When Yahweh gave His 613 Laws to Mosheh to teach to the Children of Israyl, He vowed an oath saying that those who would truly obey His voice and walk in all his ways would be a "special treasure"' to Him. He also promised that He would establish these Law-abiding people as his holy people.
Exodus 19:5-6—
5 Now therefore, if you will truly obey My voice, by keeping My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation...
9 Yahweh will establish you as His Holy People unto Himself, as He promised you on oath, if you will keep the Laws of Yahweh your Father, and walk in all His ways.
10 Then all the people on the earth will see that you are called by the Name of Yahweh, and they will fear you.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you would show forth the praises of Him Who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
These Scriptures show that all the people of the earth will see that Yahweh's holy people (those who walk in all of Yahweh's Ways) are known by the name of Yahweh. There has never been an inspired Scripture written in the Torah or by the prophets telling us that Yahweh's holy people would ever be called (known) by any other name. In fact, the Prophet Yahyl was inspired to write a wonderful prophecy concerning everyone who calls with the name of Yahweh.
And whoever will call with the Name of Yahweh will be delivered; for in Mount Zion in Yerusalem there will be deliverance, as Yahweh has said, among the remnant who has escaped of those whom Yahweh calls.
And it will come to pass that whoever calls on the Name of Yahweh will be delivered.
For Whoever calls with the Name of Yahweh will be saved.
Why is it that we do not call with the Name Yahweh? Do we not desire blessings? Do we not desire acceptance from our Father? Holiness? Salvation? Could it be that we've accepted traditions that our teachers have inherited from their teachers, and then taught to us as doctrine—doctrine that cannot be supported by the inspired Scriptures?
We are not called by the Name of Yahweh, in fact Yahweh's Name is not even uttered, because we have been taught that it is not acceptable to do so. We are taught that we must not pronounce the Holy Name of our Creator and Father, Yahweh, the Name the chosen of Yahweh will be known by, the Name those who are delivered will call upon! We are instructed by our teachers that Yahweh's Name is too holy to pronounce; therefore, we are to call Him "Adonai" and "Elohim".
This teaching has been fully
ingrained in
the
minds of nearly all Israylites to the point that extreme hatred is
shown toward anyone who openly speaks or writes the one and only true
Name of the Creator. Remember this, because the holy prophets both
spoke and wrote the true Name. As a result, the Name of Yahweh has
almost been forgotten (in effect, profaned or brought to nothing), and
Baal's name is remembered and proclaimed worldwide.
As we will read from authoritative sources, there was a time when the Name Yahweh was pronounced by all of Yahweh's people, in prayers, in blessings, and in greetings. However, by the third century B.C.E., our teachers began teaching that Yahweh, the true Name of our Creator, was too holy to pronounce. This teaching is a practice that was not inspired by our Father, but one that gradually came about due to pagan influence.
At first, the practice was to just pronounce the name Adonai instead of the Name Yahweh, wherever Yahweh's Name was written in the Holy Scriptures. However, as time went on, changes were made to the original writings. Vowel points (which were not originally part of the text) were added to Yahweh's Name, causing the reader to pronounce the names Adonai and Elohim instead, and in many places these alternate names were actually written in place of Yahweh's Name altogether. We'll show you the many sources verifying these facts, but The Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 7, pages 680-682, sums it all up rather well, as you can see for yourself.
YHWH. The personal name of the God of Israel is written in the Hebrew Bible with the four consonants yhwh and is referred to as the "Tetragrammaton". At least until the destructions of the First Temple in 586 b.c.e., this name was regularly pronounced with its proper vowels, as is clear from the *Lachish Letters, written shortly before that date. But at least by the third century b.c.e., the pronunciation of the name yhwh was avoided, and Adonai, "the Lord", was substituted for it, as evidenced by the use of the Greek word Kyrios, "Lord", for yhwh in the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was begun by Greek-speaking Jews in that century. Where the combined form *Adonai yhwh occurs in the Bible, this was read as *Adonai *Elohim, "Lord God". In the early Middle Ages, when the consonantal text of the Bible was supplied with vowels points to faciliate its correct traditional reading, the vowel points for 'Adonai with one variation - a sheva with the first yod of YHWH instead of the hataf-patah under the aleph of 'Adonai7 were used for YHWH, thus producing the form Yehowah. When Christian scholars of Europe first began to study Hebrew, they did not understand what this really meant, and they introduced the hybrid name "Jehovah". In order to avoid pronouncing even the sacred name *Adonai for YHWH, the custom was later introduced of saying simply in Hebrew ha-Shem (or Aramaic Shemc, "the Name") even in such an expression as "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of YHWH" (Ps. 118:26).
THE PROHIBITION OF USE OF THE NAMES OF GOD. The prohibition applies both to the pronunciation of the name of God and its committal to writing, apart from its use in sacred writings. The prohibition against the pronunciation of the name of God applies only to the Tetragrammaton, which could be pronounced by the high priest only once a year on the Day of Atonement in the Holy of Holies (cf. Mishnah Yoma 6:2), and in the Temple by the priests when they recited the Priestly Blessings (Sot. 7:6; see also Ch. Albeck (ed.), Seder Nashim (1954), 387). As the Talmud expresses it: "Not as I am written am I pronounced. I am written yod he vav he, and I am pronounced alef dalet" (nun yod, i.e., Adonai; Kid. 71a).
Authoritative scholars, such as the one shown above, point out that the original, personal name of our Creator, written hwhy in the Hebrew tongue spoken by all the patriarchs and prophets, is correctly written and pronounced Yahweh in English.
In ancient times, the Hebrew words were written without vowels in what is called the unpointed script, so that each word consisted of a group of consonants whose vowel sounds were supplied from memory by the reader. In other words, Hebrew words were pronounced with vowel sounds even though the vowels themselves were not written. The Hebrews knew, from oral teaching and practice, which vowels were associated with the different words. Yahweh's Name is written yod-heh-waw-heh hwhy in Hebrew, transliterated YHWH in English, but is written and pronounced with the proper vowels YAHWEH as these sources show. Notice what The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901, Volume 12, page 119, states.
It thus becomes possible to determine with a fair degree of certainty the historical pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, the results agreeing with the statement of Ex. iii. 14, in which YHWH terms Himself hyha. "I will be", a phrase which is immediately proceeded by the fuller term "I will be that I will be," or, as in the English versions, "I am" and "I am that I am." The name hwhy is accordingly derived from the root hwh(=hyh), and is regarded as an imperfect. This passage is decisive for the pronunciation "Yahweh"; for the etymology was undoubtedly based on the known word.
The Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 7, page 680, further states this fact.
The true pronunciation of the name YHWH was never lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian Church testify that the name was pronounced "Yahweh". This is confirmed, at least for the vowel of the first syllable of the name, by the shorter form Yah, which is sometimes used in poetry (e.g., Ex. 15:2) and the -yahu or -yah that serves as the final syllable in very many Hebrew names.
The Encyclopedia Britanica, Volume 23, page 867, confirms this fact.
YAHWEH, the proper name of the God of Israel; it is composed of four consonants (YHWH) in Hebrew and is therefore called the Tetragrammaton...
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 9, page 160, confirms this fact.
Of the names of God in the Old Testament, that which occurs most frequently (6,823 times) is the so-called Tetragrammaton, YHWH (hwhy), the distinctive personal name of the God of Israel.
And The Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 12, pages 118-119, confirms this fact also.
TETRAGRAMMATON: The quadriliteral name of God, (hwhy). The Tetragrammaton is the ancient Israelitish name for God...
The Jewish Encyclopedia,
Volume 9, pages 162-163, also shows us that while the rabbis recognized
only
one proper name for the Creator, they also considered other names as
titles for the Creator. As you read this excerpt, notice and remember
the title (Adonai) that was used in place of the Creator's Name:
...The Rabbis as well as
the cabalists
steadfastly maintained their belief in monotheism. Hence they
recognized only one proper name for the Deity, considering the other
names as appellations or titles
signifying divinity, perfection,
and power, or as characterizing His acts as observed and appreciated by
mankind...The
name YHWH is
considered as the
Name
proper; it was known in the
earliest rabbinical works simply as the
Name; also as Shem ha-Meyuhad ("the Extraordinary Name"; Sifre, Num.
143): as Shem ha-Meforash ("the Distinguished Name"; Yoma vi. 2); as
Shem ben The Name. Arba' Otiyyot ("the Tetra-grammaton" or
"the Quadrilateral Name"; Kid 71a); and as Yod He Waw He
(spelling letters of YHWH).
It is recorded that the pronunciation of the Name Yahweh began to be suppressed in earnest upon the death of a man named Simeon the Just, a High Priest who served in this office in the time span of 310-199 B.C.E., or about 200 years before the nation of Israyl came under the rulership of the Roman Empire. The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901, Volume 11, page 353, points out that this was the turning point, namely the exact time when it became a practice in Israyl to no longer pronounce the Name Yahweh.
SIMEON THE JUST (qydxh /wumv): High priest. He is identical either with Simeon I. (310-291 or 300-271 b.c.), son of Onias I., and grandson of Jaddua, or with Simeon II. (219-199 b.c.), son of Onias II... After Simeon's death men ceased to utter the tetragrammaton aloud (Yoma 30b; Tosef Sotah. xiii.).
The Babylonian Talmud,
Tractate
Yoma, page 39b, also verifies that it was upon the death of Simeon the
Righteous, that all Israyl began to no longer pronounce the Name
Yahweh.
...When Simeon the Righteous died, with many indications that such glory was no more enjoyed, his brethren no more dared utter the Ineffable Name...
The
Jewish
Encyclopedia
Volume
9, pages 162-163, not only confirms this fact, but it shows the strict
prohibition and warning to all those who do not adhere to it.
The
restriction upon communicating
the
Name proper
probably
originated in Oriental etiquette; in the East
even a teacher was not called by name. For naming his master Elisha,
Gehazi was punished with leprosy (II Kings viii. 5; Sanh. 100a). After
the death of the high priest Simeon the Righteous, forty years prior to
the destruction of the Temple, the priests ceased to pronounce the Name
(Yoma 39b). From that time the pronunciation of the Name was
prohibited. "Whoever pronounces the Name forfeits his portion in the
future world" (Sanh. xi. 1).
Hananiah ben Teradion was punished
for teaching his disciples the pronunciation of the Name (`Ab.
Zarah 17b).
The Babylonian Talmud,
Tractate
Kiddushin, page 71a, openly admits, however, that the Name yahweh was
pronounced by all the children of Israyl, both small and great, before
the death of Simeon the Just.
Our Rabbis taught: At first [Yahweh's] Name used to be entrusted to all people. When unruly men increased, it was confided to the pious of the priesthood.
Many teachers in Israyl came to believe that the Name Yahweh was too holy to be pronounced, so they began teaching the nation that only the High Priest should utter this Name, once a year on the Day of Atonement. The Century Bible, by Adeney and Bennett, Volume 1, pages 90-91, shows us this information.
Some time after the return from the Captivity, and before the beginning of the Christian era, the Jews came to believe that the Name YHWH was too sacred to be uttered on ordinary occasions. It was said to be pronounced by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement.
Please note the time period in which the Name of our Heavenly Father was suppressed, some time after the return from the captivity, and before the beginning of the Christian Era (approximately 310-199 B.C.E.). This means that up to this time, the prophets, and in fact all the people of Israyl, used the great Name of Yahweh when they walked through the waters of the Red Sea; when they ate manna which came directly from Yahweh; when they saw their enemies expelled from in front of them; when they took the lands from their enemies; and all the while, they were becoming a healthy nation. It was only in turning from Yahweh to idolatry, as we are doing today, that caused Yahweh to hide His face from Israyl and give their enemies advantage over them.
The Jewish Encyclopedia contains additional information about the pronunciation of Yahweh's Name being confined to the temple and spoken only by the priests. Volume 9, pages 162-163, states: The pronunciation of the written Name was used only by the priests (Num. vi. 22-27); outside the Temple they used the title "Adonai" (Sotah vii. 6; p. 38a)...
Volume 1, pages 201-202, shows us
this:
...In the early period
of the Second
Temple the Name was still in common use, as may be learned
from
such proper names as Jehohanan, or from liturgical formulas, such as
Halelu-Yah. At the beginning
of the Hellenistic era, however, the
use of the Name was reserved for the Temple. From Sifre to
Num. vi.
27, Mishnah Tamid, vii. 2, and Sotah, vii. 6 it appears that the priests
were allowed to pronounce the Name at the benediction only in the
Temple; elsewhere they were obligated to use the appellative name (kinnuy)
"Adonai"'
...
...Pronunciation
of the Name by the
Temple
priests... also gradually fell into disuse. Tosef., Sotah,
xiii. 8
quoted Menahot, 109b, and Yoma 39b, relates that "from the time
Simon the Just died [this is
the traditional expression for the
beginning of the Hellenistic period], the priests
refrained from
blessing the people with the Name"__in other words,
they pronounced it indistinctly, or they mouthed or mumbled it. Thus
says Tosef., Ber. vi. 23: Formerly
they used to greet each other
with the Ineffable Name; when the time of the decline of the study of
the Law came, the elders mumbled the Name. Subsequently also the solemn
utterance of the Name by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, that
ought to have been heard by the priests and the people according to
the Mishnah Yoma, vi. 2, became
inaudible or indistinct.
R. Tarfon (or
Tryphon) relates (Yer. Yoma,
iii. 40d): "I was standing in the row of young priests, and I
heard the high priest mumbling the Name, while the rest of the priests
were chanting."
...But
while even
among these the right
pronunciation was forgotten in the course of time, and the hope was
expressed
by Phinehas b.
Jair, "the Saint", that
the
knowledge and the correct use of the Name, so wondrously efficacious in
the blessed days long goneby, would again be restored in the Messianic
age (see
Pes. 50a, Midr. Teh.
to Ps. xxxvi. and to Ps. xci.)...
Volume 11, page 263,
shows us more:
...the Mishnah
(Sotah vii. 6;
Tamid vii. 2)
says, in conformity with this interpretation: "In the Sanctuary
the
name of God [in the three blessings, Num. vi. 24-26] is to be
pronounced in the Priestly Benediction as it is written [hwhy]; but
outside the Sanctuary it must be given the paraphrastic pronunciation
[ynda]."
The high priest spoke the
name of God on the
Day of Atonement in his
recitation of Lev. xvi. 30 during the
confessions of sins; and when the priests and the people in the great
hall heard him utter the "Shem ha-Meforash", they prostrated
themselves and glorified God, saying: "Praised by the glorious name of
His kingdom for ever and ever" (Yoma vi. 2). When a very young priest,
the well-known tanna Tarfon witnessed this ceremony; and he declares
that the
high priest uttered
the holy name of God so that his voice
was merged in the song of priests (Yer. Yoma 40d,
below; Kid. 71a;
Eccl. R. iii. 11), although
it was believed that when, at this
point in the ritual, the priest pronounced the name of God he was heard
as far as Jericho (Tamid iii.
7; comp. Yoma 39b). Tarfon's account,
that the voice of the high priest was drowned by the song of other
priests, also confirms the synchronous statement (Yer. Yoma 40b) that
in former times the high priest uttered the Name with a loud voice, but
that subsequently, when immorality had become more and more prevalent,
he lowered his voice lest the Name should be heard by those unworthy to
hear it...
The Shem ha-Meforash as an
object
of the
esoteric knowledge of scholars appears in the statement of Johanan
(Kid. 71a): "Once each week
the sages give their pupils the
Four-Lettered Name." A tannaitic passage in Yer. Yoma 40d, however,
says: ``In former times the Name was taught to all; but when immorality
increased it was reserved for the pious," although this
statement
refers, according to the baraita in Kid. 71a, to teaching the Name to
the priests.
Immorality came among the people
because Yahweh and His Laws were not being taught or practiced. So
without authority from the inspired words of the prophets, our
forefathers removed the name of Yahweh from the memory of our people.
Instead of teaching Yahweh's Laws, they turned to the traditions of the
Gods of earth and heaven!
Volume 9, page 163, further
states:
It
appears that a majority
of the
priests
in the last days of the Temple were unworthy to pronounce the Name,
and a combination of the letters or of the equivalents of the letters
constituting the Name was employed by the priests in the Temple. Thus
the Twelve-Lettered Name was substituted, which, a baraita says, was at
first taught to every priest; but with the increase of the number of
licentious priests the Name
was revealed only to the pious ones,
who "swallowed" its pronunciation while the other priests were
chanting.
Another
combination, the Forty-two-Lettered Name,
Rab says, was taught only to whomever was known to be of good character
and disposition, temperate, and in the prime of life (Kid. 71a; comp.
Rashi to `Ab. Zarah 17b). Maimonides, in his ``Moreh,'' thinks that
these names were perhaps composed of several other divine names.
The Incommunicable Name was
pronounced
"Adonai", and where Adonai and yhwh occur together the later was
pronounced "Elohim".
Volume 12, page 119, states:
The
avoidance
of the original name
of
God both in
speech and, to a
certain extent, in the Bible was due
according to Geiger ("Urschrift," p. 262), to a reverence
which
shrank from the utterance of the Sublime Name; and it may well
be
that such
a reluctance first
arose in a foreign, and hence in an
"unclean" land, very possibly, therefore, in Babylonia. According
to Dalman (l.c. pp. 66 et seq.), the Rabbis forbade
the utterance of the Tetragrammaton, to guard against desecration of
the Sacred Name; but such an
ordinance could not have been
effectual unless it had met with popular approval.
We have seen, from these well-known
and
accepted sources, the following facts:
a. Yahweh is the ancient, original,
distinctive, personal, proper name of the Creator;
b. The rabbis recognized yahweh as
the
proper Name for the Creator;
c. The rabbis considered names other
than the true Name as names for the Creator;
d. The pronunciation of Yahweh's
Name
began to be suppressed in the third century B.C.E.;
e. The Name of Yahweh was considered
to be too holy to pronounce;
f. The pronunciation of the written
Name was used only by the priests; and that,
g. Those who were not priests, and
priests when outside the temple, used the titles Adonai and
Elohim when referring to the Creator.
The fact still remains that although
the pronunciation of Yahweh's Name was prohibited from being
spoken (beginning around the third century b.c.e.), Yahweh has not
allowed the true pronunciation of His Name to be lost. And, the
scholars do admit this fact. Notice what The
Jewish Encyclopedia
of 1901, Volume 12, page 119, states:
It thus becomes possible to
determine
with a fair degree of certainty the historical pronunciation of the
Tetragrammaton, the results
agreeing with the statement of Ex. iii.
14, in which YHWH terms
Himself hyha. "I will be", a
phrase
which is immediately preceeded by the fuller term "I will be that I
will be,'' or, as in the English versions, "I am'' and "I am that I
am.'' The name hwhy is accordingly
derived from the root hwh(=hyh), and
is regarded as an imperfect. This
passage is decisive for the
pronunciation "Yahweh"; for
the etymology was undoubtedly based
on the known word.
The Encyclopedia
Judaica,
Volume 7, page 680, further states this fact:
The
true pronunciation of the name
yhwh
was never lost. Several early
Greek writers of the Christian Church
testify that the name was
pronounced "Yahweh."
This is
confirmed, at least for the vowel of the first syllable of the name, by
the shorter form Yah, which is sometimes used in poetry (e.g., Ex.
15:2) and the -yahu or -yah that serves as the final
syllable in very many Hebrew names.
Yahweh's Name In The Dead Sea Scrolls
The
following is is a
photo of
Psalms
119:59-64 in the Dead Sea Scrolls which are a collection of Hebrew
Scriptures that date back 2000 years. Note Yahweh's name in the ancient
Hebrew script while the rest of the text is in a more modern
Hebrew
that was used at the time.
The Name Of The Creator Unearthed
One of the first
archeological finds was discovered during excavations in Arad,Israel
that took place during the 1960s and
1970s. Fragments of pottery were found at an Israelite sanctuary which
dated back to the days of King Solomon. Inscribed in Hebrew on one of
these is a reference to "the
House of Yahweh." This was reported in The
Jerusalem Post in an article entitled "Unearthing the Land" which
appeared June 29,1973. Here is an excerpt from that article and a
fragment of the pottery.
Mostly used for
business
transactions, these humble documents are a
mine of historic information. At Arad, excavated by Yohanan Aharoni,
reference is made to a "House
of YHWH".
Another
amazing find was
the very oldest
Scriptural text ever found, dating back almost 2,600 years. This is
found in a tiny silver amulet
which contains a
Seventh Century B.C. extract from the Book of Numbers (6:24-26),
the Priestly Blessing. The rolled up amulet was part of a
tresure hoard
found by a Tel Aviv University archeologist in a First Temple
Period family tomb in Jerusalem, Israel. When this amulet was written,
the Temple of Solomon still stood, the heirs of King David still ruled
on the throne, and the Dead Sea Scrolls would not be written for
another four hundread years.
It was three years after its discovery before the fragile amulet could be unrolled by technical experts at the Israeli Museum. On this amulet the Name of Yahweh could be clearly read in the original Hebrew language. Complete details of this maginificent find can be read in the June 28, 1986 and the August 9, 1986 issues of The Jerusalem Post, and the June, 1987 issue of The Readers Digest.
The Name of Yahweh Engraved on an Ivory Pomegranate Decoration
Biblical
Archaeology Review, Jan.-Feb.
1990, page 49—"BAR recently published a beautiful
carved ivory
pome-granate with an important inscription on it. As
partially reconstructed, the engraved inscription around the neck of
the pomegranate reads as follows: "Belonging to
the House of
Yahweh Holy to the Priests." Based on this reading, many
scholars
have concluded that the ivory pomegranate originally came from the
Jerusalem Temple constructed by King Solomon."
Three-shekel receipt provides evidence of
King Solomon's Temple
NEW YORK (AP) —
Talk
about holding on to a receipt. A recently
discovered piece of pottery
recording a donation to the "House of
Yahweh may contain the oldest mention outside the Bible of
King Solomon's Temple.
The 3½-by-4-inch artifact is nearly 3,000 years old, dating to a time when kings sent messages inscribed on pottery. 11/3/97
Process Of Elimination Developed And Implemented
In order to implement the avoidance of pronouncing Yahweh's Name, a system of vowel points was developed and added to the Hebrew language.
The
Jewish
Encyclopedia,
Volume
12, pages 118-119, tells us more about this:
TETRAGRAMMATON: The quadrilateral
name of God, (hwhy).
The
Tetragrammaton is the ancient
Israelitish name for God. According to actual count, it occurs 5,410
times in the Bible, being
divided among the books as follows:
Genesis 153 times, Exodus 364, Leviticus 285, Numbers 387, Deuteronomy
230, (total in Torah 1,419); Joshua 170, Judges 158, Samuel 423, Kings
467, Isaiah 367, Jeremiah 555, Ezekiel 211, Minor Prophets 345 (total
in Prophets 2,696); Psalms 645, Proverbs 87, Job 31, Ruth 16,
Lamentations 32, Daniel 7, Ezra__Nehemiah 31,
Chronicles 446 (total in Hagiographa 1,295).
In
connections with (ynda)
the
Tetragrammaton is pointed with the vowels of "Elohim" (which
beyond doubt was not pronounced in this combination); it occurs 310
times after (ynda),
and five times before it
(Dalman, "Der
Gottesname," etc., p.91), 227 of these occurrences being in Ezekiel
alone. The
designation "YHWH
Zeba'ot," translated "Lord of
hosts," occurs 260 times, and with the addition of "God" four times
more. This
designation is met
with as follows: Isaiah 65 times,
Jeremiah 77 times, Minor Prophets 103 (Zechariah 52; Malachi 24),
Samuel 11, Kings 4; but it does not occur, on the other hand, in the
Pentateuch, in Joshua, in Judges, or in the Hagiographa. Adding
these 264 occurrences and the 315 just noted to the 5,410 instances of
the simple Tetragrammaton, the word "YHWH" is found to occur 5,989
times in the Bible. There is no instance of it, however, in Canticles,
Ecclesiastes, or Esther; and in Daniel it occurs 7 times (in ch.
ix.)__a fact which in
itself shows the late
date of these
books, whose
authors lived
at a period when the use of the
Tetragrammaton was already avoided, its utterance having become
restricted both in the reading of the Bible and still more in
colloquial speech. For it was substituted adonai; and the fact that
this name is found 315 times in combination with "YHWH" and 134 times
alone shows that the custom of reading the Tetragrammaton as if written
"adonai" began at a time when the text of the Biblical books was not
yet scrupulously protected from minor additions. This assumption
explains most of the occurrences of "Adonai" before "YHWH"; i.e.,
the former word indicated the pronunciation of the latter. At the time
of the Chronicler this pronunciation was so generally accepted that he
never wrote the name "Adonai." About 300 b.c.,
therefore, the
word ``yhwh'' was not pronounced in its original form. For several
reasons Jacob ("Im Namen Gottes," p. 167) assigns the "disuse of the
word "YHWH" and the substitution of "adonai" to the later decades of
the Babylonian exile."
The Interpreters Dictionary of
the
Bible, Supplementary Volume, page 717, tells us
more about the
devices used to hide Yahweh's Name:
Qere
perpetuum.
The
earliest
instance where a word in the biblical text was not read, but another
was pronounced in its stead, is that of the TETRAGRAMMATON (YHWH). The
prohibition of pronouncing "The Name," and the obligation of
substituting in perpetuity a term that expresses the divine majesty,
are explicitly recognized in the Babylonian Talmud (Pes. 50a):
"Said the Holy One, blessed be He: not as I am written, am I read. I
am written h"y
(yodh-he, i.e., the
Tetragrammaton), but I am read d"a (aleph-daleth,
i.e., Adonai)." The antiquity of this prohibition is evident from the
fact that the Hebrew Tetragrammaton was not translated in the most
ancient recensions of the lxx, where it appears only in Hebrew script.
Later it was rendered into Greek by kuvrio"
(Lord), which conveys the
sense of the Hebrew Adonai. In the Greek text, at the beginning, the
same procedure was followed as in the Hebrew, namely, the equivalent of
the divine name was first abbreviated, through reverence, into the form
k",
then, in later texts and under Christian influence, it came to be
written out fully. In the same way, the Babylonian Targ. on the
Pentateuch (Targ. Onkelos) systematically renders the Tetra-grammaton
into Aramaic by the abbreviation ywy(the
arithmetic equivalent of which __26__ is the
same as that of the
Tetragrammaton fully written in its Hebrew form).
This ancient
prohibition of
pronouncing
the divine name persisted orally until the introduction of the Hebrew
vocalic system, where the vowels written under the Tetragrammaton are
those of the substitute word Adonai. Its antiquity
clearly shows
that it originated
in the
oldest Jewish oral traditions that
accompanied the transmission (masora) of the sacred text from
the beginning. In contrast to
the qere
perpetuum,
substituted orally for the Tetragrammaton, the Masoretic
tradition,
as a precautionary measure, indicated in the margin of later mss, in
the form of a statistical note (dlq=134), the number of times
in the
text where God is explicitly designated
by
the title yn*dØa& (cf. Gen. 18:3 and passim).
In this
way, they sought to forestall any
change in the form of
the
sacred text that might be made by an overhasty scribe.
Robert Pfeiffer, in his Introduction
to the Old Testament, supplies
more information:
To
avoid the utterance of the name
Yahweh,
both before and after the adoption of the qere, other devices were
employed.
In some cases adonay was written in the
text (so in Dan. 9:9 where the Babylonians wrote YHWH); in Pss. 42-83
elohim (deity) is substituted for Yahweh; in Am.
5:16 adonay (missing in the
lxx) and in Ps. 59:5
(H. 59:6);
80:4, 19 (H. 80:5, 20); 84:8 (H. 84:9) elohim are interlinear
substitutes for yhwh, which were mechanically copied into the text
(see W.R. Arnold, Ephod and
Ark, pp.
31, 38, 145-147). We
even find in the text late substitutes for Yahweh: "Heaven" (Dan.
4:26 [H. 4:23]; cf. Is. 14:13, lxx; the Kingdom of "Heaven" in
Matthew) and "the Name" (Lev. 24:11, 16). In the Aramaic portions of
Daniel 2-7, not only are substitutes
for Yahweh regularly employed,
but the verbal form YeHeWeH (he is or will
be), which occurs
regularly in the Elephantine papyri, to avoid confusion with the
ineffable name YHWH was
changed to
LeHeWeH (similarly
the plurals lehewon, lehewyah).
Long after the introduction of
the qere
"Lord" for YHWH (6,823 times
in the Old Testament according to
the Masora), but before a.d. 500, vulgar expressions in the text, as we
have seen, were removed by substituting a euphemism in the reading
(qere). Equally ancient are the instances of "read but not
written" and "written but not read" listed above.
Vowel points were placed among the
letters of Yahweh's Name (hwhy) as a code
telling the reader to
pronounce another name
(or title) in place of
the Name Yahweh (hwhy).
The
Century Bible, by Adeney and Bennett, Volume 1, page 91,
chronicles
the establishment of this doctrine.
Hebrew was
originally written
without
vowels,
but when
the vowel points
were added, the vowels of Adonay or Elohim were
written with yhwh, as a direction that these
words were to be read instead of the word whose consonants were YHWH.
Thus we find the combinations YeHoWaH and YeHoWiH.
We have already seen that the two
names
chosen to take the place of the Name Yahweh are Adonai and Elohim. When
the vowel points of Adonai or Elohim were placed among the
letters of the Name Yahweh (hwhy), Yahweh's
Name was changed to look
like the following: (ho*hy++)
or (ho!hy++).
Then, when a reader saw
the Name Yahweh with the vowel points, the reader would know to say
Adonai when he saw the form (ho*hy+), and
Elohim when he saw the form
(ho!hy++).
The Babylonian Talmud,
Tractate Kiddushin, page 71a,
openly confirms that this became the standard practice of all Israyl,
as it still is to this day.
...R. Abina opposed [two verses]: It is written, `this is my name'; but it is also written, `and this is my memorial'?__The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I am not called as I am written: I am written with yod he, but I am read, alef daleth.7
7. The Tetragrammaton is yod he waw he; but it is read adonai = alef daleth nun yod...
We have plainly seen that due to the devices of our teachers and leaders, the rabbis, the Name of Yahweh fell into disuse. What started out in speech, also was transferred into writing. The Name of Yahweh was replaced with the name Adonai so that down through the years, especially in the translation from Hebrew to other languages, The Holy Scriptures do not contain the Name of yahweh at all, but rather the title Lord.
The
Encyclopedia Britanica,
Volume 23, page 867, confirms the fact that the proper, original Name
Yahweh was replaced with common substitutes:
YAHWEH,
the proper name
of
the God of Israel; it is composed of four consonants (YHWH) in Hebrew
and is therefore called the tetragrammaton...The
name
Yahweh
later ceased to be used
by
the Jews for two somewhat contradictory reasons. As Judaism began
to become a universal religion, the proper name
Yahweh tended to be
replaced by the common noun Elohim, meaning "God," which could apply
to foreign deities and
therefore could be used to demonstrate the
universal sovereignty of Israel's God over all others. At the same
time, the
divine name was
increasingly regarded as too sacred to be
uttered, for fear of profanation, and in the synagogue ritual it was
replaced by Adonai ("my
Lord"), which was translated Kyrios
("Lord") in
the Septuagint.
The occurence of the four sacred
letters in the text of the Bible itself could not be thus replaced,
but the same fear of profanation caused Masoretes (6th-8th
centuries a.d.) to change the pronunciation by replacing the vowels
(which in Hebrew are marked beneath or above the consonants if not
omitted altogether) with the
vowels of Adonai (or, more
rarely,
the vowels of Elohim).
The Jewish Encyclopedia,
Volume
1, pages 201, 203, also points out this fact.
ADONAI
(yn*da&, literally "my
Lord," the plural form of Adon, that is, "Lord" or "Lordship"): This
word occurs in the Masoretic text 315 times by the side of the
Tetragram YHWH (310 times preceding and five times succeeding it) and
134 times without it. Originally an appellation of God, the word became
a definite title, and when the Tetragram became too holy for utterance
Adonai was substituted for it, so that, as a rule, the name written
yhwh receives the points of Adonai and is read Adonai, except in cases
where Adonai precedes or succeeds it in the text, when it is read
Elohim. The vowel-signs e, o, a, given to the
Tetragrammaton in the written text, therefore, indicate this
pronunciation. Adonai, while
the form Jehovah, introduced by a
Christian writer about 1520, rests on a misunderstanding. The
translation of yhwh by the word Lord in the King James and in other
versions is due to the traditional reading of the Tetragrammaton as
Adonai, and this can be traced to the oldest translation of the Bible,
the Septuagint...
...No wonder, then,
that the Greek
translators of the Bible,
even though some scribe might now and
then write the Tetragrammaton in the archaic Hebrew form on the margin,
II I II I, as found by
Origen (see facsimile
attached to article
AQUILA), took
great care to
render the name II I II I regularly Kupios,
Lord, as if they knew of no other reading but Adonai. Translations
dependant upon the Septuagint have the same reading of the Name.
You have just read proof after proof
that the words Adonai and Elohim have come to be substituted for the
Name Yahweh, whether in speech or in writing, throughout The Holy
Scriptures so that Yahweh's Name is forgotten. However, the simple fact
remains, in the very earliest writings, known as the J or Yahwist
manuscripts, the Name of Yahweh is used exclusively. So then, how did
these words come to be accepted as suitable substitutes for the Name
Yahweh?
The general consensus among
scholars
is
that there are four main sources or manuscripts of The Holy Scriptures
named J, E, P, and D. The
Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 13, page 234, gives us this fact.
Sources. The opinion accepted in
contemporary biblical research is that the pentateuchal literature
is composed of four major sources: J,
E, P, and D.
This information concerning the major
sources of the Scriptures is also shown to us in The Encyclopedia
Brittanica, Volume 2, page 194:
BIBLICAL
SOURCE, any of the
original documents that, in compilation, constitute the Bible. Most
of the writings in the Old Testament are of anonymous authorship, and
in many cases it is not known whether they were compiled by individuals
or by groups. Nevertheless, by careful evaluation of internal evidence
and with the aid of various schools of biblical criticism (q.v.), scholars have been
able to
identify certain sources and to
arrange them chronologically in order of composition.
The
means by which the basic
sources of
the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) were distinguished
and their chronology established provided the first clear picture of
Israel's literary and religious development. The names by which these
sources are now known, in chronological order, are: the Yahwist, or J,
source, so
called because
it employed as the Lord's name
a Hebrew
word
transliterated
into English as YHWH
(called J from the German:
JHVH) and
spoken as Yahweh; the Elohist,
or E, source, distinguished by
its reference to the Lord as Elohim;
the Deuteronomist, or D,
source, marked by distinctive
vocabulary and style; and the Priestly code, or P,
source,
which contains detailed ritual instructions.
Our main concern will focus on the J
and E sources. It is very
important to note that the oldest source, the
J exclusively.
Yes, in the
oldest manuscript of
the Scriptures, Yahweh is never
referred to by the
titles El, Elohim, or Adonai—but only by His Name, Yahweh!
(Yahwist) source, used the
Name of Yahweh
The
Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 13, page 234, gives us these facts:
...The distinction
between J and E is
based primarily on the different usage of the divine name in these
sources: YHWH in J and Elohim
("God") in
E. P
is the
Priestly Source and D the
Deuteronomic. The different usage of the
divine name is not only a matter of form but relates to the type of
attitude taken to the history of the religion of Israel. According
to J, YHWH, the Lord of
Israel, was worshipped as early as the time of
Enosh (Gen. 4:26), while according to E,
YHWH, i.e., the true name of
the God of Israel, was first revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Ex.
3:6ff.).
...J
notes a religious continuity
beginning with the time of Enosh and continuing through the period of
the Patriarchs to Moses. In
contrast, E and P, while admitting that
the God who was revealed to the Patriarchs is the God who was revealed
to Moses, maintain that the Patriarchs did not
know Him by His true name, and there is doubtless theological
significances to this lack of knowledge. Furthermore, P, which places
great emphasis on the religious chasm between the period of the
Patriarchs and that of Moses, does not consider the possibility of
legitimate worship of God (sacrifices) before the revelation in the
time of Moses.
J
and E
Sources. This
difference between J and E is most evident in Genesis, where
it is
based on an explicit criterion: YHWH in J as opposed to Elohim
in E...
The Jewish Encyclopedia,
Volume
7, pages 64-65, tells us also that the J manuscript preferred the Name
of Yahweh over Elohim:
...(usually
symbolized as J): The name
given
in modern Bible criticism to the supposed author of those
portions
of the Pentateuch (or of the Hexateuch) in which the name yhwh is used
for God in preference
to the
name "Elohim,"
which latter
is employed
by the Elohistic writers...it is natural to
suppose
that J
was
written as its counterpart, and as an expression of the view that yhwh
ruled all things from the beginning, and that the faith and worship
cherished in Jerusalem were also those of the Fathers.
The Interpreter's Dictionary of
the
Bible, Volume 2, page 777, tells us this about
the oldest
source of
The Holy Scriptures, the Yahwist source:
J. One of principal
narrative
sources or strata of the Pentateuch. The symbol is
derived from the
personal name of God, Jehovah (or more accurately Yahweh, from hwhy, the use of which is
characteristic of
this source. It is commonly
regarded as Judahite in origin, and somewhat earlier than E
(tenth-ninth centuries b.c.).
The Anchor Bible, Genesis,
Volume 1, pages 37-38, confirms that the J source is the oldest
(and therefore the first and inspired) source of the Scriptures:
...J traced
back the name
Yahweh to the dim past, while E and P attributed the
usage to Moses, both views
may be justified depending on the point
vantage. The worship of
Yahweh was in all likelihood confined at
first to a small body of searchers under the aegis of the patriarchs;
it was this movement that found a worthy recorder in J.
When Moses set out to fashion a nation out of an amorphous conglomerate
of sundry ethnic and tribal elements, he had to concentrate on three
major features of nationhood: a territorial base, a body of laws, and a
distinctive religion. The last was normative in more ways than one; it
was necessarily the faith of the same forefathers who had already tied
it to the Promised Land, with Yahweh as its fountainhead. To that
extent, therefore, Yahweh revealed himself to Moses: and it is this
personal revelation that both E and P celebrate. To J, however, who chronicled the
progress within the inner
circle of the patriarchal pioneers, the personal participation of
Yahweh had been the dominant fact from the start.
The Encyclopedia Judaica,
Volume 7, pages 680-681, concerning this "J" writer, says:
According to the documentary
hypothesis, the
literary sources in the Pentateuch known as the Elohist and the
Priestly Document never use the name Yahweh for God until it is
revealed to Moses (Ex. 3:13; 6:2-3); but the Yahwist source uses it
from Genesis 2:4 on, thus implying that it was at least as old as
Abraham. If the name is
really so old, then Exodus 6:2-3 must
be understood as meaning that from the time of Moses on, Yahweh was to
be the personal name of the God who brought the people of Israel into
existence by bringing them out of Egypt and established them as a
nation by His covenant with them at Sinai.
One must wonder, if Abraham and
Mosheh
had followed the same teaching we today have known from birth, the Name
of our Heavenly Father would have never been known to us today. It is
my opinion that we should praise Yahweh for giving Abraham and Mosheh
the great wisdom to call upon, and write for us, His Name.
The Interpreters Dictionary of
the
Bible, Volume 2, page 409, confirms the fact
that the earliest
manuscripts used only the Name Yahweh.
...The Yahwist narrative (see
Pentateuch) traces the
worship of Yahweh far back beyond the period
of Moses and affirms that in the time of Enosh, the grandson of Adam,
men first began to invoke the name of Yahweh (Gen. 4:26). This
narrator's consistent use of
the name from the story of Creation
onward represents a theological attempt to view the whole of human
history in the light of the covenant faith and to demonstrate that
Yahweh is not just the God of Israel but of all mankind (Enosh means
"man")...
...Although the name was given
new currency
in Mosaic circles, the J account (Gen. 4:26) may preserve a dim recollection
that it was known in the pre-Mosaic period....
...However, the latest Pentateuchal
tradition, the priestly writing (P),
gives a completely different view
in Exod. This conjecture is confirmed by a third Pentateuchal
tradition, E, which avoids
using Yahweh in the book of Genesis...
...In the earliest Hebrew the sacred
name
appeared as a four-letter word or tetragrammaton: YHWH (hwhy) without
any vowel signs...
Knowing the time in which the blinded
scribes began to replace Yahweh's Name with titles of gods and Lords,
and then reading the rebuke given to them by the Prophet Yeremyah
(Chapter 23) for making Yahweh's people forget His great Name, we see
the pieces of an historical puzzle start falling into place. After
rejecting and hiding Yahweh's Name, it's obvious that the next step was
to reject and deny Yahweh's great laws.
The translation of the Holy Scriptures from Hebrew to Aramaic, the Targums, are known for their literal adherence to the original Hebrew Scriptures which used the Name Yahweh. The Chumash with Targum Onkelos and Rashi's Commentary, shows us that in Genesis 1:1, where Elohim is used in the Masoretic text, the Targum Onkelos uses the Aramaic abbreviation for Yahweh.
Masoretic Text: The word ELOHIM
is circled
Targum Onkelos: The Name YAHWEH
is circled
The E (Elohist) Source
The E
or Elohist source is derived
from
the word elohim, god, the use of which is characteristic of this
source. Please remember, the
J (Yahwist) source is the oldest
source,
meaning the Elohist source
came after the Yahwist source. The
Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible,
Volume 2, page 1, tells us:
E (ELOHIST) -.
One of the principal narrative sources or strata of the Pentateuch. The
term is derived from a Hebrew word for "God" (syhla, Elohim; see
GOD, NAMES of, § 3c), the use of which is
characteristic of this source.
The Jewish Encyclopedia,
Volume
5, page 142, confirms that the E source used Elohim in
place of
Yahweh's Name.
...The use of "Elohim" for "God" is
the most notable characteristic of E. ...the symbol J (=Jahvist)
applying to passages in which the name "YHWH" is predominant.
"Adonai" and "El" occur occasionally (Gen. xx. 4, xxx. 20, xxxv. 7,
xliii. 14).
The Interpreter's Dictionary,
Volume 2, page 94, also shows that this source is commonly associated
with the Northern Kingdom of Israyl, and dates approximately 100
years
later than the Yahwist source.
ELOHIST,
The author or compiler of the E source of the Pentateuch (see
E), which is commonly
associated with the N kingdom and dated to
the eighth century b.c.
The Anchor Bible,
Proverbs-Ecclesiastes, Volume 18, page xxxi, tells us that the Elohist
(E) source shows its ORIGIN to
be in the NORTHERN KINGDOM of
Israyl, when the kingdom split in two AFTER the death of Solomon:
The fact that the E document in the
Pentateuch shows evidences of origin in North Israel after the division
of the kingdom at Solomon's death, but follows the outline of the
Judean J document which it later was used to
supplement,
indicates
that both stem from a common source before the kingdom split in two.
Do you grasp the
significance
of
this?
This says that both
the
Yahwist and the Elohist sources stem from a
common source before the kingdom split
in two. This actually means they
used the same work,
however, while one retained
Yahweh's Name in the
Holy Scriptures, the other
replaced Yahweh's Name with the title
Elohim.
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia,
Volume 9, page 160, gives us more proof that Yahweh's Name appeared in
the original writings, and
Adonai and Elohim were added later.
Of the names of God in the Old
Testament,
that which occurs most frequently (6,823 times) is the so-called
Tetragrammaton, YHWH (hwhy), the distinctive personal name of
the God
of Israel. This name is
commonly represented in modern translations
by the form "Jehovah," which, however, is a philological
impossibility (see Jehovah). This form has arisen through
attempting to pronounce the consonants of the name with the vowels of
Adonai (yn*da="Lord"), which the Masorites have inserted in
the text, indicating thereby that Adonai was to be read (as a
"keri perpetuum") instead of
YHWH. When the name Adonai
itself precedes, to avoid repetition of this name, YHWH is written
by the Masorites with the vowels of Elohim, in which case Elohim is
read instead of YHWH. In
consequence of this Masoretic reading the
authorized and revised English versions (though not the American
edition of the revised version) render yhwh by the word "Lord" in
the great majority of cases.
This name, according
to the narrative in
Ex.
iii. (E), was made known to Moses in a
vision at Horeb. In another,
parallel narrative (Ex. vi. 2, 3, P) it is stated that the name was not
known to the Patriarchs. It is used by one of the documentary sources
of Genesis (J), but scarcely if
at all by the others. Its use is
avoided by some later writers also. It does not occur in
Ecclesiastes, and in Daniel is found only in ch. ix. The writer of
Chronicles shows a preference for the form Elohim, and in Ps.
xliii.-lxxxiii. Elohim
occurs much more frequently than YHWH,
probably having been substitued in some places for the latter name
,
as in Ps. liii. (comp. Ps. xiv.).
The
very oldest
Scriptural text ever
found, dating back almost 2,600 years, was found in a tiny
silver
amulet which contains a Seventh Century b.c.e. extract from the Book of
Numbers (6:24-26), the priestly blessing. The rolled up amulet was part
of a treasure hard found by a Tel Aviv University archeologist in a
First Temple Period family tomb in Yerusalem, Israyl. When this amulet
was written, the Temple of Solomon still stood, the heirs of King David
still ruled on the throne, and the Dead Sea Scrolls would not be
written for another 400 years.
It was three years after its discovery before this fragile amulet could be unrolled by technical experts at the Israyli Museum. On this amulet the Name of Yahweh could be clearly read. Complete details of this magnificent find can be read in the 6-28-86 and 8-9-86 issues of The Jerusalem Post and the 6-87 issue of The Readers Digest.
The following excerpt was taken from an
article in the November/December 1997 issue of Biblical Archaeology
Review, pages 28-32. We see here that the Creator's work during the
time of Solomon was known by the same Name as it is today—The House of
Yahweh. It was Solomon who built the Temple where this tithe was given.
You can read of this in I Kings 6.
Three Shekels For The Lord
Ancient Inscription Records Gift To
Solomon's Temple
Two extremely important
Hebrew
inscriptions
have recently surfaced on the antiquities market. One appears to be a
receipt for a donation of three silver shekels to the House of Yahweh,
pursuant to an order of the Israelite king. This is the oldest
extra-Biblical mention of King Solomon's Temple ever discovered. The
other inscription records the petition of a widow for some portion of
her late husband's property. Both inscriptions, apparently by the same
scribe, are written in Old Hebrew, or paleo-Hebrew, the script used
before the Babylonian Exile. Both are on pieces of pottery, called
ostraca because they bear an inscription.
Only one other extra-Biblical source
mentions
Solomon's Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E...
The text on the first ostracon, which
measures about 4 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall (10.9 by 8.6 cm), is
only 5 lines and 13 words long. All the words are complete and
readable. See the box for the text and translation.
A TEMPLE RECEIPT
Text:
1. K'SR SWK. 'SY
2. HW.HMLK.LTT.BYD
3. [Z]KRYHW.KSP TR
4. SS.LBYT YHWH [.]
5. S3
Translation:
1. Pursuant to the order to you of Ashya-
2. hu the king to give by the hand
3. of [Z]echaryahu silver of Tar-
4. shish to the House of Yahweh
5. Three shekels.
*Brackets indicate that the letter or word
has been reconstructed. Half-brackets indicate that part of the leter
or word has been reconstructed.
Most of the words are separated from one another by dots acting as word dividers. However, sometimes the word dividers are omitted, such as between LBYT and YHWH, which together are pronounced Beit Yahweh and mean "House of Yahweh."
The Temple is designated by the Hebrew term BYT YHWH, many times in the Bible. (Temple only refers to the building, Beit—House refers also the people of Yahweh). But BYT YHWH had been found complete in only one extra-Biblical inscription, a faded ostracon from Arad with an obscure context, until this newly published ostracon was revealed.
BYT YHWH has been reconstructed on the inscribed ivory pomegranate that served as the head of a priestly scepter in Solomon's Temple... divine name would mean "he causes to be, or exist," i.e., "he creates." Amorite personal names after 2,000 B.C. lend support to the Haupt-Albright view, demonstrating that the employment of the causative stem yahwe "he creates" was in vogue in the linguistic background of early Hebrew.
The Interpreter's Dictionary of
the
Bible, Volume 4 page 923 says:
YAHWEH—The vocalization of the
four
consonants of the Israylite name for the Creator, which scholars believe
to approximate the original pronunciation.
The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia,
page 690 tells us:
The Name par excellence for
the Creator of
Israyl is Yahweh, found 6,823 times in the OT. Through
Israyl's
deliverance from bondage in Egypt, adoption as a nation, and guidance
to the Promised Land, the Redeemer-Creator is especially known by THIS
NAME. (Emphasis ours).
James Moffatt, in his translation, The
Bible: A New Translation, 1935, Harper and Brothers,
informs us in
his introduction:
Strictly speaking this ought to be
rendered
Yahweh which is familiar to modern readers in the erroneous form of
Jehovah. Were this version
intended for students of the original,
there would be no hesitation whatever in printing Yahweh.
Although Moffatt substitutes the
title,
The Eternal in the place of the Name of Yahweh, he fully admits a
distinct loss of meaning in this.
The Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume
7,
page 680 states emphatically:
The true pronunciation of the
Name YHWH
was
never lost.
Several early
Greek writers of the Christian Church
testify that the Name was pronounced Yahweh.
The Hebrew-Aramaic-English
Dictionary, by Marcus Jastrow, Volume 1, page 576, proves
that the
abbreviation in the Targum Onkelos
is that of Yahweh's Name
.y*y+m. (abbrev. of the
Tetragrammaton)
Targ. Ps. 1, 2 (ed. Lag. hwhy); a. fr.__Y. Snh. X, 28a
top; a. fr. (interch. in eds.
with 'h).
The book The Meaning of the
Qumran
Scrolls for the Bible page 164 tells us that in these
original
writings the Name Yahweh stood alone.
Actually this practice was much
earlier, for
one of the frequent
discrepancies between the
Massoretic text
and the presumed Hebrew Vorlage
of the Septuagint is whether
to read in a given passage Yahweh alone, or Yahweh Adonai. This inconsistency
was occasioned by the fact
that originally Yahweh did stand alone, but that Adonai tended to be
introduced alongside the Tetragrammaton by way of making explicit the
surrogate. This was not understood by the Massoretes, however, who
felt compelled to vocalize both words. Neither was it understood by the
scribes of the Qumran Scrolls, nor even by still earlier translators of
the LXX. That Yahweh originally stood alone in most passages is
supported by the fact that, in Hebrew poetry, the double designation of
the Deity usually adds excessive length to the poetic stich.
So not only do we have proof that
the
Name Yahweh was written in the original Holy Scriptures, we have proof
that it was spoken by all of Yahweh's people as well.
Yahweh's Name is written yod-heh-waw-heh
hwhy
in Hebrew, transliterated YHWH in English, but was written and properly
pronounced, YAHWEH as these sources show. Notice what The Jewish
Encyclopedia, Volume 12, page 119 states:
It thus becomes possible
to determine
with
a fair degree of certainty the historical pronunciation of the
tetragrammaton, the
results agreeing with the statement of Ex. iii.
14, in which YHWH terms Himself hyha. "I will
be," a phrase
which is immediately proceeded by the fuller term "I will be that I
will be," or, as in the English versions, "I am" and "I am that
I am." The name
hwhy
is accordingly derived from the root hwh, =( hYh) and
is regarded as an imperfect. This
passage is decisive
for the pronunciation "Yahweh"; for the etymology was undoubtedly based
on the known word.
The personal Name of the Father of
Israyl is written in the Hebrew Scriptures with the four consonants
YHWH, and is referred to as the Tetragrammaton. At least until the
destruction of the First Temple 586 B.C.E., Yahweh's Name was
pronounced regularly with its proper vowels, as is clear from the
Lachish Letters, written shortly before that day. However, at least by
the third century before our Messiah was born, the pronunciation of the
Name Yahweh was avoided, and Adonai, the Lord, was substituted for
it.
The Century Bible, Volume
1,
pages 90-91 tells us:
Some time
after the return from the
Captivity,
and before the beginning of the Christian Era, the Yahdaim (Jews)
came to believe that the Holy Name YAHWEH was too sacred to be uttered
on ordinary occasions. It was said to be pronounced by the High Priest
on the Day of Atonement. At other times, when any one read or
quoted aloud from what is called the Old Testament, the word Adonay,
Lord, was usually substituted for Yahweh, and similarly the LXX
(Septuagint Version) has Kurios, the Vulgate dominus, and the E.V.
Lord, where the Hebrew has Yahweh. Hebrew was originally written
without vowels, but when the vowel points were added, the vowels of
Adonay or Elohim
were written with Yahweh, as
a
direction that these words were to be read instead of the word whose
consonants were Yahweh; thus we find the combinations YeHoWah and
YeHoWiH. At the Reformation, the former being the more usual,
was
sometimes used as the Name of the (Mighty One) Of Israyl, and owing to
ignorance of its history was misread as Jehovah, a form which has
established itself in English, but does not give the pronunciation of
the Holy Name it represents.
In the Hebrew manuscripts, the religious scholars conclude there are three major texts of Scripture; the oldest and the original being the Yahwistic works, which use the Name of Yahweh exclusively. These works are referred to as the J writings because they contain only the Name of Yahweh without the pagan titles of El, Elohim or Adonai. In these first manuscripts, everyone knew instantly the Name of the Creator of all things, because the minds of those who read it were not confused by reading titles of pagan Gods (Elohim).
The next text of the Scriptures, coming about 100 years later, incorporated the use of pagan titles, which were adopted from the Canaanites after the children of Israyl entered the promised land, even though Yahweh had strictly warned them to stay away from the Godworship of the people they would come in contact with (Deuteronomy 7:1-5). In direct violation of Yahweh's commandment not to worship hinder Gods (Elohim) only 100 years later the Holy Scriptures became polluted with the pagan titles of Elohim, Adonai, God and Lord.
The pagan word God comes from the word El (singular—God) or Elohim (plural—Gods).
From The
Interpreter's Dictionary of
the
Bible, Volume 1, page 817, we find the information that El or
Elohim simply means demon.
A. In The OT. 1.
Daimonism. a. Daimon. The
Hebrew equivalent of
"demon" (daimon) in the original sense is simply la or
myhla
('elohim), commonly
rendered
"god."
The words El-Elohim, like the words
Baal-Adonai came from the Canaanite vocabulary and worship. These
Canaanite words were accepted into the Hebrew language many years after
the Yahwist writings of the Holy Scriptures.
The
Encyclopedia
Judaica, Volume 7, page 674 tells us:
Most of these terms were employed
also by
the Canaanites to designate their pagan gods. This is not
surprising; since on settling in the Promised Land the Patriarchs and
early Israelites made "the language of Canaan" their own (Is. 19:18),
the Hebrew language would naturally use the Canaanite vocabulary for
terms designating their own Deity.
These names of the Canaanites' Gods (Elohim) were accepted before and during the time of Yeremyah the prophet began his prophesying.
Yeremyah 23:25-27—
25 I have heard what the
prophets say, who
prophesy
lies in My Name,
saying; I have dreamed! I have dreamed!
26 How long will this be in the
heart
of the prophets who prophesy lies? Yes, they are prophets of
the deceit of their own minds;
27 Who devise; plan and scheme, tto
cause
My people to forget My
Name through their
dreams, which
they tell
every man to his neighbor, just as their fathers have forgotten
My Name
for Baal; Lord.
The word Baal simply means Lord,
as is shown in Unger's Bible Dictionary,
page 665.
Lord (Hebrew Adon), an early
word denoting ownership; hence, absolute control. It is not
properly a (righteous) title...master;
of kings, as the lords of
their subjects. (4.) Lord. Master, (Greek Kurios) Supreme...
(5.) Baal (Master) (As noted above, it
means Lord)—applied only to heathen deities
(gods), or to man as
husband, etc
...
The Jews out of a superstitious reverence for the Name of Yahweh,
always, in reading, pronounced
Adonai where Yahweh is written.
On page 413 of Unger's
Bible
Dictionary, we find:
Baal—common Canaanite word for
master, lord, was one of the chief male deities of the Canaanite
Pantheon, now well known from
the religious epic literature
discovered at Ras Shamra (an Ugarit of the Amarna Letters), from
1921-1937.
Smith's Bible
Dictionary on
pages 195-196 states:
The substitution of the word Lord is
most (sad); for, while it in
no way represents the meaning of the
Sacred Name, the mind has
constantly to guard against a confusion
with its lower uses, and, above all, the direct personal hearing of
the Name on the revelation of Yahweh...is injuriously out of sight.
At the time, the use of these pagan
terms was accepted, and used by the copyists to replace Yahweh's Name,
or to identify Him in their writings. However, these pagan words cannot
identify Yahweh our Creator, because they are titles of Satan and her
angels.
Unger's Bible Dictionary page 412 states that the word El is a Canaanite word meaning God or devil.
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Volume 1, page 817, under Demonology, says the word Elohim (plural form of El) means demons or Gods.
Scholars and historians find
it quite
remarkable that the people of Yahweh ever accepted appellations such as
Adonai or Elohim in place of the Name Yahweh. Harper's Bible
Dictionary by Paul Achtemeier, page 253 states:
The accomodation of El worship by
Yahwism
was a remarkable occurrence
for Israel was as a rule hostile to the
cults of Canaaite gods and goddesses.
The
Encyclopedia
Judaica,
Volume 7 page 680, tells us a very important fact about Yahweh's
Name.
YHWH. The personal name... written in the
Hebrew Bible with the four consonants YHWH and is referred to as the
"Tetragrammaton." At least until the destruction of the First Temple in
586 B.C.E. this name was regularly pronounced with its proper vowels,
as is clear from the Lachish Letters, written shortly before that date.
But at least by the third
century B.C.E. the pronunciation of the
name YHWH was avoided and Adonai,"the Lord,"was substituted for it.
Notice what they have written
concerning the Name Yahweh from The
Torah: A Modern Commentary,
by Gunther Plaut, page 31 and page 426.
hwhy is the unique, personal name of
the
Creator and the name most frequently used in the Bible. The Torah gives
the meaning hwhy in Exod. 3:14. The original
pronunciation was most
likely Yahweh (hwhy), but since Jewish tradition
permitted the name to
be voiced only by the High Priest it became customary, after the
destruction of the Second Temple, to substitute the word Adonai
(meaning "my Lord") when reading hwhy. 1 The Masoretes who
vocalized the Hebrew text therefore took the vowels from the word
Adonai (ynda) and put them with hwhy to remind the reader not to read
Yahweh but Adonai. Hence, all vocalized text of the Bible now read hnhy.2
A Christian writer of the
sixteenth century who was
unaware
of this substitution transcribed hwhy, as he saw it, namely, as
Jehovah, and this has since entered many Christian Bible translations.
Overwhelming scholarly opinion holds
that hwhy was in Moses' time pronounced hwhy (Yahweh). There is also a
shorter form of the Name, Yah (hy), which may represent the original
form from which Yahweh was expanded or may, contrariwise, be a
contraction of the longer ascription. Yahweh occurs sometimes alone (as
in 15:2, 17:16), but more likely in conjunction with proper names like
Elijah (Eliyah in Hebrew) and in the doxology,
HalleluYahweh.
The Name Yahweh means self-existent,
which this source shows. But it also means perfect righteousness,
which is contrary to the meaning of the word God, which means a mixture
of righteousness and evil. Notice the following Scriptures, which shows
the character of Yahweh:
Exodus 33:18-19—
18 Then Mosheh said; Show me
now
Your glory.
19 And Yahweh said: I will
make
all My
righteousness pass in front of you; and I will proclaim My Name,
YAHWEH
, in your presence.
I
will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Exodus
34:5-7—
5 Then Yahweh descended in the
cloud, and
stood with him there, and proclaimed the Name of YAHWEH.
6 Yahweh passed in front of him,
and
proclaimed: YAHWEH, YAHWEH Almighty, merciful and compassionate,
longsuffering, and abounding in righteousness and truth.
7 Keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving
iniquity, and transgression, and sin; but by no means leaving
unpunished those who are guilty; Who visits the sin of the
fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and
fourth generation.
They have substituted (among many
other
names and titles) Baal, the Babylonians God (el) and Adonay, the
Canaanite God (El)of the Phoencians for the holy Name of our
Creator Yahweh. The substitution of Yahweh's Name with the names of
pagan Gods (Elohim) has brought immeasurable harm. Such names as Lord,
God, Jesus and Christ in no way represent the meaning of the name
revealed by Yahweh our Heavenly Father to Mosheh, and to the
ancient
Hebrews. By employing these names, the people unknowingly turn the
worship of Yahweh into that of God (elohim) and actually ascribe
the
loving and merciful characteristics of the Father of Israyl, to the
pagan Gods (Elohim).
The New International Version
Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament, elects
to use
Yahweh's
Name where it is written in the Hebrew text. In Volume 1, page 26 of
the Introduction is found this statement:
Yahweh, the personal Name of (the
Creator)
is always translated Yahweh, against the practice in the NIV in
rendering it as Lord. On the
one hand, this prevents confusion of
the Name with the title (Adonai) my Lord, for the idea of lord is
not an integral element of the Name. On the other hand, it may be
the use of Yahweh in this work will encourage the reader to use the
personal Name of (Yahweh) in prayer and praise, as is intended by the
most common imperative in the Scriptures: (HalleluYahweh!) Psalm
104:35: Praise Yahweh!
The Holy Name of our Father and Creator, Yahweh is the one and only Name by which the Creator is known throughout the Holy Scriptures.
Psalm 23:6—
Surely righteousness and mercy
will follow
us
all the days of our lives; an we will dwell in the House of Yahwehforever!
Psalm
9:10—
They that know your Name will put
their trust in You! Those who seek You, You will not forsake!
Psalm
83:18—
Let men know that You, whose Name alone
is Yahweh, are the Supreme Head over all the earth!
Isayah
43:3—
For i am Yhweh your Father,
the Holy One of
Israyl, your Savior...
Following is a list of only a few of
the Scriptures which show the glorification of Yahweh's Name in His
Book:
Psalm 68:4, Exodus 17:8-15, Exodus 15:26, Judges 6:24,
Genesis 22:13-14, Acts 2:21, Yeremyah 23:6, Proverbs 30:4, Isayah 42:8,
Hosheyah 2:17, Hebrews 2:12, Psalm 22:22, I Kings 18:21, Yahchanan
12:13, Yahchanan 14:13-14, Acts 4:12.
Throughout the Holy Scriptures, you
can
read of the importance placed on the Name of Yahweh. Knowing and using
our Creator's Name in worship and study has been important for each
generation, for Yahweh is the only Being Who can give life.
I Timothy 6:16—
who alone has immortality, dwelling
in
the light which no man can approach unto; Whom no man has seen, nor can
see; to whom belongs honor
and power everlasting.
HalleluYahweh! Praise
Yahweh!
This Scripture alone shows the great
importance that is attached to knowing our Heavenly Father's Name. But
as this age grows closer to an end and all hope of life slowly
vanishes, it becomes extremely important for people to know our
Creator's Name. It is only those who call with the Name of Yahweh who
will be delivered at this end time.
Yahyl 2:31-32—
31 The sun will be turned into
darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of Yahweh
comes.
32 And whoever will call with the Name
of
Yahweh will be delivered;
for in Mount Zion in Yerusalem there will
be deliverance, as Yahweh has said, among the remnant who has
escaped of those whom
Yahweh calls.
How will Yahweh, our Creator, hear
us
if we continue to call upon Him with the titles of pagan Gods (Elohim)?
There is simply no denying the importance of the Name of Yahweh, to Yahweh's people. The simple fact is that if we are not, or will not become, willing to invoke and be called with Yahweh's Name, we have no hope at all for any salvation. The holy men of old, we supposedly look to as our teachers and examples, called with the Name of Yahweh. Why then are we still so stubborn? We must obey Yahweh's every word and heed the examples of the holy people of old, to call with Yahweh's Name.
A true "devout" Israyli will not
mention
the
names of pagan gods, but will only call on Yahweh. Notice what is
written in The Jewish Encyclopedia,
Volume 9, page 160.
The devout Israelite will not take
the
name
of a false god upon his lips
(Ex. xxiii. 13; Josh. xxiii. 7; Hosea
ii. 16-17; Ps. xvi. 4). To
make mention of YHWH's name is to asse.
confidence in His strength
and present and efficient aid. The
name excites emotions of love, joy, and praise. (Ps. v. 11; vii.
17; ix. 2; xx. 1, 7). That name is, therefore, especially connected
with the altar or sanctuary,
the place where Yahweh records His name
(Ex. xx. 24), or "the place
where Yahweh shall choose out of all
your tribes to put His name there." (Deut. xii. 5; comp. I Kings
viii. 16, 29; ix.. 3; Jer. vii. 12). The Temple is "the place of
the name of Yahweh of hosts, the mount Zion." (Isa. xviii. 7).
The Encyclopedia Britannica,
Volume 23, page 867, also tells us about the meaning of Yahweh's Name
to Israylites.
This presence and power of Yahweh
is
stressed
in the frequent biblical phrase "Yahweh Sabaoth," "Yahweh of hosts,"
those hosts both earthly and heavenly which Yahweh uses to establish
his sovereignty over Israel, and through Israel over the whole world. The
name Yahweh was thus for the faithful Israelite a never-failing source
of confidence, power and joy.
Yahweh is, most certainly, our Father
and the source of our salvation. He will give salvation to those who
follow Him completely, refusing to bow to or serve God (any Gods) at
all. There is overwhelming proof that the words El and Elohim were the
very words the pagan Canaanites used for worshipping their own Gods. It
is obvious from the study of the etymology of the Hebrew language, that
the Children of Israyl made the language of Canaan their own because of
the snares of the Canaanites and their own disobedience to Yahweh. As
we have seen, the word El has been translated as God in many
Scriptures, but it is of vital importance to know that this word has
also been translated power in three different Scriptures.
Genesis
31:29—
It is in my power to do you harm,
but
Yahweh, the Father of your father, spoke to me last
night,
saying: Be careful that you speak to Yaaqob neither blessings nor
curses.
Proverbs
3:27—
Do not refuse help to one who has need of it
when it is in the power of your hand to give it.
Micahyah
2:1—
Woe to those who devise
iniquity, who plot
evil upon their beds! When the morning dawns they carry out their
plans, because it is in
their power to do so.
In each of these three verses, the
word El has been translated power, which is power of
man, not Yahweh. El, word #410 in the Hebrew Dictionary of Strong's
Exhaustive Concordance comes from another Hebrew word #352, which
is the same as #193. The root of these words means powerful, mighty
or strength.
The Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 7,
page 674, gives us the following information.
'El. The oldest Semitic term for God
is `el (corresponding to Akkadian ilu (m), Canaanite 'el or 'il, and Arabic 'el as an
element in personal names). The etymology of the word is obscure. It
is commonly thought that the term derived from a root `yl or `wl
meaning "to be powerful."
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance Hebrew
Dictionary confirms this statement. El,
comes from word #352, ayil, which means:
410. la 'el, ale;
short.
from 352; strength; as adj. mighty; espec. the Almighty
(but used also of any deity):—God, (god), x goodly, x great,
idol, might (-y one), power, strong. Cop. names in "-el."
352. lya, ayil, ah'yil; from the same as 193; prop. strength; hence anything strong; spec. a chief (politically); also a ram (from his strength); a pilaster (as a strong support); an oak or other strong tree:—mighty (man), lintel, oak, post, ram, tree.
Ayil is from the same
unused
root as uwl, ool, meaning:
193. lWa uwl, ool; from
an unused root mean. to
twist. i.e. (by impl.) be
strong;
the body (as being rolled together); also powerful:—mighty,
strength.
We see that King David, a man after
Yahweh's own heart, acknowledged that Yahweh was his strength, but
certainly not a God.
Psalm 22:19—
But You, O
Yahweh, be not far from Me!
O My
Strength, make haste to help Me!
Strength in this verse
is word #360
in
the Hebrew Dictionary of Strong's
Exhaustive Concordance, and
means power, by implication, protection, strength.
360. tWlya, 'eyaluwth;
eh-yah-looth';
fem. of 353; power; by imp. protection:—strength.
Eyaluwth
comes from the word eyal,
which comes from ayil, which
comes from the same unused root uwl,
which means:
353. lya, eyal, eh-yawl';
a var. of 352; strength; strength.
Psalm 22:1,
"My Yl" and Psalm
22:19,
"My Strength," have the same root word, and the same meaning: My
Strength.
We have already read that El and Elohim were Canaanite words relating to Canaanite gods that Yahweh condemns. Notice the definitions of El and Elohim.
410. la 'el, ale; short. from 352; strength; as adj. mighty; espec. the Almighty (but used also of any deity):—God, (god), x goodly, x great, idol, might (-y one), power, strong. Cop. names in "-el."
430. myhla 'elohiym, el-o-heem'; plur., of 433. gods in the ordinary sense; but spec. used (in the plur. thus, esp. with the art.) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:—angels, x exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), x (very) great, judges, x mighty.
The direct work of the elohist writer
has been to place the names of the Gods of Canaan, into the Holy
Scriptures. The Canaanites took the idols of strength and power,
contained in the primitive roots yl and wl, and made
Gods out of these concepts. Israylites have fallen for this deception
and now worship Elohim instead of Yahweh, Who is truly the only source
of power (Isayah 44:6,8).
Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon,
page
45, shows us more about the word EL.
la, m.—(1)
prop. part. of the verb lWa
lya
No.
2, strong, mighty, a mighty
one, a hero (comp. note).
(2) might, strength) prop. that which is strong. Lamed
in this phrase marks state or condition. The nature of this phrase has
been but little understood by those who would here render la by God...
Notice the note by the author of this
Lexicon which says:
Note. Following
most etymologists, I
have above derived la
from the root lWa
but to give my opinion more
exactly, it appears rather to be a primitive word, the etymology being
however adapted to the root lWa; so that to
Hebrews this word would
present the notion of strength and power.
From man's own writings, we see this la (el) from the root lWa (ool) indicates strength, not God, as Satan has deceived this world into believing.
Gesenius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon,
page
20, also gives us this information on ayil (lya) and auwl (lWa):
lWa
or lya a
root not used as a verb, but of
wide extent in the derivatives. (2) to strength and power
(comp.
lWa
& lya),
whence lA strong, God;
hla terebinth
(as if "robust tree"); /nla oak; also lya,
hWlya strength,
aid. The
notion of strength and power is applied.
According to Gesenius
Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon To The Old Testament, page 695, this word El
originally came from the root
words wl and yl. Man's
own writings say these words mean strength, power, strong.
These writings also say that the
words El-God and elohim-god, were the
work of a later and deceived writer.
Yahweh is the
only source of power we can
turn to in time of need, and
there has never been a time we needed
Yahweh more than this present age with the dangers we are facing.
Yahshua 23:5-8—
5 Yahweh your Father Himself
will drive them
out of your way. He will push them out from in front of you, and you
will take possession of their land, just as Yahweh your Father has
promised you.
6 Therefore, be very strong to
carefully
obey
and do all that is written in the Book of the Law given through
Mosheh, without turning aside either to the right or to the left;
7 By not mingling with these
nations that
are
left with you: by not pronouncing the names of their gods (elohim), nor
causing anyone to administer a vow in their names. You must not serve
them, and you must not bow down to them.
8 You are to hold fast to
Yahweh
your
Father,
just as you have until now.
Yahweh has told us in no uncertain
terms not to even say the names of their Gods to worship them. How much
plainer could this be? Yahweh has also shown us the words El and
Elohim, God and Lord are the names of the very Canaanite Gods He told
us not to mention.
At the time Yahshua was leading the
Children
of Israyl, they had not worshipped Gods, they had not bowed themselves
to, nor had they served the Lord—they had not forsaken Yahweh. Yahweh
was their (and our) strength, head and Father. Yahweh was not then, nor
has He ever been, a mere God. That is why we must return the prefixes
and suffixes El-God to Yl-strength-Father, to give honor to Yahweh by
not making mention of the names of their Gods out of our mouths. Yahweh
only allows those who submit to Him to carry His Name.
Isayah 52:6—
Therefore My
people will know My Name;
Therefore they will know in that day that I am He Who
speaks. Behold, it is I!