient World from 2840 BCE to 1533 BCE, p. 39). The length of day (between sunrise and sunset) in November is more than 10 hours, cf. Timeanddate.com, available from https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/egypt/cairo [cit. 6 January 2018]

Historicity of Exodus

G. Gertoux affirms the exact historicity of the Book of Exodus. David A. Snyder affirm that "under the Gertoux timeline, the Hebrews would have been slaves from 1530 to 1476 BC, which is when the Exodus occurred and is enough time for God to direct Moses to tell Pharaoh to set my people free. D. A. Snyder suggest: "the reason I give such high regard for the Gertoux timeline is the highly documented research that he uses in his ancient chronological system of study. His work equates the Hebrews with the Hyksos with some certainty.

Hebrew terms

Ola Wikander (professor at Lund University) "discuss two cases of seeming "irregularity" in the Tiberian Masoretic stop and fricative systems, especially concerning the relationship between those two systems —and to ponder the methodological implications of this for the study of Masoretic orthography and analysis." He wrote that "The name Tiðʿāl, which appears in Gen 14:1, has been plausibly explained as a borrowed Hebrew version of the Hittite royal name Tudḫaliya."

A recent publication supporting the identification with Tudḫula (which ultimately goes back to T. G. Pinches in 1897) is Gérard Gertoux, Abraham and Chedorlaomer: Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence (sineloco,2015), 34 (etpassim). One may note with some interest that Sayce actually suggests identifying Tudḫaliya with the Tudḫula of the Spartoli tablet sin his early comment (or Tudghula, as he writes the latter), and indeed uses that purported identification as a step in arguing the connection between the Hittite name and Genesis 14!

Bibliography

• Gérard Gertoux (1 August 1999). Un Historique du nom divin: Un Nom Encens. Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 9782296391994. OCLC 716841963. Search this book on
• Gérard Gertoux (2002). The Name of God Y.eH.oW.aH Which is Pronounced as it is Written I_Eh_oU_Ah. It Story. G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761822042. OCLC 59502233. Search this book on
• Gérard Gertoux (2005). Guds navns historie. København: Gramma. ISBN 87-990125-6-1. OCLC 473717946. Search this book on
• Gèrard Gertoux (2007). S. Pizzorni, ed. Storia del nome di Dio. Un recente studio che fà luce sulla corretta pronuncia del sacro nome. Translated by G. Gabrielli; M. Aragone. Azzurra 7. ISBN 9788888907093. Search this book on
• Didier Mickaël Fontaine (2007). Le nom divin dans le nouveau testament. Religions et Spiritualité. Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 9782296176096. OCLC 300408308. Search this book on , (preface of Gérard Gertoux).
• Fritz Poppenberg (2015). Der Name Gottes (The Name of God). Drei Linden Film. ISBN 978-3-936344-65-3.
• Жерар Жерто (2 February 2018). Имя Бога: его история и произношение. Kiev: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing. Search this book on
• Gérard Gertoux (2018). Pascal Attinger; Attinger P.; Cavigneaux A.; Mittermayer C.; Novak M., eds. Text and image: proceedings of the 61e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Geneva and Bern, 22-26 June 2015. Orbis biblicus et orientalis., Series Archaeologica. Vol. 40. Leuven; Bristol, CT: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-90-429-3713-0. OCLC 1046070112. Search this book on

Some other selfpublished works are found in Semantic Scholar's web page and ORCID.

Other websites

• Association Biblique de Recherche d'Anciens Manuscrits

This article "Gérard Gertoux" is from Simple English Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Gérard Gertoux.

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