Apikorus

I presume the -H in YHWH is a mater. The tetragrammaton appears with all four letters in line 18 of the Mesha stele, c. 850 BCE, which is probably somewhat earlier than the Kuntillet 'Ajrud inscription. I don't see how the [i]-H[i] in 'SRTH would have the same function. Emerton discusses but rejects Zevit's suggestion that -TH functions as a double feminine ending. I'm not competent to judge among the various alternatives.

As for abbreviated theophorics, I think there are several other examples in Hebrew -- yehoshua gets shortened to yeshua, yehonatan to yonatan, etc. Generally the plene form does contain yhw so you do have a point regarding yhw-h but again my impression is that by the time of KA the mater was in place.

Anat

Several of the prophetic works include references to some kind of desert migration from Egypt. The references aren't very detailed, though, so maybe the traditions got more elaborated during exile, but there may have been a pre-exilic tradition regarding the exodus. The Song of the Sea in Exodus 15 is supposed to be among the oldest texts in the Torah.

spin

With so little in the inscription, we don't have a good sample of current language, so I think everyone is jumping the gun somewhat in being so sure about the morphology.

The implication is that the longer forms were shortened in historical space for theological purposes. The later religion makes it clear that the divine name was too sacred for mere mortals to speak. It is the book of Ezra which has the shortened forms Jeshua and Jozedek, while clearly earlier works such as Haggai and Zechariah had the longer forms. This is a move to sublimate the divine name which is in the onomasticon. That is not the case with the YHW theophoric.

What about the feminine form )$RT, which is very similar to the Ugaritic Athirat -- with the th regularly manifested in Hebrew words as $? )$RT gains the same desinence )$RTH. I don't know the significance of the -H, but then I don't think anyone can be sure. You may be right about it being a mater: why can't it be so with )$RTH as well, leading to the loss of the -T. But of course it's only a conjecture, as it is on your part as well.


spin