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The Meaning of the Tetragrammaton

This is four Hebrew letters (Yod=10, Hey=5, Waw [VAV=6] and Hey=5) called the "Tet ra gram ma ton".

The four characters are the four Hebrew letters that correspond to YHWH [YHVH] and are transliterated IAUE or YAHweh. YAHweh is the name of the Creator El'Elyon/Ha'Shem that people commonly call "The L-RD" or "G-d", which have pagan roots, and due to a popular mistranslation, are used today instead of the proper names.

Deuteronomy 5:11 KJV "Thou shalt not take [Speak] the name of the L-RD thy G-d in vain: for the L-RD will not hold [him] guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

{Italics mine}

If we examine this verse in the Hebrew text that the King James Bible was translated from, we would not find "The L-RD" or any word that carries such a meaning. What is actually there is the Masters true name, "Yahweh".

Nearly all will cite tradition and familiarity as the reason. This, I believe is wrong.

Sometimes people pronounce the tetragrammaton as "Jehovah". However, Jehovah' could never be the right pronunciationFor this reason....Some Christians organizations,, especially Jehovah's witnesses, use this name for the Heavenly Father. However, every scholar and every reference book I have ever checked on "Jehovah" (including Jehovah's witness tracts) has said that this is not the way you pronounce His name! First of all it is impossible because of the fact that the Hebrew language has no "J" sound! According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1991 under the heading "Yahweh", here is how this name came into being: "The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew word Adonai or Elohim. Thus the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) came into being." So we see here one of many confirmations that the name Jehovah is not really His name at all! But it is a artificial name that was invented by man. Does man have the right to change the name of the one who created him? I think not! But that is exactly what has happened here. Now let's look a little more deeply into this name Jehovah. Notice that many Hebrew names contain the first part of Yahweh's name which is Yah. This is true in the name Isa-YAH (Hebrew: YeshaYAH), which means "Yah is Salvation". Also in Jeremi-Yah (Hebrew: YermeYAH), Obadiah, Zechariah, and so on. Taking this knowledge, apply this to the name Je-hovah with Jeh being the first part of His name. First of all it doesn't add up when it comes to the names of these prophets. (Isaiah's name isn't IsaJEH) Second, the Hovah part of Je-hovah means RUIN and MISCHIEF in Hebrew according to Strong's Concordance #1943: On ShekinahLifeCenter, the name of YAHweh is used in reference to The Most high[Ha'Shem] because in the scriptures we are told to praise the Master, To exalt, To bless, love, teach & Preach in His name, anoint, Assemble together,Break Bread house to house, Celebrate Shabbos, Believe, Give thanks,Reverence and honor in His name

The general belief at large is that the Divine Name is pronounce "JEHOVAH."

Where did this pronounciation come from?

Is it accurate?

A popular theory that has been circulating as of late has it that the name YHWH is actually four vowels IAUE. This theory is based largely on a statement made by Josephus in describing the headpiece of the High Priest.

Josephus writes: In which [headpiece] was engraved the sacred name. It consisted of four vowels. (Wars. 5:5:7) At first this statement seems to support a four vowel theory.

However on closer examination it is clear that this is not what Josephus is saying.

Josephus is not supplying information about the pronounciation of the name.

In fact in Antiquities 2:12:4 Josephus states that it would not be lawful for him to do so.

Josephus is instead referring to the four letters YHWH which appeared on the High Priest’s headpiece.

But why would Josephus term these four consonants as "vowels"?

The Hebrew letters YUD, HEY and VAV (which make up YHWH) have no equivelants in Greek. They are generally transliterated in Greek with Greek letters that happen to be vowels. The reason for this is that when the Greeks borrowed the Phonecian/Paleo-Hebrew alphabet they used leftover consonants that did not occur in their language and used them as symbols for vowels, as Robert Whiting writes: When the Greeks adapted the Phoenician writing system to their own language… they made a very significant change. They created signs for vowels and used them each time a vowel occured. … The Greeks did not invent new signs for the vowels but simply converted some of the Phoenecian signs that they did not need for their own language into vowel symbols. (The New Book of Knowledge Vol. 1 p. 193 "Alphabet" article by Robert M. Whiting, the Oriental Institute, the University of Chicago)

As a result Hebrew YUD became the Greek vowel IOTA; Hebrew HEY became Greek vowel EPSILON and Hebrew VAV became Greek vowel UPSILON. For this reason Josephus writes that the four letters which appeared on the High Priest’s headpiece were four "vowels." To the Greek speaking audience of the Greek edition of Wars of the Jews, the four letters on the High Priest’s headpiece were in fact four vowels.

Some who have supported the idea that the name of YHWH is four vowels have also pointed to the use of the letters YUD, HEY and VAV in Hebrew as vowels.

However the use of these letters as vowels in Hebew is a later revision of the language. Moreover each of them serves as a vowel only when paired with a consonant, as a result none of these letters is ever a vowel when it initiates a word or syllable. Hebrew was originally a syllabary in which each letter symbolized a consonant vowel pair with the vowel being ambiguous.

As Robert Whiting writes: The Semitic peoples of Syria and Palestine developed purely syllabic writing systems… their signs expressed consonants plus any vowel. (ibid) It was not until the ninth century B.C.E. that the Hebrew letters YUD, HEY and VAV began to double as vowels (and then only when paired with consonants).

As Ellis Brotzman writes: From about the ninth century on, certain consonants came to be used to indicate vowels.

These "helping" consonants are called matres lectionis, literally "mothers of reading." (Old Testament Textual Criticism by Ellis R. Brotzman p. 40)

Thus prior to this time the letters YUD HEY VAV HEY (YHWH) stood for four Hebrew consonants.

Even in later Hebrew an initial YUD can never represent a vowel.

The Hebrew Tenach was originally written like all ancient Hebrew, without vowels. When the Masorites (tradionalists) added vowels to the Hebrew text in the middle ages they came across a serious problem. The name had been "kept secret" and "hidden" for hundreds of years.

Since the text contained only consonants in its written form, the vowels were generally unknown. In order to create vowels for the written name and continue to keep the name "secret" and "hidden" the vowels for Adonai were translanted into the word YHWH. Later the vowels for Eloah (Elohim) were used creating YEHOWAH. These vowels for YHWH actually violate the rules of Hebrew grammar since they use the W as a consonant and a vowel at the same time. Since in modern Hebrew the Hebrew letter WAW (later called VAV) is pronounced "V" in place of its ancient pronounciation "W", YEHOWAH became YEHOVAH. This became transliterated in the original KJV English as IEHOVAH and later when the J was added to English IEHOVAH became JEHOVAH. However the J and the V in "Jehovah" are incorrect, as are the vowels E-O-A which actually come from ELOAH. In fact only the two letters H-H are correct.

The correct pronounciation of YHWH has however, been preserved. The first evidence for the true pronounciation of YHWH is found in the Hebrew text itself in those Hebrew names of which the Divine Name forms a part. Now when a Hebrew name in the Tenach begins with part of the divine name, the vowels are given as E-O. Some examples are: Yehoshaphat (Jehoshaphat) YEHO- Shaphat Yehoshua (Joshua) YEHO- Shua In these names the incorrect vowels from YEHOWAH have been transplanted into their names.

However when we look instead at names which end with part of the Divine Name we find completely different vowels in the Masoretic text. Some examples are: Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Yesha- YAHU Yiramiyahu (Jeremiah) Yiremi- YAHU Eliyahu (Elijah) Eli- YAHU Moreover the "tri-gramaton" (the first three letters of YHWH) appear by themselves in the Tenach and always with the vowels being YAHU.

Finally the Hebrew word Halleluyah (praise-Yah) has the first portion of the divine name with the vowels YAH. Another source for the correct pronounciation of the name of YHWH is the Peshitta Aramaic text. The Peshitta is an Aramaic text of the Bible used by Aramaic speaking Assyrians, Syrians and Chaldeans. These Aramaic speaking peoples became Christianized in the first century C.E..

By the fourth century (long before the Masorites of the nineth century) these people created written vowels for the Aramaic text. When they added vowels to names that begin with part of the divine name they got names like YAHOSHAPHAT reather than YEHOSHAPHAT. Further evidence as to the original pronounciation of YHWH can be found in ancient transliterations of the name into Egyptian hieroglyphics, which had written vowels. Although this author is not aware of any case in which the entire name of YHWH has been found transliterated into Egyptian hieroglyphics, there are cases where the abreviated name (the first portion of the name) has been found transliterated in hieroglyphics.

Budge’s AN EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHIC DICTIONARY give two transliterations that occur in Egyptian glyphs.

The first is given on page 15 column A and is "IA" or "YA."

The other is on page 142 column A and transliterates in english as "IAA" or "YAA." This supports the fact that the original pronounciation of the first syllable of the name was "YA."

YAHweh and YAH'shua

Another source of evidence for the correct pronounciation of the name of YHWH can be found in ancient transliterations of the name of YHWH into cuneiform script, which unlike Hebrew script, had written vowels.

In 1898 A. H. Sayce published the discovery of three clay cuneiform tablets from the time of Hammurabi which contained the phrase "Jahweh (Jehovah) is Elohim."(Halley’s Bible Handbook p. 62).

By the eighteen hundreds the Letter is found readily.. However, remember in the Hebrew AlephBiet there is No "J".

Now obviously the text read "Yahweh" and not "Jahweh" as was common to transliterate it in the 19th century. (This author believes this cuneiform should be examined to see if it reads YAHUWEH rather than YAHWEH).

A further source for evidence in cuneiform is the Murashu texts. The Murashu texts are Aramaic texts written in cuneiform script on clay tablets found at Nippur.

These texts date back to 464 to 404 B.C.E. and contain many Jewish names transcribed in cuneiform with the vowels. Many of these names contain part of the divine name in the name.

In all these names the first portion of the name appears as YAHU and never as YEHO.

("Patterns in Jewish Personal Names in the Babylonian Diasporia" by M.D. Coogan; Journal for the Study of Judaism, Vol. IV, No. 2, p. 183f ).

The restoration of the use of the name of Yahuweh with its correct pronounciation is as prophetically significant as the restoration of the ancient sect of the Nazarenes. Such a restoration of the name of Yahuweh to his people is promised in scripture:

For then will I turn to the people a pure language, That they may call upon the name of YHWH… (Zeph. 3:9)

Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know my name is YHWH. (Jer. 16:21)

Therefore my people shall know my Name…(Is. 52:6)

There is also great prohetic significance to the fact that the name has been preserved, in part through archaelogical digs, as the scriptures prophecy:

And you shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust…(Is. 29:4)

Truth shall spring out of the earth…(Ps. 85:11)

We are living in wonderful times, as Yahushua tells us:

…You shall not see me henceforth, till you shall say:"Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahuweh!" (Mt. 23:39)

 

 

Finally, there seems to have been a concerted effort to stop all pronounciation and use of The Name since the exodus from Babylon.

  A disturbing fact that was recently discoverd in our Kahal was the fourth line in the Aharonic benidiction.

  In Bemidbar/Numbers 6:24-26 we see the "traditional" blessing, but in the Torah we see a clear deliniation of 4 verses not 3. 

Let me quote the fourth verse for you here. 

You decide if He meant for us to pronounce it or not. 

Let them place My Name upon the Children of Y'israel, and I shall bless them."

I ask you, how can we place the name of Elohim "YHWH" upon our children less we pronounce it as was done prior to the captivity in Babylon and for a short time during.  Look at the names comming from these time periods and decide. 

We have already made our decision. 

We will follow Torah truth and include the 27th verse of Bemidbar 6 in our prayer.  And we will pronounce the name in our Kahal. 

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