Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

Yhvh - יהוה (Strong's #3068)
Lord, YaHVeH

The traditional Jehovah/Yahweh name of God is a confusion of Christian history. The earliest recorded pronunciation of השם ha-Shem 'the Name' as 'Jehovah' is 1520 A.D.. Early Greek transliterations of it are ’Iabe, where the 'b' represents a Hebrew 'v' and the 'I' a 'y' for the Greeks had no 'y,j,h,v', and are thus closest to Ya(h)ve(h). The unpointed Hebrew text (i.e., without vowels) recorded the name of God as יהוה Yhvh. This could have been read in many ways. When the Massoretic scribes added the later vowel points to the text, more than 600 years after the first century context of Jesus, pre-rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, they played a grammatical trick in the Hebrew text. They did this in order to preserve the sacred name of God from blasphemy and their literal interpretation of the breaking of the second commandment, not to take God's name in vain (Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 24:11).

So, when it came to vowel pointing the consonants of יהוה Yhvh 'what was written' was יְהוָֹה Yehôvâh or Jehovah in English, an impossible, incorrect and meaningless form. However, 'what was read' קרי qerêy was אֲדנָי 'adhônây, 'Lord', since the vowels under the word were those of 'adhônây. At first sight the vowels appear slightly different, 'adhônây having a slight 'a' as its first vowel and Yehôvâh having a slight 'e'. This is down to the nature of the Hebrew shev⒠vowel where a guttural letter (as à here) cannot take the simple _: but instead takes the augmented form, in this case _-:, when this is added to the י yôwdh of יהוה Yhvh it reverts to _:.

Before we blame the later Massoretic scribes for this curiosity we should note that they were only acting on existing traditions which chose not to pronounce the name of God. These may go back to before the time of Christ when circumlocutions for God's name were already in use. Indeed, in the Dead Sea scroll of Isaiah (1st century B.C./A.D.) Yhvh is already read as אדני 'adhônây by placing its consonants, אדני or אדוני (with a full 'ôw'/vâv consonant in place of the 'ô' pointing above the 'd'), above those of יהוה. Earlier still, the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament Hebrew (c. 300 B.C.) already translated all occurrences of the divine name by ho Kurios 'the Lord' or אֲדנָי 'adhônây (Adonai). If the biblical text had Yhvh next to Adonai already they would read it as אֲדנָי אֱל^.הִים '^adhônây ’^elôhîym rather than Adonai Adonai. In the earliest biblical times there seems to have been no problem adding Yah or Yahu to people's names or greeting each other with "YHVH bless you" but by the New Testament period the divine name was only uttered within the temple walls.^F1

יהוה Yhvh (Strong's #3068) actually occurs 6519 times in the Hebrew Bible text, the first time in Genesis 2:4 where it is paired with אלהים ’elôhîym. It doesn't occur on its own until Genesis 4:1 when Eve "gets from God" a son, Cain. Too much should not be read into the differences for in Genesis 4:25 Eve uses אלהים ’elôhîym rather than יהוה Yhvh when she has Seth. A shortened variation appears to be יהּ Yâhh (Strong's #3050, cf. יהוּ Yâhû) which occurs 49 (seven 7's!) times - its first use is in Exodus 15:2 "Yâh is my strength".

יהוה Yhvh occurs in a number of significant passages including: Exodus 6:3; Psalm 83:18 [v.19 Heb.]; Isaiah 12:2; 26:4; Genesis 22:14; Judges 6:24. Its origins are assumed to be from either הוה hâvâh (Strong's #1933) 'to breathe/live', a rare synonym of היה hâyâh (Strong's #1961) 'to be/exist', or from היה hâyâh itself.

The apparently awkward verse in Exodus 6:3 which suggests that the patriarchs only knew God as 'God Almighty' and not as Yhvh may be solved by inserting a rhetorical question mark after the phrase "and by my name Yhvh was I not known to them?", in other words God is the same God of Moses as He is of the patriarchs - hence the continuing validity of the covenant from one age to the next.

FOOTNOTES:
F1: Ruth 2:4; Mishnah, Berakôth 9.5, Yoma 3.8; 6.2; Sotah 7.6

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