01.12. Chapter 7 - Yahweh

Chapter 7 - Yahweh “This is the history of the heavens and the earth, in the day of creation Yahweh God made the land and heavens”

Genesis 2:4 When reading the Bible, the reader will come across the word “lord” written two different ways such as in the following verse:

“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.”

Psalms 8:1 (NIV) The first use of the word lord is written in all upper case letters while the second uses the upper case for the first letter only. While the same English word is used for both, the Hebrew words behind them are very different. Unfortunately, most readers gloss over these words without even a thought to the actual Hebrew words or their meanings. The next chapter will discuss the meaning of the Hebrew word that is translated as “Lord,” while here we will look into the meaning of the Hebrew behind “the LORD.” Wherever this word appears in the English text, in all upper case letters, it is the Hebrew name of God, “hwhy” (YHWH), often called the Tetragrammaton. Anyone who has done even a cursory study on this name has discovered that there is much debate on the actual meaning and pronunciation of the name. In order to appreciate the complexity in reconstructing the pronunciation and meaning of the name, it will be necessary to go through the history of the written form of the name through the centuries.

History

We know that in ancient times this name was used and pronounced throughout the history of the Old Testament as we can see in the following passages.

“And he built there an altar to YHWH (hwhy) and he called on the name of YHWH (hwhy).”

Genesis 12:8 “My soul will praise YHWH (hwhy), the humble ones will hear and they will rejoice. I will make great YHWH (hwhy) and we will lift up his name together.”

Psalms 34:2-3 The name was originally written as “efei” in the Hebrew pictographic script. When Israel was taken into Babylonian exile in 597 BC, they found the Aramaic square script easier to write and adopted it for writing Hebrew. At this point the name was written as “hwhy.” The square Aramaic script adopted by Israel is the same script used today to write Hebrew.

Sometime between the exile and the first century A.D. the use of the name hwhy fell into disuse. It no longer was acceptable to pronounce the name of hwhy, as it was deemed too holy to pronounce. Israel also believed that the actual pronunciation of the name could not be known for certainty. In order to prevent a mispronunciation of the name, they elected not to pronounce the name. This non-use of the name was based, in part, on the command found in the Ten Commandments.

“You shall not lift up the name of YHWH (hwhy) your God falsely because YHWH (hwhy) will not consider innocent who lifts up his name falsely.”

Exodus 20:7

It became common during this time to use a different word, called a euphemism, as a replacement for the name. Some of the more common “euphemisms” were “adonai“ (my lord), “hashem” (the name), “shamayim“ (heaven) and “hagibur” (the power). Over time, these euphemisms also began to be used to replace other names of God such as “~yhla” (elohiym). Some of these euphemisms can be seen within the New Testament writings such as can be seen in one of Jesus’ parables that is recorded in both Matthew and Luke.

“And another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”

Matthew 13:31-32 (KJV) “Then said he, unto what is the kingdom of God like? And where-unto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.”

Luke 13:18-19 (KJV) In this parable you will notice that Matthew uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” while Luke uses the phrase “kingdom of God.” This same difference of phraseology can be seen throughout these two books. The phrase “kingdom of heaven” has mistakenly been interpreted to be a kingdom located in heaven, because the euphemism was not understood. The phrase ‘kingdom of heaven” is synonymous with “kingdom of God” where “heaven” is a euphemism for “God.” “Heaven” is not a place, but a person, God.

Matthew’s gospel was obviously written to an audience familiar with the euphemism, most likely the Jewish community. Luke, on the other hand, wrote his gospel to a community, probably of Gentiles, that would not have been familiar with the euphemism, and therefore used the more literal phrase “Kingdom of God.” The second use of a euphemism in the New Testament is found in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas the High Priest where the euphemism “power” is used in place of “God” or “YHWH“.

“Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”

Matthew 26:64 (KJV) A third use can be seen in a New Testament quotation of an Old Testament passage. Here the Hebrew name “hwhy” is replaced with the word “Lord.”

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way of YHWH (hwhy), make straight in the wilderness the road of our God.”

Isaiah 40:3 “For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

Matthew 3:3 (KJV)

During the first century, continuing to this day, the reader of the Hebrew Scriptures would see the name “hwhy,” but would replace it with a euphemism and read it as “adonai“ (Lord). It is interesting to note that it is this word, “Lord,” that all the Christian Bibles have also chosen to use to replace the name “hwhy.” A new development in the Hebrew language occurred around 700 AD. Many of the written words in the Hebrew language contained no vowels and were only known by tradition. Over time this caused a wide variation in pronunciations. The Masorites invented a system for adding vowels to the text in order to aid and standardize pronunciation. These vowels were written as dots and dashes placed above and below the Hebrew letters. Below is the text of Genesis 1:1 as it would appear without the vowels followed by the sounds represented by the letters:

#rah taw ~ymXh ta ~yhla arb tyXarb brashyt bra alhym at hshmym wat harts Below is the same text with the addition of the vowels and the resulting pronunciation:

#,r’a’h tea.w ~iy;m’V;h tea ~yih{l/a a’r’B tyivaer.B bereshiyt bara elohiym et hashamayim w’et ha’arets. When the Masorites came to the name YHWH, they had a dilemma, how do you add vowels to a word where the pronunciation is not known, and, as they understood it, a sin to pronounce incorrectly? Their decision was to take the vowels from the Hebrew word “ynwda” (Adonai - Lord), the standard euphemism for “hwhy,” and place them in the name “hwhy” (YHWH) as shown below. y’nAd]a h’Ah.y This is how the name “YHWH“ appears today in any Modern Hebrew Bible. The vowels were not placed in the name to give it pronunciation, but for the reader to recognize the vowels as coming from the word “adonai“. When the reader comes across this name, it is read as “adonai“.

Pronunciation

Many possible pronunciations for this name have been proposed over the centuries, some of the more common ones are Jehovah, Yahveh, Yahweh and Yahueh. While the actual pronunciation cannot be determined with complete accuracy, there are some clues within the Biblical text that can assist with the pronunciation of the name. Let us begin by looking at each letter individually. The first letter in the name is the Hebrew letter “yud.” The Modern Hebrew pronunciation of this letter is “Y.” In ancient Hebrew this letter doubled as a vowel and could be pronounced as a “Y” or an “I.” The second and fourth letters of the Hebrew name “YHWH“ is the Hebrew letter “hey.” The modern pronunciation is “H.” In the ancient Hebrew language this letter was a consonant/vowel and could have the pronunciation of “H” or “E.” The third letter is, in Modern Hebrew, the letter “vav.” While the modern pronunciation is “V,” the ancient pronunciation was “W” which, is retained in the Arabic language, a sister language of Hebrew. While the Hebrew pronounces the name “David” with a “V,” the Arabic pronunciation is “Dawid.” This letter is also a consonant/vowel and can also be pronounced as “W,” “U” or “O.”

Below is a chart with all the possible pronunciations for the letters in the name “YHWH“:

Hebrew Sound y Y, I h H, E w W, O, U h H, E In order to find the original pronunciation, we will need to examine the various uses of the name throughout the Old Testament.

It was common for Hebrew names to have alternate spellings. For example the name “hyla” (Eliyah/Elijah - my God is YH) was also written as “whyla” (Eliyahu - my God is YHW) . The same is true for the name “hwhy” (YHWH) which has the shortened form “hy” (YH) as found in some passages.

“My soul will bless YHWH (hwhy), Praise YH (hy) “.

Psalms 104:35 The Hebrew pronunciation of “praise YH” is “hallelu-YH” (as in Halleluyah), where the traditional pronunciation of “YH” is “yah.” The name “Eliyah,” meaning “my God is YH” is another use of the shortened form of the name “YHWH“. It is clear that the traditional pronunciation of the first part of the name is “yah.” The name Eliyahu has retained the pronunciation of the third letter in the name “YHWH“ as a “U.” We now have the pronunciation “yahu” for the first three letters of the name. The final letter “H” could have been pronounced as a consonant “H,” in which case it would be silent, or as the vowel “E,” pronounced “ey.” This gives us two possible pronunciations of “YHWH“, Yahuh or Yahuey. It is possible that the name may have had several alternate pronunciations, just as the name Eliyah/Eliyahu. These pronunciations would be “Yah,” “Yahuh” and “Yahuey.” Another possibility for the name is “Yahweh” and is commonly used today. The only difference between this pronunciation and the one proposed above is the consonantal pronunciation of the letter “w” is used rather than the vowel pronunciation. As the actual pronunciation cannot be positively determined, the pronunciation “Yahweh” will be used in the remainder of this book for the Tetragrammaton. This pronunciation is more commonly used than the other pronunciations proposed here and it is more consistent to the Hebrew letters than the more common pronunciation of Jehovah.

Jehovah

Probably the most commonly known and used pronunciation of the name “YHWH“ is “Jehovah“, which came about through a series of misunderstandings and mistakes. Around the 16th century a German Biblical scholar came across the Hebrew name “h’Ah.y” in the Hebrew text and attempted to pronounce it, unaware of the history of the vowel points added to the name. The letter “J” is a recent addition to the Latin alphabet and a history of this letter is necessary for understanding how this letter became a part of the pronunciation of “YHWH“. When the Hebrew names of the Old Testament were first transliterated into Latin, the Latin letter “I” was chosen to transliterate the Hebrew letter “Yud.” The Latin letter “I” could be pronounced as the consonantal sound “Y” or the vowel sound “I,” just as the Hebrew letter “yud” could have a “Y” or “I” sound. In the 14th century AD the letter “J” was introduced into the Latin alphabet and was used interchangeably with the letter “I.” By the 16th century the “J” became standardized with a “Y” sound, while the “I” was standardized with the “I” sound. It was not until the 17th century that the Latin “J” took on the pronunciation that we are familiar with today. To demonstrate the progression of the Latin transliteration of the Hebrew letter “yud,” we will follow the progress of the name “Jacob” from its original Hebrew to modern English in both written and spoken form.

Alphabet Written Spoken 1st Century Hebrew bq[y Ya’akob 14th Century Latin Iacob Yacob 16th Century Latin Jacob Yacob 17th Century English Jacob Jacob When the name “h’Ah.y” was transliterated into German, it became “Jehovah“, but pronounced as “Yehovah.” When the word “Jehovah“ is read in modern English, it becomes the pronunciation Jeh-ho-vaw, as known to us today.

While the pronunciation of a name is important, it should not have the emphasis that many groups have placed on it. Many times a different language or even a dialect cannot pronounce certain sounds; therefore, the pronunciation of a word or name will vary. It is not the pronunciation of the name through which the person is revealed, but the character that is represented in the name. For this reason we will now examine the meaning of the name “YHWH“.

Meaning The name “hwhy” (Yahweh) comes from the Hebrew root “hyh” (hayah). This root and the words derived from it can have a wide variation in meaning and application. The original concrete meaning is “breath” and has the extended meaning “exist,” as one who exists, breathes. The name “Yahweh” is parallel with this root in Exodus chapter 3 where God introduces himself to Moses.

“And God said to Moses ehyeh asher ehyeh (hyha rXa hyha - ) I exist whom I exist), and he said; you will say this to the sons of Israel, ehyeh (hyha) sent me to you. And God said again to Moses; you will say to the sons of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you, this is my name forever and this is how I will be remembered from generation to generation.”

Exodus 3:14-15

Through Hebrew poetry, the name “hwhy” is being paralleled with the verb “hyha.” Both of these words are identified as names that Moses is to take to Israel. From this we can conclude that the name “hwhy” has the meaning of “breath.” Interestingly, all the letters in both words, “hwhy” and “hyha,” are vowels that are pronounced with a “breath.” We can see a close similarity between the pronunciation of the letters themselves and the meaning of the word. As we have previously seen, the spirit in Hebrew thought is the breath. Just as the breath of man cannot be seen but is essential for life to exist, Yahweh also cannot be seen but it is his breath in man that gives him life.

“And YHWH (hwhy) God formed the man of dust from the ground and he blew into his nostrils the breath (hmXn) of life and the man hayah (hyh breathed/existed) as a living soul.”

Genesis 2:7