A long while back (a couple of years ago) I remember I was chatting online with a Jewish believer who was following some of my blog posts and during the chat I typed the following word: YHWH.
His immediate response was “You know we’re not supposed to write that word out“.
When I asked why, he said because that name is HOLY and we’re not supposed to verbally utter it out loud or even write or type it out.
I was aware of the prohibition against any verbal utterance of YHWH, but was surprised because I wasn’t aware that this prohibition extended to even writing out the Lord’s HOLY Name.
I’ve already expressed my thoughts on this matter and for me it comes down to this.
First, nowhere in Scripture will you find a prohibition against uttering God’s HOLY Name.
Second, if it is such a blasphemy to utter YHWH out loud, then why in the heck did God give us His Holy Name anyway?
In the Tanach, YHWH appears literally thousands of times and get this, up until around 300 BC, the Lord’s personal name WAS uttered out loud by the Jewish religious community.
Third, the Scriptures command us to call on the Name of the Lord!
That’s right!
We’re actually told to call on the Name of the Lord, but how can we do that if there’s a prohibition against saying His Name out loud?
Since the Jews have stopped pronouncing His Name over 2000 years ago, it’s difficult to know with certainty what the correct pronunciation is.
This difficulty is further complicated when we attempt to transliterate the original Hebrew letters into English sounds.
We get so many different variations like YAHWEH or JEHOVAH and so on.
It’s always a difficulty to go from one language to another because the vowel sounds and grammar rules for each language differ.
There are some letters in Hebrew that just don’t have direct English equivalents.
So based on what we know about the Hebrew rules of grammar and vowel sounds, what would be the most appropriate rendering of YHWH?
Well, here’s a fundamental Hebrew grammar rule that I think will come in handy when attempting to solve this perplexing matter.
IF A WORD BEGINS WITH YUD, THEN THE CONSONANTS THAT FOLLOW MUST HAVE A VOWEL SOUND!
Please treat this as a general rule, NOT an absolute rule, because as with all languages there are usually numerous exceptions.
So let’s take a look at the Hebrew word for God’s Name.
יהוה
From right to left the letters are YUD HEH VAV HEH.
Now if we are going to go by the general rule I just mentioned, this word must have three syllables, right?
Hence, the correct pronunciation would more likely be JEHOVAH.
However, since there’s no “J” sound in the Hebrew, it is more accurately rendered as YEH-HO-VAH.
Mystery solved!
But this leads us to the next question of why do some folks pronounce YHWH as YAHWEH with two syllables?
Well, many scholars believe that this is just a contraction of YEH-HO-VAH.
Kind of like in English we contract “I would” into “I’d” and “cannot” into “can’t“.
Keep in mind that contractions become custom based on the sound of the word, not on the spelling of the word.
The conclusion?
Saying YAHWEH with two syllables is a mistake committed by gentile scholars who didn’t understand Hebrew grammar.
Or they didn’t catch that slight “o” sound in the 3-syllable YEH-HO-VAH.
Published in Jerusalem, Israel on Friday, August 11th, 2017 at BEN AMI Cafe.
Rich- I ma really happy that you and I agree on most things regarding God, Torah and the bible. However, I think we shall remain apart on this issue, i.e. the pronunciation and use of the Tetragrammaton. Firstly, even though I have learned that the vav in Paleo Hebrew was also pronounced using a “W” sound, I don’t agree that the Holy Name (which is easier to type than Tetragrammation) should be spelled with a W. That makes as much sense as spelling the English word Gentile with a “J” simply because the “G” has a “J” sound. The letters are the letters, despite how we pronounce them, so the Holy Name should always have the correct letters, which are the ones used in the bible. As you pointed out, this name is used many, many times, and always with the Y-H-V-H letters. Also, the idea of ‘calling on the name of the Lord’ is used in the bible more than once, and yes- we are told to call on His name. But if God wanted us to know exactly how to pronounce it, wouldn’t He have made sure we knew that? If the Rabbis of past centuries knew God’s ineffable name we would have found it in the Talmud, right? I mean, they made up so much other stuff in there, why skip over something as important as this? In any case, I am pretty sure that we will find Gentiles using the Holy Name because they haven’t been raised Jewish, and Jews constantly telling them not to do that. It’s just the way things will be, and I have, frankly, stopped trying to change it. I think God is “big” enough that He can deal with this on His own. When we meet Him, as we all will, and I have been using HaShem and you have been using Jehovah, will He really care that much, so long as in our heart we respect and fear Him?
I don’t see where Rich said it was with the W sound. As to whether or not He wants to call on His Real Name correctly… I have to think of “Study to show yourself approved”
Steven, I wouldn’t have any disagreement with your comment. For me, YHVH is just as valid if not more valid than YHWH. This post was more dealing with how many syllables YHVH should be. Thanks for sharing. Shalom.
well said.
I don’t understand and have never heard the rule you refer to:
“IF A WORD BEGINS WITH YUD, THEN THE CONSONANTS THAT FOLLOW MUST HAVE A VOWEL SOUND!”
While I agree that the tetragrammaton must have 3 syllables , I teache this truth for different reasons. I have never heard the rule you refer to. What does it beginning with a YUD have to do with that?
As I said before, there are exceptions (just as there are exceptions in all languages). This is just a general principle.
Rich… How sure are you of the O sound?
“Or they didn’t catch that slight “o” sound in the 3-syllable YEH-HO-VAH.”
While I agree with you on the fact that we should be free to say and write the name of YHVH, 119 ministries has written a rather lengthy and technical analysis of it with the conclusion that…we still cannot know for sure. Knowing your philosophy for bite-sized entries,maybe it would be best to leave the actual name out..or offer the current options that they could use..or share a link with a more detailed discussion of it…since it is a very debatable issue..and I am hesitant to share this particular entry simply because it seems rather biased, bordering on sacred-namer. I understand that they are passionate about their truth but it cannot be imposed on others.
I agree with you that we can still not know for sure what the exact pronunciation should be.