Information AboutJehovah |
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Jehovah is an English transcription of , which is a specific Vocalized spelling of (i.e. the Tetragrammaton ) that is found in the Masoretic Text . has the consonants of the Tetragrammaton, and 's vowel points are similar to, but not precisely the same as the vowel points found in Adonai . Since the beginning of the 17th century, possibly even earlier , scholars have questioned whether the vowel points found in are the actual vowel points of God's name. Some scholarly sources teach that has the vowel points of Adonai , but to be redundant, the vowel points of these two words are not precisely the same, and scholars are not in total agreement as to why does not have the precise same vowel points as Adonai has. The first English translators of , believed they had the correct vowel points, and translated it as it was written: ::"Jehova" in 1270 A.D. Latin. ::"Iehouah" in 1530 A.D. English. ::"Iehovah" in 1611 A.D. English. ::"Jehovah" in 1769 A.D. English. ::"Yehowah" used by some using another transcription of the consonants of the Tetragrammaton (See Yahweh ). Many religious followings, including .LDS Church, '' Bible Dictionary '': God . MODERN USAGE OF THE RENDERING JEHOVAH IN PRINTED PUBLICATIONS The following works, either always or sometimes render the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah:
Some religious groups, notably Jehovah's Witnesses (previously known as The IBSA until 1931) and the King-James-Only Movement , continue using the pronunciation Jehovah, either because the name has become a distinguishing feature of a worldwide organization which cannot be changed, or that it had already become well established in usage among followers at a time when the correct pronunciation of was unknown. Some groups continue to debate that Yahweh is an incorrect, invalid pronunciation and that Jehovah alone is the correct pronunciation. HISTORY Under the heading " c. 6823", the editors of the the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write that occurs 6518 times in the Masoretic Text . Early transcriptions of similar to "Jehovah"
::'#' marks forms listed by Sir Godfrey Driver . Early transcriptions of similar to "Jehovah" 's ''Pugio Fidei adversus Mauros et Judaeos'' of 1270 CE (page 559).]] Church named St. Martinskirche, Olten , Switzerland , 1521 .]] Transcriptions of similar to "Jehovah" occurred as early as the 13th century.
::The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write that the pronunciation "Jehovah" was unknown until 1520 when it was introduced by Galatinus ; but it was contested by Le Mercier , J. Drusius , and L. Capellus , as against grammatical and historical propriety. :::Note that the English transcription "Jehovah" did not first appear until the 1762-1769 edit of the King James Bible. The critique of the English transcription Jehovah, as well as the critique of Galatinus's ''Latin Transcription "Iehoua"'', and the earlier English transcriptions "Iehouah" and "Iehovah", is based on the belief of scholars, that the vowel points of are not the actual vowel points of God's name. Thus while most scholarly sources say that scholars are critiquing the name "Jehovah", Galatinus's ''Latin Transcription "Iehoua"'' and the earlier English transcriptions "Iehouah" A.D. and "Iehovah" A.D. were being critiqued, before the ''English'' transcription "Jehovah" A.D. ever started to appear. ::::All three transcriptions have the vowels "e" and "o" and "a", and scholars believe that those vowels are from another word Adonay / Adonai , but as noted in the introduction of this article, the vowel points of and the vowel points of "Adonay / Adonai" are not precisely the same. Section 3 and Section 3.1 for more information KETHIB AND QERE AND QERE PERPETUUM The original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was provided with vowel marks by the . One of these frequent cases was God's name, that should not be pronounced, but read as "adonai" ("My Lord of majesty "), or, if the previous or next word already was "adonai", or "adoni" ("My Lord"), as "elohim" ("God"). This combination produces and respectively, Non-words that would spell "yehovah" and "yehovih" respectively. The first Early Modern English Bible Translators to transcribe God's name into English did not contact Jewish scholars, and did not know of the Q're Perpetuum custom, but transcribed "" into English as they saw it. It therefore became Iehouah in 1530 ( Tyndale 's translation of the Pentateuch ), Iehovah in 1611, and Jehovah in 1769, the spelling gradually settling down as Roman alphabet J and V became distinct letters from I and U . The transcription Iehouah was used in the 16th century by many authors Roman Catholic and Protestant , but not Coverdale 's Bible translation in 1535. 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." Examining the vowel points of and shown in red. (Click on image to enlarge.)]] In the table below, Yehovah and Adonay are dissected Note in the table directly above that the "simple shewa" in Yehovah and the "hatef patah" in Adonay are not the same points. The same information is displayed in the table above and to the right where "YHWH intended to be pronounced as Adonai" and "Adonai, with its slightly different vowel points" are shown to have different vowel points. The difference between the vowel points of ''’ǎdônây'' and YHWH is explained by the rules of Hebrew Morphology and Phonetics . ''Shva'' and ''hataf-patah'' were Allophone s of the same Phoneme used in different situations: ''hataf-patah'' on glottal consonants including aleph (such as the first letter in "Adonai"), and simple ''shva'' on other consonants (such as the 'y' in YHWH). CRITIQUE OF THE TRANSCRIPTION JEHOVAH IN THE 17TH CENTURY The transcription Jehovah Iehouah was used in the 16th century by many authors, both Catholic and Protestant. A publication by John Drusius at the beginning of the 17th century 1604 was the start of a bitter debate that lasted for a century. Fuller, Thomas Gataker , and Johann Leusden wrote five discourses defending the transcription "Jehovah" Iehouah, Iehovah against the five discources written by Drusius, Amama , Cappellus , Buxtorf, and Altingius which opposed the transcription Jehovah. Hadrian Reland collected and published these ''ten'' discourses in 1707. {Link without Title} ::Note that while Louis Cappel and John Buxtorf are both listed as authors who opposed the transcription Jehovah, they each were involved in serious controversy with each other concerning the origin of the Hebrew vowel points. SUMMARY OF THE CRITICISM OF THE TRANSCRIPTION JEHOVAH The following text is found in William Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible" . William Smith gives his summary of the results of the ten discourses mentioned in the previous section''':'''
William Smith concludes:
IN DEFENSE OF THE TRANSCRIPTION JEHOVAH As mentioned in the previous section, the defenders of the transcription Jehovah believed that theophoric names such as Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, etc, indicated that Jehovah was the actual name of God. In the 19th century the Hebrew scholar Gesenius provided the defenders of the name Jehovah with support on this issue. ::While Wilhelm Gesenius is noted for being the first Hebrew scholar to propose the punctuation "Yahweh", Gesenius believed that Yehowah more satisfactorily explained the Theophoric names which began with the "abbreviated syllable YHW or YW [Yo ". :: In a post made on 08/22/03 at 12:36 am the following information is found : :::Gesenius in his Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament Scriptures agrees saying: ::::"Those who consider that YHWH {Link without Title} was the actual pronunciation ::::are not altogether without ground on which to defend their opinion. ::::In this way can the abbreviated syllables YHW and YH [Yo , ::::with which many proper names begin, be more satisfactorily explained." The following text is found in the first sentence of the article:JEHOVAH in William Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible" ''':''' ::"JEHOVAH ( יְהֹוָה, usually with the vowel points of אֲדֹנָי ; but when the two occur together, the former is pointed יֱהֹוִה, that is with the vowels of אֱלֹהִים, as in Obad. i. 1, Hab. iii. 19:" :::The two vocalizations of the Tetragrammaton shown in bold type above, were both critiqued by John Drusius in 1604 A.D., however as noted below, Davidson defends the vowel points of יְהֹוָה. also sub section 3.1 above. ::In Scott Jones Article:Jehovah under the heading "Davidson on the Tetragrammaton", Davidson explains why he believes that the fact that the Masoretes did not point with the precise same vowel points as are found in Adonay indicated that the vowel points of יְהֹוָה are the actual vowel points of God's name.
::However Greek, since it stopped using the Digamma , when transcribing foreign words and names has had to write the "w" consonant sound as a vowel "u" or similar (or in later times as β, after the Greek pronunciation of β changed from "b" to "v"). ARGUMENTS FOR THE NAME "YAHWEH" For arguments for the pronunciation "Yahweh", see Yahweh . RESULTING CONSENSUS Reland agreed with the opponents of "Jehovah", and since his days the majority opinion has been roughly what is expressed in the article JEHOVAH of the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 {Link without Title} , that the pronunciation was "Yahweh". See also:
MORE RECENT OPINIONS The "JEHOVAH" article in the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 agrees with (1) {Link without Title} . Most modern scholars agree with it. 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." USE OF "JEHOVAH" IN ENGLISH
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