Jax wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 2:36 pm1: If you have the NS throughout your document what would be the point of saying the name in full out loud? For example you have the tetragrammaton often written with four dots to keep the reader from accidently saying YHVH when reading out loud. What would be the point of having the NS if one can simply circumvent it any time one wishes simply by reading the NS aloud?
Well, the idea would not be that the
nomina sacra are a way to prevent the pronunciation of anything. They obviously were not
that, so in that way they are not analogous to the Tetragrammaton.
2: Is the NS, IS, IHS etc a way for Christians to give vip status to the names or is it supposed to further the mystery as Paul states?
I gave a reason that I personally like quite a lot in the OP, but YMMV.
3: If the reader is saying the name Iesous in full out loud to the people making copies why in 72 does the copyist use IS and then IHS, IN and then IHN, IU and then IHU?
For that matter, why do the copyists
spell words differently, as well? There is a lot of variation, for example, between
i and
ei. It makes little sense to our modern mindset, but this was before standardized spelling.