Two Presumed Names of G-d

(Part 2)

The second presumed Name

A dark cloud of doubt certainly hung over the veracity of the first presumed pronunciation of the name of G-d: “Yahweh”. If the uncertainty did not persist, Bible scholars and theologians would not have adopted other forms that appeared in the succeeding centuries of the Christian era.

“YaHoWaH.”

Sometime in the 8^th-11^th centuries A.D., the Masoretes (Jewish scribes who compiled the Masorah, a body of notes on the textual traditions of the Hebrew Scripture) inserted the vowels of Adonay (“a-o-a”) in-between the consonants of the Tetragrammaton (Y-H-W-H). On the surface, the process would have resulted in the form “YaHoWaH”; but the intention was to make the vowel points serve as a reminder to the reader not to pronounce the sacred Name, but instead say “Adonay” (“LORD”).

According to Wikipedia, the early Christian translators of the Torah did not know that pronouncing those consonants and vowel points together was a phonological impossibility in Hebrew. On top of that, rabbinical Judaism does not accept as correct the pronunciation as it is vowel pointed in the Masoretic Text.¹

“YeHoWaH.”

In “YaHoWaH”, the “a” in the first syllable was made to sound like an “e.” The Encyclopedia Judaica explains why: “In the early Middle Ages, when the consonantal text of the Bible was supplied with vowel points to facilitate the correct traditional reading, (as in) the vowel points for ‘Adonai’ (Lord) with one variation – a sheva with the first yod of YHWH instead of the hataf-patah under the aleph of ‘Adonai – were used for YHWH, thus producing the form – YeHoWaH.”² 

Prof. Anson F. Rainey noted: “The fact is that Jewish tradents (who put the vowel points in the Hebrew text) borrowed the vowels from another word, either adonai ‘my lord(s),’ or elohim ‘God.’ They avoided the very short a vowel in this borrowing because it might have led the synagogue reader to make a mistake and pronounce the correct first syllable of the Sacred Name, namely – ya… The synagogue reader saw Yehowah in his text and read it adonai.”³ Rabbi Heiliczer adds, “Later the vowels for Eloah (singular of Elohim) were used for creating Yehowah.”⁴

“IEHOUA.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Tetragrammaton first appeared in Latin form in 1516.⁵ Petrus Galatinus (Peter Galatin), confessor to Pople Leo X, spelled the Name of God as “Iehoua” in his popular book De Arcanis Catholicae Veritatis (“Concerning Secrets of the Universal Truth”).

In Medieval Europe, the sound of the letter yod (“Y”) of YHWH was represented by the Latin letter “I.” Then, the consonant “W” became a “U.” The World Book explains: “U… came from a letter which the Semitic peoples of Syria and Palestine called waw… About A.D. 900, people began to write u in the middle of a word…”⁶ The weak sounding “H” at the end of the Name was dropped, producing “IEHOUA”.

“IEHOUAH.”

The Sacred Name again took on a new form in the early years of the Reformation: “Iehouah.” In a Jehovah’s Witnesses booklet entitled The Name, we read: “The name first appeared in an English Bible in 1530, when William Tyndale published a translation of the first five books of the Bible. In this he included the name of God, usually spelled Iehouah, in several verses.”⁷ One of the leading Church reformers in England, Tyndale restored the “H” at the end of the Latin version of the Tetragrammaton in his Bible translations.  

“IEHOVAH.”

The “U” in IEHOUAH was later replaced with a “V,” forming yet another variant of the Sacred Name. The World Book tells us: “The Romans, when they adopted the letter (U), dropped its bottom stroke and wrote it as V… During the Renaissance, it became customary among the people to use u as a vowel and v as a consonant.”⁸ The Wikipedia additionally says: “They took the letters ‘IHVH’ from the Latin Vulgate, and the vowels ‘a-o-a’ were inserted into the text rendering IAHOVAH or ‘Iehovah’ in 16^th century English.”⁹

Rabbi Heiliczer explains from a Jewish viewpoint: “Since in modern Hebrew the letter vuv is pronounced “V” in place of its ancient pronunciation which is somewhere between a ‘W’ and a ‘V’, Yehowah became Yehovah. This became transliterated in the original King James Version as Iehovah…”¹⁰  

“JEHOVAH.”

Researcher Choon-Leong Seow relates: “From this (IeHoVaH) the Germanic form Jehovah was derived in the early European translations and attested in 17^th century English.”¹¹ In the Middle Ages the letter “I” developed a decorative variant with a tail – “J”.

The emergence of the dictionary in the 17^th century demanded a consistent spelling of words, so the use of “I” as a vowel and “J” as a consonant became established. When the new letter “J” was added to the English alphabet, “Iehovah” became “Jehovah”.

The pronunciation, though, also changed. Rabbi Heiliczer points out: “But the ‘J’ was pronounced as we now pronounce ‘Y’… So the ‘J’ in Jehovah is incorrect, as are the vowels eh-o-ah which actually come from Eloah. In fact only the two ‘h’s’ are correct.”¹²

Used in Bibles.

In places where the Jewish scribes missed replacing the Tetragrammaton with Adonay (“the LORD”), latter Bible translators spelled out YHWH as “Jehovah” – in such early English Bibles as the Coverdale Bible (1535), Matthew Bible (1537), Bishops’ Bible (1568), Geneva Bible (1560). Later translations with that form of the Name are the King James Version (KJV), American Standard Version (ASV), Darby Bible, Green’s Literal Translation (LITV), Young’s Literal Translation, Modern King James Version (MKJV), New English Bible, New World Translation.

The verses containing “Jehovah” are Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18. In two places where the Sacred Name is doubled as “YH YHWH”, with the Two-Lettered Name and Four-Lettered Name appearing together, the English translation is “LORD JEHOVAH” (Isa 12:2 and 26:4).

Meaning of “JEHOVAH.”

The Bible reference Insight on the Scriptures of the Jehovah’s Witnesses gives a meaning for “Jehovah” that is closely similar to those given for the form “Yahweh”: “The name Jehovah comes from the Hebrew verb hawah, ‘become,’ and actually means ‘He Causes to Become’.”¹³

Doubts and disagreements.

There was opposition against this form of the Name from the very first time it was used, Joseph Rotherham, editor of The Emphasized Bible, wrote: “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.”¹⁴ He categorically stated that the Name of God was “erroneously written and pronounced Jehovah…”¹⁵

The Jewish Encyclopedia notes: “This name (of God) is commonly represented in modern translations by the form ‘Jehovah,’ which, however, is a philological impossibility…”¹⁶ Concludes the Encyclopaedia Britannica: “The pronunciation ‘Jehovah’ is an error resulting among Christians from combining the consonants Yhwh (Jhvh) with the vowels of ‘adhonay, ‘Lord,’ which the Jews in reading the Scriptures substituted for the sacred name…”¹⁷  

Either or neither of the two?

The Encyclopaedia Britannica further observes: “Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19^th and 20^th centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh…”¹⁸

The Roman Catholic translator of the Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures confesses: “I should have preferred to write ‘Yahwe,’ which, although not certain, is admittedly superior to ‘Jehovah’.”¹⁹

The Jehovah’s Witnesses explain their side: “While inclining to view the pronunciation ‘Yahweh’ as the more correct way, we have retained the form ‘Jehovah’ because of people’s familiarity with it since the 14^th century.”²⁰

However, Wikipedia notes that “neither ‘Jehovah’ or ‘Yahweh’ is recognized in Judaism…”²¹

Origins of the Names “Yahweh” and “Jehovah”

Hebrew	Greek	Latin	English	Notes
YHWH				Tetragrammaton: the 4-consonant Name, no vowels in Hebrew
	IAUA			As 4 vowels in Greek that  has no Y-H-W; Josephus, 1st c. AD
	IAUE			Last A changed to E for masculine sound, Hellenized ending
	IAOUE			2nd c. AD, Clement of Alexandria’s spelling
	IABE			From the Samaritans; Epiphanius and Theodoret, 4th-5th c.
			YaHWeH	Modern spelling w/ the letters Y, H, W
YaHoWaH				Masoretes inserted vowels of Adonay in YHWH, 8th-11th c.
YeHoWaH				Vowels of Eloah, ‘e-o-a,’ inserted in the consonants YHWH
		IeHoUa		Spelling by Petrus Galatinus in 1516
		IeHoUaH		Spelling by William Tyndale in 1530; letter H restored
		IeHoVaH		Latin form in 1611, King James Version
			JeHoVaH	New letter J replaced letter I in the 17th c.

_______________________

¹Names of God, Kabbalah, Wikipedia, Internet

²God, Names of, Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 7, col. 679

³Anson F. Rainey, Biblical Archaelogy Review, Sept.-Oct. 1994

⁴Yeshayahu Heiliczer, “The Divine Name,” Messianic Home, Summer 1999, p. 19

⁵Jehovah, Oxford English Dictionary

⁶U, World Book 2005 Deluxe

⁷The Name, Jehovah’s Witnesses, p. 18

⁸U, op. cit.

⁹Names of God, op. cit.

¹⁰Heiliczer, loc. cit.

¹¹Choon-Leong Seow, “The Ineffable Name of Israel’s God,” Glossary, Bible Review, December 1991, p. 50

¹²Heiliczer, loc. cit.

¹³Jehovah, Insight on the Scriptures, 1988, Vol. 2, p. 12

¹⁴Joseph Rotherham, editor, The Emphasized Bible, Introduction; quoted in The Mistaken J, p. 17

¹⁵J.B. Rotherham; quoted in Is His Name Jehovah or Yahweh?, YNCA, 1989, p. 3

¹⁶The Names of God, Jewish Encylopedia, Vol. 9, p. 160

¹⁷Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15^th edition, Vo. 12, p. 995

¹⁸Encyclopaedia Britannica, Micropedia, Vol. 10

¹⁹Foreword, The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, p. 25

²⁰Let Your Name Be Sanctified, Jehovah’s Witnesses, p. 16

²¹Names of God, op. cit.

Excerpted from Chapter 11, “Two Substitutes, One Original”; THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson)