Yahweh

( 1100 BC to AD 300 ), Aramaic ( 10th Century BC to 1 BC ) and modern Hebrew scripts.]]
The Tetragrammaton ('') ('' Heh '') ('' Vav '') ('' Heh '') or (YHWH). It is the distinctive personal name of the God of Israel .

YHWH

Of all the names of God, the one which occurs most frequently in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton, appearing 6,823 times, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia . The '' Biblia Hebraica '' and '' Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia '' texts of the Hebrew Scriptures each contain the Tetragrammaton 6,828 times .

In Judaism , the Tetragrammaton Tetragrammaton is the Ineffable name of God, and is therefore not to be read aloud. In the reading aloud of the scripture or in prayer, it is replaced with ''Adonai'' ("My Lords", commonly rendered as "the Lord "). Other written forms such as (''yod'') (''vav'') (YW or '' Yaw ''); or (''yod'') (''heh'') (YH or ''Yah'') are read in the same way.

Outside of direct prayer, the word " ("God"), which some Jews intentionally mispronounce as ''’ělôkîym'' for the same reason. (In a process analogous to the " Euphemism Treadmill ", a prosaic substitute for the Tetragrammaton during one historical period may acquire sanctity and thus itself be considered too holy for ordinary use in subsequent periods.)

JEHOVAH

Jehovah is an English transcription of the Biblical Hebrew name .
The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon state that occurs 6518 times in the Masoretic Text. While occurs 6518 times in the Masoretic Text that underlies all editions of the King James Bible, JEHOVAH all capitals letters only occurs 4 times in current editions of the King James Bible: Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18 and Isaiah 12:2 and Isaiah 26:4 (and three more times in placenames). (The King James Bible which is commonly sold in bookstores is an 18th century spelling and puctuation revision of the King James Bible of 1611 A.D.)

Today the English transcription "Jehovah" is used by many English speaking Protestant Christians and also by Jehovah's Witnesses , Research and doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses on the Divine Name however, most modern scholars believe that the English transcription "Jehovah" does not accurately represent God's name in the English language.

Some, but not all modern scholars believe that the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton may have been lost somewhere in the first millennium, when the Jewish people stopped saying the Name, out of fear of violating the commandment ''"You shall not take the name of YHWH your God in vain"'' (Exodus 20:7).

Most modern scholars believe that when the Masoretes added vowel points to the consonantal Hebrew text, they had not placed the correct vowel points of God's name above and below the consonants of YHWH. Instead modern scholars believe that the Masoretes had placed the vowel points of ''’ǎdônây'' above and below the consonants of YHWH so that the reader would read "Adonai" aloud (see Q're Perpetuum ).

'', transliterated the Biblical Hebrew name "" into Latin as yohoua a small 1278 A.D. Latin initial letter "y" On page 152 of Gerard Gertoux's book: "The name of God Y.EH.OW.AH which is pronounced as it is written I_EH_OU_AH" is a photo of Latin and Hebrew text by side written by Raynond Martini in 1278 A.D. In the last sentence of the Hebrew text, "" can be clearly seen. In the last sentence of the Latin Text, Raymond Martini's Latin Transcription "yohoua" a small Latin initial letter "y" can be clearly seen.

In 1518 Petrus Galatinus was using the Latin transcription "Iehoua" a final "h" . ¹

The first English Transcriptions of ""

The first English translators to transcribe God's name into English, had no reason to believe that the vowel points of ""
might be incorrect, so they transcribed "" into English just as it was written Iehouah [1530 A.D. and Iehovah A.D. and Jehovah A.D.

Iehouah In the 7th paragraph of "Introduction to the Old Testament of the New English Bible",
: Sir Godfry Driver wrote:
:"The Reformers preferred Jehovah, which first appeared as ''Iehouah'' in 1530 A.D., in Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch (Exodus 6.3), from which it passed into other Protestant Bibles."is the first ''English'' transcription of God's name and is found a small number of times in Tyndale's Pentateuch, which was written in 1530 A.D.

::In the year 1530 A.D. the English letter "u", when being used as a consonant,
::was pronounced like the English letter "v" is pronounced today.

IEHOVAH In a chart labeled "The Bible Compared : Exodus" , Exodus 6:3 shows "IEHOVAH" all capital letters in the KJV [1611]. all capital letters is the '''1611 A.D.''' ''English'' transcription of the Biblical Hebrew name .

"IEHOVAH" all capital letters is found only four times in the King James Bible of 1611 A.D..

Modern scholars believe that Jehovah is an implausible rendering, based on their scholarly belief that the written form "" (read normally, "Yehovah") was only intended to indicate to the reader of the Bible in Hebrew to pronounce it "Adonai" ( )
:Note: due to a rule of Hebrew Grammar , the beginning ''E'' of the first transliteration is analogous to the beginning ''A'' of the second, although they are pronounced differently.

In the 19th century many scholars (particularly Christian s),
who believed that "" did not have the actual vowel points of God's name, sought to reconstruct its original pronunciation from early Greek transcriptions.

MEANING

According to one Jewish tradition, the Tetragrammaton is related to the causative form, the imperfect state, of the Hebrew Verb (''ha·wah'', "to be, to become"), meaning "He will cause to become" (usually understood as "He causes to become"). Compare the many Hebrew and Arabic personal names which are 3rd person singular Imperfective Verb forms starting with "y", e.g. Hebrew ''Yôsêph'' = Arabic ''Yazîd'' = "He adds"; Hebrew ''Yiḥyeh'' = Arabic ''Yahyâ'' = "He [who lives".

Another tradition regards the name as coming from three different verb forms sharing the same , as some have translated the name as "The Eternal One". Other interpretations include the name as meaning "I am the One Who Is." This can be seen in the traditional Jewish account of the "burning bush" commanding Moses to tell the sons of Israel that "I AM has sent you." ( Exodus 3:13-14) Some suggest: "I AM the One I AM" , or "I AM whatever I need to become". This may also fit the interpretation as "He Causes to Become." Many scholars believe that the most proper meaning may be "He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists" or "He who causes to exist".

The name YHWH was not always applied to a , Elohim (gods) and Yaw (god) .

TRANSCRIPTION

Using consonants as semi-vowels

In Biblical Hebrew, most vowels are not written and the rest are written only ambiguously, as the vowel letters double as consonants (similar to the in '' Jewish Wars '', chapter V, wrote, "''…in which was engraven the sacred name: it consists of four vowels''". In Greek, they are Ιαου, which comes out to Yau, since iota is used to represent semi-vocalic 'y' (and omicron+ypsilon="oo").

Further, Josephus's four vowels are confirmed by theophoric stems in personal names, always: Yaho/Yahu/Y:ho/Y:hu. These yield in English Yau and Yao, which are pronounced the same. Once again, the heh is not pronounced here in Hebrew, but is used instead as a place holder. Moreover, Gnostic texts, such as those Marcion wrote, discuss the Judaic god extensively, and spell the Tetragrammaton in Greek, Ιαω, that is "Yao." Lastly, Levantine texts (including those from ancient Ugarit) render the Tetragrammaton Yaw , pronounced "Yau."[http://www.domainofman.com/forum/index.cgi?noframes;read=211

Using the vowels of YHWH

Josephus wrote that the sacred name consisted of four Vowel s. Many sacred name ministries who believe that YHWH consists of four vowels pronounce these four vowels as "ee-ah-oo-eh" and believe that indicates God's name was either "Yahweh" or "Yahuweh". In what may be a coincidence, the Greek name "ιαουε" would have been pronounced "Yah-oo-eh". (Iota is used as both a vowel and a semi-vowel.)

Of course, early Hebrew had no written "vowels" as such — every letter of the Hebrew alphabet was primarily consonantal in function (see Matres Lectionis ).

Vowel marks

shown in red. (Click on image to enlarge.)]]

To make the reading of Hebrew easier, marks or points above and below the letters were added to the text by the Masoretes , to function as vowels. See Niqqud for details. Several manuscripts from the 7th Century and on contain vowel marks over the Tetragrammaton. Unfortunately, these do not shed much light on the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton. For example, the Leningrad Codex contains six different variations on the vowel marks of the Tetragrammaton.

An added problem is that the Diacritical vowel marks on the Tetragrammaton may have served a purpose other than indicating the pronunciation. When the text is read out loud by Jews, the Tetragrammaton is replaced by the word Adonai ("my Lord(s)"), Elohim ("God(s)"), Hashem ("the name"), or Elokim (no meaning), depending on circumstances (see Jewish Use Of The Word below). Since someone reading the text aloud might inadvertently pronounce the name, the diacritical vowels of ''Adonai'' or ''Elohim'' are normally printed with the consonant letters of the Tetragrammaton, to remind the reader to make the change, so the text contains the letters YHWH interlaced with the vowel marks of Adonai/Elohim (a masoretic device known as '' Q're Perpetuum '' which was also applied in a number of other cases, such as giving the spelling הוא in the Pentateuch an "i" vowel diacritic to indicate that sometimes it should be pronounced as a feminine pronoun ''hi'', rather than a masculine pronoun ''hu''). This is the case in modern editions of the Hebrew Bible, and also explains a number of medieval codices. In other words, these marks do not and were never intended to explain how to pronounce the Tetragrammaton.

In particular, there is a possible explanation of the vowel marks on the Tetragrammaton in the Ben Chayim Codex of 1525 (see its importance below). It is worth noting that the ''aleph'' in ''Adonai'' has a '' Hataf-patah '' (pronounced "ah" in Modern Hebrew ) under it while the ''yod'' in the Tetragrammaton has a ''sheva'' (pronounced as a very short "eh" in Modern Hebrew).
:Note that in the image above and to the right, "YHWH intended to be pronounced as Adonai" "" and "Adonai with its slightly different vowel points" "" do not have the precise same vowel points.

In other words, the Masoretes did not point YHWH with the precise vowel points of Adonai.

This can be explained by rules of Hebrew Grammar , which forbid a ''sheva'' under an ''aleph'', although this explanation is not entirely satisfactory.

Sir Godfry Driver wrote : "The Reformers preferred Jehovah, which first appeared as ''Iehouah'' in A.D. 1530 in Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch (Exodus 6.3), from which it passed into other Protestant Bibles." The English transcription "Iehovah", is found in the 1611 edition of the King James Bible, and during the 1762-1769 edit of the ". The Jerusalem Bible ( 1966 ) uses ''Yahweh'' exclusively.

Transcription in other languages

Table of different language transcriptions of the tetragrammaton. (If the native language uses non-European characters or pictographic symbols, the table shows the common English/European transliteration of the target language script, together with the tetragrammaton in the native font if available):

YAHWEH

19th Century scholars disputed the vowel points of ""

Wilhelm Gesenius {Link without Title} , who is noted for being one of the greatest Hebrew and biblical scholars, ³ wrote a Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament which was first translated into English in 1824. ⁴
In the first half of the 19th century, Wilhelm Gesenius, as well as many other scholars, believed that the Medieval vowel points of "" were not the actual vowel points of God’s name.

Wilhelm Gesenius Punctuated YHWH as "" (i.e. Yahweh)

In Smith's " A Dictionary of the Bible" in 1863 William Smith notes ⁵ that Wilhelm Gesenius punctuated YHWH as "" (see image to the right)

This vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton "" ( i.e. Yahweh ), is sometimes referred to as a "Scholarly Reconstruction" and is believed to have been based in large part on various Greek transcriptions, such as (ιαουε— Iaoue and ιαουαι—iaouai and ιαβε— Iabe ) dating from the first centuries AD.

"" Yahweh may have represented Epiphanius's "Iαβε"

In Smith's 1863 " A Dictionary of the Bible", William Smith ''supposes'' that "" was represented by the "Iαβε" of Epiphanius. ⁸

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 says: ''Inserting the vowels of Jabe Latin form of Iabe into the Hebrew consonant text, we obtain the form Jahveh (Yahweh), which has been generally accepted by modern scholars as the true pronunciation of the Divine name''; ⁹ .

Scholarly sources in which "" is found

=Smith's 1863 A.D. A Dictionary of the Bible

In Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible", William Smith does not consider "" to be the best scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton which he is aware of.

However, although "" was not the only scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton that appeared in scholarly sources in the 19th century, it gradually became accepted as the best scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton.

=The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 A.D.

The editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 recognize that "" is spelled "Yahweh" in English, but "" is only one of two vocalized Hebrew spellings, that they believe might have been the original pronunciation of YHWH. In the Article:Names of God, and under the article sub heading: "YHWH", the editors write:

:If the explanation of the form above given be the true one, the original pronunciation must have been Yahweh () or Yahaweh (). From this the contracted form Jah or Yah ( ) is most readily explained, and also the forms Jeho or Yeho ( = = ), and Jo or Yo ( contracted from ), which the word assumes in combination in the first part of compound proper names, and Yahu or Yah ( = (image) in the second part of such names.

=The early 1900's Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon

The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament write "" under the heading "", and describes "" as:
::"n.pr.dei Yahweh, the proper name of the God of Israel."

CRITICISM OF THE NAME "YAHWEH"

In ''Biblical Archaeology Review'', reference is made to the fact that a two-syllable pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton as "Yahweh" would not allow for the o vowel sound to exist as part of God’s name. Thus the article stated:
:"When the Tetragrammaton was pronounced in one syllable it was ‘Yah’ or ‘Yo.’ When it was pronounced in three syllables it would have been ‘Yahowah’ or ‘Yahoowah.’ If it was ever abbreviated to two syllables it would have been ‘Yaho.’" BAR 21.2 (March-April 1995),31 George W. Buchanan, "How God’s Name Was Pronounced"

See some links Below .

JEWISH USE OF THE WORD

In Judaism , pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton is a Taboo ; it is widely considered forbidden to utter it and the pronunciation of the name is generally avoided. Usually, ''Adonai'' is used as a substitute in prayers or readings from the Torah . When used in everyday speaking (or according to many) in learning the Tetragrammaton is replaced by ''HaShem.'' The difference is marked by the vowelization in printed Bibles—the Tetragrammaton takes on the vowels of the word whose pronunciation it takes. Torah Scroll s have no diacritical vowel marks, and therefore the reader must memorize the correct pronunciation for each instance of the Tetragrammaton (as for every word he reads).

According to Rabbi nic tradition, the name was pronounced by the high priest on Yom Kippur , the Day Of Atonement as well as the only day when the Holy Of Holies of the Temple would be entered. With the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 , this use also vanished, also explaining the loss of the correct pronunciation. (In one midrashic tradition, only seven Cohanim, or individuals of priestly lineage, know the true name of God, and it is passed down throughout the generations to be ready for invocation during the building of the Third Jewish Temple.)

There is a Jewish tradition that the actual name of God, only known to and stated by the high priest, was actually 72 letters long. The name was written out on a long strip of parchment, then folded and slipped inside the fold of the high priest's bejeweled breastplate. When someone would ask the high priest a question of Torah, or Jewish law, the high priest could invoke the Name, wherein the 12 jewels, representing the 12 tribes of the Israelites, would light up in a certain order whose meaning was, too, only known to the high priest. Through the power of the 72-letter name of God, the high priest communed, as it were, with the Almighty.

Why 72 letters? The answer may be found in the medieval rabbinic use of formation, the sum of all the letters is 72 by Gematria (as shown in the diagram). Keeping along these lines, the Tetragrammaton, since it's only an abbreviation of the actual name, is not as powerful by nature (or supernature) as the original full name of God, though it's still not something to use in vain.

When most religious Jews refer to the name of God in conversation or in a non-textual context such as in a book, newspaper or letter, they call the name ''HaShem'', which means "the Name." Similarly, the word ''Elohim'' is prononuced "Elokim" outside of certain religious contexts when it refers to God, and likewise for a few other names of God. When any such word is used to refer to anything but God (e.g., ''HaShem''), it is pronounced as normal by even the most traditionalist Jews.

A number of modern translations of the Hebrew Bible and of Jewish Liturgy render the Tetragrammaton as "the ETERNAL" (emphasized or all caps), because it is gender-neutral (unlike "The Lord"). The Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton are the only ones required to write the Hebrew sentence "haya, hove, ve-yiheyeh" (He was, He is, and He shall be), hence "Eternal."

ALTERNATIVE NAMES

In an analogue to the euphemism ''HaShem'' for God, the euphemism ''HaShem HaMeforash'' (literally, the explicit name) is sometimes used to refer to the Tetragrammaton.

Another name, ''. See also The Name Of God In Judaism .

POSSIBLE ORIGINS

A common suggestion, as articulated by biblical scholar Mark S. Smith in The Origins of Biblical Monotheism , is that the Israelite Yahweh was derived from the traditions of the Shasu , linguistically Canaanite nomads from southern transjordan. An Egyptian inscription from the Temple of Amun at Karnak from the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BCE) refers to the "Shasu of ''Yhw''," evidence that this god was worshipped among some of the Shasu tribes at this time. Biblical archaeologist Amihai Mazar , in ''Archaeology of the Land of the Bible Volume I'', suggests that the association of Yahweh with the desert may be the product of his origins in the dry lands to the south of Israel. Egyptologist Donald Redford , in ''Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times'', suggests that the Israelites themselves may have been a group of Shasu who moved northward into Canaan in the 13th century BCE, appearing for the first time in the stele of Merenptah , and as Israel Finkelstein has shown in ''The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts'' settled the Samarian and Judean hills at this time.

Even earlier there are signs that Yahweh was worshipped as Yah at Ebla (2,350 BCE) and as Yaw at Ugarit (1800-1200 BCE), where he was one of the Elohim (Canaanite 'lhm) - the sons of El.

Likewise, version of the Akkadian God of Wisdom Ea , a name derived from the Sumerian E=house, A=water, a title given to the Sumerian God Enki . Yah and Ea were pronounced alike. Yahweh, like Ea was the creator of humankind, who saved the flood hero ( Noah / Utnapishtim ) from the flood.

Van der Toorn's article "Yahweh" in the ''Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible'' notes that, although a wide range of opinions have been presented, no clear etymology for the tetragrammaton presents itself.

Hebraist Joel M. Hoffman, in Chapter 4 of In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language , argues that the Tetragrammaton was purposely composed only and entirely of matres lectiones . (See also Elohim .)

POPULAR CULTURE

;Art

A crucified Jesus below a radiant Tetragrammaton is found in the church of St. Marri at Paris, near the Centre Pompidou.

;Films

In '', 'Jehovah' begins with an 'I'".

In '' Equilibrium '', a Dystopic view of the future in which the government mandates that all individuals take psychiatric medications to suppress feeling, the agency responsible for policing the state is known as the Tetragrammaton.

In '' Pi '', a group of kabbalistic Jews looking for the true name of God enlist the help of a mathematician to analyze the Torah .

In '' Monty Python's Life Of Brian '', a man is persecuted for saying out loud the name of God ("I only said that this bit of halibut was good enough for Jehovah!"). The accuser then accidentally lets this " Blasphemy " slip out and is himself stoned.

In '' Bruce Almighty '', ''Yahweh!'' is the name given to Bruce's computerized tool for sorting prayers to answer, parodying popular search engine Yahoo! .

In '' Ghoulies '', the phrase "yod hay vav hay" is said to summon up the evil spirits that ultimately become the ghoulies.

;Literature

The Tetragrammaton features extensively in '' Foucault's Pendulum '' by Umberto Eco , and in short stories such as "Death and the Compass" by Jorge Luis Borges .

In Larry Gonick's '' The Cartoon History Of The Universe '', the "real" pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton is rendered as "Yahu-Wahu". (The "evidence" for this is that the cartoon character representing the author is struck by lightning while speculating whether the original pronunciation of ''YHWH'' is "''Yehowah {Link without Title} '', ''Yahweh'', or even ''Yahu-Wahu''". Later in the book, Israelites are shown attacking a Canaanite city while uttering the war cry "Yahoo! Wahoo!").

In Poul Anderson's '' Operation Chaos '', a sort of alternate history in which magic and religion have objective reality and scientific status, the Tetragrammaton is used as the insignia of United States Army Intelligence units.

In the book ''All Hallow's Eve'' by Charles Williams , the dark magician Simon the Clerk uses an ultra-powerful spell of destruction or dissolution called the Anti-Tetragrammaton.

In the work of Nikos Kazantzakis " The Last Temptation Of Christ ", in the form "Jehovah".

In Philip K. Dick 's novel '' Eye In The Sky '', the eponymous Eye belongs to a god referred to as "(Tetragrammaton)".

;Music

''Yahweh'' is the closing track on U2 's 2004 album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb .

A Mexican idea of what 'Yahweh' means: "Yo soy quien soy y no me parezco a nadie" = "I am who am I and I do not look like anybody" (from a popular song).

ApologetiX , a Christian parody band, wrote a parody of '' YMCA '' entitled ''YHWH''

;Games

A popular RPG series in Japan by Atlus called Shin Megami Tensei features a representation of YHVH in its Super Nintendo games Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei II .

In the cult-classic RPG '' Xenogears '' the game's main villain, the false god " Deus ," is an extremely powerful biological weapon which is the key part to the "Yaweh" planetary invasion system.

The entity Jenova 's name in '' Final Fantasy VII '' is derived from Jehova. Her name is said to be a Blend of ''Jehova'' and ''nova'' literaly meaning "New God", which is exactly what she and her "son" Sephiroth are trying to become in the game.