Thursday, September 22, 2011

Jehovah — YHWH — Tetragrammation

Jehovah is an English reading of (Hebrew) יְהֹוָה, the most frequent form of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, which is the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. It is Tyndale’s (1530) erroneous, direct phonetic transliteration.
By long tradition, in modern Jewish culture the Tetragrammaton is not pronouncedthe full name of YHWH being too sacred for utterance. Instead the above vocalization indicates to the reverent Jewish reader that the term Adonai (Lord) is to be used. In places where the preceding or following word already is Adonai, the reading Elohim is used instead, indicated by a different vocalization of the Tetragrammaton. It is generally agreed, in line with Jewish teaching, that יְהֹוָה is a "hybrid form," created when the Jews added the vowels of Adonai to the consonants of YHWH. [this works in the Hebrew, with slight modifications, not in English]
Early English translators, unacquainted with Jewish tradition, read this word as they would any other word, and transcribed it (in very few places, namely those where the Name itself was referred to) as Jehovah. This form was widely used in the translations of the Protestant Reformation, and although it was later regarded by both Jews and Christians as a mispronunciation, it has nevertheless found a place in Christian usage.
In the New International Version: the divine name YHWH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the translators adopted the device used in most English versions of rendering that name as “LORD” in capital letters to distinguish it from YHWH, another Hebrew word rendered “Lord,” for which small letters are used. Wherever the two names stand together in the Old Testament as a compound name of God, they are rendered “Sovereign Lord.” When YHWH and YHWH Sabaoth occur together, they are rendered “the LORD, the LORD Almighty or Lord GOD.”
God has MANY names. Check out this website: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/El/el.html

When Moses asked who spoke out of the burning bush, (Exodus 3:14) “God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM: This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I AM has sent me to you.” And all the Jews KNEW WHO Moses was talking about. When Jesus was asked who He was, He said that he, also, was the great “I AM” as we read in Mark 14:61-64 “Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I AM,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy.”
Jesus was claiming to be the same “I AM” who spoke to Moses in the burning bushthat is why they crucified Him. We know He was claiming to be Yahweh or Jehovah God of the Old Testament because the high priest tore his clothes and stated that Jesus had blasphemedwhich is to say that you are God.

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