Yahweh

Yahweh and Jehovah (also transliterated Yehowah) are the most common ways to transliterate the personal name of God in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible, Old Testament). It is the causative form, the imperfect state, of the Heb. verb ha·wah´ (become); meaning “He Causes to Become”. This proper name for God is rendered as LORD or GOD (in small capitals to distinguish it from Adonai, another word translated as "Lord") in most modern translations of the Bible. Most scholars believe "Yahweh" to be most near the original pronunciation, but "Jehovah" is still more commonly used today. The "weh" in "Yahweh" should be pronounced with a short "e" as in "wet", not as in "way" nor as in "week".

"Jehovah" is now the familiar rendering in English of the original Hebrew, whereas the first rendering in English was IEHOUAH. In point of fact, the first English translation of the original Hebrew word (represented by YHWH) occurred in William Tyndale's translation of 1525 and was rendered 'IEHOUAH.' Subsequent translations in English, including Miles Coverdale's (1535), Mathews' Bible (1537), the Great Bible (1539), The Geneva Bible (1560), the Bishop's Bible (1568) and the King James Version (KJV)(1611), each translate the original Hebrew (in several places) as 'IEHOUAH.' One original copy of the KJV from 1634 also renders YHWH as IEHOUAH. However, subsequent printings of the KJV, dating from 40 or 50 years later, use Jehovah. Why?

In the latter part of the 17th Century 'J' and 'V' became more commonly accepted as letters in English and some KJV's from the 1670's replaced IEHOUAH with JEHOVAH, the form that is most commonly known in English. The American Standard Version (1901) used Jehovah in over 6800 instances in the OT. The Revised Standard Version of 1952 completely omitted Jehovah from the main text, replacing it with LORD or GOD.

Not just a title of God in scripture

Though God is given numerous titles in the Bible (such as "God", "Giver of plenty", "Sovereign Lord", "Creator", "Father", "the Almighty" and "the Most High"), many people believe God's personality and attributes are fully summed up and expressed in His personal name.

Jehovah is probably the most commonly known, [though thought by most scholars to be inaccurate] English pronunciation of the divine name; "Yahweh" (also considered less than correct by some) is also used by some scholars. This is due to the ambiguity associated with pronounciation of any ancient language and the absence of written vowels in ancient Hebrew manuscripts containing the name. The oldest Hebrew manuscripts present the name in the form of four consonants, commonly called the Tetragrammaton (from Greek tetra-, meaning "four," and gram'ma, "letter"). These four letters (יהוה) may be transliterated into English as YHWH or JHVH.

Judaism forbids to "take the name of God in vain" by using it. This restriction may be seen by some as equivalent to a taboo on pronouncing the ineffable name. When reading Torah (or some other religious text) aloud, Adonai is read instead of "Jahovah"; the name itself is nicked "shem ha-meforash" - "the interpreted name" ("ha-shem", "the name", is one of God's other names in Judaism). Before writing down texts that include it, a Torah script writer has to make a special ceremony of purification. Rabbinical sources state that the name was pronounced only once a year - on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, and only by the High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem. The tradition of High priesthood ended, however, in 70 A.D., as the Temple was burned. There are other opinions however on the use of the name, in particular because of the use of the name in theophoric names (names given to individuals which embed parts of the Tetragrammaton, such as Nehemiah)after the return of the Jews from exile in Babylon.

Modern scholars tend to follow the pattern set by the abovementioned ancient clerics and remove the name from translations on the basis of uncertain pronounciation. Those who promote the use of the name in speech and translation argue that the frequency of the name, approximately 6,800 times in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), shows the improtance of its' being used, regardless of the exact pronounciation.

Puzzle of pronunciation

This raises a question: as the name was never pronounced aloud for about two millennia now, what is the correct pronunciation? Jehovah results from the understandable confusion of those unfamiliar with the "Messoretic" text, i.e. that used in Jewish synagoues. Put crudely, that which is written appear in the body of the text, whilst that which is "to be read" appears in the margin. This is counter intuitive for those used to modern practice which views the main text as in the body, with qualifications or notes in the margin. More technically, in the Jewish Bible, vowel marks (nikkud) suggest a spelling "Jahovah" (this was picked up by translators in the Middle Ages, who have introduced this form into English usage). However, the nikkud system was invented only around the middle of the first millennium A.D. - almost 500 years after the name was pronounced for the last time! Moreover, the vowel marks of "Jahovah" are those of the word "Adonai" - implying, that they replace the original vowels, which were made a secret (or left forgotten) in order to prevent blasphemy, even by accident.

In addition, in recent years there has been a large debate over the meaning of this name. It seems related to the Hebrew root H-Y/V-Y/H (Yod י, He ה, and Waw ו are interchangeable in some cases), which is used to describe various aspects of being. Therefore, many scholars have decided that it means something like "I am the One Who Is". Appropriate reference points in the Old Testament to start an investigation into this name include: Genesis 2:4, Exodus 3:15 (others?). Nevertheless, the most accurate meaning of God's name seems to be "He causes to become" (based upon the causal &#1492), that is, everything that He wishes to happen is because of his will and becomes a reality (Isaiah 55:10,11), there is nothing God cannot accomplish nor do, except lying (Titus 1:2).

From the point of view of history of religion, the God of the Tanakh whether referred to as Yahweh or Jehovah or by some other name, is the same God worshipped by Muslims, Christians, and Jews, and is sometimes thus referred to as the Judeo-Christian God. However it is important to understand that there are major differences between the religions, so far as theology is concerned. Thus, for example, Christendom followers believe in the Holy Trinity, while Jewish theologians find that this sort of materialization (and division) of the deity is incompatible with the Jewish religion.

It is most interesting that the name also occurs at 21 places in the Rigveda as an epithet for the fire-god Agni. This fact may be a consequence of the early connections between the Veda worshiping Hindu Mitanni and the early Hebrews.

Note: In Hebrew YHWH reads like this: יהוה. It consists of the letters Yod י He ה Waw ו He ה. Hebrew reads from right to left, most newer web browsers such as Mozilla and Microsoft Internet Explorer of version 4 and above would display these four letters correctly in bi-directional manner, but some older web browsers may display the text in the wrong direction. The letters J and Y are interchangeable in the transliteration of the Hebrew letter Yod. For the transliteration of Waw, the letters V and W are interchangeable.

Yahweh's Possible Origin

Some dispute has risen over the years about the origin of Israelite religion and the origin of the name.

An essay on this subject that does not center on a single person's work should be placed here.

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Elohim

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