Personal Name of God

[Rose_Commander]

As I was reading my New Jerusalem Bible, I was wondering. What is the Personal Name of God? In the NJB, they use ‘Yahweh’, others like the King James Version or the American Standard Version use ‘Jehovah’ as the Personal Name of God. Ancient Catholic churches use Jehovah on the art that is on the walls and ceilings. So what is the Personal Name of God, Yahweh or Jehovah?

 

[Cashue]

As I was reading my New Jerusalem Bible, I was wondering. What is the Personal Name of God? In the NJB, they use ‘Yahweh’, others like the King James Version or the American Standard Version use ‘Jehovah’ as the Personal Name of God. Ancient Catholic churches use Jehovah on the art that is on the walls and ceilings. So what is the Personal Name of God, Yahweh or Jehovah?

Yawheh is accepted as the closest but we just call him GOD with capital letters to avoid confusion. God has so many personal names that it is better just to say GOD.

Also there is no J in hebrew so when we say Jesus with a “J” it is wrong but that is okay for J-esus but not for J-ehovah so we must eliminate the J because this is a late addition and the real letter that should always be used is Y (J as in Jesus or Jehovah was added by a Monk in the 16th century).

Anyway GOD with capital letters is best removing the name completely so that there is no confusion.

 

[patrick457]

As I was reading my New Jerusalem Bible, I was wondering. What is the Personal Name of God? In the NJB, they use ‘Yahweh’, others like the King James Version or the American Standard Version use ‘Jehovah’ as the Personal Name of God. Ancient Catholic churches use Jehovah on the art that is on the walls and ceilings. So what is the Personal Name of God, Yahweh or Jehovah?

God’s personal Name is Yhwh!
We don’t know how this Name is exactly pronounced since Jews ceased to use the name in the Greco-Roman period, and knowledge of it was lost with the destruction of the Temple. Many scholars today lean toward Yahweh, following the suggestion of German Biblical scholar Wilhelm Gesenius (1786–1842), based on his study of early Greek transcriptions, theophoric names, and the reported pronunciation of the name in the Samaritan tradition. This wikipedia article might help you.

As for Jehovah, early modern translators disregarded the practice of reading 'Adonai,
or its equivalents in Greek and Latin, in place of Yhwh and instead combined the four Hebrew letters of the text with the vowel points that, except in synagogue scrolls (which had no vowel points!), accompanied them, resulting in the form Iehouah and eventually, Jehovah. This form, already in use by Catholic authors such as Ramón Martí O.P. (13th century), achieved wide use in the translations of the Reformation.

 

[patrick457]

Also there is no J in hebrew so when we say Jesus with a “J” it is wrong but that is okay for J-esus but not for J-ehovah so we must eliminate the J because this is a late addition and the real letter that should always be used is Y (J as in Jesus or Jehovah was added by a Monk in the 16th century).

From here:

J originated as a swash character to end some Roman numerals in place of i. There was an emerging distinctive use in Middle High German. Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550) was the first to explicitly distinguish I and J as representing separate sounds, in his Ɛpistola del Trissino de le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua italiana (“Trissino’s epistle about the letters recently added in the Italian language”) of 1524. Originally, both I and J represented /i/, /iː/, and /j/; but Romance languages developed new sounds (from former /j/ and /ɡ/) that came to be represented as I and J; therefore, English J (from French J) has a sound value quite different from /j/ (which represents the sound in the English word “yet”).

In English J most commonly represents the affricate /dʒ/ (as in jet). In Old English the phoneme /dʒ/ was represented orthographically as cʒ. Under the influence of Old French, which had a similar phoneme deriving from Latin /j/, English scribes began to use I (later J) to represent word-initial /dʒ/ of Old English (for example, iest, later jest), while using DG elsewhere (for example, hedge). Later many other uses of I (later J) were added in loan words from French and other languages (e.g. adjoin, junta). The first English-language book to make a clear distinction between I and J was published in 1634. In loanwords such as jam, “J” may be pronounced /ʒ/ by some, but not all, speakers. In some such cases, including raj, Taj Mahal and others, the regular /dʒ/ is actually closer to the original sound of the foreign language, making this realization a hyperforeignism. Occasionally J represents other sounds, as in Hallelujah which is pronounced the same as “Halleluyah” (See the Hebrew yud for more details).

 

[Cashue]

From here:

J originated as a swash character to end some Roman numerals in place of i. There was an emerging distinctive use in Middle High German. Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550) was the first to explicitly distinguish I and J as representing separate sounds, in his Ɛpistola del Trissino de le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua italiana (“Trissino’s epistle about the letters recently added in the Italian language”) of 1524. Originally, both I and J represented /i/, /iː/, and /j/; but Romance languages developed new sounds (from former /j/ and /ɡ/) that came to be represented as I and J; therefore, English J (from French J) has a sound value quite different from /j/ (which represents the sound in the English word “yet”).

In English J most commonly represents the affricate /dʒ/ (as in jet). In Old English the phoneme /dʒ/ was represented orthographically as cʒ. Under the influence of Old French, which had a similar phoneme deriving from Latin /j/, English scribes began to use I (later J) to represent word-initial /dʒ/ of Old English (for example, iest, later jest), while using DG elsewhere (for example, hedge). Later many other uses of I (later J) were added in loan words from French and other languages (e.g. adjoin, junta). The first English-language book to make a clear distinction between I and J was published in 1634. In loanwords such as jam, “J” may be pronounced /ʒ/ by some, but not all, speakers. In some such cases, including raj, Taj Mahal and others, the regular /dʒ/ is actually closer to the original sound of the foreign language, making this realization a hyperforeignism. Occasionally J represents other sounds, as in Hallelujah which is pronounced the same as “Halleluyah” (See the Hebrew yud for more details).

thank you Patrick that was most informative. Yes, this shows how the J developped and it has no part in scripture, that’s why J in the bible is wrong and should always be Y as in Yahweh, we should NEVER say Jehovah because that has a Jay in it.

 

[NHInsider]

Recently the Vatican has determined that Catholics should respect the ancient tradition of not pronouncing the Name, at least in liturgy - so that the hymns which use either Yahweh or Jehovah will be edited (probably with “The Lord” just as the Jews read “Adoni” where the text has YHWH). I would assume that this has also effected a change in any jurisdictions that use the NJB as their liturgical translation (are there any?)

It seems to me that our focus should be on the wonder of God’s self-revelation, both in revealing His Name to His people in the time of Moses and, even more, revealing Himself in the Person of Jesus, rather than worrying too much about things like the morphing of transliteration over the centuries?

 

[Trishie]

Exodus 3:14 (New International Version)

God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ "

God called Himself, “I AM”

 

[patrick457]

thank you Patrick that was most informative. Yes, this shows how the J developped and it has no part in scripture, that’s why J in the bible is wrong and should always be Y as in Yahweh, we should NEVER say Jehovah because that has a Jay in it.

Uh, Jehovah is supposed to be pronounced like Yeah-ho-vah. Kinda like Jesus: we English-speakers use Gee-zus now, but the pronunciation should be - as per the Latin - Yay-sus. And that was indeed the way it was pronounced before the modern era. Also, in names like Jonah or Jesus, the J of Jehovah wasn’t originally a J, it was originally an I (y’know, Iehova, Iehovah, Ieoa, Ihehova, or any other variation that exists that I can think of). Curse the interchanging of the I and the J!

Small consolation exists in that the earliest proponents of Jehova in the Middle Ages, the Dominican Ramón Martí and the Carthusian Porchetus, also transliterate the Name as Yohoua and Yohouah, respectively. I guess.

(As an aside, I’ve heard one opinion that Jehovah is supposed to be pronounced with the accent not on the ho, but on the vah; hence, it should be pronounced like Yeah-ho-VAH or Yeah-ho-WAH instead of Jay-HO-vah)

 

[patrick457]

Exodus 3:14 (New International Version)

God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ "

God called Himself, “I AM”

Yes! אהיה אשר אהיה Ehyeh-asher-ehyeh. More literally, “I-am/I-will-be who/what/that/which/where I-will-be/I-am”. A mere three (two?) words in Hebrew, but it kinda covers all the bases, isn’t it?