Yahweh, Jehovah, Adonai, or something else?

  • Thread starter Thread starter hamburglar
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

hamburglar

Guest
What would be the correct equivalent of when you see LORD in the RSV and NAB?

Take Exodus 6:3 for example. In the RSV and NAB, it is LORD. In the Latin Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims (sp) it is Adonai. In the King James Version it is Jehovah. I have also seen Yahweh and Elohim.

One of my professors (I’m a freshman in college) taught us to write it as YHWH. I had thought that Jehovah was actually a mistranslation. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, and I don’t know where I got that idea.
 
Jehovah is most certainly a mistranslation. We can even date back to the exact person, time and reason of its origin. Raymond Martin, a 13th century monk, wrote “Jehovah” in a theological writing because he mistook the pronunciation marks for “the Lord” in Hebrew to be God’s actual name.

YHWH is how it is spelled in the Hebrew Bible; Exodus 3:13-14. “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

“I AM THAT I AM” spelled out by the letter is YHWH, the Tetragrammaton. The question is, how do you pronounce this name? Most scholars are of the opinion that “Yahweh” is the correct oral form, though others dispute this. The Jerusalem and New Jerusalem Bibles both render YHWH as Yahweh.

Adonai is the Hebrew pronunciation for “the Lord.”
 
hamburglar said:
What would be the correct equivalent of when you see LORD in the RSV and NAB?

Take Exodus 6:3 for example. In the RSV and NAB, it is LORD. In the Latin Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims (sp) it is Adonai. In the King James Version it is Jehovah. I have also seen Yahweh and Elohim.

One of my professors (I’m a freshman in college) taught us to write it as YHWH. I had thought that Jehovah was actually a mistranslation. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, and I don’t know where I got that idea.
Click to expand...
Lord is english for Adonai which is used as a substitute for the Tetragrammaton YHWH. Baal-also means Lord. That’s just the tip of the iceberg- there are lots of names and euphemisms for god in Hebrew- here’s a few-HaShem,El, El elyon,Kedosh Yisrael,El Shaddai,Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, etc- you get the point!!:eek:
 
The Hebrew original was YHWH - God’s personal name. The Jews considered His name to be too holy to be spoken, and so where YHWH appeared in Scripture the Hebrew word for Lord - “Adonai” - was to be spoken instead.

hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Adonai/adonai.html Quote from this site: “The Masoretes ensured that the sacred name of the Lord YHWH would not be taken in vain by putting the vowel marks for Adonai under the letters (Greek letters for YHWH given) in the running text (ketiv). They did this to remind the reader to pronounce Adonai regardless of the consonants in the text…”

Hebrew: I don’t know if current Hebrew bibles have “YHWH” or “Adonai” where YHWH originally occured. (The Hebrew bible on my software contains YHWH.)

Greek: When the Jews translated the Bible into Greek, the Greek word for Lord - Kyrios - was used in place of YHWH.

English: English translations vary - some use “LORD”, to translate the Hebrew YHWH. When “lord” is written all in capitals, it means YHWH is the original Hebrew word (LORD is being substituted for Yahweh).

El (singular) or elohim (plural) is the Hebrew for God; Deos in Greek.
 
A very detailed discussion about God’s personal name:

watchtower.org/e/na/index.htm

Chapter 2 - God’s Name—Its Meaning and Pronunciation has some interesting pictures from various Catholic Churches where the Divine Name is displayed.
 
Nita said:
The Hebrew original was YHWH - God’s personal name. The Jews considered His name to be too holy to be spoken, and so where YHWH appeared in Scripture the Hebrew word for Lord - “Adonai” - was to be spoken instead.

hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Adonai/adonai.html Quote from this site: “The Masoretes ensured that the sacred name of the Lord YHWH would not be taken in vain by putting the vowel marks for Adonai under the letters (Greek letters for YHWH given) in the running text (ketiv). They did this to remind the reader to pronounce Adonai regardless of the consonants in the text…”

Hebrew: I don’t know if current Hebrew bibles have “YHWH” or “Adonai” where YHWH originally occured. (The Hebrew bible on my software contains YHWH.)

Greek: When the Jews translated the Bible into Greek, the Greek word for Lord - Kyrios - was used in place of YHWH.

English: English translations vary - some use “LORD”, to translate the Hebrew YHWH. When “lord” is written all in capitals, it means YHWH is the original Hebrew word (LORD is being substituted for Yahweh).

El (singular) or elohim (plural) is the Hebrew for God; Deos in Greek.
Click to expand...
Nita,

I was excited to see someone link to one of my favorite websites: Hebrew4Christians! Good work! Have you read the article on that site regarding Israel and the Church? Excellent!

Also the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) is a translation that offers the greatest “optimal equivalency” to the actual Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic texts while retaining readability. While the NASB is supposed to be the best “word for word” translation the grammar is a bit awkward and while the NIV is a good “thought for thought” translation it lacks some of the meat that a more equivalent translation has. The HCSB is the best of both worlds!

The HCSB is planning on some revisions in 2009 that will add 9,000 more places in the OT where the “Tetragrammaton” (Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh) is used they will replace the rendering of LORD (with all caps) with Yahweh which the Tetragrammaton most closely resembles.
 
BibleSteve said:
A very detailed discussion about God’s personal name:

watchtower.org/e/na/index.htm

Chapter 2 - God’s Name—Its Meaning and Pronunciation has some interesting pictures from various Catholic Churches where the Divine Name is displayed.
Click to expand...
Except you just linked to a cult’s website. Not the best choice for getting good intel. They’ve changed and twisted Scripture to suit themselves.
 
The essentials have been pretty well covered; I can’t really add anything, except to say that if you’re going to use the assumed Hebrew pronunciation (Yahweh), then the H’s are pronounced, and the W is closer to a V.

DaveBj (Language Geek)
 
I don’t know if anyone knows much Hebrew, but how would the tetragrammaton, or YHWH, sound? Like a phonetic pronunciation guide.
 
hamburglar said:
I don’t know if anyone knows much Hebrew, but how would the tetragrammaton, or YHWH, sound? Like a phonetic pronunciation guide.
Click to expand...
Okay, well I don’t know the phonetic alphabet but I can try to help here:

YAH-vay (all caps means accent on first syllable)
 
rwoehmke said:
And in Arabic languages, Allah. 😃
Click to expand...
No, YHVH is a covenant name. That would be like me deciding to call my Dad, whose name is Harold, by the name of Bob. I wouldn’t be referring to the same person (not that I would call my Dad by his first name anyway…) but you get the point.
 
Allah is the Arabic word for “God.”

I know your anti-Islamic rhetoric inspires you to assume that Muslims worship a different God, but that’s irrelevant. It’s a language issue, not theological.
 
EphelDuath said:
Allah is the Arabic word for “God.”

I know your anti-Islamic rhetoric inspires you to assume that Muslims worship a different God, but that’s irrelevant. It’s a language issue, not theological.
Click to expand...
YES!!Allah as God’s name predates Islam by a whole lot-. If Yahweh , or El are valid so is"ALLAH" People Gotta stop being Foolish and getta grip:o
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top