YHWH

The Tetragrammaton

The Tetragrammaton or YHWH is God's personal name as revealed in the Bible. God's name can be represented by the four Hebrew consonants. These consonants can be spelled in English as YHWH. Known as the Tetragrammaton, it appears nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament (the Hebrew bible).

Overview

In English, the four letters of the Tetragrammaton are represented by the consonants Y, H twice and W. YHWH is, by far, the most frequently occurring name in the Bible. It reportedly appears for over 7,000 times in the Bible. While its writers refer to God by many titles, such as "Lord", the "Almighty" and "Most High", YHWH is the only personal name they use to identify God. The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass".

Origin

In the Bible, YHWH is directed to be used as the name for God. In the Book of Joel:

Everyone who calls on the name of YHWH will be saved. (Joel 2:32)

Meanwhile, the psalmist wrote:

May people know that you, whose name is YHWH, you alone are the Most High over all the earth. (Psalms 83:18)

Use in translations

Many English and non-Hebrew versions of the bible do use the Tetragrammaton in a local translated form. Many early Bible translations translate the Divine name YHWH as either Yahweh, or Jehovah.

Surprisingly, many Bible translations today do not contain the divine name at all. Why? A superstitious idea arose among the Jews that it was wrong to pronounce that name. This resulted first in avoiding spoken use of the divine name among the Jews, then in removal of God’s personal name from Greek manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures. Eventually, in most translations of the Bible the divine name was completely replaced by expressions such as “Lord” and “God.” It is noteworthy that only the most Important name of all—Jehovah—was tampered with; other Bible names were not.

In reality none of the Bible names which are mentioned in modern translations of the Bible are actually pronounced exactly as they were in their original languages. So the idea that because it was pronounced differently in the original language we should not use it doesnt make sense, on that basis all the names from the Bible would have to be removed.

The Bible commands that the name should not be abused or used in vain, not that it should not be read or used at all.

This command issued through Moses was given because many claiming to worship God would disrespectfully swear to things using the name of YHWH to add weight to their deliberate lies in business dealings and other matters. This caused God to issue a warning that they must not use his name in vain in this way.

The fact that God wrote his name over 7000 times is evidence that He both wants us to know it, and to read it.

Christian Bible

Matthew 4:10 featuring the divine name, "YHWH", in the Aramaic Bible in Plain English

While Bible scholars acknowledge that God's personal name, as represented by the Tetragrammaton (Hebrew: יהוה), appears almost 7,000 times in the original text of the Hebrew Scriptures, many feel that it did not appear in the original text of the Christian Greek Scriptures.

For this reason, most modern English Bibles do not use the name YHWH when translating the New Testament. Even when translating quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures in which the Tetragrammaton appears, most translators use "Lord" rather than God's personal name.

There are few translations that do use the divine name. As an example, The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures uses the name YHWH a total of 237 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures. In deciding to do this, the translators took into consideration two important factors:

• The Greek manuscripts possessed today are not the originals. Of the thousands of copies in existence today, most were made at least two centuries after the originals were composed
• Those copying the manuscripts either replaced the Tetragrammaton with Kyʹri·os, the Greek word for "Lord", or they copied from manuscripts where this had already been done.

Greek manuscript

There is compelling evidence that the Tetragrammaton did appear in the original Greek manuscripts based on the following:

• Copies of the Hebrew Scriptures used in the days of Jesus and his apostles contained the Tetragrammaton throughout the text. In the past, few people disputed that conclusion, but now that copies of the Hebrew Scriptures dating back to the first century have been discovered near Qumran (an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park), the point has been proved beyond any doubt.
• In the days of Jesus and his apostles, the Tetragrammaton also appeared in Greek translations of the Hebrew Scriptures. For centuries, scholars thought that the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) was absent from manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Then, in the mid-20th century, some very old fragments of the Greek-Septuagint version that existed in Jesus’ day were brought to scholars. Those fragments contain the personal name of God, written in Hebrew characters. So in Jesus’ day, copies of the Scriptures in the Greek language did contain the divine name.
• The Christian Greek Scriptures themselves report that Jesus often referred to God’s name and made it known to others. (John 17:6, 11, 12, 26) Jesus plainly stated: “I have come in the name of my Father.” He also stressed that his works were done in his “Father’s name.”—John 5:43; 10:25.
• The divine name appears in its abbreviated form in the Christian Greek Scriptures. At Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6, the divine name is embedded in the word “Hallelujah.” This comes from a Hebrew expression that literally means “Praise Jah.” “Jah” is a contraction of the name YHWH. Many names used in the Christian Greek Scriptures were derived from the divine name. In fact, reference works explain that Jesus’ own name means “YHWH Is Salvation.”
• Jewish sources indicate that Christians of Jewish origin used the Tetragrammaton in their manuscripts. The Toseft, a collection of Jewish oral laws compiled around the year 300, states what should be done with Christian manuscripts that might have caught fire on the Sabbath: "The books of the evangelists and the books of the minim [the 'minim' is believed to have been the name given to the Jewish Christians] must not be saved from the fire. Let these books burn where they are, together with God's name [YHWH] in them." In the same source, the words of Rabbi Yoseh of Galilee, who lived at the beginning of the 2nd century, are quoted. He said that on other days of the week, "God's name [YHWH] should be cut out of them [Christian manuscripts] and these cuts should be hidden, and the rest should be burned."
• Some Bible scholars acknowledge that it seems likely that the divine name appeared in Hebrew Scripture quotations found in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Under the heading “Tetragrammaton in the New Testament,” The Anchor Bible Dictionary states: “There is some evidence that the Tetragrammaton, the Divine Name, Yahweh, appeared in some or all of the O[ld] T[estament] quotations in the N[ew] T[estament] when the NT documents were first penned.” Scholar George Howard says: “Since the Tetragram was still written in the copies of the Greek Bible [the Septuagint] which made up the Scriptures of the early church, it is reasonable to believe that the N[ew] T[estament] writers, when quoting from Scripture, preserved the Tetragram within the biblical text.”
  

  The divine name featured in Greek Septuagint Fragments
  The name "YHWH" is used predominantly by Jehovah's Witnesses, based on their deep respect for the divine name. When settlers of different religions arrived to settle lands in North America, the name YHWH was widely used. It is still used by several regions by other denominations.

Related pages

• Judaism
• Christianity
• History of Jews
• History of Jews in the Arabian Peninsula