Tetragrammaton

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This article is about the literary manifestations of the name of God in Hebrew. For other attributes of the name of God, see Yahweh, God in Judaism, and God in Abrahamic religions.

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The Tetragrammaton in Paleo-Hebrew (10th century BC to 135 AD), old Aramaic (10th century BC to 4th century AD) and square Hebrew (3rd century BC to present) scripts.

The Tetragrammaton (from the Greek τετραγράμματον meaning "[a word] having four letters"^[1]) is the Hebrew term יהוה, the name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible.

[edit] Occurrences and uses

The Tetragrammaton occurs 6,828 times in the Hebrew text of both the Biblia Hebraica and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.^[2] It does not appear in the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, or Esther. It first appears in the Hebrew text in Genesis 2:4.^[2][3] The letters, properly read from right to left (in Biblical Hebrew), are:

Hebrew	Letter name	Pronunciation
י	Yodh	"Y"
ה	He	"H"
ו	Waw	"W" or placeholder for "O"/"U" vowel (see mater lectionis)
ה	He	"H" (or often a silent letter at the end of a word)

Front side of the Roman Catholic Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, or the Old Cathedral, built in 1834 and located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri near the Gateway Arch. The Tetragrammaton is seen on the Tympanum.

These four letters are usually transliterated from Hebrew as IHVH in Latin, JHWH in German, French and Dutch, and JHVH/YHWH in English. This has been variously rendered as "Yahweh" or even occasionally as "Jehovah", based on the Latin form of the term.^[4], while the Hebrew text does not clearly indicate the omitted vowels. In English translations, it is often rendered in capital and small capital letters as "the LORD", following Jewish tradition which reads the word as "Adonai" ("Lord") out of respect for the name of God and the interpretation of the commandment not to take the name of God in vain. The word "haŠem" 'the Name' is also used in Jewish contexts; in Samaritan, "Šemå" is the normal substitution.

[edit] Pronunciation

The correct pronunciation and spelling of the name has historically been a matter of some disagreement, and the consensus view at various points in history has not been consistent.

[edit] Historical overview

יְהֹוָה in the Karlskirche, Vienna.

Observant Jews write down but do not pronounce the Tetragrammaton, because it is considered too sacred to be used for common activities. Even ordinary prayer is considered too common for this use. The Tetragrammaton was pronounced by the High Priest on Yom Kippur when the Temple was standing in Jerusalem. Since the destruction of Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Tetragrammaton is no longer pronounced, and while Jewish tradition holds that the correct pronunciation is known to a select few people in each generation, it is not generally known what this pronunciation is. Instead, common Jewish use has been to substitute the name "Adonai" ("My Lord") where the Tetragrammaton appears.

The Septuagint (Greek translation) and Vulgate (Latin translation) use the word "Lord" (κύριος, kurios, and dominus, respectively). However, newer research has brought to light the oldest available copies of the Septuagint which interestingly include the Tetragrammaton inside the Greek text.

The spelling of the Tetragrammaton and connected forms in the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Bible, with vowel points shown in red. (Click on image to enlarge.)

The Masoretes added vowel points (niqqud) and cantillation marks to the manuscripts to indicate vowel usage and for use in the ritual chanting of readings from the Bible in synagogue services. To יהוה they added the vowels for "Adonai" ("My Lord"), the word to use when the text was read.

Many Jews will not even use "Adonai" except when praying, and substitute other terms, e.g., HaShem ("The Name") or the nonsense word Ado-Shem, out of fear of the potential misuse of the divine name. In written English, "G-d" is a substitute used by a minority.

Parts of the Talmud, particularly those dealing with Yom Kippur, seem to imply^{[citation needed]} that the Tetragrammaton should be pronounced in several ways, with only one (not explained in the text, and apparently kept by oral tradition by the Kohen Gadol) being the personal name of God.

In late Kabbalistic works the Tetragrammaton is sometimes referred to as the Name of Havayah—הוי'ה, meaning "the Name of Being/Existence".

Translators often render YHWH as a word meaning "Lord", e.g., Greek Κυριος, Latin Dominus, and following that, English "the Lord", Polish Pan, Welsh Arglwydd, etc. However, all of the above are inaccurate translations of the Tetragrammaton.^{[citation needed]}

Because the name was no longer pronounced and its own vowels were not written, its pronunciation was forgotten. When Christians, unaware of the Jewish tradition, started to read the Hebrew Bible, they read יְהֹוָה as written with YHWH's consonants with Adonai's vowels, and thus said or transcribed Iehovah. Today this transcription is generally recognized as mistaken; however many religious groups continue to use the form Jehovah because it is familiar.

[edit] Using the Name in the Bible

Exod. 3:15 is used to support the use of the Name YHWH: "This is my Name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations." The word "forever" is "olahm" which means "time out of mind, to eternity."

The Hebrew word ‘olahm’, translated ‘forever’ clearly doesn’t always mean literal future infinity—although in some places it can have that sense. It is used in places to describe the past; events of a long time ago, but not events that happened an ‘infinitely long time’ ago. It describes the time of a previous generation;^{[Deut. 32:7] [Job 22:15]} to the time just before the exile of Judah;^{[Is. 58:12] [61:4] [Mic. 7:14] [Mal. 3:4]} to the time of the Exodus^{[1 Sam. 27:8] [Is. 51:9] [63:9]} to the time just before the flood.^{[Gen. 6:4] [5]}

Many Scriptures do favour the use of the Name. The biblical law does not prohibit the use of the Name, but it warns against "misuse", "blaspheming" or in ordinary terms, "taking lightly" the Name of YHWH. The Biblical texts suggest the people of the Bible—including the patriarchs—used the Name of YHWH. A wealth of scriptures support this notion.^[6]

[edit] Evidence

[edit] Theophoric names

Yeho or "Y^ehō-" is the prefix form of "YHWH" used in Hebrew theophoric names; the suffix form Yahū" or "-Y^ehū" is just as common. This has caused two opinions:

1. In former times (at least from c.1650 AD), that it was abbreviated from the Masoretic pronunciation "Yehovah", pronounced with the stress on vah.
2. Recently that, as "Yahweh" is likely an imperfective verb form, "Yahu" is its corresponding preterite or jussive short form: compare yiŝt^ahawe^h (imperfective), yiŝtáhû (preterit or jussive short form) = "do obeisance".^[7]

Those who argue for argument 1 above are the: George Wesley Buchanan in Biblical Archaeology Review; Smith’s 1863 A Dictionary of the Bible; Section # 2.1 The Analytical Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon (1848)^[8] in its article הוה

Smith's 1863 A Dictionary of the Bible says that "Yahweh" is possible because shortening to "Yahw" would end up as "Yahu" or similar. The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 in the Article:Names Of God has a very similar discussion, and also gives the form Yo (יוֹ) contracted from Yeho (יְהוֹ). The Encyclopædia Britannica^[9] also says that "Yeho-" or "Yo" can be explained from "Yahweh", and that the suffix "-yah" can be explained from "Yahweh" better than from "Yehovah". However, the suffix "-yah" can be explained from Yehovah by taking the first and last letters of the name and joining them, "Y----ah".

Chapter 1 of The Tetragrammaton and the Christian Greek Scriptures, under the heading: The Pronunciation Of Gods Name quotes from Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2, page 7: Hebrew Scholars generally favor "Yahweh" as the most likely pronunciation. They point out that the abbreviated form of the name is Yah (Jah in the Latinized form), as at Psalm 89:8 and in the expression Hallelu-Yah (meaning "Praise Yah, you people!").^{[Ps. 104:35] [150:1,6]} The forms Yeho', Yo, Yah, and Ya'hu, found in the Hebrew spelling of the names of Yehoshaphat, Yoshaphat, Shefatyah, and others, could be derived from Yahweh, and could also be derived from Yehovah.

[edit] Using consonants as semi-vowels (v/w)

In ancient Hebrew, the letter ו, known to modern Hebrew speakers as vav, was a semivowel /w/ (as in English, not as in German) rather than a /v/.^[10] The letter is referred to as waw in the academic world. Because the ancient pronunciation differs from the modern pronunciation, it is common today to represent יהוה as YHWH rather than YHVH.

In unpointed Biblical Hebrew, most vowels are not written and the rest are written only ambiguously, as the vowel letters double as consonants (similar to the Latin use of V to indicate both U and V). See Matres lectionis for details. For similar reasons, an appearance of the Tetragrammaton in ancient Egyptian records of the 13th century BC sheds no light on the original pronunciation.^[11] Therefore it is, in general, difficult to deduce how a word is pronounced from its spelling only, and the Tetragrammaton is a particular example: two of its letters can serve as vowels, and two are vocalic place-holders, which are not pronounced.

This difficulty occurs somewhat also in Greek when transcribing Hebrew words, because of Greek's lack of a letter for consonant 'y' and (since loss of the digamma) of a letter for "w", forcing the Hebrew consonants yod and waw to be transcribed into Greek as vowels. Also, non-initial 'h' caused difficulty for Greeks and was liable to be omitted; х (chi) was pronounced as 'k' + 'h' (as in modern Hindi "lakh") and could not be used to spell 'h' as in Modern Greek Χάρρι = "Harry", for example.

[edit] Yahweh or Jahweh

The English pronunciation of the letter J (in Latin originally an I) has changed over time. Originally, the pronunciation would have been as the [ IPA: j ] (the 'Y' sound of the word 'You'). This has transformed into the [IPA: dʒ] (the 'J' sound of the word 'Juice') in modern English. Almost all other European languages have retained the [IPA: j] pronunciation of J.

Loan-words from Classical languages also received this sound shift if the spelling was established, and as an effect language transliterations caused trouble if an older transliteration system lingered without modernisation. In an English language conflict between correct pronunciation and historically correct grapheme representation, the practice of correct pronunciation has prevailed.

[edit] Kethib and Qere and Qere perpetuum

The original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was provided with vowel marks by the Masoretes to assist reading. In places where the consonants of the text to be read (the Qere) differed from the consonants of the written text (the Kethib), they wrote the Qere in the margin as a note showing what was to be read. In such a case the vowels of the Qere were written on the Kethib. For a few very frequent words the marginal note was omitted: this is called Q're perpetuum.

One of these frequent cases was the Tetragrammaton, which according to later Jewish practices should not be pronounced, but read as "Adonai" ("My Lord [plural of majesty]"), or, if the previous or next word already was "Adonai", or "Adoni" ("My Lord"), as "Elohim" ("God"). This combination produces יְהֹוָה and יֱהֹוִה respectively, non-words that would spell "yehovah" and "yehovih" respectively.

The oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, such as the Aleppo Codex and the Codex Leningradensis mostly write יְהוָה (yehvah), with no pointing on the first H; this points to its Qere being 'Sh^ema', which is Aramaic for "the Name".

[edit] The Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010 A.D.

Vowel points were added to the Tetragrammaton by the Masoretes, in the first millennium A.D.

Six Hebrew spellings of the Tetragrammaton are found in:
The Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010 A.D. as shown below [Note that all six of these Hebrew Spellings [ i.e. variants can be observed in the Online Leningrad Codex, by clicking on the corresponding Codex L. Link provided] ( Also note that the entries in the Close Transcription column are not intended to indicate how the name was intended to be pronounced by the Masoretes, but only how the word would be pronounced if read without q're perpetuum):

ĕ is hatef segol; ǝ is the pronounced form of plain shewa

Gérard Gertoux wrote that in the Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010, the Masoretes used 7 different vowel pointings [i.e., 7 different Q're's] for YHWH. [Note that one of these different vowel pointings is not a true variant, but was the result of the addition of an inseparable preposition to YHWH]^[12] A version of the BHS text, which is derived from the Leningrad Codex, is used to translate the Old Testament of almost all English Bibles other than the King James Bible. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon of 1905 shows only two different vowel pointings [ i.e. variants ] of YHWH are found in the Ben Chayyim Hebrew Text of 1525 A.D., which underlies the Old Testament of the King James Bible.^[13]

[edit] Frequency of use in scripture

According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, יְהֹוָה (Qr אֲדֹנָי) occurs 6,518 times, and יֱהֹוִה (Qr אֱלֹהִים) occurs 305 times in the Masoretic Text. Since the scribes admit^{[citation needed]} removing it in at least 134 places and inserting Adonai, one may conclude that the four letter Name יהוה appeared about 7,000 times.

It appears 6,823 times in the Jewish Bible, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, and 6,828 times each in the Biblia Hebraica and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia texts of the Hebrew Scriptures.

[edit] The vocalizations of יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי are not identical

The schwa in YHWH (the vowel under the first letter, ְ) and the hataf patakh in 'DNY (the vowel under its first letter, ֲ), appear different. One reason suggested^[who?] is that the spelling יֲהֹוָה (with the hataf patakh) risks that a reader might start pronouncing "Yah", which is a form of the Name, thus completing the first half of the full Name^{[citation needed]}. Alternatively, the vocalization can be attributed to Biblical Hebrew phonology^[14], where the hataf patakh is grammatically identical to a schwa, always replacing every schwa naḥ under a guttural letter. Since the first letter of אֲדֹנָי is a guttural letter, while the first letter of יְהֹוָה is not, the hataf patakh under the (guttural) aleph reverts to a regular schwa under the (non-guttural) yodh.

[edit] Dead Sea scrolls

The discovery of the Qumran scrolls has added support to some parts of this position^{[clarification needed]}. These scrolls are unvocalized, showing that the position of those who claim that the vowel marks were already written by the original authors of the text is untenable. Many of these scrolls write (only) the tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebrew script, showing that the Name was treated specially. See this link.

[edit] Josephus's description of vowels

Josephus in Jewish Wars, chapter V, verse 235, wrote "τὰ ἱερὰ γράμματα*ταῦτα δ' ἐστὶ φωνήεντα τέσσαρα" ("...[engraved with] the holy letters; and they are four vowels"), presumably because Hebrew yod and waw, even if consonantal, would have to be transcribed into the Greek of the time as vowels.

[edit] Conclusions

Various people draw various conclusions from this Greek material.

William Smith writes in his 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible" about the different Hebrew forms supported by these Greek forms:

... The votes of others are divided between יַהְוֶה (yahveh) or יַהֲוֶה (yah^aveh), supposed to be represented by the Ιαβέ of Epiphanius mentioned above, and יַהְוָה (yahvah) or יַהֲוָה (yah^avah), which Fürst holds to be the Ιευώ of Porphyry, or the Ιαού of Clemens Alexandrinus.

[edit] Early Greek and Latin forms

The writings of the Church Fathers contain several references to the Tetragrammaton in Greek or Latin.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907) and B.D. Eerdmans:^[15]

• Diodorus Siculus^[16] writes Ἰαῶ (Iao);
• Irenaeus reports^[17] that the Gnostics formed a compound Ἰαωθ (Iaoth) with the last syllable of Sabaoth. He also reports^[18] that the Valentinian heretics use Ἰαῶ (Iao);
• Clement of Alexandria^[19] writes Ἰαοὺ (Iaou)—see also below;
• Origen of Alexandria,^[20] Iao;
• Porphyry,^[21] Ἰευώ (Ieuo);
• Epiphanius (d. 404), who was born in Palestine and spent a considerable part of his life there, gives^[22]Ia and Iabe (one codex Iaue);
• Pseudo-Jerome,^[23] tetragrammaton legi potest Iaho;
• Theodoret (d. c. 457) writes Ἰάω (Iao); he also reports^[24] that the Samaritans say Ἰαβέ (Iabe), Ἰαβαι (Iabai), while the Jews say Ἀϊά (Aia).^[25] (The latter is probably not יהוה but אהיה Ehyeh = "I am", Exod. 3:14 which the Jews counted among the names of God.)
• James of Edessa ^[26]), Jehjeh;
• Jerome^[27] speaks of certain ignorant Greek writers who transcribed the Hebrew Divine name יהוה as ΠΙΠΙ.

[edit] Clement's Stromata

Clement of Alexandria writes in Stromata V, 6:34-35:

"Πάλιν τὸ παραπέτασμα τῆς εἰς τὰ ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων παρόδου, κίονες τέτταρες αὐτόθι, ἁγίας μήνυμα τετράδος διαθηκῶν παλαιῶν, ἀτὰρ καὶ τὸ τετράγραμμον ὄνομα τὸ μυστικόν, ὃ περιέκειντο οἷς μόνοις τὸ ἄδυτον βάσιμον ἦν· λέγεται δὲ Ἰαού, ὃ μεθερμηνεύεται ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἐσόμενος. Καὶ μὴν καὶ καθʼ Ἕλληνας θεὸς τὸ ὄνομα τετράδα περιέχει γραμμάτων." (Reinhold Koltz text)

The translation[9] of Clement's Stromata in Volume II of the classic Ante-Nicene Fathers series renders this as:

"... Further, the mystic name of four letters which was affixed to those alone to whom the adytum was accessible, is called Jave, which is interpreted, 'Who is and shall be.' The name of God, too [i.e., θεὸς], among the Greeks contains four letters."^[28]

Of Clement's Stromata there is only one surviving manuscript, the Codex L (Codex Laurentianus V 3), from the 11th century. Other sources are later copies of that ms. and a few dozen quotations from this work by other authors. For Stromata V,6:34, Codex L has ἰαοὺ. The critical edition by Otto Stählin (1905)^[29] gives the forms

"Ἰαουέ Didymus Taurinensis de pronunc. divini nominis quatuor literarum (Parmae 1799) p. 32ff, ἰαοὺ L, ἰὰ οὐαὶ Nic., ἰὰ οὐὲ Mon. 9.82 Reg. 1888 Taurin. III 50 (bei Did.), ἰαοῦε Coisl. Seg. 308 Reg. 1825."

and has Ἰαουε in the running text. The Additions and Corrections page gives a reference to an author who rejects the change of ἰαοὺ into Ἰαουε.^[30]

Other editors give similar data. A catena (Latin: chain) referred to by A. le Boulluec^[31] ("Coisl. 113 fol. 368v") and by Smith’s 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible" ("a catena to the Pentateuch in a MS. at Turin") is reported to have "ια ουε".

[edit] In ancient Judaism

The oldest complete Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) versions, from around the second century A.D., consistently use Κυριος (= "Lord"), where the Hebrew has YHWH, corresponding to substituting Adonay for YHWH in reading the original; in books written in Greek in this period (e.g., Wisdom, 2 and 3 Maccabees), as in the New Testament, Κυριος takes the place of the name of God. However, older fragments contain the name YHWH.^[32] In the P. Ryl. 458 (perhaps the oldest extant Septuagint manuscript) there are blank spaces, leading some scholars to believe that the Tetragrammaton must have been written where these breaks or blank spaces are.^[33]

Josephus, who as a priest knew the pronunciation of the name, declares that religion forbids him to divulge it.

A Kabbalah explantion of the Priestly Blessing with Adonai inscribed

Philo calls it ineffable, and says that it is lawful for those only whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom to hear and utter it in a holy place (that is, for priests in the Temple). In another passage, commenting on Lev. xxiv. 15 seq.: "If any one, I do not say should blaspheme against the Lord of men and gods, but should even dare to utter his name unseasonably, let him expect the penalty of death."^[34]

Various motives may have concurred to bring about the suppression of the name:

1. An instinctive feeling that a proper name for God implicitly recognizes the existence of other gods may have had some influence; reverence and the fear lest the holy name should be profaned among the heathen.
2. Desire to prevent abuse of the name in magic. If so, the secrecy had the opposite effect; the name of the God of the Jews was one of the great names, in magic, heathen as well as Jewish, and miraculous efficacy was attributed to the mere utterance of it.
3. Avoiding risk of the Name being used as an angry expletive, as reported in Leviticus 24:11 in the Bible.

In the liturgy of the Temple the name was pronounced in the priestly benediction (Num. vi. 27) after the regular daily sacrifice (in the synagogues a substitute—probably Adonai—was employed);^[35] on the Day of Atonement the High Priest uttered the name ten times in his prayers and benediction.

In the last generations before the fall of Jerusalem, however, it was pronounced in a low tone so that the sounds were lost in the chant of the priests.^[36]

[edit] In later Judaism

After the destruction of the Temple (70 C.E) the liturgical use of the name ceased, but the tradition was perpetuated in the schools of the rabbis.^[37] It was certainly known in Babylonia in the latter part of the 4th century,^[38] and not improbably much later. Nor was the knowledge confined to these pious circles; the name continued to be employed by healers, exorcists and magicians, and has been preserved in many places in magical papyri.

The vehemence with which the utterance of the name is denounced in the Mishna—He who pronounces the Name with its own letters has no part in the world to come!^[39]—suggests that this misuse of the name was not uncommon among Jews^{[citation needed]}. Modern observant Jews no longer voice the name יהוה aloud. It is believed to be too sacred to be uttered and is often referred to as the 'Ineffable', 'Unutterable' or 'Distinctive Name'^[40][41].

[edit] In Modern Judaism

The new Jewish Publication Society Tanakh 1985 follows the traditional convention of translating the Divine Name as "the LORD" (in all caps). The Artscroll Tanakh translates the Divine Name as "HaShem" (literally, "The Name").

When the Divine Name is read during prayer, "Adonai" ("My Lord") is substituted. However, when practicing a prayer or referring to one, Orthodox Jews will say either "HaShem" or "AdoShem" instead of "Adonai". When speaking to another person "HaShem" is used.

[edit] Jehovah

Later, Christian Europeans who did not know about the Q're perpetuum custom took these spellings at face value, producing the form "Jehovah" and spelling variants of it. The Catholic Encyclopedia [1913, Vol. VIII, p. 329] states: "Jehovah (Yahweh), the proper name of God in the Old Testament." Had they known about the Q're perpetuum, the term "Jehovah" may have never come in to being^[42].

For more information, see the page Jehovah. Alternatively, most scholars recognise Jehovah to be "grammatically impossible" Jewish Encyclopedia (Vol VII, p. 8).

Delitzsch prefers "יַהֲוָה" (yah^avah) since he considered the shewa quiescens below ה ungrammatical. In his 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible", William Smith prefers the form "יַהֲוֶה" (yah^aveh). Many other variations have been proposed.

[edit] יַהְוֶה = Yahweh

In the early 19th century Hebrew scholars were still critiquing "Jehovah" [a.k.a. Iehovah and Iehouah] because they believed that the vowel points of יְהֹוָה were not the actual vowel points of the Tetragrammaton. The Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius [1786-1842] had suggested that the Hebrew punctuation יַהְוֶה, which is transliterated into English as "Yahweh", might more accurately represent the actual pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton than the Biblical Hebrew punctuation "יְהֹוָה", from which the English name Jehovah has been derived.

William Gesenius's Hebrew punctuation (i.e., Yahweh)

Wilhelm Gesenius is noted for being one of the greatest Hebrew and biblical scholars [10]. His proposal to read YHWH as "יַהְוֶה" (see image to the right) was based in large part on various Greek transcriptions, such as ιαβε, dating from the first centuries AD, but also on the forms of theophoric names.

In his Hebrew Dictionary Gesenius (see image of German text) supports the pronunciation "Yahweh" because of the Samaritan pronunciation Ιαβε reported by Theodoret, and that the theophoric name prefixes YHW [Yeho] and YH [Yo] can be explained from the form "Yahweh".

Today many scholars accept Gesenius's proposal to read YHWH as יַהְוֶה.

(Here 'accept' does not necessarily mean that they actually believe that it describes the truth, but rather that among the many vocalizations that have been proposed, none is clearly superior^{[neutrality is disputed][weasel words][original research?]}. That is, 'Yahweh' is the scholarly convention, rather than the scholarly consensus^{[neutrality is disputed][weasel words][original research?]}.)

In the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910,in the article Jehovah (Yahweh), under the sub-title:"To take up the ancient writers", the editors wrote:

The judicious reader will perceive that the Samaritan pronunciation Jabe probably approaches the real sound of the Divine name closest; the other early writers transmit only abbreviations or corruptions of the sacred name. Inserting the vowels of Jabe into the original 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. It is not merely closely connected with the pronunciation of the ancient synagogue by means of the Samaritan tradition, but it also allows the legitimate derivation of all the abbreviations of the sacred name in the Old Testament.

In Smith’s 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible", the author displays some of the above forms and concludes:

But even if these writers were entitled to speak with authority, their evidence only tends to show in how many different ways the four letters of the word יהוה could be represented in Greek characters, and throws no light either upon its real pronunciation or its punctuation.

On the other hand however, is the common belief that the true name was never lost, the Encyclopedia Judaica concludes: "The true pronunciation of the name YHWH was never lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian church testify that the name was pronounced Yahweh."

The editors of New Bible Dictionary (1962) write:

The pronunciation Yahweh is indicated by transliterations of the name into Greek in early Christian literature, in the form Ιαουε (Clement of Alexandria) or Ιαβε (Theodoret; by this time β had the pronunciation of v).

However, this explanation of the origin of the form "Yahweh" has been questioned as being "a mere guess", considering that Theodoret's references are inconsistent and lack historical probability.^[43]

The main approaches in modern attempts to determine a pronunciation of יהוה have been study of the Hebrew Bible text, study of theophoric names and study of early Christian Greek texts that contain reports about the pronunciation. Evidence from Semitic philology and archeology has been tried, resulting in a "scholarly convention to pronounce יהוה as Yahweh".

Gesenius' proposal gradually became accepted as the best scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton.

[edit] Among the Samaritans

The Samaritans, who otherwise shared the scruples of the Jews about the utterance of the name, seem to have used it in judicial oaths to the scandal of the rabbis.^[44] (Their priests have preserved a liturgical pronunciation "Yahwe" or "Yahwa" to the present day.)^[45] However, the Aramaic "Shema" (שמא) remains the everyday (including liturgical) usage of the name, akin to Hebrew "Hashem" (השם).

[edit] Roman Catholic Church

The first edition of the official Vatican Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum, published in 1979, used the form Iahveh for rendering the Tetragrammaton.^[46] Later editions of this version replaced "Iahveh" with "Dominus".

On August 8, 2008, Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, announced a new Vatican directive regarding the use of the name of God in the sacred liturgy. "Specifically, the word 'Yahweh' may no longer be 'used or pronounced' in songs and prayers during liturgical celebrations."^[47]

[edit] Yahu

The caves in which the Dead Sea scrolls were found

According to a theory, Yahweh, or Yahu, Yaho,^[48] is the name of a god worshipped throughout the whole, or a great part, of the area occupied by the Western Semites.

In its earlier form this opinion rested chiefly on certain misinterpreted testimonies in Greek authors about a god 'Iαω and was conclusively refuted by Baudissin; recent adherents of the theory build more largely on the occurrence in various parts of this territory of proper names of persons and places which they explain as compounds of Yahu or Yah.^[49]

The explanation is in most cases simply an assumption of the point at issue; some of the names have been misread; others are undoubtedly the names of Jews.

There remain, however, some cases in which it is highly probable that names of non-Israelites are really compounded with Yahweh. The most conspicuous of these is the king of Hamath who in the inscriptions of Sargon (722-705 B.C.) is called Yaubi'di and Ilubi'di (compare Jehoiakim-Eliakim). Azriyau of Jaudi, also, in inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III (745-728 B.C.), who was formerly supposed to be Uzziah of Judah, is probably a king of the country in northern Syria known to us from the Zenjirli inscriptions as Ja'di. Also, in Byblos have been found inscriptions telling about the kings named Yehimilk "YH the king" (XI-X B.C.)^[50][51] and Yehawmilk "YHW the king" (V B.C.)^[52][53].

Deity named YW is mentioned in the Ugaritic text as one of the many sons of El. KTU 1.1 IV 14 says:

sm . bny . yw . ilt

"The name of the son of god, YW"^[54][55].

[edit] Magic papyri

Some claim that the spellings of the Tetragrammaton occur among the many combinations and permutations of names of powerful agents that occur in Egyptian magical writings.^[56] One of these forms is the heptagram ιαωουηε^[57]

In the magical texts, Iave (Jahveh Sebaoth), and Iαβα, occurs frequently.^[58] In an Ethiopic list of magical names of Jesus, purporting to have been taught by him to his disciples, Yawe^[59][60] is found.

[edit] Mesopotamian influence

Friedrich Delitzsch brought into notice three tablets, of the age of the first dynasty of Babylon, in which he read the names of Ya- a'-ve-ilu, Ya-ve-ilu, and Ya-u-um-ilu ("Yahweh is God"), and which he regarded as conclusive proof that Yahweh was known in Babylonia before 2000 B.C.; he was a god of the Semitic invaders in the second wave of migration, who were, according to Winckler and Delitzsch, of North Semitic stock (Canaanites, in the linguistic sense).^[61]

We should thus have in the tablets evidence of the worship of Yahweh among the Western Semites at a time long before the rise of Israel. The reading of the names is, however, extremely uncertain, not to say improbable, and the far-reaching inferences drawn from them carry no conviction.^[62]

In a tablet attributed to the 14th century B.C. which Sellin found in the course of his excavations at Tell Ta'annuk (the city Taanach of the O.T.) a name occurs which may be read Ahi-Yawi (equivalent to Hebrew Ahijah);^[63] if the reading be correct, this would show that Yahweh was worshipped in Central Palestine before the Israelite conquest. Genesis 14:17 describes a meeting between Melchizedek the king/priest of Salem and Abraham. Both these pre-conquest figures are described as worshipping the same Most High God later identified as Yahweh.

The reading is, however, only one of several possibilities. The fact that the full form Yahweh appears, whereas in Hebrew proper names only the shorter Yahu and Yah occur, weighs somewhat against the interpretation, as it does against Delitzsch's reading of his tablets.

It would not be at all surprising if, in the great movements of populations and shifting of ascendancy which lie beyond our historical horizon, the worship of Yahweh should have been established in regions remote from those which it occupied in historical times; but nothing which we now know warrants the opinion that his worship was ever general among the Western Semites.

Many attempts have been made to trace the West Semitic Yahu back to Babylonia. Thus Delitzsch formerly derived the name from an Akkadian god, I or Ia; or from the Semitic nominative ending, Yau;^[64] but this deity has since disappeared from the pantheon of Assyriologists. Bottero speculates that the West Semitic Yah/Ia, in fact is a version of the Babylonian God Ea (Enki), a view given support by the earliest finding of this name at Ebla during the reign of Ebrum, at which time the city was under Mesopotamian hegemony of Sargon of Akkad.

[edit] Bible Translations into English

Tetragrammaton at the 5th Chapel of the Palace of Versailles, France. This example has the vowel points of "Elohim".

• The New Jerusalem Bible (1966) uses "Yahweh" exclusively.
• The Bible In Basic English (1949/1964) uses "Yahweh" eight times, including Exod. 6:2.
• The New English Bible (NT 1961, OT 1970) generally uses the word "LORD" but uses "JEHOVAH" several times^[65]. For examples of both forms, see Exodus Chapter 3 and footnote to verse 15.
• The Amplified Bible (1954/1987). At Exod. 6:3 the AB says "but by My name the Lord [Yahweh--the redemptive name of God] I did not make Myself known to them."
• The Living Bible (1971). "Jehovah" or "Lord"^[66].
• The Holman Christian Standard Bible (1999/2002) uses "Yahweh" over 50 times, including Exod. 6:2.
• The World English Bible (WEB) [a Public Domain work with no copyright] uses "Yahweh" some 6837 times.
• The New Living Translation (1996/2004) uses "Yahweh" eight times^{[verification needed]}, including including Exod. 6:2.
• Rotherham's Emphasized Bible retains "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.
• The Anchor Bible retains "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.
• The King James Version. Rendered in seven instances as "Jehovah", i.e. four times as the name of God, Exod. 6:3; Psalm 83:18; Isa 12:2; 26:14, and three times where it is included in Hebrew place-names e.g. "Jehovah-jireh" -Gen 22:14. (See also Ex 17:15; Judges 6:24)
  • Note: Elsewhere in the KJV, "LORD" is generally used. But in verses such as Gen 15:2; 28:13, Psalm 71:5, Amos 1:8, 9:5 etc. where this practice would result in ‘Lord LORD’ (Hebrew: Adonay YHWH) or ‘LORD Lord’ (YHWH Adonay) the KJV translates the Hebrew text as ‘Lord GOD’ or ‘LORD God’.
• The American Standard Version uses "Jehovah".
• The New World Translation uses Jehovah.

[edit] Loss of the Tetragrammaton in the Septuagint

Septuagint study does give some credence to the possibility that the Divine Name appeared in its original texts. Dr Sidney Jellicoe concluded that "Kahle is right in holding that LXX [= Septuagint] texts, written by Jews for Jews, retained the Divine Name in Hebrew Letters (palaeo-Hebrew or Aramaic) or in the Greek-letters imitative form ΠΙΠΙ, and that its replacement by Κύριος was a Christian innovation."^[67] Jellicoe draws together evidence from a great many scholars (B. J. Roberts, Baudissin, Kahle and C.H Roberts) and various segments of the Septuagint to draw the conclusions that: a) the absence of "Adonai" from the text suggests that the insertion of the term "Kurios" was a later practice, b) in the Septuagint "Kurios", or in English "Lord", is used to substitute the Name YHWH, and c) the Tetragrammaton appeared in the original text, but Christian copyists removed it. There is therefore a strong possibility that the Sacred Name was once integrated within the Greek text, but eventually disappeared.

Meyer suggests as one possibility that "as modern Hebrew letters were introduced, the next step was to follow modern Jews and insert 'Kurios', Lord. This would prove this innovation was of a late date."

Bible scholars and translators as Eusebius and Jerome (translator of the Latin Vulgate) used the Hexapla. Both attest to the importance of the sacred Name and that the most reliable manuscripts contained the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew letters.^{[citation needed]}

F. F. Bruce in the The Books and the Parchments^[68] illustrates that the religious language of the Greeks is in effect, pagan. Bruce demonstrates that the words commonly used today in Christianity are pagan Greek words and substitutes; this includes words such as "Christ", "Lord", and "God" (The English "Jesus" is not the same as "Iesous" in Greek). For this reason, a few groups such as the Assemblies of Yahweh and the Jehovah's Witnesses have maintained that they are restoring the purity of worship—by using the sacred Names and Hebrew titles. On the other hand, Christianity still generally regards the sacred Name as a minor issue while observant Jews believe it is respectful not to speak the Name at all.^[69]

Later translations into European languages which descended from the Septuagint tended to follow the Greek and use each language's word for "lord": Latin "Dominus", German "der Herr", Polish "Pań", English "the Lord", French "le Seigneur", etc.

[edit] Examining the vowel points of יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי

Jehovah is favored by some Christians as being the actual name of God, but for over 400 years some scholars have claimed that Jehovah is a hybrid name that has the vowel points of Adonay. However, contrary to what many Christians have been taught, Jehovah does not have the actual vowel points of Adonay.[Refer to vowel point tables in Section #1]

The spelling of the Tetragrammaton and connected forms in the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Bible, with vowel points shown in red.

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.

[edit] In the New Testament

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Tetragrammaton. (Discuss)

Since the Tetragrammaton does not appear in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, virtually all translations refrain from inserting it into the English. The vast majority of New Testament translations therefore render the Greek kyrios as "lord" and theos as "God". Nevertheless, the Sacred Scriptures Bethel Edition inserts the name Yahweh in the New Testament, while the New World Translation inserts the name Jehovah in the New Testament.

[edit] Translations of the New Testament into Hebrew

• Delitzch's translation of the New Testament into Hebrew (1877) frequently uses the tetragrammaton, i.e. Hebrew (יְהֹוָה), particularly in verses where the New Testament quotes or makes reference to Old Testament texts.

[edit] In the Kabbalah and Chassidut

A parallel is often drawn beween the four letters of the tetragrammaton and the Four Worlds, whereas the י is associated with Atziluth, the first ה with Beri'ah, the ו with Yetzirah, and final ה with Assiah.

[edit] See also

• Yahweh
• Jehovah
• Psalm 83
• Tetragrammaton in the New Testament
• INRI

[edit] References

• van der Toorn, Karel (1995). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. New York: E.J. Brill. ISBN 0-80282-491-9. 

[edit] External links

• Media related to Tetragrammaton at Wikimedia Commons
•  "Tetragrammaton". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.