Theconsensus among scholars is that the historical vocalization of the Tetragrammaton at the time of theredaction of theTorah (6th century BCE) is most likelyYahweh. The historical vocalization was lost because inSecond Temple Judaism, during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE, the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided, being substituted withAdonai ('my Lord'). The Hebrew vowel points ofAdonai were added to the Tetragrammaton by theMasoretes, and the resulting form was transliterated around the 12th century CE asYehowah.[8] The derived formsIehouah andJehovah first appeared in the 16th century.
William Tyndale first introduced the vocalizationJehovah for the Tetragrammaton in his translation of Exodus 6:3, and appears in some other early English translations including theGeneva Bible and theKing James Version.[9] TheUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops states that to pronounce the Tetragrammaton "it is necessary to introduce vowels that alter the written and spoken forms of the name (i.e. 'Yahweh' or 'Jehovah')."[10]Jehovah appears in the Old Testament of some widely used translations including theAmerican Standard Version (1901) andYoung's Literal Translation (1862, 1899); theNew World Translation (1961, 2013) usesJehovah in both the Old and New Testaments.Jehovah does not appear in most mainstream English translations, some of which useYahweh but most continue to use "Lord" or "LORD" to represent theTetragrammaton.[11][12]
Most scholars believe the nameJehovah (also transliterated asYehowah)[14] to be a hybrid form derived by combining the Hebrew lettersיהוה (YHWH, later rendered in theLatin alphabet asJHVH) with the vowels ofAdonai. Some hold that there is evidence that a form of the Tetragrammaton similar toJehovah may have been in use inSemitic andGreek phonetic texts and artifacts fromLate Antiquity.[15] Others say that it is the pronunciationYahweh that is testified in both Christian and pagan texts of the early Christian era.[15][16][17][18]
SomeKaraite Jews,[19] as proponents of the renderingJehovah, state that although the original pronunciation ofיהוה has been obscured by disuse of the spoken name according tooral Rabbinic law, well-established English transliterations of other Hebrew personal names are accepted in normal usage, such asJoshua,Jeremiah,Isaiah orJesus, for which the original pronunciations may be unknown.[19][20] They also point out that "the English formJehovah is an Anglicized form of Yehovah,"[19] and preserves the four Hebrew consonants "YHVH" (with the introduction of the "J" sound in English).[19][21][22] Some argue thatJehovah is preferable toYahweh, based on their conclusion that the Tetragrammaton was likely tri-syllabic originally, and that modern forms should therefore also have three syllables.[23]
In an article he wrote in theJournal of Biblical Literature, Biblical scholar Francis B. Dennio said: "Jehovah misrepresents Yahweh no more than Jeremiah misrepresents Yirmeyahu. The settled connotations of Isaiah and Jeremiah forbid questioning their right." Dennio argued that the formJehovah is not a barbarism, but is the best English form available, being that it has for centuries gathered the necessary connotations and associations for valid use in English.[20]
According to a Jewish tradition developed during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE, the Tetragrammaton is written but not pronounced. When read, substitute terms replace the divine name whereיְהֹוָה (Yəhōwā) appears in the text. It is widely assumed, as proposed by the 19th-century Hebrew scholarWilhelm Gesenius, that the vowels of the substitutes of the name—Adonai (Lord) andElohim (God)—were inserted by theMasoretes to indicate that these substitutes were to be used.[a] Whenיהוה precedes or followsAdonai, the Masoretes placed the vowel points ofElohim into the Tetragrammaton, producing a different vocalization of the Tetragrammatonיֱהֹוִה (Yĕhōvī), which was read asElohim.[25] Based on this reasoning, the formיְהֹוָה (Jehovah) has been characterized by some as a "hybrid form",[15][26] and even "a philological impossibility".[27]
Early modern translators disregarded the practice of readingAdonai (or its equivalents in Greek and Latin,Κύριος andDominus)[b] in place of the Tetragrammaton and instead combined the four Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton with the vowel points that, except in synagogue scrolls, accompanied them, resulting in the formJehovah.[28] This form, which first took effect in works dated 1278 and 1303, was adopted in Tyndale's and some otherProtestant translations of the Bible.[29] In the 1560Geneva Bible, the Tetragrammaton is translated asJehovah six times, four as the proper name, and two as place-names.[30] In the 1611King James Version,Jehovah occurred seven times.[31] In the 1885English Revised Version, the formJehovah occurs twelve times. In the 1901American Standard Version the form "Je-ho'vah" became the regular English rendering of the Hebrewיהוה, all throughout, in preference to the previously dominant "the LORD", which is generally used in the King James Version.[c] It is also used in Christianhymns such as the 1771 hymn, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".[32]
Development
The most widespread theory is that the Hebrew termיְהֹוָה has thevowel points ofאֲדֹנָי (adonai).[33] Using the vowels ofadonai, the compositehataf patah (ֲ) under thegutturalalef (א) becomes asheva (ְ) under theyod (י), theholam (ֹ) is placed over the firsthe (ה), and theqamats (ָ) is placed under thevav (ו), givingיְהֹוָה (Jehovah). When the two names,יהוה andאדני, occur together, the former is pointed with ahataf segol (ֱ) under theyod (י) and ahiriq (ִ) under the secondhe (ה), givingיֱהֹוִה, to indicate that it is to be read aselohim in order to avoidadonai being repeated.[33][34]
Taking the spellings at face value may have been as a result of not knowing about theQ're perpetuum, resulting in the transliterationYehowah and derived variants.[8][35][28]Emil G. Hirsch was among the modern scholars that recognized "Jehovah" to be "grammatically impossible".[34]
A 1552 Latin translation of theSefer Yetzirah, using the formIehouah for the"magnum Nomen tetragrammatum"
יְהֹוָה appears 6,518 times in the traditionalMasoretic Text, in addition to 305 instances ofיֱהֹוִה (Jehovih). The pronunciationJehovah is believed to have arisen through the introduction of vowels of theqere—the marginal notation used by the Masoretes. In places where the consonants of the text to be read (theqere) differed from the consonants of the written text (thekethib), they wrote theqere in the margin to indicate that thekethib was read using the vowels of theqere. For a few very frequent words the marginal note was omitted, referred to asq're perpetuum.[27] One of these frequent cases was God's name, which was not to be pronounced in fear of profaning the "ineffable name". Instead, whereverיהוה (YHWH) appears in thekethib of the biblical andliturgical books, it was to be read asאֲדֹנָי (adonai, "My Lord [plural of majesty]"), or asאֱלֹהִים (elohim, "God") ifadonai appears next to it.[36] This combination producesיְהֹוָה (yehova) andיֱהֹוִה (yehovi) respectively.יהוה is also writtenה', or evenד', and readha-Shem ("the name").[34]
Scholars are not in total agreement as to whyיְהֹוָה does not have precisely the same vowel points asadonai. The use of the compositehataf segol (ֱ) in cases where the name is to be readelohim, has led to the opinion that the compositehataf patah (ֲ) ought to have been used to indicate the readingadonai. It has been argued conversely that the disuse of thepatah is consistent with theBabylonian system, in which the composite is uncommon.[27]
Vowel points ofיְהֹוָה andאֲדֹנָי
The spelling of the Tetragrammaton and connected forms in the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Bible, withvowel points shown in red
The table below shows the vowel points ofYehovah andAdonai, indicating the simplesheva inYehovah in contrast to thehataf patah inAdonai. As indicated to the right, the vowel points used when the Tetragrammaton is intended to be pronounced asAdonai are slightly different to those used inAdonai itself.
The difference between the vowel points of'ǎdônây andYHWH is explained by the rules of Hebrewmorphology andphonetics.Sheva andhataf-patah wereallophones of the samephoneme used in different situations:hataf-patah on glottal consonants includingaleph (such as the first letter inAdonai), and simplesheva on other consonants (such as theY inYHWH).[34]
Introduction into English
The "peculiar, special, honorable and most blessed name of God"Iehoua, an older English form of Jehovah (Roger Hutchinson,The image of God, 1550)
The earliest availableLatin text to use a vocalization similar toJehovah dates from the 13th century.[37] TheBrown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon suggested that the pronunciationJehovah was unknown until 1520 when it was introduced byGalatinus, who defended its use.[38]: 218
In English it appeared inWilliam Tyndale's translation of thePentateuch ("The Five Books of Moses") published in 1530 in Germany, where Tyndale had studied since 1524, possibly in one or more of the universities atWittenberg,Worms andMarburg, where Hebrew was taught.[39]: 113, 118, 119 [40] The spelling used by Tyndale was "Iehouah"; at that time, "I" was not distinguished fromJ, andU was not distinguished fromV.[41] The original 1611 printing of theAuthorized King James Version used "Iehouah". Tyndale wrote about the divine name: "IEHOUAH [Jehovah], is God's name; neither is any creature so called; and it is as much to say as, One that is of himself, and dependeth of nothing. Moreover, as oft as thou seest LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing), it is in HebrewIehouah, Thou that art; or, He that is."[42]: 408 The name is also found in a 1651 edition ofRamón Martí'sPugio fidei.[43]
Modern guides toBiblical Hebrew grammar, such as Duane A Garrett'sA Modern Grammar for Classical Hebrew[46] state that the Hebrew vowel points now found in printed Hebrew Bibles were invented in the second half of the first millennium AD, long after the texts were written. This is indicated in the authoritativeHebrew Grammar of Gesenius,[47][48] andGodwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia,[49] and is acknowledged even by those who say that guides to Hebrew are perpetuating "scholarly myths".[50]
"Jehovist" scholars, largely earlier than the 20th century, who believe/dʒəˈhoʊvə/ to be the original pronunciation of the divine name, argue that the Hebraic vowel-points and accents were known to writers of the scriptures in antiquity and that both Scripture and history argue in favor of theirab origine status to the Hebrew language. Some members ofKaraite Judaism, such as Nehemia Gordon, hold this view.[19] The antiquity of the vowel points and of the renderingJehovah was defended by various scholars, including Michaelis,[51] Drach,[51] Stier,[51]William Fulke (1583),Johannes Buxtorf,[52] his sonJohannes Buxtorf II,[53] andJohn Owen[54] (17th century); Peter Whitfield[55][56] andJohn Gill (18th century),[57]: 1767 John Moncrieff[58] (19th century),Johann Friedrich von Meyer (1832)[59] Thomas D. Ross has given an account of the controversy on this matter in England down to 1833.[60] G. A. Riplinger,[61] John Hinton,[62] Thomas M. Strouse,[63] and A. Cairns[64] are more recent defenders of the authenticity of the vowel points.
Proponents of pre-Christian origin
18th-century theologianJohn Gill puts forward the arguments of 17th-centuryJohannes Buxtorf II and others in his writing,A Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel-Points and Accents.[57] He argued for an extreme antiquity of their use,[57]: 499–560 rejecting the idea that the vowel points were invented by the Masoretes. Gill presented writings, including passages of scripture, that he interpreted as supportive of his "Jehovist" viewpoint that the Old Testament must have included vowel-points and accents.[57]: 549–560 He claimed that the use of Hebrew vowel points ofיְהֹוָה, and therefore of the nameJehovah/jəˈhoʊvə/, is documented from before 200 BCE, and even back toAdam, citing Jewish tradition that Hebrew was the first language. He argued that throughout this history the Masoretes did not invent the vowel points and accents, but that they were delivered to Moses by God at Sinai, citing[57]: 538–542 Karaite authorities[65][57]: 540 Mordechai ben Nisan Kukizov (1699) and his associates, who stated that "all our wise men with one mouth affirm and profess that the whole law was pointed and accented, as it came out of the hands of Moses, the man of God."[51] The argument betweenKaraite andRabbinic Judaism on whether it was lawful to pronounce the name represented by the Tetragrammaton[57]: 538–542 is claimed to show that some copies have always been pointed (voweled)[62] and that some copies were not pointed with the vowels because of "oral law", for control of interpretation by some Judeo sects, including non-pointed copies in synagogues.[57]: 548–560 Gill claimed that the pronunciation/jəˈhoʊvə/ can be traced back to early historical sources which indicate that vowel points and/or accents were used in their time.[57]: 462 Sources Gill claimed supported his view include:
The Book of Cosri and commentatorRabbi Judab Muscatus, which claim that the vowel points were taught toAdam by God.[57]: 461–462
Gill quotedElia Levita, who said, "There is no syllable without a point, and there is no word without an accent," as showing that the vowel points and the accents found in printed Hebrew Bibles have a dependence on each other, and so Gill attributed the same antiquity to the accents as to the vowel points.[57]: 499 Gill acknowledged that Levita, "first asserted the vowel points were invented by "the men of Tiberias", but made reference to his condition that "if anyone could convince him that his opinion was contrary to the book of Zohar, he should be content to have it rejected." Gill then alludes to the book of Zohar, stating that rabbis declared it older than the Masoretes, and that it attests to the vowel-points and accents.[57]: 531
The 1602 Spanish Bible (Reina-Valera/Cipriano de Valera) used the nameIehova and gave a lengthy defense of the pronunciationJehovah in its preface.[51]
Proponents of later origin
Despite Jehovist claims that vowel signs are necessary for reading and understanding Hebrew, modern Hebrew (apart from young children's books, some formal poetry and Hebrew primers for new immigrants), is written without vowel points.[70] TheTorah scrolls do not include vowel points, and ancient Hebrew was written without vowel signs.[71][72]
TheDead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1946 and dated from 400 BCE to 70 CE,[73] include texts from the Torah or Pentateuch and from other parts of the Hebrew Bible,[74][75] and have provided documentary evidence that, in spite of claims to the contrary, the original Hebrew texts were written without vowel points.[76][77] Menahem Mansoor'sThe Dead Sea Scrolls: A College Textbook and a Study Guide claims the vowel points found in printed Hebrew Bibles were devised in the 9th and 10th centuries.[78]
Gill's view that the Hebrew vowel points were in use at the time of Ezra or even since the origin of the Hebrew language is stated in an early 19th-century study in opposition to "the opinion of most learned men in modern times", according to whom the vowel points had been "invented since the time of Christ".[79] The study presented the following considerations:
The argument that vowel points are necessary for learning to read Hebrew is refuted by the fact that theSamaritan text of the Bible is read without them and that several other Semitic languages, kindred to Hebrew, are written without any indications of the vowels.
The books used in synagogue worship have always been without vowel points, which, unlike the letters, have thus never been treated as sacred.
The Qere Kethib marginal notes give variant readings only of the letters, never of the points, an indication either that these were added later or that, if they already existed, they were seen as not so important.
TheKabbalists drew their mysteries only from the letters and completely disregarded the points, if there were any.
In several cases, ancient translations from the Hebrew Bible (Septuagint,Targum,Aquila of Sinope,Symmachus,Theodotion,Jerome) read the letters with vowels different from those indicated by the points, an indication that the texts from which they were translating were without points. The same holds forOrigen's transliteration of the Hebrew text into Greek letters. Jerome expressly speaks of a word in Habakkuk 3:5,[80] which in the presentMasoretic Text has three consonant letters and two vowel points, as being of three letters and no vowel whatever.
Neither theJerusalem Talmud nor theBabylonian Talmud (in all their recounting of Rabbinical disputes about the meaning of words), norPhilo norJosephus, nor any Christian writer for several centuries after Christ make any reference to vowel points.[81][82][83]
Early modern arguments
In the 16th and 17th centuries, various arguments were presented for and against the transcription of the formJehovah.
Tetragrammaton, sive de Nomine Die proprio, quod Tetragrammaton vocant (1604)
Drusius stated "Galatinus first led us to this mistake [...] I know [of] nobody who read [it] thus earlier").[84] An editor of Drusius in 1698, however, knows of an earlier reading in Porchetus de Salvaticis.[clarification needed][85] John Drusius wrote that neitherיְהֹוָה norיֱהֹוִה accurately represented God's name.
Lewis Cappel reached the conclusion that Hebrew vowel points were not part of the original Hebrew language. This view was strongly contested by John Buxtorff the elder and his son.
Disserto de nomine JHVH (1620);Tiberias, sive Commentarius Masoreticus (1664)
John Buxtorf the elder[89] opposed the views ofElia Levita regarding the late origin (invention by the Masoretes) of the Hebrew vowel points, a subject which gave rise to the controversy betweenLouis Cappel and his (e.g. John Buxtorf the elder's) son,Johannes Buxtorf II the younger.
Dissertationes tres, de vera lectione nominis Jehova
John Leusden wrote three discourses in defense of the name Jehovah.[90]
Summary of discourses
William Robertson Smith summarizes these discourses, concluding that "whatever, therefore, be the true pronunciation of the word, there can be little doubt that it is notJehovah".[d] Despite this, he consistently uses the nameJehovah throughout his dictionary and when translating Hebrew names. Some examples includeIsaiah [Jehovah's help or salvation],Jehoshua [Jehovah a helper],Jehu [Jehovah is He]. In the entry,Jehovah, Smith writes: "JEHOVAH (יְהֹוָה, usually with the vowel points ofאֲדֹנָי; but when the two occur together, the former is pointedיֱהֹוִה, that is with the vowels ofאֱלֹהִים, as in Obad. i. 1, Hab. iii. 19:"[93] This practice is also observed in many modern publications, such as theNew Compact Bible Dictionary (Special Crusade Edition) of 1967 andPeloubet's Bible Dictionary of 1947.
Usage in English Bible translations
The following versions of the Bible render the Tetragrammaton asJehovah either exclusively or in selected verses:
William Tyndale, in his 1530 translation of the first five books of the English Bible, at Exodus 6:3 renders the divine name asIehovah. In his foreword to this edition he wrote: "Iehovah is God's name... Moreover, as oft as thou seeist LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing) it is in Hebrew Iehovah."
TheGreat Bible (1539) rendersJehovah in Psalm 33:12 and Psalm 83:18.
TheGeneva Bible (1560) translates the Tetragrammaton asJehovah in Exodus 6:3, Psalm 83:18, and two other times as place-names, Genesis 22:14 and Exodus 17:15.
In theBishop's Bible (1568), the wordJehovah occurs in Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18.
TheAuthorized King James Version (1611) rendersJehovah in Exodus 6:3, Psalm 83:18, Isaiah 12:2 (see image), Isaiah 26:4, and three times in compound place names at Genesis 22:14, Exodus 17:15 and Judges 6:24.
Webster's Bible Translation (1833) byNoah Webster, a revision of the King James Bible, contains the formJehovah in all cases where it appears in the original King James Version, as well as another seven times in Isaiah 51:21, Jeremiah 16:21; 23:6; 32:18; 33:16, Amos 5:8 and Micah 4:13.
TheJulia E. Smith Parker Translation (1876) considered the first complete translation of the Bible into English by a woman. This Bible version was titled The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments; Translated Literally from the Original Tongues. This translation prominently renders the Tetragrammaton asJehovah throughout the entire Old Testament.
TheEnglish Revised Version (1881–1885, published with the Apocrypha in 1894) renders the Tetragrammaton asJehovah where it appears in the King James Version, and another eight times in Exodus 6:2,6–8, Psalm 68:20, Isaiah 49:14, Jeremiah 16:21 and Habakkuk 3:19.
TheAmerican Standard Version (1901) renders the Tetragrammaton asJe-ho'vah in 6,823 places in the Old Testament.(Note: The Watchtower Edition of the ASV rendersJehovah in 6,870 places in the Old Testament, 47 more times than in mainstream editions.)
The Modern Reader's Bible (1914) an annotated reference study Bible based on the English Revised Version of 1894 by Richard Moulton, rendersJehovah where it appears in the English Revised Version of 1894.
The Holy Scriptures (1936, 1951), Hebrew Publishing Company, revised byAlexander Harkavy, a Hebrew Bible translation in English, contains the formJehovah where it appears in the King James Version except in Isaiah 26:4.
TheModern Language Bible—The New Berkeley Version in Modern English (1969) rendersJehovah in Genesis 22:14, Exodus 3:15, Exodus 6:3 and Isaiah 12:2. This translation was a revision of an earlier translation byGerrit Verkuyl.
TheNew English Bible (1970) published by Oxford University Press usesJehovah in Exodus 3:15–16 and 6:3, and in four place names at Genesis 22:14, Exodus 17:15, Judges 6:24 and Ezekiel 48:35. A total of 7 times.[94]
The King James II Version (1971) byJay P. Green, Sr., published by Associated Publishers and Authors, rendersJehovah at Psalms 68:4 in addition to where it appears in the Authorized King James Version, a total of 8 times.
TheLiving Bible (1971) byKenneth N. Taylor, published byTyndale House Publishers, Illinois,Jehovah appears 428 times according to the Living Bible Concordance by Jack Atkeson Speer and published by Poolesville Presbyterian Church; 2nd edition (1973).
The Bible in Living English (1972) bySteven T. Byington, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, renders the nameJehovah throughout the Old Testament over 6,800 times.
Green's Literal Translation (1985) by Jay P. Green, published by Sovereign Grace Publishers, renders the Tetragrammaton asJehovah 6,866 times.
The21st Century King James Version (1994), published by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., rendersJehovah at Psalms 68:4 in addition to where it appears in the Authorized King James Version, a total of 8 times. A revision including the Apocrypha entitled theThird Millennium Bible (1998) also rendersJehovah in the same verses.
TheAmerican King James Version (1999) by Michael Engelbrite rendersJehovah in all the places where it appears in the Authorized King James Version.
TheRecovery Version (1999, 2003, 2016) renders the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah throughout the Old Testament 6,841 times.
Bible translations with the divine name in both the Old Testament and the New Testament: render the Tetragrammaton asJehovah either exclusively or in selected verses:
In theNew World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1961, 1984, 2013) published by theWatch Tower Bible and Tract Society,Jehovah appears 7,199 times in the 1961 edition, 7,210 times in the 1984 revision and 7,216 times in the 2013 revision, comprising 6,979 instances in the Old Testament,[95] and 237 in the New Testament—including 70 of the 78 times where the New Testament quotes an Old Testament passage containing the Tetragrammaton,[96] where the Tetragrammaton does not appear in any extant Greek manuscript.
The Original Aramaic Bible in Plain English (2010) by David Bauscher, a self-published English translation of the New Testament, from the Aramaic of The Peshitta New Testament with a translation of the ancientAramaic Peshitta version of Psalms & Proverbs, contains the word "JEHOVAH" approximately 239 times in the New Testament, where the Peshitta itself does not. In addition, "Jehovah" also appears 695 times in the Psalms and 87 times in Proverbs, totaling 1,021 instances.
TheDivine Name King James Bible (2011) – Uses JEHOVAH 6,973 times throughout the OT, and LORD with Jehovah in parentheses 128 times in the NT.
Non-usage
TheDouay Version of 1609 renders the phrase in Exodus 6:3 as "and my name Adonai", and in its footnote says: "Adonai is not the name here vttered to Moyses but is redde in place of the vnknowen name".[97] The Challoner revision (1750) usesADONAI with a note stating, "some moderns have framed the name Jehovah, unknown to all the ancients, whether Jews or Christians."[98]
Most modern translations exclusively useLord orLORD, generally indicating that the corresponding Hebrew isYahweh orYHWH (notJHVH), and in some cases saying that this name is "traditionally" transliterated asJehovah:[11][12]
TheRevised Standard Version (1952), an authorized revision of the American Standard Version of 1901, replaced all 6,823 usages ofJehovah in the 1901 text with "LORD" or "GOD", depending on whether the Hebrew of the verse in question is read "Adonai" or "Elohim" in Jewish practice. A footnote on Exodus 3:15 says: "The word LORD when spelled with capital letters, stands for the divine name, YHWH." The preface states: "The word 'Jehovah' does not accurately represent any form of the name ever used in Hebrew".[99]
TheNew American Bible (1970, revised 1986, 1991). Its footnote to Genesis 4:25–26 says: "... men began to call God by his personal name, Yahweh, rendered as "the LORD" in this version of the Bible."[100]
TheNew American Standard Bible (1971, updated 1995), another revision of the 1901 American Standard Version, followed the example of the Revised Standard Version. Its footnotes toExodus 3:14 and6:3 state: "Related to the name of God, YHWH, rendered LORD, which is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be"; "Heb YHWH, usually rendered LORD". In its preface it says: "It is known that for many years YHWH has been transliterated as Yahweh, however no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation."[101]
The Bible in Today's English (Good News Bible), published by the American Bible Society (1976). Its preface states: "the distinctive Hebrew name for God (usually transliterated Jehovah or Yahweh) is in this translation represented by 'The Lord'." A footnote toExodus 3:14 states: "I am sounds like the Hebrew name Yahweh traditionally transliterated as Jehovah."
TheNew International Version (1978, revised 2011). Footnote toExodus 3:15, "The Hebrew for LORD sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I AM in verse 14."
TheNew King James Version (1982), though based on the King James Version, replacesJEHOVAH wherever it appears in the Authorized King James Version with "LORD", and adds a note: "Hebrew YHWH, traditionally Jehovah", except at Psalms 68:4, Isaiah 12:2, Isaiah 26:4 and Isaiah 38:11 where the tetragrammaton is rendered "Yah".
TheEnglish Standard Version (2001). Footnote toExodus 3:15, "The word LORD, when spelled with capital letters, stands for the divine name, YHWH, which is here connected with the verb hayah, 'to be'."
The Bible,An American Translation (1939) by J. M. Powis Smith and Edgar J. Goodspeed. Generally uses "LORD" but usesYahweh and/or "Yah" exactly whereJehovahappears in the King James Version except in Psalms 83:18, "Yahweh" also appears in Exodus 3:15.
TheAmplified Bible (1965, revised 1987) generally usesLord, but translatesExodus 6:3 as: "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [El-Shaddai], but by My name the Lord [Yahweh—the redemptive name of God] I did not make Myself known to them [in acts and great miracles]."
TheHolman Christian Standard Bible (2004, revised 2008) mainly usesLORD, but in its second edition increased the number of times it usesYahweh from 78 to 495 (in 451 verses).[102]
TheChristian Community Bible (1988) is a translation of the Christian Bible in the English language originally produced in the Philippines and uses "Yahweh".
TheWorld English Bible (1997) is based on the 1901 American Standard Version, but uses "Yahweh" instead of "Jehovah".[103]
Names of God Bible (2011, 2014), edited by Ann Spangler and published byBaker Publishing Group.[105] The core text of the 2011 edition uses theGod's Word translation. The core text of the 2014 edition uses theKing James Version, and includesJehovah next toYahweh where "LORD Jehovah" appears in the source text. The print edition of both versions have divine names printed in brown and includes a commentary. Both editions use "Yahweh" in the Old Testament.
TheSacred Scriptures Bethel Edition (1981) is a Sacred Name Bible which uses the name "Yahweh" in both the Old and New Testaments (Chamberlin pp. 51–53). It was produced by the Assemblies of Yahweh elder, the late Jacob O. Meyer, based on the American Standard Version of 1901.
Following theMiddle Ages, before and after theProtestant Reformation, some churches and public buildings across Europe were decorated with variants and cognates of "Jehovah". For example, thecoat of arms ofPlymouth (UK) City Council bears the Latin inscription,Turris fortissima est nomen Jehova[106] (English, "The name of Jehovah is the strongest tower"), derived fromProverbs 18:10.
Lyrics of some Christian hymns, for example, "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah",[107] include "Jehovah". The form also appears in some reference books and novels, appearing several times in the novelThe Greatest Story Ever Told, by Catholic authorFulton Oursler.[108]
Some religious groups, notablyJehovah's Witnesses[109] and proponents of theKing-James-Only movement, continue to use Jehovah as the onlyname of God. InMormonism, "Jehovah" is thought to be the name by which Jesus was known prior to his birth; references to "the LORD" in the KJV Old Testament are therefore understood to be references to the pre-mortal Jesus, whereasGod the Father, who is regarded as a separate individual, is sometimes referred to as "Elohim". "Jehovah" is twice rendered in theBook of Mormon, in 2 Nephi 22:2 and Moroni 10:34.
Similar Greek names
Ancient
Similar Greek name Ιεωα in Col. 15 line 10 inPGM VII 531 dated to the 3rd-century CE.
Ιουω (Iouō,reconstructed Attic pronunciation:[juɔ]):Pistis Sophia cited by Charles William King, which also givesΙαω (Iaō,pronunciation:[jaɔ])[110] (2nd century)
ΙΕΗΩΟΥΑ (I-E-Ē-Ō-O-Y-A,pronunciation:[ieɛɔoya]), the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet arranged in this order. Charles William King attributes to a work that he callsOn Interpretations[111] the statement that this was the Egyptian name of the supreme God. He comments: "This is in fact a very correct representation, if we give each vowel its true Greek sound, of the Hebrew pronunciation of the word Jehovah."[110]: 199–200 (2nd century)
Ιευώ (Ievō):Eusebius, who says thatSanchuniathon received the records of the Jews from Hierombalus, priest of the god Ieuo.[112] (c. 315)
Ιεωά (Ieōa):Hellenistic magical text[113] (2nd–3rd centuries), M. Kyriakakes[114] (2000)
Excerpts fromRaymond Martin'sPugio Fidei adversus Mauros et Judaeos (1270, p. 559), containing the phrase "Jehova, sive Adonay, qvia Dominus es omnium" (Jehovah, or Adonay, for you are the Lord of all)[119]Geneva Bible, 1560 (Psalm 83:18)A Latin rendering of the Tetragrammaton has been the form "Jova". (Origenis Hexaplorum, edited by Frederick Field, 1875)
Transcriptions ofיְהֹוָה similar toJehovah occurred as early as the 12th century.
^"יְהֹוָה Jehovah, pr[oper] name of the supreme God amongst the Hebrews. The later Hebrews, for some centuries before the time of Christ, either misled by a false interpretation of certain laws (Ex. 20:7; Lev. 24:11), or else following some old superstition, regarded this name as so very holy, that it might not even be pronounced (see Philo, Vit. Mosis t.iii. p.519, 529). Whenever, therefore, thisnomen tetragrammaton occurred in the sacred text, they were accustomed to substitute for itאֲדֹנָי, and thus the vowels of the nounאֲדֹנָי are in the Masoretic text placed under the four lettersיהוה, but with this difference, that the initial Yod receives a simple and not a compound Sh'va(יְהֹוָה [Yəhōvā], not (יֲהֹוָה [Yăhōvā]); prefixes, however, receive the same points as if they were followed byאֲדֹנָי [...] This custom was already in vogue in the days of theLXX. translators; and thus it is that they everywhere translatedיְהֹוָה by ὁ Κύριος (אֲדֹנָי)."[24]: 337
^The LatinVulgate of St. Jerome renders the name asAdonai atExodus 6:3 rather than asDominus.
^According to the preface, this was because the translators felt that the "Jewish superstition, which regarded the Divine Name as too sacred to be uttered, ought no longer to dominate in the English or any other version of the Old Testament".
^Smith commented, "In the decade of dissertations collected by Reland, Fuller, Gataker, and Leusden do battle for the pronunciation Jehovah, against such formidable antagonists as Drusius, Amama, Cappellus, Buxtorf, and Altingius, who, it is scarcely necessary to say, fairly beat their opponents out of the field; "the only argument of any weight, which is employed by the advocates of the pronunciation of the word as it is written being that derived from the form in which it appears in proper names, such as Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, &c. [...] Their antagonists make a strong point of the fact that, as has been noticed above, two different sets of vowel points are applied to the same consonants under certain circumstances. To this Leusden, of all the champions on his side, but feebly replies. [...] The same may be said of the argument derived from the fact that the lettersמוכלב, when prefixed toיהוה, take, not the vowels which they would regularly receive were the present pronunciation true, but those with which they would be written ifאֲדֹנָי,adonai, were the reading; and that the letters ordinarily takingdagesh lene when followingיהוה would, according to the rules of the Hebrew points, be written without dagesh, whereas it is uniformly inserted."[92]
^The Imperial Bible-Dictionary, Volume 1, p. 856. "Jehovah, on the other hand, the personality of the Supreme is more distinctly expressed. It is every where a proper name, denoting the personal God and him only; whereas Elohim partakes more of the character of a common noun, denoting usually, indeed, but not necessarily nor uniformly, the Supreme. Elohim may be grammatically defined by the article, or by having a suffix attached to it, or by being in construction with a following noun. The Hebrew may say the Elohim, the true God, in opposition to all false gods; but he never says the Jehovah, for Jehovah is the name of the true God only. He says again and again my God; but never my Jehovah, for when he says my God, he means Jehovah. He speaks of the God of Israel, but never of the Jehovah of Israel, for there is no other Jehovah. He speaks of the living God, but never of the living Jehovah, for he cannot conceive of Jehovah as other than living. It is obvious, therefore, that the name Elohim is the name of more general import, seeing that it admits of definition and limitation in these various ways; whereas Jehovah is the more specific and personal name, altogether incapable of limitation."
^Parke-Taylor, G. H. (2006).Yahweh: The Divine Name in the Bible. Waterloo:Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 4.ISBN978-0-88920-652-6.The Old Testament contains various titles and surrogates for God, such as El Shaddai, El Elyon, Haqqadosh (The Holy One), and Adonai. In chapter three, consideration will be given to names ascribed to God in the patriarchal period. Gerhard von Rad reminds us that these names became secondary after the name YHWH had been known to Israel, for 'these rudimentary names which derive from old traditions, and from the oldest of them, never had the function of extending the name so as to stand alongside the name Jahweh to serve as fuller forms of address; rather, they were occasionally made use of in place of the name Jahweh.' In this respect YHWH stands in contrast to the principal deities of the Babylonians and the Egyptians. 'Jahweh had only one name; Marduk had fifty with which his praises as victor over Tiamat were sung in hymns. Similarly, the Egyptian god Re is the god with many names.'
^Pfatteicher, Philip H. (1990).Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship: Lutheran Liturgy in Its Ecumenical Context. Augsburg Fortress. p. 384.ISBN978-0-8006-0392-2.The psalter in its Episcopal and Lutheran forms uses small capital letters to represent the tetragrammaton YHWH, the personal name of the deity: LORD; it uses 'Lord' as a translation of Adonai.
^Krasovec, Joze (2010).The Transformation of Biblical Proper Names. A&C Black. p. 57.ISBN978-0-567-45224-5.In the Hebrew Bible, the specific personal name for the God of Israel is given using the four consonants, the 'Tetragrammaton',yhwh, which appears 6007 times.
^abIn the 7th paragraph ofIntroduction to the Old Testament of the New English Bible,Sir Godfrey Driver wrote, "The early translators generally substituted 'Lord' for [YHWH].[...] The Reformers preferred Jehovah, which first appeared asIehouah in 1530 A.D., in Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch (Exodus 6.3), from which it passed into other Protestant Bibles."
^abEnglish Standard Version Translation Oversight CommitteePreface to the English Standard Version Quote: "When the vowels of the word adonai are placed with the consonants of YHWH, this results in the familiar word Jehovah that was used in some earlier English Bible translations. As is common among English translations today, the ESV usually renders the personal name of God (YHWH) with the word Lord (printed in small capitals)."
^abBruce M. Metzger for the New Revised Standard Version Committee.To the Reader, p. 5
^GOD, NAMES OF – 5. Yahweh (Yahweh) inNew Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. XII: Trench – Zwingli Retrieved 19 November 2014.
^abcRoy Kotansky, Jeffrey Spier, "The 'Horned Hunter' on a Lost Gnostic Gem",The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 88, No. 3 (July, 1995), p. 318. Quote: "Although most scholars believe "Jehovah" to be a late (c. 1100 CE) hybrid form derived by combining the Latin lettersJHVH with the vowels ofAdonai (the traditionally pronounced version of יהוה), many magical texts in Semitic and Greek establish an early pronunciation of the divine name as bothYehovah andYahweh."
^Jarl Fossum and Brian Glazer in their articleSeth in the Magical Texts (Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphie 100 (1994), p. 86–92, reproduced here[1]Archived 2010-01-19 at theWayback Machine, give the name "Yahweh" as the source of a number of names found in pagan magical texts: Ἰάβας (p. 88), Iaō (described as "a Greek form of the name of the Biblical God, Yahweh", on p. 89), Iaba, Iaē, Iaēo, Iaō, Iaēō (p. 89). On page 92, they call "Iaō" "the divine name".
^abcde"yhwh"(PDF). Aug 19, 2011. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2011-08-19. RetrievedMay 26, 2020.
^abDennio, Francis B., "On the Use of the Word Jehovah in Translating the Old Testament",Journal of Biblical Literature 46, (1927), pages 147–148. Dennio wrote: "Jehovah misrepresents Yahweh no more than Jeremiah misrepresents Yirmeyahu. The settled connotations of Isaiah and Jeremiah forbid questioning their right. Usage has given them the connotation proper for designating the personalities with which these words represent. Much the same is true of Jehovah. It is not a barbarism. It has already many of the connotations needed for the proper name of the Covenant God of Israel.There is no word which can faintly compare with it. For centuries it has been gathering these connotations. No other word approaches this name in the fullness [sic] of associations required.The use of any other word falls far short of the proper ideas that it is a serious blemish in a translation."
^R. Laird Harris, "The Pronunciation of the Tetragram," in John H. Skilton (ed.),The Law and the Prophets: Old Testament Studies Prepared in Honor of Oswald Thompson Allis (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1974), p. 224.
^In the 7th paragraph ofIntroduction to the Old Testament of the New English Bible,Sir Godfrey Driver wrote of the combination of the vowels of Adonai and Elohim with the consonants of the divine name, that it "did not become effective until Yehova or Jehova or Johova appeared in two Latin works dated in A.D. 1278 and A.D. 1303; the shortened Jova (declined like a Latin noun) came into use in the sixteenth century. The Reformers preferred Jehovah, which first appeared asIehouah in 1530 A.D., in Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch (Exodus 6.3), from which it passed into other Protestant Bibles."
^The Geneva Bible uses the form "Jehovah" in Exodus 6:3, Psalm 83:18, Jeremiah 16:21, Jeremiah 32:18, Genesis 22:14, and Exodus 17:15.
^At Genesis 22:14; Exodus 6:3; 17:15; Judges 6:24; Psalm 83:18, Isaiah 12:2; 26:4.Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Iowa Falls: Word, 1994), p. 722.
^abPaul Joüon and T. Muraoka. A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Subsidia Biblica). Part One: Orthography and Phonetics. Rome: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblio, 1996.ISBN978-8876535956. Quote from Section 16(f)(1) "The Qre is יְהֹוָהthe Lord, whilst the Ktiv is probably(1) יַהְוֶה (according to ancient witnesses)." "Note 1: In our translations, we have usedYahweh, a form widely accepted by scholars, instead of the traditionalJehovah."
^abKarpman, Dahlia M. (1967). "Tyndale's Response to the Hebraic Tradition".Studies in the Renaissance.14. New York: Cambridge University Press: 121.doi:10.2307/2857163.JSTORi333696.
^Note: Westcott, in his survey of the English Bible, wrote that Tyndale "felt by a happy instinct the potential affinity between Hebrew and English idioms, and enriched our language and thought for ever with the characteristics of the Semitic mind."
^The first English-language book to make a clear distinction betweenI andJ was published in 1634. (Hogg, Richard M. (1992).The Cambridge History of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 39.ISBN0-521-26476-6.). It was also only by the mid-1500s thatV was used to represent theconsonant andU the vowel sound, while capitalU was not accepted as a distinct letter until many years later (Pflughaupt, Laurent (2007).Letter by Letter: An Alphabetical Miscellany. Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 123–124.ISBN978-1-56898-737-8.).
^William Tyndale,Doctrinal Treatises, ed.Henry Walter (Cambridge, 1848)
^Christo H. J. Van der Merwe, Jackie A. Naude and Jan H. Kroeze, A Biblical Reference Grammar (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002), and Gary D. Pratico and Miles V. Van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 2001).
^Cairns, Alan (2002).Dictionary of Theological Terms: A Ready Reference of Over 800 Theological and Doctrinal Terms (3rd revised ed.). Emerald House Group. p. 533-534.ISBN978-1-889893-72-3.
^Gould, William H.; Quick, Charles W., eds. (1865). "Of the Integrity and Purity of the Hebrew and Greek Text of the Scripture; with Considerations on the Prolegomena and Appendix to the Late "Biblia Polyglotta"".The Works of John Owen. Vol. 9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Leighton Publications. p. 110.
^Of the 78 passages where the New Testament, using Κύριος (Lord) for the Tetragrammaton of the Hebrew text, quotes an Old Testament passage, the New World Translation puts "Jehovah" for Κύριος in 70 instances, "God" for Κύριος in 5 (Rom 11:2, 8; Gal 1:15; Heb 9:20; 1 Pet 4:14), and "Lord" for Κύριος in 3 (2 Thes 1:9; 1 Pet 2:3, 3:15) –Jason BeDuhn,Truth in Translation (University Press of America 2003ISBN0-7618-2556-8), pp. 174–175
^"How God's Name Has Been Made Known".Awake!: 20. December 2007.The commonly used form of God's name in English is Jehovah, translated from the Hebrew [Tetragrammaton], which appears some 7,000 times in the Bible.
^The Grecised Hebrew text "εληιε Ιεωα ρουβα" is interpreted as meaning "my God Ieoa is mightier". ("La prononciation 'Jehova' du tétragramme", O.T.S. vol. 5, 1948, pp. 57, 58. [Greek papyrus CXXI 1.528–540 (3rd century), Library of the British Museum]
^abcRosenmüller, Ernst Friedrich Karl (1820).Scholia in Vetus Testamentum. Vol. 3. Leipzig: Barth. pp. 8–9.
^For example, Gesenius rendered Proverbs 8:22 in Latin as: "Jehova creavit me ab initio creationis". (Samuel Lee,A lexicon, Hebrew, Chaldee, and English (1840) p. 143)
^"Non enim h quatuor liter [yhwh] si, ut punctat sunt, legantur, Ioua reddunt: sed (ut ipse optime nosti) Iehoua efficiunt." (De Arcanis Catholicæ Veritatis (1518), folio xliii. SeeOxford English Dictionary Online, 1989/2008, Oxford University Press, "Jehovah"). Peter Galatin wasPope Leo X'sconfessor.
^Sir Godfrey Driver,Introduction to the Old Testament of the New English Bible.
^Kennicott, Benjamin (1753).The State of the Printed Hebrew Text of the Old Testament considered: A Dissertation in two parts. Oxford: Fletcher & Prince. pp. 158–159.
^Baillie, William (1843).The First Twelve Psalms in Hebrew with Latin Version, Pronunciation, and Grammatical Praxis. Dublin: Longmand and Company. p. 22.
^Schmidt, Sebastian (1872).Biblia Sacra, sive Testamentum Vetus et Novum, ex linguis originalibus in linguam Latinam translatum à Sebastiano Schmidt, Argentorati, 1696. Strasbourg: John Friderici Spoor. p. 207.
^Hammond, Samuel (1899).Lessons Drawn from the Scriptures. pp. 7, 24, 69.
Sources
Encyclopaedia Britannica staff, The, ed. (2017-09-20)."Jehovah".Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved2024-06-19.
Ramelli, Ilaria (2014-02-28). "Name". In Di Berardino, Angelo (ed.).Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity. Vol. 2. InterVarsity Press. pp. 862–866.ISBN978-0-8308-2941-5.
Schoenfeld, Aviv (2020-06-18). "Abishai, Daniel and Hezekiah. Lexical Secreted Affixation in Biblical Hebrew personal names".Brill's Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics.12 (1).Brill Publishers:74–98.doi:10.1163/18776930-01201006.ISSN1876-6633.
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