JEHOVAH

'Jehovah' is an English transcription of , which is a specific vocalized spelling of (i.e. the Tetragrammaton) that is found in the Masoretic Text.
has the consonants of the Tetragrammaton, and 's vowel points are similar to, but not precisely the same as the vowel points found in Adonai.

Since the beginning of the 17th century, [or possibly even earlier], scholars have questioned whether the vowel points found in are the actual vowel points of God's name. Some scholarly sources teach that has the vowel points of [i.e. Adonai], but to be redundant, the vowel points of these two words are not precisely the same, and scholars are not in total agreement as to why does not have the precise same vowel points as Adonai has.

The first English translators of , believed they had the correct vowel points, and translated it as it was written:
::"Jehova" in 1270 A.D. Latin.
::"Iehouah" in 1530 A.D. English.
::"Iehovah" in 1611 A.D. English.
::"Jehovah" in 1769 A.D. English.
::"Yehowah" used by some using another transcription of the consonants of the Tetragrammaton (See Yahweh).
Many religious followings, including Catholics ^[1] and Orthodox Christians have been using the name Jehovah during the last 2 centuries.^[2] King-James-Only Movement Christians believe that Jehovah is the correct name that English-speaking people shall use for God.^[3] Jehovah's Witnesses (previously known as International Bible Students until 1931) have been using the name throughout the world (with exceptions) ^[4] as the most commonly spoken English pronunciation.^[5] of the Tetragrammaton.^[6] Latter-day Saints believe that Jehovah was the name of the pre-mortal Jesus Christ,^[7] and that he is a distinct being from God the Father, whom Latter-day Saints sometimes refer to as Elohim.^[8]

Contents

Modern usage of the rendering Jehovah in printed publications

History

Early transcriptions of similar to "Jehovah"

Early transcriptions of similar to "Jehovah"

Kethib and Qere and Qere perpetuum

Examining the vowel points of and

Critique of the transcription Jehovah in the 17th century

Summary of the criticism of the transcription Jehovah

In defense of the transcription Jehovah

Arguments for the name "Yahweh"

Resulting consensus

More recent opinions

Use of "Jehovah" in English

References

Modern usage of the rendering Jehovah in printed publications

The following works, either always or sometimes render the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah:

★ The King James (Authorized) Version, 1611: i.e. four times as the personal name of God (in all capital letters), e.g. 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.

★ The American Standard Version, 1901 edition, consistently renders the Tetragrammaton as Je-ho’vah in all 6,823 places where it occurs in the Old Testament.

★ 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 Living Bible, published by Tyndale House Publishers, Illinois 1971, e.g. Gen 22:14, Exodus 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 Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., Brooklyn, NY 1961 and last revised in 1984. Renders the Tetragrammaton about 7,200 times.
Some religious groups, notably Jehovah's Witnesses (previously known as The IBSA until 1931) and the King-James-Only Movement, continue using the pronunciation Jehovah, either because the name has become a distinguishing feature of a worldwide organization which cannot be changed, or that it had already become well established in usage among followers at a time when the correct pronunciation of was unknown. Some groups continue to debate that Yahweh is an incorrect, invalid pronunciation and that Jehovah alone is the correct pronunciation.

History

Under the heading " c. 6823", the editors of the the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write that occurs 6518 times in the Masoretic Text.

Early transcriptions of similar to "Jehovah"

★ Ιεωα: (Ieōa, ) in Hellenistic magical texts #
::'#' marks forms listed by Sir Godfrey Driver.

Early transcriptions of similar to "Jehovah"

Transcriptions of similar to
"Jehovah" occurred as early as the
13th century.

★ 1278: Jehova/Yohoua: in the work ''Pugio fidei'' by the Spanish monk Raymond Martin (Raymundus Martini).^[9]

★ 1303: Yohouah: in the book entitled:''Porchetus' Victory Against the Ungodly Hebrews.''by Porchetus de Salvaticis.^[10].[3]

★ 1518:Iehoua:in ''De Arcanis
Catholicæ Veritatis'',1518, folio
xliii by Pope Leo X's confessor
Peter Galatin (Galatinus)

★ 1530:Iehouah:Tyndale's Pentateuch

★ 1611:Iehovah:King James Bible of 1611

★ 1769:Jehovah:1762-1769 edit of the King James Bible
::The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write that the pronunciation "Jehovah" was unknown until 1520 when it was introduced by Galatinus; but it was contested by Le Mercier, J. Drusius, and L. Capellus, as against grammatical and historical propriety.
:::Note that the English transcription "Jehovah" did not first appear until the 1762-1769 edit of the King James Bible. The critique of the English transcription Jehovah, as well as the critique of Galatinus's ''Latin Transcription "Iehoua"'', and the earlier English transcriptions "Iehouah" and "Iehovah", is based on the belief of scholars, that the vowel points of are not the actual vowel points of God's name. Thus while most scholarly sources say that scholars are critiquing the name "Jehovah", Galatinus's ''Latin Transcription "Iehoua"'' and the earlier English transcriptions "Iehouah" [1530 A.D.] and "Iehovah" [1611 A.D.] were being critiqued, before the ''English'' transcription "Jehovah" [1762-1769 A.D.] ever started to appear.
::::All three transcriptions have the vowels "e" and "o" and "a", and scholars believe that those vowels are from another word [i.e. Adonay / Adonai], but as noted in the introduction of this article, the vowel points of and the vowel points of "Adonay / Adonai" are not precisely the same. [See Section 3 and Section 3.1 for more information]

Kethib and Qere and Qere perpetuum

The original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was provided with vowel marks by the Masoretes to assist reading. 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 as a note showing what was to be read. In such a case the vowels of the Qere were written on the Kethib. For a few very frequent words the marginal note was omitted: this is called Q're perpetuum.
One of these frequent cases was God's name, that should not be pronounced, but read as "adonai" ("My Lord [plural of majesty]"), or, if the previous or next word already was "adonai", or "adoni" ("My Lord"), as "elohim" ("God"). This combination produces and respectively, non-words that would spell "yehovah" and "yehovih" respectively.
The first early modern English Bible translators to transcribe God's name into English did not contact Jewish scholars, and did not know of the Q're perpetuum custom, but transcribed "" into English as they saw it. It therefore became Iehouah in 1530 (Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch), Iehovah in 1611, and Jehovah in 1769, the spelling gradually settling down as Roman alphabet J and V became distinct letters from I and U. The transcription Iehouah was used in the 16th century by many authors Roman Catholic and Protestant, but not Coverdale's Bible translation in 1535. ^[11]

Examining the vowel points of and

In the table below, Yehovah and Adonay are dissected

Hebrew Word #3068 YEHOVAH			Hebrew Word #136 ADONAY
	Yod	Y		Aleph	glottal stop
	.Simple Shewa	E		Hatef Patah	A
	Heh	H		Daleth	D
	Holem	O		Holem	O
	Vav	V		Nun	N
	Qamets	A		Qamets	A
	Heh	H		Yod	Y

Note in the table directly above that the "simple shewa" in Yehovah and the "hatef patah" in Adonay are not the same points. The same information is displayed in the table above and to the right where "YHWH intended to be pronounced as Adonai" and "Adonai, with its slightly different vowel points" are shown to have different vowel points.
The difference between the vowel points of ''’ǎdônây'' and YHWH is explained by the rules of Hebrew morphology and phonetics. ''Shva'' 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 ''shva'' on other consonants (such as the 'y' in YHWH).

Critique of the transcription Jehovah in the 17th century

The transcription Jehovah [a.k.a. Iehouah] was used in the 16th century by many authors, both Catholic and Protestant. A publication by John Drusius at the beginning of the 17th century [e.g. 1604] was the start of a bitter debate that lasted for a century. Fuller, Thomas Gataker, and Johann Leusden wrote five discourses defending the transcription "Jehovah" [or Iehouah, Iehovah] against the five discources written by Drusius, Amama, Cappellus, Buxtorf, and Altingius which opposed the transcription Jehovah.

Hadrian Reland collected and published these ''ten'' discourses in 1707. [4]

Five Discourses in Opposition to the Transcription Jehovah
Author and Discourse	Comments
John Drusius [1550 -1616] ''Tetragrammaton, sive de Nomine Die proprio, quod Tetragrammaton vocant'' (1604)	John Drusius (= Johannes Van den Driesche) noting that the reading "Jehovah" is contrary to Jewish tradition, wrote about the 1518 form: "''Primus in hunc errorem nos induxit Galatinus ... ante qui sic legerit, neminem novi''" ("Galatinus first led us to this mistake ... I know [of] nobody who read [it] thus earlier..").[5] An editor of Drusius in 1698 knows of an earlier reading in Porchetus de Salvaticis however.[6] According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, (Qr ) occurs 6518 times, and (Qr ) occurs 305 times in the Masoretic Text. John Drusius wrote that neither nor accurately represented God's name.[12]
Sixtinus Amama [1593-1659][13] ''De nomine tetragrammato'' (1628) [7]	Sixtinus Amama, was a Professor of Hebrew in the University of Franeker. He was also a pious pupil of Drusius. [8]
Louis Cappel [1585-1658] ''De nomine tetragrammato'', (1624)	Lewis Cappel reached the conclusion that Hebrew vowel points were not part of the original Hebrew language. This view was strongly contested by John Buxtorff the elder, as well as by his son.
John Buxtorff [1564-1629 ] ''Disserto de nomine JHVH''	John Buxtorf the elder [9] controverted the views of Elias Levita regarding the late origin of the Hebrew vowel points, a subject which gave rise to the controversy between Louis Cappel and his (e.g. John Buxtorff the elder's) son, John Buxtorff the younger.
James Altingius [1618-1679] [10] ''Exercitatio grammatica de punctis ac pronunciatione tetragrammati''	[11]>

::Note that while Louis Cappel and John Buxtorf are both listed as authors who opposed the transcription Jehovah, they each were involved in serious controversy with each other concerning the origin of the Hebrew vowel points.

Five Discourses in Defense of the Transcription Jehovah
Author and Discourse	Comments
Nicholas Fuller [1557-1626]	Nicholas was a Hebraist and a theologian. [12]
Thomas Gataker [1574-1654][13] ''De Nomine Tetragrammato Dissertaio'' (1645) [14]	For further information, see: Memoirs of the Puritans Thomas Gataker.
John Leusden [1624-1699] ''Dissertationes tres, de vera lectione nominis Jehova''	John Leusden wrote ''three'' discourses in defense of the name Jehovah. [15]

Summary of the criticism of the transcription Jehovah

The following text is found in William Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible"'.' William Smith gives his summary of the results of the ten discourses mentioned in the previous section':'

★ In the decade of dissertations collected by Reland, Fuller, Gataker, and Leusden do battle for the pronunciation Jehovah, against such formidable antagonists as Drusius, Amama, Cappellus, Buxtorf, and Altingius, who, it is scarcely necessary to say, fairly beat their opponents out of the field; ''the only argument of any weight, which is employed by the advocates of the pronunciation of the word as it is written being that derived from the form in which it appears in proper names, such as Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, &c.''

★ ''Their antagonists make a strong point of the fact that, as has been noticed above, two different sets of vowel points are applied to the same consonants under certain circumstances. To this Leusden, of all the champions on his side, but feebly replies.''

★ The same may be said of the argument derived from the fact that the letters , when prefixed to , take, not the vowels which they would regularly receive were the present pronunciation true, but those with which they would be written if , ''adonai'', were the reading; and that the letters ordinarily taking ''dagesh lene'' when following would, according to the rules of the Hebrew points, be written without dagesh, whereas it is uniformly inserted.
William Smith concludes':'

★ Whatever, therefore, be the true pronunciation of the word, there can be little doubt that it is not ''Jehovah''.

In defense of the transcription Jehovah

As mentioned in the previous section, the defenders of the transcription Jehovah believed that theophoric names such as Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, etc, indicated that Jehovah was the actual name of God. In the 19th century the Hebrew scholar Gesenius provided the defenders of the name Jehovah with support on this issue.
::While Wilhelm Gesenius is noted for being the first Hebrew scholar to propose the punctuation "Yahweh", Gesenius believed that Yehowah more satisfactorily explained the Theophoric names which began with the "abbreviated syllable YHW [Yeho] or YW [Yo]".
::In a post made on 08/22/03 at 12:36 am the following information is found':'
:::Gesenius in his Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament Scriptures agrees saying':'
::::"Those who consider that YHWH [Yehowah] was the actual pronunciation
::::are not altogether without ground on which to defend their opinion.
::::In this way can the abbreviated syllables YHW [Yeho] and YH [Yo],
::::with which many proper names begin, be more satisfactorily explained."
The following text is found in the first sentence of the article:'JEHOVAH' in William Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible"':'
::"'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:"
:::The two vocalizations of the Tetragrammaton shown in bold type above, were both critiqued by John Drusius in 1604 A.D., however as noted below, Davidson defends the vowel points of יְהֹוָה. [See also sub section 3.1 above.]
::In Scott Jones Article:Jehovah under the heading "Davidson on the Tetragrammaton", Davidson explains why he believes that the fact that the Masoretes did not point with the precise same vowel points as are found in Adonay indicated that the vowel points of יְהֹוָה are the actual vowel points of God's name.

★ The vocalized Hebrew spelling "Yahweh" is found in no extant Hebrew text.

★ The central "ou" or "o" in some Greek transcriptions point to a pronunciation with a "u" or "o" vowel in the middle, i.e. "Yehowa".
::However Greek, since it stopped using the digamma, when transcribing foreign words and names has had to write the "w" consonant sound as a vowel "u" or similar (or in later times as β, after the Greek pronunciation of β changed from "b" to "v").

Arguments for the name "Yahweh"

:''For arguments for the pronunciation "Yahweh", see Yahweh.''

Resulting consensus

Reland agreed with the opponents of "Jehovah", and since his days the majority opinion has been roughly what is expressed in the article JEHOVAH of the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 [16], that the pronunciation was "Yahweh". See also:

★ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Jehovah

★ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tetragrammaton

More recent opinions

The "JEHOVAH" article in the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 agrees with (1) [17]. Most modern scholars agree with it.
The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament write "" under the heading "", and describes "" as:
::"'n.pr.dei' Yahweh, the proper name of the God of Israel."

Use of "Jehovah" in English

★ 1395: The Wycliffe Bible translation followed Jewish tradition and wrote 'Adonai', e.g. in Ex. 6:3.

★ 1530: "Iehouah" appeared in Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch (Exodus 6.3), from which it passed into other Protestant Bibles.

★ 1611: is translated "IEHOVAH" ("JEHOVAH" from the 18th century on) in all uppercase in four places in the King James Bible of 1611 A.D.(Exodus 6:3, Psalm 83:18, Isaiah 12:2, Isaiah 26:4), the three times in placenames (e.g. Jehovah-jireh). Elsewhere in the King James Bible it is rendered as GOD or LORD. ^[14]

References

1. For example, this is the usage of the name Jehovah by the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''.
2. Use of the name Jehovah has been made by famous Orthodox theologians like St. Nectarios, Kolitsaras, and Trempelas.
3. The AV 1611 KJVO Discussion Board says: "Affirmative:The King James Bible is God's Word for all English speaking peoples". (e.g. KJVO Christians believe that Jehovah is the correct name that ''all'' English speaking people should use for God.)
4. Haiti: Temwen Jewova
Indonesia: Saksi-Saksi Yehuwa
Turkey: Yehova’nın Şahitleri
Congo: Mashahidi wa Yehova
Seychelles: Temwen Zeova
Serbia: Jehovini svedoci
Fiji: Vakadonui ni iVakadinadina i Jiova
(Source: www.watchtower.org)
5. [1]
6. [2]
7. LDS Church, Guide to the Scriptures: Jehovah.
8. LDS Church, ''Bible Dictionary'': God.
9. On page 152 of Gerard Gertoux's book: "The name of God Y.EH.OW.AH which is pronounced as it is written I_EH_OU_AH" is a photo of bilingual Latin (or Spanish) text and Hebrew text [side by side] written by Raymond Martin in 1278 A.D, with in its last sentence "" opposite "yohoua".
10. Page 153 of Gerard Gertoux's book: "The name of God Y.EH.OW.AH which is pronounced as it is written I_EH_OU_AH"
11. In the 7th paragraph of "Introduction to the Old Testament of the New English Bible", Sir Godfry Driver wrote, "The Reformers preferred Jehovah, which first appeared as ''Iehouah'' in 1530 A.D., in Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch (Exodus 6.3), from which it passed into other Protestant Bibles."
12. See Pages 209-210 of Gerard Gertoux's book: "The name of God Y.EH.OW.AH which is pronounced as it is written I_EH_OU_AH"
13. See page 8 [http://members.lycos.nl/breukelm/Latijnsebijbelvertalingen16deeeuw.pdf
14. In a chart labeled "The Bible Compared: Exodus", Exodus 6:3 shows "IEHOVAH" [in all capital letters] in the KJV [1611].