The Ancient and Honored Name of Yahweh



The very oldest Scriptural text ever found, dating back almost 2,600 years, was found in a tiny silver amulet which contains a seventh century b.c.e. extract from the book of Numbers (6:24-26), the Priestly (Aaronic) Blessing. The rolled up amulet was part of a treasure hoard found by a Tel Aviv University archeologist in a First Temple Period family tomb in Yerusalem, Israyl. When this amulet was written, the Temple of Solomon still stood, the heirs of King David still ruled on the throne, and the Dead Sea Scrolls would not be written for another 400 years.
It was three years after this discovery before this fragile amulet could be unrolled by technical experts at the Israyl Museum. On this amulet the NAME of YAHWEH could be clearly read. Complete details of this magnificent find can be read in the 6-28-86 and 8-9-86 issues of The Jerusalem Post, and the 6-87 issue of The Readers Digest.
The Undeniable Name YahwehThere is no doubt that the True Name of our Creator is Yahweh. In fact the evidence is overwhelming.Unger's Bible Dictionary, Merrill F. Unger, 1957, Moody Press, Chicago. pp. 1177, says:Yahweh (yah we). The Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH) "traditionally" ("the traditions of men" Colossians 2:8) pronounced Jehovah (q.v.) is now known to be CORRECTLY vocalized yahwe. New inscriptional evidence from the second and first millennia B.C. point toward this FACT. The old view of Le Clerc, moderenly propounded by Paul Haupt and developed by W.F. Albright, has commended itself in the light of the phonetic development and grammatical evidence of INCREASED KNOWLEDGE of the Northwest Semitic and kindred tongues. This thesis holds Yahwe to be a originally finite causative from the Northwest Semitic root hwy "to be, to come in to being", so that the divine name would mean "he causes to be, or exist," i.e., "he creates." Amorite personal names after 2,000 B.C. lend support to the Haupt-Albright view, demonstating that the employment of the causative stem yahwe "he creates" was in vogue in the linguistic background of the early Hebrew.Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, 1975, Vol. 2, pp. 690, Moody Press, Chicago, tells us:



'The Name PAR EXCELLENCE for the Creator of Israyl is Yahweh, found 6, 823 times in the O.T. Through Israyl's deliverence from bondage in Egypt, adoption as a nation, and guidance to the Promised Land, the Redeemer-Creator is especially known by THIS NAME.'The Interpreter's Dictionary, 1962, Vol. 4, pp. 923, Abingdon Press, Nashville says:'YAHWEH - The vocalization of the four consonants of the Israylite Name of the Creator, which scholars believe to approximate the original pronunciation.'James Moffatt, in his translation, The Bible: A New Translation, 1935, Harper and Brothers, informs us in his introduction:'Strictly speaking this ought to be rendered 'Yahweh' which is familiar to modern readers in the ERRONOUS FORM 'Jehovah'. Were this version intended for students of the original, there would be no hesitation whatever in printing 'Yahweh'.Although Moffatt SUBSTITUTES the TITLE, 'The Eternal' in the place of the Name Yahweh, he fully admits a distinct loss of meaning in this.Joseph Rotherham, in the Ephasized Bible; A New Translation, Cincinati, Ohio, The Standard Publishing C., 1902, Introduction, The Incommunicable Name, says:



The Name Suppressed: THE FACT



It is WILLINGLY ADMITTED that the suppression HAS NOT BEEN ABSOLUTE at least as far as the Hebrew and English are concerned. The Name, in its four essential letters (YHWH), was reverently transcribed by Hebrew copyist, and therefore was necessarily placed before the eye of the Hebrew reader. The latter, however, was instructed not to pronounce it, but to utter inSTEAD A LESS SACRED name - Adonay or Elohim. IN THIS WAY THE NAME WAS SUFFERED TO REACH THE EAR OF THE LISTENER. To that degee IT WAS SUPPRESSED. The Septuagint, or ancient Greek version (LXX), made the CONCEALMENT COMPLETE by regularly SUBSTITUTING Kurios; as the Vulgate, IN LIKE MANNER employed Dominius; both Kurios and Dominus having at the same time their own proper service to render as correctly answering to the Hebrew Adonay, confessedly meanig, 'Lord'. The English versions DO NEARLY THE SAME THING, in rendering the Name as LORD, and occasionally GOD; these terms having their own rightful office to fill as to fitly representing th Hebrew titles Adonay and Elohim and El, so that Tetragammaton is NEARLY HIDDEN in our public English versions.


The IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES of Suppression


(i.) Partly literary, though more than that. Reference is here made to the CONFUSION into which many things are thrown to this abnormal state of things. 'Baal' is 'lord' and so is 'Adon' (Adonay) - that is destessing; but why add to ("add to" Revelation 22:18-21) the embarrassment by rendering YHWH also as 'Lord'? Worst of all is the CONFUSION when 'Y' and Adonay occur together, as they do many times in the book of Ezekiel (YechetzqYAH). Inasmuch as to say, 'Lord LORD' for 'Adonay Y', was TOO GROTESQUE and MISLEADING (positively false to the ear), the new devise had to be restored to rendering this combination by 'Lord GOD' - 'GOD' in this case and not 'Lord' at all, standing for the Name. Even YH (the shorter form) and YHWH (the full form) of the tetragrammaton, coming together, CAUSED A DILEMMA; though in these instances, the acuteness of the trouble compelled the adoption of a partial remedy, and 'the LORD JEHOVAH'; is the result. 'CONFUSION', then, is a term not a whit too strong to apply to these varying devises. no wonder that even intellegent and educated people are continually forgetting what they have heard or read concerning so involved a matter.Rotherham then gives reason why the Name Yahweh must be restored, and from now on retained in the Scriptures:1. Because ITS SUPPRESSION WAS A MISTAKE. So GRAVE a mistake cannot be corrected too soon. An UNWARRANTABLE LIBERTY has been taken; the path of humanity is to retrace our steps...it is too heavely burdened with merited critical condemnation - as modern, as a compromise, as a 'mongrel' word, 'hybrid', 'fantastic', monstrous'. The facts have only to be known to justify this verdict, and to vindicate the propriety of not employing it in a new and independent translation. What are the facts? And first as to age. 'The pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520, when it was introduced by Galatinus; but was constucted by Le Mercier J. Drusius, and L. Capellus, as against grammatical and historical propiety.' (Oxford Gesenius, P. 218) Next, as to formation. 'Erroneously written and pronounced Jehovah, which is merely a combination of the sacred tetragrammaton and the vowels in the Hebrew for Lord SUBSTITUTED BY THE JEWS (YAHdaiam) for JHVH (YHWH), because they shrank from pronouncing the Name, owing to an old MISCONSEPTION of the two passages (Exodus xx.7 and Leviticus xxiv.16) ...To give the name JHVH the vowels of the word for lord (Heb. Adonai) and pronounce it Jehovah, is about a hybrid a combination as it would be to spell the name Germany with the vowels in the name Portugal - viz., Gormuna ...Jehovah is not older than about 1520 c.e.20th Century Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, pg. 1194,1195 "The pronunciation Yahweh of the Hebrew tetragrammaton need no longer be based on traditions preserved in late patristic sources. Both the vocalization yahwe and yahu (a shortened form used chiefly in personal names) are now confirmed by a variety of ancient Near Eastern inscriptional materials from the first and second millennia B.C."The Modern Judaica Encyclopedia, Vol. 7, p.69 "The true pronunciation of the name YHWH was never lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian Church testify that the name was pronounced 'Yahweh'. This is confirmed, at least for the vowels of the first syllable of the name, by the shorter form Yah, which is sometimes used in poetry (e.g., Ex.15:2) and the -yahu or -yah that serves as the final syllable in very many Hebrew names."New Bible Dictionary (1962) " The pronounciation Yahweh is indicated by transliterations of the name into Greek in early Christian literature, in the form iaoue (Clement of Alexandria) or iabe (Theodoret; by this time Gk. b had the pronunciation of v)"From The Oxford Companion to the Bible, edited by Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, page 738 - "Tetragrammaton - a Greek word meaning 'four letters', used to designate the consonants of the divine name Yahweh."From Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary, by W. E. Vine, page 140 - "Lord - The Tetragrammaton YHWH appears without its own vowels, and its exact pronunciation is debated (Jehovah, Yehovah, Jahweh, Yahweh). The Hebrew text does insert the vowels for adonay, and Jewish students and scholars read adonay whenever they see the Tetragrammaton. This use of the word occurs 6828 times. The word appears in every period of biblical Hebrew."


What About Jehovah?

From The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, 1952, Preface, page iv-v - "While it is almost if not quite certain that the Name was originally pronounced "Yahweh," this pronunciation was not indicated when the Masoretes added vowel signs to the consonantal Hebrew text. To the four consonants YHWH of the Name, which had come to be regarded as too sacred to be pronounced, they attached vowel signs indicating that in its place should be read the Hebrew word Adonai meaning 'Lord' (or Elohim meaning 'God'). The ancient Greek translators substituted the word Kyrios (Lord) for the Name. The Vulgate likewise used the Latin word Dominus. The form 'Jehovah' is of late medieval origin; it is a combination of the consonants of the Divine Name and the vowels attached to it by the Masoretes but belonging to an entirely different word. "…the word 'Jehovah' does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew."From Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, 1973, volume 14, page 181 - "Jehovah - name of the God of the Hebrew people as erroneously transliterated from the Masoretic Hebrew text. The word consists of the consonants JHVH or JHWH, with the vowels of a separate word, AdOnAI (Lord). What its original vowels were is a matter of speculation, for because of an interpretation of such texts as Exod. 20:7 and Lev. 24:11, the name came to be regarded as too sacred for expression; the scribes, in reading aloud, substituted 'Lord' and therefore wrote the vowel markings for 'Lord' into the consonantal framework JHVH as a reminder to future readers aloud. The translators of the Hebrew, not realizing what the scribes had done, read the word as it was written down, taking the scribal vowel markings as intrinsic to the name of their God rather than as a mere reminder not to speak it."From The Oxford Companion to the Bible, edited by Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, page 343 - "Jehovah - An artificially constructed name for Israel's God first attested in 16th century CE Christian texts. The new construction was the result of changing attitudes toward the use of God's name. The Hebrew name 'Yahweh' was not normally pronounced after about the 3rd century BCE out of respect for its holiness. In its place, readers of the Hebrew used adonay, 'Lord'. When vowels were added to the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible (ca. 1000 CE), the consonants of Yahweh were preserved, but the vowels of adonay were used as a reminder to readers. Renaissance Christians tradition erroneously combined the consonants of Yahweh and the vowels of adonay to produce 'Jehovah'."From the New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, page 1065 - "Yahweh - Judging from Greek transcriptions of the sacred name, YHWH ought to be pronounced Yahweh. The pronunciation Jehovah was unknown in ancient Jewish circles, and is based upon a later misunderstanding of the scribal practice of using the vowels of the word Adonai with the consonants of YHWH."From the Encyclopedia Americana - "The form of J was unknown in any alphabet until the 14th century. Either symbol (J, I) used initially generally had the consonant sound of Y as in year. Gradually, the two symbols (J, I) were differentiated, the J usually acquiring consonant force and thus becoming regarded as a consonant, and the I becoming a vowel. It was not until 1630 that the differentiation became general in England."From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, revised by Ivor H. Evans, page 577 - "J - the 10th letter of the alphabet, a modern introduction, only differentiated from I in the 17th century, and not completely separate till the 19th. It was a medieval practice to lengthen the I when it was the initial letter, usually with the consonantal function now assumed by J. There is no room for J or j in the Authorized Version of the Bible."From the Brown, Driver and Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, page 217 - "Yahweh - the proper name of the God of Israel. On the basis of Exodus 12:7 and Leviticus 24:11," the Tetragrammaton "was regarded as a nomen ineffable, called by the Jews Hashem and by the Samaritans Shemah. The pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520, when it was introduced by Galatinus."From the Pentateuch and Haftorah's, edited by Dr. J. H. Hertz, pages 6-7 - "Adonay is the prescribed traditional reading of the Divine Name expressed in the four Hebrew letters YHWH - which is never pronounced as written. The Divine Name is spoken of as the Tetragrammaton, which is a Greek word meaning 'the Name of four letters.' The High Priest of old pronounced it as written, on the Day of Atonement during the Temple Service; whereupon all the people fell on their faces and exclaimed, 'Blessed be His Name whose glorious Kingdom is forever and ever.' The Hebrew root of that Divine Name means 'to be'; Adonay thus expresses the eternal self-existence of Him who is the Author of all existence."From the Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible, Herbert Lockyer, sr. ed., page 427 - "God, Names of - Jehovah/Yahweh - one of the most important names for God in the Old Testament is Yahweh, or Jehovah, from the verb 'to be', meaning simply but profoundly, 'I Am who I Am,' and 'I will be who I will be.' The four-letter Hebrew word YHWH was the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 3:14)."