The History Of God’s Name

Published August 13, 2024 at 7:16 PM

–

In conjunction with the article that covers a list of God’s names, this article will go over the history of God’s name (YHWH). His name was once proclaimed by all of Israel, now we replace it with “The LORD”. Others have tried to bring His name back, but have mis-transliterated it (i.e. Jehovah). We will go back to Paleo-Hebrew, then work towards Modern-Hebrew, showing how Hebrew changed, and how God’s name was seemingly forgotten.

–

PALEO HEBREW (~1000 BC)

There is a consensus agreement that God’s name is spelled YHWH (the Tetragrammaton). Below is how the Tetragrammaton was written in Paleo-Hebrew:

NOTE: Hebrew is read from right to left (instead of how we read English from left to right)

–

The Paleo-Hebrew pronunciation of YHWH is Yahuah

The letters of YHWH are pronounced “yod”, “hay”, “waw”, and “hay”. Based on our understanding of ancient Semitic languages (which have similar alphabets and roots), this is how YHWH is vocalized:

Y – yod – makes the “y” sound

H – hay – makes the “ah” sound

W – waw – makes the “oo” or “uu” sound

H – hay – makes the “ah” sound

Putting this together, you get Y-ah-oo-ah or YAHUAH.

You may ask where “Yahweh” comes from, and we’ll get to that later in the article. The short answer is that the pronunciation of God’s name wasn’t preserved, causing scholars to attempt to reconstruct it. Moreover, those who claim that God’s name is “Yahawah” or “YaHuWaH” are simply offering different pronunciations and spellings of “Yahuah”. I believe that “Yahuah” is the most straightforward transliteration of YHWH, but I would not be surprised if one of those variants was more accurate. However, what we do know is that “Jehovah” is an inaccurate transliteration, as it tries to combine the vowels of the word “Adonai” with the Tetragrammaton (more on this later, as well).

–

YHWH points us to Jesus’ Crucifixion

Something special that I want to point out about the name YHWH is that it points us to Jesus’ crucifixion. Above the four letters of the Tetragrammaton are pictographs that also have meanings. Here are their meanings:

Yod – arm and hand

Hay – behold

Waw – nail/peg

Hay – behold

YHWH’s pictograph roughly comes out to “hand, behold, nail, behold”. You can also read it as “Behold the hand, behold the nail”. This points us toward the crucifixion, as we know Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed to the cross. We are told twice to behold (pay attention), showing the importance of the finished work of the cross.

–

THE SWITCH TO ARAMAIC HEBREW (~600 BC)

You likely noticed that the Hebrew above looks nothing like the Hebrew in use today. This is because the Hebrew language changed around the time of the Exile. Influenced by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians, the Jews began to implement an Aramaic writing script. This script looked something like this:

NOTE: The Samaritans did not change their script, so their language is a descendant of Paleo-Hebrew.

–

This script is a lot closer to what Hebrew looks like today. The Aramaic Script (which later became the Square Script) replaced Paleo-Hebrew as the writing script that was used by the Jews. Most surviving Old Testament manuscripts are written in the Aramaic Script, though we do have the Ketef Hinnom Scrolls that have Bible content written in Paleo-Hebrew.

Furthermore, the Jews still wrote YHWH in Paleo-Hebrew. If you pay attention to the images above, you’ll see that YHWH was written in Paleo-Hebrew, while everything else is in the Aramaic Script. His name wouldn’t be converted to the modern script later in the Greek period.

–

DOWNFALL OF SPOKEN HEBREW (~600 BC – 200 AD)

Around the same time that the Jews switched to the Aramaic script, they also began implementing practices that led to the decline of the Hebrew language.

–

The Jews Stopped Saying YHWH (~600 BC onward)

YHWH went from being proclaimed openly, to being a sacred name that had restrictions on it. People began to refer to Him as “Adonai”, using it as a substitution for saying His name. One belief is that this was done to stop the Assyrians and Babylonians from profaning His name, as they were in Exile and wanted to protect God’s holy name. Another theory is that the priests and scribes simply treated His name with so much reverence that they believed that God’s name was too holy to be spoken casually. Regardless of the reason, the point I want to make is that if enough generations go by without hearing His name, it is not far-fetched to believe that it will be forgotten.

In other words, Jews began practicing the Ineffable Name Doctrine. Christians practice it today when we replace YHWH with “The LORD” in our Bibles.

–

HELLENIZATION (~300 BC onward)

Jews during this time primarily spoke Greek and Aramaic, as the Hellenized Jews did not their children how to speak Hebrew. Aramaic was already the language of the Near East, and Hellenization caused many Jews to assimilate into Greek culture. God’s name was not transliterated into Greek, as the Jews referred to Him as “Kyrious”, which is the Greek word for “Lord”. Most notably, Kyrious is used in place of YHWH in the New Testament. The Ineffable Name Doctrine lived on, further causing the downfall of the use of God’s name.

The events surrounding the Jewish-Roman Wars, and the scattering of the Jews, only served to make things worse. Jews were massacred and scattered in large numbers, further hurting an already dying language. The number of Hebrew speakers continued to decline, and it should be obvious that people not speaking Hebrew means that YHWH’s name isn’t being proclaimed.

Hebrew lived on as a liturgical and written language, but it was a dead language in the same way that Latin is today.

–

THE MASORETES ADD VOWEL POINTS (6th – 10th Century AD)

While the Jewish diaspora was scattered, and Hebrew became a dying language, the Masoretes helped preserve the language. Most people know that the Masoretes are the ones behind the Masoretic Text, which is the Old Testament in our Bibles today. However, what they don’t know is that the Masoretes added vowel points to the Hebrew language.

Hebrew doesn’t have vowels, so these vowel points were used to help people pronounce Hebrew words. This was necessary to help preserve the pronunciation of certain Hebrew words. Below is an example of Masoretic Hebrew, which is still used today (albeit with some differences):

Still, the Masoretes refused to proclaim the name YHWH

The Masoretes did not preserve the pronunciation of God’s name, rather they inserted the vowel points of “Adonai” to remind people to say “Adonai” instead of trying to pronounce His name. I personally find this frustrating, especially if they knew how to pronounce God’s name, but chose not to preserve how to. Moreover, Jehovah’s Witnesses misinterpret what the Masoretes did to mean that God’s name is “Jehovah” (this was briefly discussed earlier). The Masoretes did a lot of good work in preserving the Hebrew Old Testament and Hebrew language, but their actions concerning the vowel points in God’s name only added more confusion.

In short, the proclamation of God’s name was neglected so much that Masoretic Hebrew had a built-in reminder not to say YHWH.

–

MODERN HEBREW & YAHWEH (19th Century AD – Present)

With everything laid out, we can finally talk about Modern Hebrew and how we got “Yahweh”. The Masoretes preserved their version of the Hebrew language, but it wasn’t revived as a commonly spoken language until the late 19th Century.

Scholars also began questioning Jehovah, realizing the mistake made in using that name. They then embarked on the task of transliterating YHWH, using Hebrew words, names, and Biblical adjacent texts as clues.

The transliteration they came up with was Yahweh, and this is now the consensus transliteration of YHWH in Modern Hebrew. However, there is reason to doubt this transliteration. I believe that Yahweh gets the “Yah” part correct, but mistranslates the end of God’s name.

“Waw” is translated as making a “w” sound in “Yahweh”, but in all other Semitic languages (namely Phonecian, Aramaic, and Arabic), “waw” is pronounced with an “oo”/”uu” sound. This supports the theory that the Paleo-Hebrew “waw”, which is adjacent to these languages, also made that sound. Additionally, we can look to Hebrew names to support the “oo”/”uu” sound theory for YHWH:

–

Hebrew Names Point To Yahuah Being God’s Name

A simple argument in favor of Yahuah is that most Hebrew names include the root “Yahu”, which is a way of incorporating YHWH into Hebrew names. Elijah in Hebrew is “Eliyahu”, while Josiah is “Yoshiyahu”. Similarly, Jeremiah is “Yirmeyahu”, while Isaiah is “Yeshayahu”. The root “Yahu” is present in a large number of Hebrew names, which points to Yahuah being more accurate than Yahweh.

Smoking Gun: Judah’s Hebrew name

The smoking gun case for Yahuah is found when analyzing Judah’s name in Hebrew. Transliterating the Hebrew letters of Judah gives us “YHWDH”. If this looks familiar, it is because Judah/YHWDH is God’s name “YHWH”, but with an extra letter that makes a “d” sound. And for those who are wondering, “YHWDH” is pronounced Yahudah (sometimes spelled Yehudah). Removing the extra letter from YHWDH/Yahudah gives us YHWH/Yahuah.

–

–

CONCLUSION

This was a lot of history condensed into one article, so I pray I didn’t lose you with what I was saying. The point I was trying to hammer in is that Hebrew changed a lot over time, and that the Jews stopped proclaiming God’s name. This has forced modern scholars to attempt to reconstruct it, based on what has been preserved by the historical record. Yahweh is a solid reconstruction, but I believe that Yahuah is more accurate. This is based on what we know about other Jewish names, while also using other Semitic languages with similar alphabets to Hebrew. If this is a topic that you are serious about, and truly want to use God’s original name, pray that He gives you wisdom in this area and reveals His name to you.

Thank you for reading, and always remember to stay vigilant!