Jehovah or Yahweh? (Part 1)

AT last, after centuries of being kept in obscurity, God’s personal name has been restored in the Holy Scriptures.

Certain modern translations of the Holy Scriptures have restored God’s divine name in places where it had apJ peared in the original or extant manuJ scripts. This is a dramatic departure from the practice of previous translators to replace it with the title “LORD”.

Still there remains confusion as to which form of the Divine Name deJ serves adoption, as the Scriptures were translated into different languages and dialects. Some versions favored the English name “Jehovah”, such as the American Standard Version, The New World Translation of the Holy ScripJ tures, and lately, The Divine Name King James Bible (an adoption of the The King James Version of 1611).

A modern Catholic translation, The Jerusalem Bible, rendered God’s name as “Yahweh.” Some translations in the vernacular followed this rendition.

Lost pronunciation

The name of God appeared in ancient manuscripts of the Scriptures some 7,000 times in four Hebrew consoJ nants equivalent to YHWH or JHVH in English. Notably, the Dead Sea scrolls discovered in 1947 in a cave near the Dead Sea (thus the name), consistently contained the TetragramJ maton (the four Hebrew letters forming the Divine Name). Those Dead Sea scrolls contained the Bible book of Isaiah the prophet. Other pieces of old manuscripts believed to be authentic copies of the Hebrew scriptures also contained the Divine Name.

The problem is, Hebrews in general had lost the original pronunciation of the Divine Name. This was due to the long-prevailing superstition and tradition perpetuated by copyists of the Scriptures that made it a sin to say God’s name aloud. The truth is, those copyists had misinterpreted one of the Ten Commandments which stated

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” (Exodus 20: 7 King James Version) Did God mean never to use his name at all?

This evidently was not God’s purJ pose, for many verses both in the so- called Old Testament and New Testament showed that God gave utmost importance to his name and had always wanted it “declared in all the earth” and praised by his faithful people (Exodus 9:16; Psalm 83:18; Acts 15:14; Hebrews 13:15)

Rendering the Divine Name in modern tongues

Since perhaps the 14th century C.E. (Common Era), Bible translators had tried to render the Divine Name in the popular languages such as English, German and French. The King James Version (1611) rendered it Jehovah at Exodus 6:3 and Psalms 83:18.

William Tyndale’s 1530 translation of the Pentateuch (Genesis to DeuJ teronomy) also contained Jehovah . And so did the Great Bible, otherwise known as Chained Bible (1539)

Pronunciation no big issue

Should it matter so much to know the original pronunciation of God’s personal name? Should it be a big issue? If, for inJ stance, you’re not sure how to pronounce a foreigner’s name, and you pronounce it in a way natives of your country will likely say it aloud, will your foreign friend be necessarily offended?

Suppose your name is Pedro ( proJ nounced Peh-dro in Spanish), will you make a big fuzz out of it if an American friend of yours calls you Pey-drow, and another friend, a Filipino with a heavy acJ cent pronounces it Pee-droo? Being goodnatured and understanding, you will likely be amused — but not offended. Likewise, will God be offended if his imperfect creaJ tures pronounce his name inadvertently in an imperfect way? Will the Son of God also take it against you if you call him Jesus instead of Yeshua or Yehoshua, supposedly his name in Hebrew?

If God wanted his people to call him exactly the way his name was originally pronounced, could he not have commandJ ed it long beforehand? Remarkably, no such intention on his part is ever indicated anywhere in his own Book. Instead, the faithful were urged to “always offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that make public declaration to his name.” (Hebrews 13:15) Such “fruit of the lips” will likely be an imperfect utJ terance of God’s name, yet good enough to please him, as it is done in good faith and utmost reverence.

Yet, isn’t it rather strange and unreaJ sonable for some Bible believers to avoid using God’s name in any of its known form like Jehovah or Yahweh? By doing so, do they uphold the Divine Name or hold it in contempt? If you consider God your heavenly Father, will you not even “boast about his holy name” as a proud child should? (Psalm 105:3)

Since sound reasoning does not make the matter of pronunciation a big issue when treating the name of God, and because no living person on earth today can truthfully claim to know its original pronunciation, therefore, no one should be dogmatic about whether to render YHWH (JHVH in English) Jehovah, Yahweh or any other more or less acceptable form. To be continued…