Jehovah

Jehovah (pronounced /dʒɨˈhoʊvə/) is a transliteration of יְהֹוָה, a vocalized Hebrew variant of the tetragrammaton. Semitic and Greek phonetic renderings found in magical texts of the early Christian era indicate this vocalization of the divine name. It occurs 6,518 times in the Jacob ben Chayyim’s Masoretic Text of 1525 A.D., on which the Old Testament of the King James Bible is based. Two variants of יהוה occur in the Ben Chayyim Hebrew Text, and six other variants occur in the Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010 A.D., which is the oldest known complete extant Masoretic Text.

The name Jehovah is used by Jehovah's Witnesses as the English translation of the personal name of God. The religion recognizes and encourages the use of equivalent names in other languages, including Yahweh and other forms. Witnesses recognize that Jehovah is not the original pronunciation of the name, but they prefer to use the form Jehovah as it is a commonly used and faithfully translated form of the original Hebrew term.

Pronunciation

Some proponents of the rendering "Jehovah" state that although the original pronunciation of יהוה has been lost, well-established English renderings of other Hebrew personal names, names however for which there is no difference between the consonantal text and the word actually pronounced in Masoretic tradition, are accepted in normal usage, such as Joshua, Isaiah or Jesus, for which the original pronunciations may be unknown. Karaite Judaism defends it to this day.

By long tradition, in Jewish culture the Tetragrammaton is not pronounced; when read, the word Adonai is substituted where יְהֹוָה appears in the text, and the vowels of the latter word are inserted in the text as is done when similar substitutions occur. Concerning the substitution of the name Adonai for God's name, the 19th-century Hebrew scholar Gesenius wrote:

יְהֹוָה Jehovah, pr. name of the supreme God amongst the Hebrews. The later Hebrews for some centuries before the time of Christ, either misled by a false interpretation of certain laws ( Ex. 20:7; Lev. 24:11)or else following some old superstition, regarded this name as so very holy: that it might not even be pronounced. (see Philo, Vit. Mosis t.iii. p.519, 529).

Whenever, therefore, this nomen tetragrammaton occurred in the sacred text, they were accustomed to substitute for it אֲדֹנָי, and thus the vowels of the noun אֲדֹנָי are in the Masoretic text placed under the four letters יהוה, but with this difference, that the initial Yod receives a simple and not a compound Sh’va. (יְהֹוָה [Yehovah], not (יֲהֹוָה [Yahovah]).

While Gesenius notes this difference, he goes on to say:

Prefixes, however, receive the same points as if they were followed by אֲדֹנָי ... This custom was already in vogue in the days of the LXX. translators and thus it is that they every where translated יְהֹוָה by ὁ Κύριος (אֲדֹנָי).

When יהוה precedes or follows the word Adonai, the Masoretes placed the precise vowel points of Elohim into the Tetragrammaton, producing a different vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יֱהֹוִה [http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/JehovahSmithsBibleDictionary.jpg] which the Hebrew reader read as Elohim. It is generally considered, in line with the Jewish tradition, that יְהֹוָה (Jehovah) is a "hybrid form".

Early translators disregarded the practice of reading "Adonai" (or its equivalents in Greek and Latin) in place of the tetragrammaton and instead combined the four Hebrew letters of the text with the vowel points that, except in synagogue scrolls, accompanied them, resulting in the form "Jehovah".

This form achieved wide use in the translations of the Protestant Reformation, though it was already in use by Roman Catholic authors. In the 1611 King James Version, "Jehovah" occurred seven times.In the 1901 American Standard Version, it was still the regular English rendition of יהוה, in preference to "the LORD". It is also used in Christian hymns such as "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".

The Jewish Encyclopedia states that YHWH is "the distinctive personal name of the God of Israel", and describes the form "Jehovah" as "a philological impossibility". The Catholic Encyclopedia states that "Jehovah (Yahweh)" is "the proper name of God in the Old Testament," adding that "the form ... Yahweh ... has been generally accepted by modern scholars as the true pronunciation of the Divine name."

Some sources question the view that the vowels of Jehovah originate with the word Adonai rather than an ancient pronunciation of YHWH. They note that vocalizations differ between the various early extant manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, that the vowel points of Jehovah and Adonai are not identical, and that scholars are not in total agreement as to why the Masoretes did not use the precise vowel points of Adonai.

Development

Jewish tradition teaches that יְהֹוָה has the vowel points of אֲדֹנָי (adonai). Using the vowels of adonai, the composite hataf patah ֲ under the guttural alef א becomes a sheva ְ under the yod י, the holam ֹ is placed over the first he ה, and the qamats ָ is placed under the vav ו, giving יְהֹוָה ("Jehovah"). When the two names, יהוה and אדני, occur together, the former is pointed with a hataf segol ֱ under the yod י and a hiriq ִ under the second he ה, giving יֱהֹוִה, to indicate that it is to be read as ("elohim") in order to avoid "adonai" being repeated.

The pronunciation Jehovah is believed to have arisen through the introduction of vowels of the qere – the marginal notation used by the Masorites. In places where the consonants of the text to be read (the qere) differed from the consonants of the written text (the kethib), they wrote the qere in the margin to indicate the desired reading. In such cases, the kethib was read using the vowels of the qere. For a few very frequent words the marginal note was omitted, referred to as q're perpetuum. One of these frequent cases was God's name, which was not to be pronounced in fear of profaning the "ineffable name". Instead, wherever יהוה (YHWH) appears in the kethib of the biblical and liturgical books, it is to be read as אֲדֹנָי (adonai, "My Lord [plural of majesty]"), or as אֱלֹהִים (elohim, "God") if adonai appears next to it. This combination produces יְהֹוָה ("yehovah") and יֱהֹוִה ("yehovih") respectively. יהוה is also written ’ה, or even ’ד, and read ha-Shem ("the name").

Scholars are not in total agreement as to why יְהֹוָה does not have precisely the same vowel points as adonai. The use of the composite hataf segol ֱ in cases where the name is to be read, "elohim", has led to the opinion that the composite hataf patah ֲ ought to have been used to indicate the reading, "adonai". It has been argued conversely that the disuse of the patah is consistent with the Babylonian system, in which the composite is uncommon.

Vowel points of יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי

The table below shows the vowel points of Yehovah and Adonay, indicating the simple sheva in Yehovah in contrast to the hataf patah in Adonay. As indicated to the right, the vowel points used when YHWH is intended to be pronounced as Adonai are slightly different to those used in Adonai itself.

The difference between the vowel points of ’ǎdônây and YHWH is explained by the rules of Hebrew morphology and phonetics. Sheva and hataf-patah were allophones of the same phoneme used in different situations: hataf-patah on glottal consonants including aleph (such as the first letter in Adonai), and simple sheva on other consonants (such as the 'y' in YHWH).

Introduction into English

The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon wrote that the pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520 when it was introduced by Galatinus, who defended its use; but it can be traced back at least to the Pugio fidei of Raymund Martin, written in about 1270.

In English it appeared in William Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch ("The Five Books of Moses"), published in 1530 in Germany, where Tyndale had studied since 1524, possibly in one or more of the universities at Wittenberg, Worms and Marburg, where Hebrew was taught.

The spelling used by Tyndale was "Iehouah". At that time, I was not distinguished from J and U was not distinguished from V. The original 1611 printing of the Authorized King James Version had "Iehovah".

Tyndale wrote (the spelling here is modernized): "JEHOVAH, is God's name; neither is any creature so called; and it is as much to say as, One that is of himself, and dependeth of nothing. Moreover, as oft as thou seest LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing), it is in Hebrew Jehovah, Thou that art; or, He that is."

The name "Jehovah" appeared in all early Protestant Bibles in English, except Coverdale's translation in 1535. The Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible used "the Lord", corresponding to the Latin Vulgate's use of "Dominus" (Latin for "Adonai", "Lord") to represent the tetragrammaton. The Authorized King James Bible also, which used "Jehovah" in a few places, most frequently gave "the LORD" as the equivalent of the tetragammaton.

The name "Jehovah" thus appeared in John Rogers' Matthew Bible in 1537, the Great Bible of 1539, the Geneva Bible of 1560, Bishop's Bible of 1568 and the King James Version of 1611. More recently, it was used in the Revised Version of 1885, the American Standard Version in 1901, and the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures of the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1961.

In Exodus 6:3-6, where the King James Version has "Jehovah", the Revised Standard Version (1952), the New American Standard Bible (1971), the New International Version (1978), the New King James Version (1982), the New Revised Standard Version (1989), the New Century Version (1991), and the Contemporary English Version (1995) give "LORD" or "Lord" as their rendering of the tetragrammaton, while the New Jerusalem Bible (1985), the Amplified Bible (1987), the New Living Translation (1996, revised 2007), the English Standard Version (2001), and the Holman Christian Standard Bible (2004) give the form "Yahweh".

Hebrew vowel points

Modern grammars of biblical Hebrew, such as Duane A Garrett's A Modern Grammar for Classical Hebrew agree that the Hebrew vowel points now found in printed Hebrew Bibles were invented in the second half of the first millennium AD, long after the texts were written down. This is indicated in the authoritative Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius, and in encyclopedias such as the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia, and is acknowledged even by those who claim that the grammars are perpetuating "scholarly myths".

Jehovist scholars, who believe יְהֹוָה Ye-HO-VaH (in Hebrew) transliterated Je-HO'-VaH (in English) to be the original pronunciation of the divine name, argue that the Hebraic vowel-points and accents were known to writers of the scriptures in antiquity. Some members of Karaite Judaism, such as Nehemia Gordon,hold this view. The antiquity of the vowel points and of the rendering "Jehovah" was defended by various scholars, including Michaelis, Drach, Stier, William Fulke (1583), Johannes Buxtorf, his son Johannes Buxtorf II, and John Owen (17th century); Peter Whitfield and John Gill (18th century); John Moncrieff (19th century); and more recently by Thomas D. Ross, G. A. Riplinger, John Hinton, and Thomas M. Strouse (21st century).

Jehovist writers such as Nehemia Gordon acknowledge that there is general agreement among scholars that the original pronunciation of the tetragrammaton was "Yahweh", and that the vowel points now attached to the tetragrammaton were added to indicate that "Adonai" was to be read instead, as seen in the alteration of those points after prefixes. Gordon goes on to show the vowel points of "Adonai" are not correct and argued for the prounciation "Ye-Ho-VAH" (stress on the last syllable), he wrote: "There is a virtual scholarly consensus concerning this name" and "this is presented as fact in every introduction to Biblical Hebrew and every scholarly discussion of the name".

Proponents of pre-Christian origin

Eighteenth-century theologian John Gill in his writing, A Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel-Points and Accents, argued for an extreme antiquity of their use, rejecting the idea that the vowel points were invented by the Masorites. Gill presented writings, including passages of Scripture, that he interpreted as supportive of his Jehovist viewpoint that the Hebrew Scriptures could not be without the vowel-points and accents. He claimed that the use of Hebrew vowel points, and therefore of the name Jehovah (Ye-HO'-VaH), is documented from before 200 B.C., and even back to Adam by citing Jewish tradition that Hebrew was the original language of the world. He argued that throughout this history the Masorites did not invent the vowel points and accents, but that they were delivered to Moses by God at Sinai, citingKaraite authorities Mordechai ben Nisan Kukizov (1699) and his associates, who stated that "all our wise men with one mouth affirm and profess that the whole law was pointed and accented, as it came out of the hands of Moses, the man of God," The argument between the Karaite and Rabbinic Judaism on whether it was lawful to pronounce the name represented by the tetragrammaton is claimed to show that some copies have always been pointed (voweled) and some copies were not pointed with the vowels because of "oral law", for control of interpretation by some Judeo sects, including non-pointed copies in Synagogues. Gill claimed that the pronunciation "Jehovah" can be traced back to early historical sources which indicate that vowel points and/or accents were used in their time. Sources Gill claimed supported his view include:

The Book of Cosri and commentator Rabbi Judab Muscatus, which claim that the vowel points were taught to Adam by God.
Saadiah Gaon (927 AD)
Jerome (380 AD)
Origen (250 AD)
The Zohar (120 AD)
Jesus Christ (31 AD), based on Gill's interpretation of Matthew 5:18
Hillel the Elder and Shammai division (30 BC)
Karaites(120 BC)
Demetrius Phalereus, librarian for Ptolemy II Philadelphus king of Egypt (277 BC)

Gill quoted Elia Levita, who said, "There is no syllable without a point, and there is no word without an accent", as showing that the vowel points and the accents found in printed Hebrew Bibles have a dependence on each other, and so Gill attributed the same antiquity to the accents as to the vowel points, while also acknowledging that Elia Levita, "who first asserted the vowel points were invented by "the men of Tiberias"; yet (Levita) declared,"if anyone could convince him that his opinion was contrary to the book of Zohar, he should be content to have it rejected." Gill goes on to show Elia Levita's opinion was contrary to the book of Zohar, which was declared by rabbis as older than the Masoretes, as it attests to the vowel-points and accents, and even names them in various places.

William Fulke, John Gill and others hold that Jesus Christ referred to a Hebrew vowel point or accent at Matthew 5:18, indicated in the King James Version by the word tittle. He argued that the words of this verse, spoken in Hebrew, but then transliterated into Greek of the New testament, are proof that these marks were applied to the Torah at that time.

Even John Lightfoot, the very liberal Hebrew Scholar, claimed the Hebrew vowel points were of the Holy Spirits invention, not the Tiberians.

Peter Whitfield's, A Dissertation on the Hebrew Vowel-Points. Shewing that they are an Original and Essential Part of the Language, (Liverpoole: Peter Whitfield, 1748), 288 pp. Whitfield examined the positions of Levita and Capellus, giving many biblical examples to refute their notion of the novelty of vowel points. In his introduction, he claimed that the Roman Catholic Church favored Levita's position because it allowed the priests to have the final say in interpretation. The lack of authoritative vowel points in the Hebrew Old Testament, he said, leaves the meaning of many words to the interpreter.

The 1602 Spanish Bible (Reina-Valera/Cipriano de Valera) uses the name Iehova and gave a lengthy defense of the pronunciation Jehovah in its preface.

Thomas D. Ross lays out the "Battle" and it's consequences in,"The Battle Over The Hebrew Vowel Points"

Proponents of later origin

Despite Jehovist claims that vowel signs are necessary for reading and understanding Hebrew, modern Hebrew is written without vowel points. The Torah scrolls do not include vowel points, and ancient Hebrew was written without vowel signs.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1946 and dated from 400 BC to 70 AD, include texts from the Torah or Pentateuch and from other parts of the Hebrew Bible and have provided actual documentary evidence that, in spite of the above claims to the contrary, Hebrew was in fact then written without vowel points. In fact, according to Menahem Mansoor's The Dead Sea Scrolls: A College Textbook and a Study Guide, the vowel points found in printed Hebrew Bibles were devised in the ninth and tenth centuries AD. This gives the Hebrew vowel points an antiquity of over a thousand years, but is far from bringing them to the pre-Christian period, still less to that of Moses or Adam.

Gill's view that the Hebrew vowel points were in use at the time of Ezra or even at the origins of the Hebrew language went against the consensus that existed even at that time, and which presented the following grounds for rejecting his theory:

The argument that vowel points are necessary for learning to read Hebrew is refuted by the fact that the Samaritan text of the Bible is read without them and that several other Semitic languages, kindred to Hebrew, are written without any indications of the vowels.
The books used in synagogue worship have always been without vowel points, which, unlike the letters, have thus never been treated as sacred.
The Qere Kethib marginal notes give variant readings only of the letters, never of the points, an indication either that these were added later or that, if they already existed, they were seen as not so important.
The Kabbalists drew their mysteries only from the letters and completely disregarded the points, if there were any.
In several cases, ancient translations from the Hebrew Bible (Septuagint, Targum, Aquila of Sinope, Symmachus, Theodotion, Jerome) read the letters with vowels different from those indicated by the points, an indication that the texts from which they were translating were without points. The same holds for Origen's transliteration of the Hebrew text into Greek letters. Jerome expressly speaks of a word in Habakkuk 3:5, which in the present Masoretic Text has three consonant letters and two vowel points, as being of three letters and no vowel whatever.
Neither the Jerusalem Talmud nor the Babylonian Talmud (in all their recounting of Rabbinical disputes about the meaning of words), nor Philo nor Josephus, nor any Christian writer for several centuries after Christ make any reference to vowel points.

Early modern arguments

In the sixteen and seventeenth centuries, various arguments were presented supporting and opposing the transcription of the form Jehovah. They are summarized here:

William Robertson Smith, in his A Dictionary of the Bible (1863) summarizes the results of these discourses, and concludes that "whatever, therefore, be the true pronunciation of the word, there can be little doubt that it is not Jehovah". Despite this, he consistently uses the name Jehovah throughout his dictionary and when translating Hebrew names. Some examples include Isaiah I]Jehovah's help or salvation[/I, Jehoshua I]Jehovah a helper[/I, Jehu I]Jehovah is He[/I. In the entry, Jehovah, Smith writes: "JEHOVAH ( יְהֹוָה, usually with the vowel points of אֲדֹנָי ; but when the two occur together, the former is pointed יֱהֹוִה, that is with the vowels of אֱלֹהִים, as in Obad. i. 1, Hab. iii. 19:" This practice is also followed by many modern publications, such as the New Compact Bible Dictionary (Special Crusade Edition) of 1967 sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Peloubet's Bible Dictionary of 1947.

Usage in English

The following works render the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah, either exclusively or occasionally: William Tyndale, in his 1530 translation of the first five books of the English Bible, at Exodus 6:3 renders the divine name as "Iehovah". In his note to this edition he wrote: "Iehovah is God's name... Moreover, as oft as thou seeist LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing) it is in Hebrew Iehovah."
The King James (Authorized) Version, 1611: four times as the personal name of God (in all capital letters): Exodus 6:3; Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 12:2; Isaiah 26:4; and three times in place names: Genesis 22:14; Exodus 17:15; and Judges 6:24.
Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible by J.N. Young, 1862, 1898 renders the Tetragrammaton as "Jehovah" 6,831 times.
A literal translation of the Old Testament (1890) and the New Testament (1884), by John Nelson Darby, renders the Tetragrammaton as "Jehovah" 6,810 times in the main text.
The American Standard Version, 1901 edition, renders the Tetragrammaton as "Je-ho’vah" in all 6,823 places where it occurs in the Old Testament.
The Modern Reader's Bible, 1914, by Richard Moulton, uses "Jehovah" at Ps.83:18; Ex.6:2-9; Ex.22:14; Ps.68:4; Jerm.16:20; Isa.12:2 & Isa. 26:4
The New English Bible, published by Oxford University Press, 1970; e.g. Gen 22:14; Exodus 3:15,16; 6:3; 17:15; Judges 6:24
The Literal Translation of the Holy Bible by Jay P. Green, Sr., renders the Tetragrammaton as "Jehovah" 6,866 times.
The Living Bible, published by Tyndale House Publishers, Illinois 1971; e.g. Gen 22:14, Exodus 3:15; 4:1-27; 17:15; Lev 19:1-36; Deut 4: 29, 39; 5:5, 6; Judges 6:16, 24; Ps 83:18; 110:1; Isaiah 45:1, 18; Amos 5:8; 6:8; 9:6
The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1961 and revised 1984: "Jehovah" appears 7,210 times, i.e. 6,973 in the Old Testament and 237 times in the New Testament.
The Bible in Today's English (Good News Bible), published by the American Bible Society, 1976, in its preface states, "the distinctive Hebrew name for God (usually transliterated Jehovah or Yahweh) is in this translation represented by "The Lord."" A footnote to Exodus 3:14 states, "Yahweh, traditionally transliterated as Jehovah."
In the Emphatic Diaglott, a translation of the New Testament by Benjamin Wilson, the name "Jehovah" appears 18 times.

Following the Middle Ages, many Catholic churches and public buildings across Europe were decorated with the name, "Jehovah". For example, the Coat of Arms of Plymouth (UK) City Council bears the Latin inscription, "Turris fortissima est nomen Jehova", derived from Proverbs 18:10.

Jehovah has been a popular English word for the personal name of God for several centuries. For this reason, some religious groups, notably Jehovah's Witnesses and the King-James-Only movement, make prominent use of the name.

Greek and Latin sources

Under the heading "יהוה c. 6823", the editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write that יְהֹוָה occurs 6,518 times in the Masoretic Text and that it is read as "Adonai" or "Elohim".

Greek transcriptions similar to "Jehovah"

Ιουώ: Pistis Sophia (2nd cent.)
Ιεού: Pistis Sophia (2nd cent.)
Ιεηωουά: Pistis Sophia (2nd cent.)
Ιευώ: Eusebius (c. 315)
Ιεωά (Ieōa): Hellenistic magical texts (2nd-3rd centuries), M. Kyriakakes (2000)
Ιεχοβά (like Jehova[h]): Paolo Medici (1755)
Ιεοβά (like Je[h]ova[h]): Greek Pentateuch (1833), Holy Bible translated in modern Greek by Neophytus Vamvas (1850)
Ιεχωβά (like Jehova[h]): Panagiotes Trempelas (1958)

Latin and English transcriptions similar to "Jehovah"

Transcriptions of יְהֹוָה similar to Jehovah occurred as early as the 12th century. Ieve: Petrus Alphonsi (c. 1106), Alexander Geddes (1800)
Jehova: Raymond Martin (Raymundus Martini) (1278), Porchetus de Salvaticis (1303), Tremellius (1575), Marcus Marinus (1593), Charles IX of Sweden (1606), Rosenmüller (1820), Wilhelm Gesenius (c. 1830)
Yohoua: Raymond Martin (1278)
Yohouah: Porchetus de Salvaticis (1303)
Ieoa: Nicholas of Cusa (1428)
Iehoua: Nicholas of Cusa (1428), Peter Galatin (Galatinus) (1516)
Iehova: Nicholas of Cusa (1428), Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (1514), Sebastian Münster (1526), Leo Judae (1543), Robert Estienne (1557)
Ihehoua: Nicholas of Cusa (1428)
Jova: 16th century, Rosenmüller (1820)
Jehovah: Paulus Fagius (1546), Calvin (1557), King James Bible (1671 [OT] / 1669 [NT]), Matthew Poole (1676), Benjamin Kennicott (1753), Alexander Geddes (1800)
Iehouáh: Geneva Bible (1560)
Iehovah: King James Version (1611), Henry Ainsworth (1627)
Jovae: Rosenmüller (1820)
Yehovah: William Baillie (1843)

Translation

The word "Jehovah" occurs as such in the following languages: English, German, Interlingua.

Translation(s) in other languages: Asturian: Xehová, Azeri: Yehova, Bosnian: Jehova, Catalan: Jehovà, Greek: Τετραγράμματο#Η μορφή Ιεχωβά, Esperanto: Jehovo, French: Jéhovah, Friulian: Jeova, Cornish: Yehovah, Latin: Iehovah, Dutch: JHWH, Serbian: Јехова, Swedish: Jehova, Tagalog: Jehova, Turkish: Yehova, Cantonese: 耶和華, Chinese: 耶和華.