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The Tetragrammaton (which literally means the four-letter word). It is the Hebrew word יהוה spelled using the Hebrew alphabet: yod י heh ה waw ו heh ה. (Note that Hebrew text is written from right to left). The tetragrammaton is the ineffable name of God in Hebrew.
The tetragrammaton is sometimes referred to as Hebrew Word #3068. This follows from James Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance Of The (King James) Bible, in which he designated by number every Hebrew word in the copy of the Old Testament from which the King James Bible was translated.
Origin of the term
A reading from the Tanakh when Moses was faced with the burning bush on Mount Sinai, interprets the Tetragrammaton as I am what I am or I shall prove to be what I shall prove to be (Exodus 3:13). Because of the strictures in Judaism, the pronunciation/transcription is controversial.
When first transcribed into English by Tyndale in 1525, it was rendered IEHOUAH. Later it came to written as Jehovah (see below). There are other transcriptions, including Yahweh, Yahwe, Yahveh, Jave and Yehowah.
Egyptian records of the 13th Century BCE are the earliest written reports of a monotheistic belief in a God called Yahweh, first noted among the nomadic Shasu tribe, just south and east of the Dead Sea 1. Evidently belief in Yahweh displaced previous polytheistic beliefs among the early Hebrews, during and after the reign of King Josiah (around 650 BCE)2. These Egyptian records shed no light on the original pronunciation of the word.
Meaning
According to one Jewish tradition, the Tetragrammaton is related to the causative form, the imperfect state, of the Hebrew verb ha·wah [הוה] (become); meaning “He will cause to become”. This particular name for God is rendered as THE LORD (in small caps) in many modern translations of the Bible; two notable exceptions are the American Standard Version (1901) and The Jerusalem Bible (1966).
Most Jews though believe that the name comes from three different words all having the same route YVH. the letters YHWH comes from the word HYA [היה]: He was, Howey:He is [הוה], and W'Y'hiye [יהיה]: He will be. This is supposed to show that God is timeless
In recent years, a debate has grown over the derivation and meaning of this name. In this tradition, "Yahweh" is often rendered as meaning "I am the One Who Is." Indeed, this last fits nicely with the admonition from Yahweh of the Burning Bush to Moses to tell the sons of Israel that "I AM has sent you." Some suggest: "I AM the One I AM." This may also fit the interpretation of Yahweh as "He Causes to Become." Many scholars believe that the most proper meaning may be "He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists" (Yahweh-Asher-Yahweh).
Transcription
The first English transcription of the Tetragrammaton appeared on the title page of William Tyndale's translation of 1525 as "IEHOUAH." Subsequent translations in English, including Miles Coverdale's (1535), the Great Bible (1539), The Geneva Bible (1560), the Bishop's Bible (1568) and the Authorized Version of 1611 also used IEHOUAH in several places, while most occurrences of the Tetragrammaton were rendered as THE LORD. Some aver that this practice reflects the Jewish tradition that it is blasphemy to utter the name of God.
Another explanation for both the formation of "Jehovah" and the translation as "LORD" comes from the fact that some Hebrew Bibles include vowel markings as an aid to the readers. When the term is read, the word "Adonai" (my Lord) is substituted for the Tetragrammaton. Since someone reading the text aloud might inadvertantly pronounce the name, the vowels "Adonai" are printed with the Tetragrammaton, to remind the reader to make the change. IHVH interlaced with the vowels of Adonai yields "Iehovaih", which was retranscribed as "Jehovah" in later editions. (The yod at the beginning of the word softens an "a" to an "e" sound). Evidently, this version of the vowel points for the tetragrammaton is also used in the Ben Chayyim codex which served as the basis for Tyndale's Bible. Precisely, it appears 6518 times, while an alternative vowelization, Iehovih (which can also be interpreted as an interlace of YHVH and Adonai) appears 305 times.
The Jehovah's Witnesses emphatically deny this origin for the reading, which they consider to be correct. They look to other transcribed names in the Bible containing portions of the name such as: Jeho-ram and Jeho-shaphat for linguistic support of this position. Still, Jehovah's Witnesses agree with the notion that the original pronounciation is not known.
The readings "Yahweh" and the like are based in large part on various Greek transcriptions (ιαουε—iaoue and
ιαουαι—iaouai and ιαβε—iabe) dating from the first centuries BC and AD. Arguments based on other Hebrew words, such as hallelujah, have also been introduced to support this reading.
Jewish use of the word
In Judaism, pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton is a taboo; it is widely considered forbidden to utter it and the pronunciation of the name is generally avoided. As noted above, "Adonai" is used as a substitute in prayers or readings from the Hebrew Bible.
The name was historically pronounced by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, the only day when the Holy of Holies of the Temple would be entered. With the destruction of the Second Temple in 70, this use also vanished, also explaining the "loss" of the correct pronunciation.
The name Adonai has come to be so connected with the tetragrammaton that even this word has restrictions among pious Jews. It is only used in prayer and Bible readings, or instructions of those subject. When many religious Jews refer to the name of God in conversation or in a non-textual context such as in a book, newspaper or letter, they call the name "Hashem" which means simply "The Name."
Thus, except for a small number of Kabbalists, no one claims with absolute certainty just how it was pronounced — the only generally accepted fact is that the last Heh in YHWH is silent. In the end, it is impossible to state definitively how it was pronounced.
See also
all of which deal essentially with the same subject.
Footnotes
- See pages 128 and 236 of the book "Who Were the Early Israelites?" by archeologist William G. Dever, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2003.
- According to Dever's book, and also according to archeologists Neil A. Silberman and colleagues, in "The Bible Unearthed," Simon and Schuster, New York, 2001.
External links
da:Jehova
de:JHWH
eo:Jehovo
et:Jahve
fr:YHWH
ja:テトラグラマトン
ja:ヤハヴェ
nl:JHWH
no:Jehova
sv:JHVH
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