Jehovah


Jehovah is a Latinization of the Hebrew, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton , the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible and one of the seven names of God in Judaism.
The consensus among scholars is that the historical vocalization of the Tetragrammaton at the time of the redaction of the Torah is most likely Yahweh. The historical vocalization was lost because in Second Temple Judaism, during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE, the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided, being substituted with Adonai. The Hebrew vowel points of Adonai were added to the Tetragrammaton by the Masoretes, and the resulting form was transliterated around the 12th century as Yehowah. The derived forms Iehouah and Jehovah first appeared in the 16th century.
"Jehovah" was popularized in the English-speaking world by William Tyndale and other pioneer English Protestant translations such as the Geneva Bible and the King James Version. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops states that in order to pronounce the Tetragrammaton "it is necessary to introduce vowels that alter the written and spoken forms of the name", resulting in "Yahweh" or "Jehovah". It also remains in use by the Watchtower Society translators of the New World Translation, and appears in the still-popular translations of the American Standard Version and the Young's Literal Translation, but it does not appear in current mainstream English translations, some of which use Yahweh but most continue to use "Lord" or "" to represent same.

Pronunciation

Most scholars believe "Jehovah" to be a hybrid form derived by combining the Latin letters JHVH with the vowels of Adonai. Some hold that there is evidence that a form of the Tetragrammaton similar to Jehovah may have been in use in Semitic and Greek phonetic texts and artifacts from Late Antiquity. Others say that it is the pronunciation Yahweh that is testified in both Christian and pagan texts of the early Christian era.
Some Karaite Jews, as proponents of the rendering Jehovah, state that although the original pronunciation of יהוה has been obscured by disuse of the spoken name according to oral Rabbinic law, well-established English transliterations of other Hebrew personal names are accepted in normal usage, such as Joshua, Jeremiah, Isaiah or Jesus, for which the original pronunciations may be unknown. They also point out that "the English form Jehovah is quite simply an Anglicized form of Yehovah," and preserves the four Hebrew consonants "YHVH". Some argue that Jehovah is preferable to Yahweh, based on their conclusion that the Tetragrammaton was likely tri-syllabic originally, and that modern forms should therefore also have three syllables.
Biblical scholar Francis B. Dennio, in an article he wrote, in the Journal of Biblical Literature, 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 form "Jehovah" 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.
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 where appears in the text. It is widely assumed, as proposed by the 19th-century Hebrew scholar Gesenius, that the vowels of the substitutes of the name—Adonai and Elohim —were inserted by the Masoretes to indicate that these substitutes were to be used. When יהוה precedes or follows Adonai, the Masoretes placed the vowel points of Elohim into the Tetragrammaton, producing a different vocalization of the Tetragrammaton, which was read as Elohim. Based on this reasoning, the form has been characterized by some as a "hybrid form", and even "a philological impossibility".
Early modern translators disregarded the practice of reading Adonai 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 form Jehovah. This form, which first took effect in works dated 1278 and 1303, was adopted in Tyndale's and some other Protestant translations of the Bible. In the 1560 Geneva Bible, the Tetragrammaton is translated as Jehovah six times, four as the proper name, and two as place-names. In the 1611 King James Version, Jehovah occurred seven times. In the 1885 English Revised Version, the form Jehovah occurs twelve times. In the 1901 American Standard Version the form "Je-ho’vah" became the regular English rendering of the Hebrew יהוה, all throughout, in preference to the previously dominant "the ", which is generally used in the King James Version. It is also used in Christian hymns such as the 1771 hymn, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".

Development

The most widespread theory is that the Hebrew term has the vowel points of . Using the vowels of adonai, the composite hataf patah under the guttural alef א becomes a sheva under the yod י, the holam is placed over the first he ה, and the qamats is placed under the vav ו, giving . When the two names, יהוה and אדני, occur together, the former is pointed with a hataf segol under the yod י and a hiriq under the second he ה, giving, to indicate that it is to be read as in order to avoid adonai being repeated.
Taking the spellings at face value may have been as a result of not knowing about the Q're perpetuum, resulting in the transliteration Yehowah and derived variants. Emil G. Hirsch was among the modern scholars that recognized "Jehovah" to be "grammatically impossible".
, using the form Iehouah for the "magnum Nomen tetragrammatum".
appears 6,518 times in the traditional Masoretic Text, in addition to 305 instances of . The pronunciation Jehovah is believed to have arisen through the introduction of vowels of the qere—the marginal notation used by the Masoretes. In places where the consonants of the text to be read differed from the consonants of the written text, they wrote the qere in the margin to indicate that the kethib was read using the vowels of the qere. For a few very frequent words the marginal note was omitted, referred to as q're perpetuum. One of these frequent cases was God's name, which was not to be pronounced in fear of profaning the "ineffable name". Instead, wherever יהוה appears in the kethib of the biblical and liturgical books, it was to be read as , or as if adonai appears next to it. This combination produces and respectively. יהוה is also written ה', or even ד', and read ha-Shem.
Scholars are not in total agreement as to why does not have precisely the same vowel points as adonai. The use of the composite hataf segol in cases where the name is to be read, "elohim", has led to the opinion that the composite hataf patah ought to have been used to indicate the reading, "adonai". It has been argued conversely that the disuse of the patah is consistent with the Babylonian system, in which the composite is uncommon.

Vowel points of and

The table below shows the vowel points of Yehovah and Adonay, indicating the simple sheva in Yehovah in contrast to the hataf patah in Adonay. As indicated to the right, the vowel points used when YHWH is intended to be pronounced as Adonai are slightly different to those used in Adonai itself.
The difference between the vowel points of ’ǎdônây and YHWH is explained by the rules of Hebrew morphology and phonetics. Sheva and hataf-patah were allophones of the same phoneme used in different situations: hataf-patah on glottal consonants including aleph, and simple sheva on other consonants.

Introduction into English

The earliest available Latin text to use a vocalization similar to Jehovah dates from the 13th century. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon suggested that the pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520 when it was introduced by Galatinus, who defended its use.
In English it appeared in William Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch published in 1530 in Germany, where Tyndale had studied since 1524, possibly in one or more of the universities at Wittenberg, Worms and Marburg, where Hebrew was taught. The spelling used by Tyndale was "Iehouah"; at that time, "I" was not distinguished from J, and U was not distinguished from V. The original 1611 printing of the Authorized King James Version used "Iehouah". Tyndale wrote about the divine name: "IEHOUAH , 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 in great letters, it is in Hebrew Iehouah, Thou that art; or, He that is." The name is also found in a 1651 edition of Ramón Martí's Pugio fidei.
The name Jehovah appeared in all early Protestant Bibles in English, except Coverdale's translation in 1535. The Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible used "the Lord", corresponding to the Latin Vulgate's use of "Dominus" to represent the Tetragrammaton. The Authorized King James Version, which used "" in a few places, most frequently gave "the " as the equivalent of the Tetragrammaton. The form Iehouah appeared in John Rogers' Matthew Bible in 1537, the Great Bible of 1539, the Geneva Bible of 1560, Bishop's Bible of 1568 and the King James Version of 1611. More recently, Jehovah has been used in the Revised Version of 1885, the American Standard Version in 1901, and the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1961.
At, where the King James Version has Jehovah, the Revised Standard Version, the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, the New King James Version, the New Revised Standard Version, the New Century Version, and the Contemporary English Version give "" or "Lord" as their rendering of the Tetragrammaton, while the New Jerusalem Bible, the Amplified Bible, the New Living Translation, and the Holman Christian Standard Bible use the form Yahweh.

Hebrew vowel points

Modern guides to biblical Hebrew grammar, such as Duane A Garrett's A Modern Grammar for Classical Hebrew 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 authoritative Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius,
"Jehovist" scholars, largely earlier than the 20th century, who believe 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 their :wikt:ab origine|ab origine status to the Hebrew language. Some members of Karaite Judaism, such as Nehemia Gordon, hold this view. The antiquity of the vowel points and of the rendering Jehovah was defended by various scholars, including Michaelis, Drach, Stier, William Fulke, Johannes Buxtorf, his son Johannes Buxtorf II, and John Owen ; Peter Whitfield and John Gill, John Moncrieff , Johann Friedrich von Meyer Thomas D. Ross has given an account of the controversy on this matter in England down to 1833. G. A. Riplinger, John Hinton, Thomas M. Strouse, are more recent defenders of the authenticity of the vowel points.
Jehovist writers such as Nehemia Gordon, who helped make a translation of the "Dead Sea Scrolls", have acknowledged the general agreement among scholars that the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was probably Yahweh, and that the vowel points now attached to the Tetragrammaton were added to indicate that Adonai was to be read instead, as seen in the alteration of those points after prefixes. He wrote: "There is a virtual scholarly consensus concerning this name" and "this is presented as fact in every introduction to Biblical Hebrew and every scholarly discussion of the name." Gordon, disputing this consensus, wrote, "However, this consensus is not based on decisive proof. We have seen that the scholarly consensus concerning Yahweh is really just a wild guess," and went on to say that the vowel points of Adonai are not correct. He argued that "the name is really pronounced Ye-ho-vah with the emphasis on 'vah'. Pronouncing the name Yehovah with the emphasis on 'ho' would quite simply be a mistake.". See accented " uáh " of the Divine name 'Iehouáh' per the Geneva Bible 1560 at Psalms 83:18.

Proponents of pre-Christian origin

18th-century theologian John Gill puts forward the arguments of 17th-century Johannes Buxtorf II and others in his writing, A Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel-Points and Accents. He argued for an extreme antiquity of their use, 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. He claimed that the use of Hebrew vowel points of, and therefore of the name Jehovah, is documented from before 200 BCE, and even back to Adam, 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 Karaite authorities Mordechai ben Nisan Kukizov 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." The argument between Karaite and Rabbinic Judaism on whether it was lawful to pronounce the name represented by the Tetragrammaton is claimed to show that some copies have always been pointed 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. Gill claimed that the pronunciation can be traced back to early historical sources which indicate that vowel points and/or accents were used in their time. Sources Gill claimed supported his view include:
Gill quoted Elia 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. 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.
William Fulke, John Gill, John Owen, and others held that Jesus Christ referred to a Hebrew vowel point or accent at, indicated in the King James Version by the word tittle.
The 1602 Spanish Bible used the name Iehova and gave a lengthy defense of the pronunciation Jehovah in its preface.

Proponents of later origin

Despite Jehovist claims that vowel signs are necessary for reading and understanding Hebrew, modern Hebrew, is written without vowel points. The Torah scrolls do not include vowel points, and ancient Hebrew was written without vowel signs.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1946 and dated from 400 BC to 70 AD, include texts from the Torah or Pentateuch and from other parts of the Hebrew Bible, and have provided documentary evidence that, in spite of claims to the contrary, the original Hebrew texts were in fact written without vowel points. Menahem Mansoor's The 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.
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". The study presented the following considerations:
In the 16th and 17th centuries, various arguments were presented for and against the transcription of the form Jehovah.

Discourses rejecting ''Jehovah''

Discourses defending ''Jehovah''

Summary of discourses

In A Dictionary of the Bible, William Robertson Smith summarized these discourses, concluding that "whatever, therefore, be the true pronunciation of the word, there can be little doubt that it is not Jehovah". Despite this, he consistently uses the name Jehovah throughout his dictionary and when translating Hebrew names. Some examples include Isaiah , Jehoshua , Jehu . In the entry, Jehovah, Smith writes: "JEHOVAH of 1967 and Peloubet's Bible Dictionary of 1947.

Usage in English Bible translations

The following versions of the Bible render the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah either exclusively or in selected verses:
Bible translations with the divine name in the New Testament:
Bible translations with the divine name in both the Old Testament and the New Testament:
render the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah either exclusively or in selected verses:
The Douay 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". The Challoner revision uses ADONAI with a note stating, "some moderns have framed the name Jehovah, unknown to all the ancients, whether Jews or Christians."
Various Messianic Jewish Bible translations use Adonai, Tree of Life Version or Hashem.
A few sacred name Bibles use the Tetragrammaton instead of a generic title or a conjectural transliteration :
Most modern translations exclusively use Lord or ', generally indicating that the corresponding Hebrew is Yahweh or YHWH, and in some cases saying that this name is "traditionally" transliterated as Jehovah:
  • The Revised Standard Version, an authorized revision of the American Standard Version of 1901, replaced all 6,823 usages of Jehovah in the 1901 text with "" or "", 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 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".
  • The New American Bible. Its footnote to Genesis 4:25–26 says: "... men began to call God by his personal name, Yahweh, rendered as "the " in this version of the Bible."
  • The New American Standard Bible, another revision of the 1901 American Standard Version, followed the example of the Revised Standard Version. Its footnotes to and state: "Related to the name of God, YHWH, rendered, which is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be"; "Heb YHWH, usually rendered ". 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."
  • The Bible in Today's English, published by the American Bible Society. Its preface states: "the distinctive Hebrew name for God is in this translation represented by 'The Lord'." A footnote to states: "I am sounds like the Hebrew name Yahweh traditionally transliterated as Jehovah."
  • The New International Version. Footnote to, "The Hebrew for sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for I AM in verse 14."
  • The New King James Version, though based on the King James Version, replaces JEHOVAH wherever it appears in the Authorized King James Version with "", 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".
  • The God's Word Translation.
  • The New Revised Standard Version, a revision of the Revised Standard Version uses "LORD" and "GOD" exclusively.
  • The New Century Version.
  • The New International Reader's Version.
  • The Contemporary English Version or CEV .
  • The English Standard Version. Footnote to, "The word, when spelled with capital letters, stands for the divine name, YHWH, which is here connected with the verb hayah, 'to be'."
  • The Common English Bible .
  • The Modern English Version.
A few translations use titles such as The Eternal:
Some translations use both Yahweh and ':
Some translate the Tetragrammaton exclusively as Yahweh:
Following the Middle Ages, before and after the Protestant Reformation some churches and public buildings across Europe were decorated with variants and cognates of "Jehovah". For example, the Coat of Arms of Plymouth City Council bears the Latin inscription, Turris fortissima est nomen Jehova, derived from.
Some lyrics of some Christian hymns include "Jehovah". The form also appears in some reference books and novels, appearing several times in the novel The Greatest Story Ever Told, by Catholic author Fulton Oursler.
Some religious groups, notably Jehovah's Witnesses and proponents of the King-James-Only movement, continue in deliberate use of the form. In Mormonism, "Jehovah" is thought to be the name by which Jesus was known prior to his birth; references to "the " in the KJV Old Testament are therefore understood to be references to the pre-mortal Jesus, whereas God the Father, who is regarded as a separate individual, is sometimes referred to as "Elohim". "Jehovah" is twice rendered in the Book of Mormon, in 2 Nephi 22:2 and Moroni 10:34.

Similar Greek names

Ancient

Transcriptions of similar to Jehovah occurred as early as the 12th century.