Jehovah

Jehovah (also sometimes spelled Yehovah) is the Name of the God of the Hebrews as commonly transliterated in English from the Masoretic Hebrew text. Etymologically, it is a third person singular, imperfect, probably the causative form of the verb hawah (or hajah), signifying "to be." The word Jehovah consists of the consonants JHVH or JHWH (or sometimes YHVH or YHWH), with the vowels of a separate word, Adonai (Lord). What its original vowels were is a matter of speculation, as an interpretation of such texts as Exodus 20:7 and Leviticus 24:11 led to the name being regarded as too sacred for expression; the scribes, in reading aloud, substituted ?Lord? and therefore wrote the vowel markings for ?Lord? into the consonantal framework JHVH as a reminder to future readers.

Related Topics:
Name of the God - Hebrews - Masoretic - Hebrew - Consonant - Vowel - Adonai - Lord - Exodus - Leviticus - Sacred - Scribe

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The non-Jewish translators of the Hebrew, not realizing what the scribes had done, read the word as it was written down, taking the scribal vowel markings as intrinsic to the name of their God rather than as a mere reminder not to speak it. From this came the rendition Jehovah. The evidence of the Greek church fathers shows the forms Jabe and Jâo to be traditional, as well as the shortened Hebrew forms of the words Jah (see Psalms 68:4, for example) and Jahu (in proper names). It could indicate that the name was originally spoken Jaweh or Yahwe (often spelled Yahweh in modern usage). This is supported by Yahwitic names of the Masoretic text, the Peshitta Aramaic and the Marashu texts. The pronunciation of Yahweh is also preserved in ancient transliterations of the name written in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, cuneiform and Greek, all of which had written vowels. The older interpreters explain the verb in a metaphysical and abstract sense; the "I am" of Scripture is "He who is," the absolutely existent.

Related Topics:
Greek church - Jah - Psalm - Yahweh - Peshitta - Aramaic - Marashu - Egyptian - Cuneiform - Greek

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The word occurs some 7000 times in the Hebrew bible.

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