In the comments to a previous post, I mentioned that the term "Jehovah" is a man-made term and we have no business using it. I was directed to an article that convinced me to retract that claim, at least temporarily, until further evidence swayed me one way or the other. The following is my (slightly edited) reply to that exchange.
Well, I've done further research, and my conclusion is that "Jehovah" is indeed a man-made term.
The clinching evidence is that the Tetragrammaton is not always marked in the Hebrew text with the vowels for "Lord". When it is in conjunction with the actual word "Lord", the Tetragrammaton is marked with the vowels for "God", so that the audio reader would render the phrase "Lord God" rather than "Lord Lord". If the Name was truly "Jehovah", the reader could simply read the text as written, "Lord Jehovah", and there would be no need to use the vowel markings for "God".
An interesting side note is that I had a dialog with a Jewish scholar who assured me that "Jehovah" is not the correct term. He claimed that a few of the Jewish elite, himself included, such as the members of the Sanhedrin, know the actual pronunciation of the Name, but are forbidden from revealing it to the world at large. (Yeah, whatever.) He also assured me that "Yahweh" was not the correct pronunciation either.
In talking to him I found it fascinating that I have more respect for his written scriptures than he does, as he has more respect for the interpretation of those scriptures as given by the Oral Law, as delivered by the Sanhedrin, regardless of all the warnings in the Torah against adding to or taking from the written word. His only substantial argument was to appeal to something Jesus said (ironic, ain't it, as he's no Jesus-follower?). He pointed out that Jesus said in Matt 23:2 that because the "Sanhedrin" sits in the Seat of Moses we should obey them. But it seems pretty clear to me from the context that whatever Jesus meant by this statement, he did not mean for us to elevate the traditions of the Sanhedrin over the written word of God.
6 comments:
So what is your point? You write as if 'not knowing' the exact pronunciation of Jehovah, Yahweh, Yahveh, etc. is a big deal. Ancient Hebrew had no vowels, only consonants, so the pronunciation was supplied by the Jews as they spoke it at the time. Jesus' name was not pronounced nor spelled Jesus in Hebrew either. Nor was Elijah, Moses, Ezekiel, Matthew, James, etc., etc. Jehovah/Yahweh etc. is the accepted pronunciation in ENGLISH. LORD (written in all caps and occurring almost 7000 times in the Bible) was put in the King James and other translations of the Bible to water-down the personal revelation of the God of the Bible and also show where the Personal Divine Name was taken out because the Jews became superstitious erroneously making it a human tradition to NOT pronounce it anymore as they came to believe it is too sacred to pronounce and instead referring to him as "God". While this may have made it easier for the surrounding nations to accept, it is NOT his PERSONAL name and could easily confuse him with Baal, Zeus, and the multitude of other gods of the time worshipped by the surrounging nations.
It is an insult to the Author of the Bible and demeans him. Can you imagine taking the name of Mark Twain out of the books he wrote, or James A. Mitchner or Tolstoy from their books and not give them the credit for writing them and instead ascribing the name "Man", which is NOT a name as the author?
Speaking today to a Muslim about "God" would bring "Allah" to his mind and not "Jehovah", the father of Jesus and God of the Bible. Psalm 83:18 shows Jehovah/Yahweh/LORD is in reality "the most high in all the earth" and Psalm 110:1 & 2 shows that it is Jehovah who instructs Jesus to "Sit at my right hand" and Paul later quoted about in Hebrews 1:13: 10:13 as well as references at Mark 12:36, Acts 2:34,: 7:56, Romans 8:34, Colossians 3:1, and many more. 1 Corinthians 14:20-28 shows that eventually Jesus will 'hand over the kingdom to his God and Father'/Jehovah/Yahweh/LORD and 'subject himself to Jehovah/Yahweh/LORD that God may be all things to everyone.'
Anonymous asks:
So what is your point?
Thanks for taking the time to write and ask this question. I appreciate it!
I actually have several points; here I'll try to lay them out more clearly:
1. "Jehovah" is not a scriptural name for God. It is not merely another spelling/pronunciation of the Name; rather, it is a man-made combination of the Name and the vowels for "Lord". Someone with a speech impediment might refer to the English writer as "Mawk Train"; that's simply "another" pronunciation for the great writer. "Merak Tiwen" on the other hand, combining the consonants of "Mark Twain" and the vowels of "Great Writer", is an intentional corruption, as is the similarly-derived rendering "Jehovah".
Please note that I believe God is big enough to handle our manglement of his name. But I think we should have enough respect for him to at least aim toward getting it right (and yes, I do realize that even our best right-ness is as filthy rags before him - Is 64:6).
2. Whatever the correct pronunciation is of the Name, it should NOT be hidden behind the man-made practice of replacing it with the word "LORD" (or similar). I'm encouraged to see that you seem to believe similarly. I would tend to render it in written form simply as "YHWH", and let each individual reader find his own pronunciation for it.
3. In my opinion, the Jew to whom I spoke is part of the problem since he insists that the Name remain hidden. Further, he justifies this action by appealing to human authority (which to be fair, he believes comes from Divine Authority, just not written) rather than to the authority of the written scriptures.
As to the importance of the correct pronunciation of the Name, I don't know that I would call it a "big deal". I would say that most people prefer their name to be pronounced correctly rather than incorrectly. Sometimes people learn to live with mispronunciation of their name, like my "sister" Cheryl; most everyone calls her "Share-ul", but her name is actually "Chair-ul". I suspect God can also live with our mispronunciation of his name, but I think it common courtesy to try to get it right. I'm a bit peeved that folks who presumably know the correct pronunciation withhold that knowledge from the rest of the world out of what I deem false beliefs.
Concerning the correct pronunciation of other Bible names: in recent years I've tended toward the idea of trying to render those more accurately also, but I've been less diligent in that area. It's hard to pray in the name of Yeshua/Yoshua or Yaesoos (sp?), etc, in a typical church setting without raising a disturbance that is worse than using the incorrect pronunciation. (Also, this highlights the difficulty in knowing whether Jesus went by his Jewish name or Greek name while on this earth.)
Again, thanks for writing!
The name of God was REPLACED by the word LORD (all caps)in the KJV. The fact that the scriptures repeatedly state that you must know that YHWH is God, and that those who call on the name of YHWH will be saved- what is important is that we use his name.
By removing God's name and replacing it with LORD, bible translators have created a situation where today, most people are unaware that God has a name- and if knowing that name and calling on that name are essential to being saved, then Satan's work is done isn't it...
YHWH might have been pronounced Yahweh. Jehovah is the accepted English pronunciation- similarily, John, Sean, Juan... all the same name- different languages.
But the fact that God saw fit to tell us his name- over 7000 times- and is clear in scripture that he wants us to use it- shouldn't we do that?
i am desperately seeking the truth of this and am moved to tears, would love to know and speak the Name with just the respect of which the previous writer(s) spoke, and know the literal definition of these letters. Anyone? Supposedly, the Samaritans still know and speak it, as their Book retained the original meaning of an old Hebrew word that meant blaspheme and was later rendered to speak or utter, causing folks to believe utterance of the word to be forever forbidden and causing the sound of the precious Name to be lost in general. Mistranslation really makes me sad. Again, anyone?
May the Creator be restored to us in truth, i pray.
I once read that "YHWH" may be related to the Hebrew word for "being", or "existence" ("havah", if my memory serves). This correlates nicely with YHWH's (and Yeshua's) reference to himself as "I AM THAT I AM" (Ex. 3:14 & John 8:58-59).
There are several problems to the above responses.
First of all, it would be impossible to put the Divine Name from Hebrew into the Greek Language. The reason for this is simple and that is that three of the four letters that make up the Divine Name (V and two H’s) do not have equivalents in Greek. The only letter that does is Y so that would make translation impossible right there. While there is an H sound it is noted by something called a dipthong attached to the Greek letter Eta (which has an ‘E’ sound.)
The best that the translators would have been able to do is to take the Name and use and equivalent in Greek. That would have been Kurios or LORD in English. So technically the Divine Name translated from English to Greek is Kurios from what I have studied.
THAT is why it was used.
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