There is often confusion concerning forms of the word often transliterated as ADON, especially as related to forms that appear in the Masoretic text often transliterated as ADONI and ADONAI. It is often stated that ADONAI is only used of the Most High, and ADONI is never used of Jehovah. This is partly true, in that the Masoretes several centuries after Christ supplied the extra vowel to form a plural intensive only in instances in which they believed it was in reference to Jehovah.
The Masoretic text has ADONAI, as a plural (not as a plural intensive), applied to the "men" in Genesis 19:2:
And he said, "See now, my lords [ADONAI], please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you will rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night." -- World English.
While some trinitarians make a big ado about the use of ADONAI in Genesis 19:2, it should be obvious that the usage is not meant to be applied as a plural intensive to Jehovah, but rather as a plural in speaking to the three angels.
Although we have not checked, there may be other instances in the Masoretic text where the form ADONAI is not used as a plural intensive, and may be applied to others than Jehovah.
One claims that the form of ADON used in Genesis 19:2 is not ADONAI, evidently based on a sound pronunciation given somewhere on a website.
First of all, looking at the actual letters in the original Hebrew would be meaningless, since the letters are the same for adoni and adonai. The actual letters are often designated in English as ALEPH - DALETH - NUWN - YOWD. The YOWD designates "my", while ALEPH - DALETH - NUWN designates "Lord". These letters are the same regardless of what vowel sounds are added by which one could form either the words we transliterate as ADONI or ADONAI. The Hebrew words transliterated as Adoni (my Lord) and Adonai (Sovereign Lord) differ only because the Masoretic scribes added the extra vowel point to make a distinction. No word in ancient Hebrew had any written vowels, but the vowels sounds were supplied to the words when spoken. It was not until several centuries after Jesus died for our sins that the Masoretes added, not letters as vowels, but rather what many refer to as vowel points, small marks that would indicate certain vowel sounds. Scholars are NOT agreed upon what English sounds actually correspond to the Hebrew characters and vowel points, and thus scholars have produced differing transliteration devices to transliterate these "vowel points" (as well as the Hebrew characters) into English letters; no one knows for a certainty that the English phonemes actually match the sounds intended by the Masoretes, and it is even less certain as to matching the exact sounds of the original Hebrew. Indeed, when the Masoretes started their work, the Hebrew language was already a dead language; thus, even the Masoretes could not be certain of the original sounds of the orginal Hebrew. As a result, much that people attribute as being transliterated sounds of any Hebrew word may, or may not, actually represent the sounds of the original Hebrew. No one on earth today knows for a certainty what the original Hebrew sounded like.
To further complicate this, Strong lists Adonai in Genesis 19:2 under his Hebrew #113 (Adon) rather than #136 which he evidently reserved for usages only when it is applied to Jehovah as a plural intensive, not as a plural.
Second, we do not know for a certainty that Abraham was addressing all three of the "men", although the context seems to indicate this to be the case. It is possible that Abraham was only addressing one of the "men" as representing all three, and thus that he used what we today say as "ADONI", a singular "my Lord", rather than "ADONAI", "my lords". Additionally, we do not know for a certainty that even if Abraham used ALEPH - DALETH - NUWN - YOWD as a plural, or that Abraham would have added the vowel sound that the Masoretes have given to the word in Genesis 19:2.
ALEPH (ALEF) is often given the soft "a" sound in English transliteration, although ALEPH is actually a consonant. Wikipedia states: "Phonetically, aleph originally represented the onset of a vowel at the glottis. In Semitic languages, this functions as a prosthetic weak consonant, allowing roots with only two true consonants to be conjugated in the manner of a standard three consonant Semitic root. In most Hebrew dialects as well as Syriac, the aleph is an absence of a true consonant, a glottal stop ([ʔ]), the sound found in the catch in uh-oh. In Arabic, the alif represents the glottal stop pronunciation when it is the initial letter of a word."
YOWD (YOD, YODH, JOD), although not actually a vowel, is often assumed to have a vowel sound in addition to a consonant sound, similar to the way "y" in English is a consonant, but also may be used as a vowel. Regarding its sound in ancient Hebrew, despite the claims often made, we cannot know for certain exactly how the YOWD was pronounced. It is possible, however, that in ancient Hebrew the YOWD character was never used as a vowel, but if it always had a consonant sound, it would seem that such would call for another vowel sound to accompany the consonant sound. Thus, if YOWD always had a sound similar to the "J" sound as used in the English "Joseph", then it would not be 'DNI, but 'DNJ, with would seem to need a vowel sound added before or after "J".
The point, however, is that the original written Hebrew itself does not make any written distinction between ADONI and ADONAI. This distinction was not made until several centuries after Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for sin. Thus, except that one actually believes that the work of the Masoretes was inspired by God and infallible, one cannot point to the distinction they have given by means of adding vowel points as proof of anything.
The Etymological Origin of Adonai
The problem of the root meaning of Adonai is very challenging because, when the first person singular affix is added, the Hebrew spellings for “my lords” (יַנֹדֲא –Genesis 19:2), for “my lord” ( ִנֹדֲא – Genesis 23:6), and for “Adonai” is (יָנֹדֲא –Genesis 18:31) are identical as to the Hebrew consonants. Only the vowel points added by the Masorites distinguish each of these Hebrew word forms.
The above is a quote from:
www.biblicaltheology.com/Research/ManettiR01.pdf
Regarding Gingsburg's report of the possible 134 changes of the tetragrammaton to ADONAI, see my comments at:
nameofyah.blogspot.com/2017/02/is-scroll.html
We should not that no one on earth today knows for a certainty what ancient Hebrew sounded like, despite claims otherwise. All we have are various reconstructs based on hypotheses (often considered to be facts).
Regardless, in Genesis 19:2, the Masoretes evidently noted that Abraham was speaking to more than one person; therefore, they added the vowel point to make it plural (this would not be a plural intensive as when applied to Jehovah).
Another scripture that is often referred to regarding the usage of ADONAI/ADONI:
Psalm 110:1 - Yahweh says to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, Until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet." -- World English.
It should be obvious that David's "lord" is not Jehovah ("Yahweh" in the World English) here, and thus the Masoretes did not supply the vowel point so as to create the form ADONAI, but left it as "ADONI", a singular "my lord".
Jehovah is distinguished as a single person (or, individual) from David's "lord". David's Lord is identified, not as Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3:14,15), but as the one anointed and sent by Jehovah. -- Deuteronomy 18:15-19; Isaiah 61:1; Acts 2:34-36; Acts 3:13-26; Ephesians 1:20-22; Hebrews 1:1-3,9; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22.
Some trinitarians have argued that the Masoretes made a mistake in Psalm 110:1 by not adding the vowel point to make the word ADONAI. They would then, by use of imagination and assumptions, claim that this is one person of Jehovah speaking to another person of Jehovah. Actually, "Jehovah" in Psalm 110:1, as throughout the entire Bible, is being presented as one person or individual, and is being distinguished from David's lord who sits at the right hand of Jehovah. The Bible is fully harmonious without calling upon the spirit of human imagination so as to add to and read into this verse, or any other verse, the trintarian dogma.
Contrary to what is often claimed, no form of ADON is ever presented in the Bible as a "name" of God. One could consider it a titular name similar to "Lord", "Master", "Sir", "Mister", etc.
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