Tetragrammaton

The punctators seem to intimate the originality of the vowels of יְהֹוָה‎ by not pointing Yod with Hhateph-Pattah יֲהֹוָה‎ to indicate the reading of אֲדֹנָי‎ just as they point it with Hhateph-Segol to indicate the reading of אֱלֹהִים‎. We could, moreover, not account for the abbreviated forms יוֹ‎, יְהוֹ‎ prefixed to so many proper names unless we consider the vowels of יְהֹוָה‎ original.

Gerard Geroux writes that in the Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010, the Masoretes used 7 different vowel pointings [i.e. 7 different Q're's] for YHWH.^[5]Gerard Geroux believes that the Q're "e,o,a" ^[6]had become standardized in 1278 when the Spanish monk Raymundus Martini, in his book Pugio Fidei, transliterated the Biblical Hebrew name "יְהֹוָה‎" into Latin as yohoua [with a small 1278 Latin initial letter "y"]^[7]

In 1518 Petrus Galatinus was using the Latin transcription "Iehoua" [without a final "h"]. ¹

Meaning

When Moses asks, in response to the calling of God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" He is first given a description and told to tell the sons of Israel that "I AM the One I AM" אהיה אשר אהיה‎, or "I AM whatever I need to become".(Exodus 3:13) This phrase is shown to be the meaning of the name when, in poetic parallel "I AM (אהיה‎) has sent you." is replaced by the name. "Say to the Israelites, 'YHWH, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is MY NAME forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation."(Exodus 3:15).

According to one Jewish tradition, the Tetragrammaton is related to the causative form, the imperfect state, of the Hebrew verb הוה‎ (ha·wah, "to be, to become"), meaning "He will cause to become" (usually understood as "He causes to become"). Compare the many Hebrew and Arabic personal names which are 3rd person singular imperfective verb forms starting with "y", e.g. Hebrew Yôsêph = Arabic Yazîd = "He [who] adds"; Hebrew Yiḥyeh = Arabic Yahyâ = "He [who] lives".

Using the vowels of YHWH

Josephus wrote that the sacred name consisted of four vowels. Many sacred name ministries who believe that YHWH consists of four vowels pronounce these four vowels as "ee-ah-oo-eh" and believe that indicates God's name was either "Yahweh" or "Yahuweh". It is claimed that the Greek transcription "ιαουε" would have been pronounced "Yah-oo-eh". (Iota is used as both a vowel and a semi-vowel.) "Clement of Alexandria spelled the Tetragrammaton (Ya-oo-ai),(Ya-oo-eh)and (Ya-oh). In none of these is the central oo or oh vowel omitted", which is 'omitted in the name Yahweh.' ^[8] However, since there was no letter in the Classical Greek alphabet for a [w] sound, the letter combination ου was sometimes used to transcribe a [w] sound in words borrowed from foreign languages into ancient Greek.

Of course, early Hebrew had no written "vowels" as such — every letter of the Hebrew alphabet was primarily consonantal in function (see Matres lectionis).

Another tradition regards the name as coming from three different verb forms sharing the same root YWH, the words HYH haya היה‎: "He was"; HWH howê הוה‎: "He is"; and YHYH yihiyê יהיה‎: "He will be". This is supposed to show that God is timeless, as some have translated the name as "The Eternal One". Other interpretations include the name as meaning "I am the One Who Is." This can be seen in the traditional Jewish account of the "burning bush" commanding Moses to tell the sons of Israel that "I AM (אהיה‎) has sent you." (Exodus 3:13-14) Some suggest: "I AM the One I AM" אהיה אשר אהיה‎, or "I AM whatever I need to become". This may also fit the interpretation as "He Causes to Become." Many scholars believe that the most proper meaning may be "He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists" or "He who causes to exist".

Transcription

Using consonants as semi-vowels

In Biblical Hebrew, most vowels are not written and the rest are written only ambiguously, as the vowel letters double as consonants (similar to the Latin use of V to indicate both U and V). See Matres lectionis for details. For similar reasons, an appearance of the Tetragrammaton in ancient Egyptian records of the 13th century BC sheds no light on the original pronunciation. ². Therefore it is, in general, difficult to deduce how a word is pronounced from its spelling only, and the Tetragrammaton is a particular example: two of its letters can serve as vowels, and two are vocalic place-holders, which are not pronounced. Not surprisingly then, Josephus in Jewish Wars, chapter V, wrote, "…in which was engraven the sacred name: it consists of four vowels". In Greek, they are Ιαου, which comes out to Yau, since iota is used to represent semi-vocalic 'y' (and omicron+ypsilon="oo").

Further, Josephus's four vowels are confirmed by theophoric stems in personal names, always: Yaho/Yahu/Y:ho/Y:hu.[1] These yield in English Yau and Yao, which are pronounced the same. Once again, the heh is not pronounced here in Hebrew, but is used instead as a place holder. Moreover, Gnostic texts, such as those Marcion wrote, discuss the Judaic god extensively, and spell the Tetragrammaton in Greek, Ιαω, that is "Yao." Lastly, Levantine texts (including those from ancient Ugarit) render the Tetragrammaton Yaw, pronounced "Yau."[2]

Vowel marks

The spelling of the Tetragrammaton and connected forms in the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Bible, with vowel points shown in red. (Click on image to enlarge.)

To make the reading of Hebrew easier, marks or points above and below the letters were added to the text by the Masoretes, to function as vowels. See Niqqud for details. Several manuscripts from the 7th century and on contain vowel marks over the Tetragrammaton. Unfortunately, these do not shed much light on the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton. For example, the Leningrad codex contains six different variations on the vowel marks of the Tetragrammaton.

An added problem is that the diacritical vowel marks on the Tetragrammaton may have served a purpose other than indicating the pronunciation. When the text is read out loud by Jews, the Tetragrammaton is replaced by the word Adonai ("my Lord(s)"), Elohim ("God(s)"), Hashem ("the name"), or Elokim (no meaning), depending on circumstances (see Jewish use of the word below). Since someone reading the text aloud might inadvertently pronounce the name, the diacritical vowels of Adonai or Elohim are normally printed with the consonant letters of the Tetragrammaton, to remind the reader to make the change, so the text contains the letters YHWH interlaced with the vowel marks of Adonai/Elohim (a masoretic device known as Q're perpetuum which was also applied in a number of other cases, such as giving the spelling הוא in the Pentateuch an "i" vowel diacritic to indicate that sometimes it should be pronounced as a feminine pronoun hi, rather than a masculine pronoun hu). This is the case in modern editions of the Hebrew Bible, and also explains a number of medieval codices. In other words, these marks do not and were never intended to explain how to pronounce the Tetragrammaton.

In particular, there is a possible explanation of the vowel marks on the Tetragrammaton in the Ben Chayim codex of 1525 (see its importance below). It is worth noting that the aleph in Adonai has a hataf-patah (pronounced "ah" in Modern Hebrew) under it while the yod in the Tetragrammaton has a sheva (pronounced as a very short "eh" in Modern Hebrew). In other words, the Masoretes did not point YHWH with the precise vowel points of Adonai.

Note that in the image above and to the right, "YHWH intended to be pronounced as Adonai" [i.e. "יְהֹוָה‎"] and "Adonai with its slightly different vowel points" [i.e. "אֲדֹנָי‎"] do not have the precise same vowel points.

This difference is explained by the rules of Hebrew morphology and phonetics. The Hebrew word Adonai, grammatically a plural form of the word Adon with the possessive suffix, uses the pattern "shva-holam-kamatz", but, because of glottal nature of aleph, the shva in Adonai is replaced by hataf-patah. Since yod is not a glottal consonant, it uses the vowel shva required by the pattern.

It should be noted that at Psalms 144:15 in the BHS text, the Masoretes chose to place a hatef-patah ( ֲ‎ )under the yod in YHWH where YHWH was prefixed with a Shin.[e.g. שֶׁיֲהוָה‎] , but in the 6518 occurrences of יְהֹוָה‎ in the Ben Chayyim Hebrew Text of 1525, they placed a simple shewa ( ְ‎ ) not a ( ֲ‎ ) under the yod.

Sir Godfry Driver wrote: "The Reformers preferred Jehovah, which first appeared as Iehouah in 1530 in Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch (Exodus 6.3), from which it passed into other Protestant Bibles." The English transcription "Iehovah", is found in the 1611 edition of the King James Bible, and during the 1762-1769 edit of the KJV, the spelling "Iehovah" was changed to "Jehovah" (in accordance with the general differentiation of I/J and U/V into separate letters which developed over the course of the 17th century in English). Thus began a period where the word was rendered: "Jehovah". The Jerusalem Bible (1966) uses Yahweh exclusively.

Transcription in other languages

Table of different language transcriptions of the tetragrammaton. (If the native language uses non-European characters or pictographic symbols, the table shows the common English/European transliteration of the target language script, together with the tetragrammaton in the native font if available):

Yahweh

19th Century scholars disputed the vowel points of "יְהֹוָה‎"

Wilhelm Gesenius [1786-1842], who is noted for being one of the greatest Hebrew and biblical scholars, ³ wrote a Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament which was first translated into English in 1824. ⁴In the first half of the 19th century, Wilhelm Gesenius, as well as many other scholars, believed that the Medieval vowel points of "יְהֹוָה‎" were not the actual vowel points of God’s name.

Wilhelm Gesenius Punctuated YHWH as "יַהְוֶה‎" (i.e. Yahweh)

William Gesenius's Hebrew punctuation (i.e. Yahweh).

This vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton "יַהְוֶה‎" (i.e., Yahweh), is sometimes referred to as a "Scholarly Reconstruction" and is believed to have been based in large part on various Greek transcriptions, such as (ιαουε—iaoue and ιαουαι—iaouai and ιαβε—Iabe) dating from the first centuries AD.

"יַהְוֶה‎" [i.e. Yahweh] may have represented Epiphanius's "Iαβε"

In Smith's 1863 " A Dictionary of the Bible", William Smith supposes that "יַהְוֶה‎" was represented by the "Iαβε" of Epiphanius. ⁸

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 says: Inserting the vowels of Jabe [i.e. Latin form of Iabe] into the Hebrew consonant text, we obtain the form Jahveh (Yahweh), which has been generally accepted by modern scholars as the true pronunciation of the Divine name;⁹.

Scholarly sources in which "יַהְוֶה‎" is found

Smith's 1863 A Dictionary of the Bible

In Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible", William Smith does not consider "יַהְוֶה‎" to be the best scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton which he is aware of.

However, although "יַהְוֶה‎" was not the only scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton that appeared in scholarly sources in the 19th century, it gradually became accepted as the best scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton.

The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906

The editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 recognize that "יַהְוֶה‎" is spelled "Yahweh" in English, but "יַהְוֶה‎" is only one of two vocalized Hebrew spellings, that they believe might have been the original pronunciation of YHWH. In the Article:Names of God, and under the article sub heading: "YHWH", the editors write:

If the explanation of the form above given be the true one, the original pronunciation must have been Yahweh (יַהְוֶה‎) or Yahaweh (יַהֲוֶה‎). From this the contracted form Jah or Yah (יהּ‎ ) is most readily explained, and also the forms Jeho or Yeho ( יַהְוְ‎ = יְהַו‎ = יְהוֹ‎ ), and Jo or Yo ( יוֹ‎ contracted from יְהוֹ ‎ ), which the word assumes in combination in the first part of compound proper names, and Yahu or Yah ( יָהוּ‎ = (image) in the second part of such names.

The early 1900's Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon

The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament write "יַהְוֶה‎" under the heading "יהוה‎", and describes "יַהְוֶה‎" as:

"n.pr.dei Yahweh, the proper name of the God of Israel."

Criticism of the form "Yahweh"

Image of the divine name as it is written on the wall of a Norwegian church. (Source: The Divine Name in Norway)

In Biblical Archaeology Review, reference is made to the fact that a two-syllable pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton as "Yahweh" would not allow for the o vowel sound to exist as part of God's name. Thus the article stated:

"When the Tetragrammaton was pronounced in one syllable it was ‘Yah’ or ‘Yo.’ When it was pronounced in three syllables it would have been ‘Yahowah’ or ‘Yahoowah.’ If it was ever abbreviated to two syllables it would have been ‘Yaho.’"^[9]

The name "Yahweh" is not clearly found in the Hebrew Scriptures

The main criticism of the name "Yahweh" is that the vocalized Hebrew spelling "Yahweh" is found in no extant Hebrew Text.

See some links below.

Jewish use of the word

In Judaism, pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton is a taboo; it is widely considered forbidden to utter it and the pronunciation of the name is generally avoided. Usually, Adonai is used as a substitute in prayers or readings from the Torah. When used in everyday speaking (or according to many) in learning the Tetragrammaton is replaced by HaShem. The difference is marked by the vowelization in printed Bibles—the Tetragrammaton takes on the vowels of the word whose pronunciation it takes. Torah scrolls have no diacritical vowel marks, and therefore the reader must memorize the correct pronunciation for each instance of the Tetragrammaton (as for every word he reads).

According to rabbinic tradition, the name was pronounced by the high priest on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement as well as the only day when the Holy of Holies of the Temple would be entered. With the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70, this use also vanished, also explaining the loss of the correct pronunciation. (In one midrashic tradition, only seven Cohanim, or individuals of priestly lineage, know the true name of God, and it is passed down throughout the generations to be ready for invocation during the building of the Third Jewish Temple.)

The letters of the Tetragrammaton in a tetractys

There is a Jewish tradition that the actual name of God, only known to and stated by the high priest, was actually 72 letters long. The name was written out on a long strip of parchment, then folded and slipped inside the fold of the high priest's bejeweled breastplate. When someone would ask the high priest a question of Torah, or Jewish law, the high priest could invoke the Name, wherein the 12 jewels, representing the 12 tribes of the Israelites, would light up in a certain order whose meaning was, too, only known to the high priest. Through the power of the 72-letter name of God, the high priest communed, as it were, with the Almighty.

Why 72 letters? The answer may be found in the medieval rabbinic use of Gematria, that is assigning a number to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, allowing scholars to attribute numeric sums to words, find equivalencies in certain words, even use sums to try to predict a year and date for the coming of the Messiah. Even today, Jews often attribute mystical significance to the number 18, which has a possible Hebrew letter equivalent in the word "Chai", meaning "Life". Using Gematria, we find that "Chai" equals 18: it's composed of the letter "chet", which equals 8, and the letter "yod", which equals 10, i.e. 8+10=18; consequently 18x4=72, so, in a sense, each letter of the 4-letter form of the Name represents a metaphoric symbol of the living power of God. Also, when the letters of the Tetragrammaton are arranged in a Kabbalistic tetractys formation, the sum of all the letters is 72 by Gematria (as shown in the diagram). Keeping along these lines, the Tetragrammaton, since it's only an abbreviation of the actual name, is not as powerful by nature (or supernature) as the original full name of God, though it's still not something to use in vain.

When most religious Jews refer to the name of God in conversation or in a non-textual context such as in a book, newspaper or letter, they call the name HaShem, which means "the Name." Similarly, the word Elohim is pronounced "Elokim" outside of certain religious contexts when it refers to God, and likewise for a few other names of God. When any such word is used to refer to anything but God (e.g., HaShem), it is pronounced as normal by even the most traditionalist Jews.

A number of modern translations of the Hebrew Bible and of Jewish liturgy render the Tetragrammaton as "the ETERNAL" (emphasized or all caps), because it is gender-neutral (unlike "The Lord"). The Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton are the only ones required to write the Hebrew sentence "haya, hove, ve-yiheyeh" (He was, He is, and He shall be), hence "Eternal."

Rosicrucian use of the word

In Rosicrucianism it is told by the Ancient and Mystic Order Rosæ Crucis (AMORC) that the term "tetragrammaton" describes a symbol of a triangle within a circle. This symbol is shown as being formed by 12 steps, each step described in a way similar to that of a symbolic representation of Genesis. When the symbol is fully formed, the text reads "And in this wise was the TRIANGLE of 3 equal sides, called the TETRAGRAMMATON, produced by Law." Later in their text the image is referred to as "the symbol of creation."^[10]

Alternative names

In an analogue to the euphemism HaShem for God, the euphemism HaShem HaMeforash (literally, the explicit name) is sometimes used to refer to the Tetragrammaton.

Another name, four-letter word, has lost its popularity because of association with expletives. Some people refer to the Tetragrammaton as Hebrew word #3068 after the numbering in James Strong's concordance. See also The name of God in Judaism.

See also

Other articles relating to the Tetragrammaton:

• Adonai
• Ancient of Days
• -ihah
• Jah
• El (god)
• Elohim
• I am that I am
• INRI
• Yahweh

Other:

• Iaoue — the story of one Greek transliteration of the Tetragrammaton
• Names of God in Judaism
• Rael - claims to have met Yahweh Elohim during a UFO encounter in 1973.
• Yaw

References

Footnotes

1. Galatin, Peter - De Arcanis Catholicæ Veritatis, 1518, folio xliii

2. See pages 128 and 236 of the book "Who Were the Early Israelites?" by archeologist William G. Dever, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2003.

3.Wilhelm Gesenius is noted for being one of the greatest Hebrew and biblical scholars.

4. Wilhelm Gesenius' Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament was first translated into English in 1824,

5. Smith's "A Dictionary of the Bible"

6. Encyclopedia Britannica of 1910-1911 Page 312

7.Smith's "A Dictionary of the Bible": Clement of Alexandria wrote "Iaou" not "Iaoue" at Stromata Book V.

8. Smith's "A Dictionary of the Bible": Yahweh supposed to have been derived from Samaritan "IaBe"

9. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 under the sub-heading: To take up the ancient writers

10. The online Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906

External links

• The Divine Name in Norway
• Arbel, Ilil. "Yahweh." Encyclopedia Mythica. 2004.
• "Jehovah." Easton's Bible Dictionary (3rd ed.) 1887.
• "Jehovah (Yahweh)." Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8. 1910.
• Jewish Encyclopedia count of number of times the Tetragrammation is used
• Nazarenes and the Name of YHWH, an article by James Trimm
• The Historical Evolution of the Hebrew God
• The Sacred Name Yahweh, a publication by Qadesh La Yahweh Press
• Biblaridion magazine: Phanerosis Theology: The Tetragrammaton and God's manifestation.
• Tetragrammaton from Presbyterian perspective and with a Czech-Hebrew flavour.
• HaVaYaH the Tetragrammation in the Jewish Knowledge Base on Chabad.org
• Titles of Deity, a Christadelphian view
• YHWH/YHVH -- Tetragrammaton
• The Name
• The Meaning of the Tetragrammaton in Epistemology and Propositional Calculus