During the Second Temple period (516 BCE-70 CE) Jews became reticent to speak and write the
divine name YHWH also known by its four letters in Greek as the tetragrammaton. Priestly
pious and scribal circles limitted the use of God's name and then it disappeared. The
variables are poorly understood and the evidence is scattered. This study brings together all
ancient Jewish literary and epigraphic evidence in Aramaic Hebrew and Greek to describe how
when and in what sources Jews either used or avoided the divine name. Instead of a diachronic
contrast from use to avoidance as is often the scholarly assumption the evidence suggests
diverse and overlapping naming practices that draw specific meaning from linguistic geographic
and social contexts.
