Ancient Hebrew

Is it possible to know the correct pronunciation of God’s name as it was pronounced in ancient Hebrew? The answer is no, based on the current understanding of the Hebrew language. We simply do not know exactly how the Israelites at the time of Moses pronounced the consonants of their language. For instance, Scholars and linguist are not even sure if the Hebrew letter Vav/Waw is pronounced as a “V” or a “W” when used as a consonant. The Anchor Bible Dictionary explains:

“The history and evolution of the biblical text is not all that there is to tell. Hebrew was originally written in an alphabet of twenty-two letters that essentially represented only consonants. The vowels of Hebrew were not systematically represented in writing, since they were only sporadically hinted at by the ambivalent use of the letters cognate to English “w” and “y.” Dialectal differences certainly existed; these are mentioned both in the Bible and in the Talmud. We have no way of knowing what the language sounded like; we are limited to formulating educated guesses as to the phonetic properties of the consonants, the vowels, and the other features (including the prosodies). In the course of time, the language underwent change, as do all languages. Changes in the consonantism and the vowel system continued, even after the language ceased to be the mother tongue of a Jewish community. These occurred in spite of the fact that the public reading of the biblical text was rigorously bound by a strict oral tradition.” (Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (4:211). New York: Doubleday)

So the problems involved with pronouncing the Tetragrammaton are as follows.

1. We are not exactly sure how the four consonants of YHWH were pronounced.
2. We are not sure which vowels belong to the name.
3. We are not sure about the number of syllables.

The best we can do is make educated guesses. One of the best places to start is with theophoric names. The most common short forms of the divine name attached to other names are Yeho, Yahu, Yehu and Yah. The first three use the first three letters of the divine name YHW. The letter Hey at the end of a word or name is often pronounced as an “A” or “ah”. Based on this evidence alone, we have a pronunciation of Yehoah Yehuah or Yahuah. These pronunciations are remarkably similar, especially the first one, to the English pronunciation Jehovah. It should be noted that the only vowel point is the first “e” or “a” taken from theophoric names.

Y - The consonantal sound of Yod
E – The vowel point from theophoric names
H – The consonantal sound of Hey
O – The consonant Vav pronounced as a vowel
A - The consonant Hey pronounced as a vowel
H – The consonant Hey pronounced as a vowel

Or

Y - The consonantal sound of Yod
E – The vowel point from theophoric names
H – The consonantal sound of Hey
U – The consonant Vav pronounced as a vowel
A - The consonant Hey pronounced as a vowel
H – The consonant Hey pronounced as a vowel

The only difference between this reconstructed pronunciation and Jehovah is that the initial letter is a “J” instead of “Y” and the use of both O and V for the Vav. Now it is true that Hebrew has no sound equal to the modern J sound. However, people like to point this out as a major distinction, but do they ever stop and realize just how close the sounds really are? The “Jeh” in Jehovah is pronounced like “Jah” and is very similar to the Hebrew “Yah”. Pronounce these yourself, is there really that much difference? Especially when we are not sure just how the Hebrew Yod was originally pronounced anyway.

The inclusion of both O and V in Jehovah is probably the result of Latin scholars using “ou” to represent the Vav with an “oo” sound like soup. In Latin v and u had the same sound originally. Only later did they develop distinct sounds and “ou” changed into “ov”.

“During the late Middle Ages, two forms of "v" developed, which were both used for its ancestor u and modern v. The pointed form "v" was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form "u" was used in the middle or end, regardless of sound. So whereas valor and excuse appeared as in modern printing, "have" and "upon" were printed haue and vpon. The first distinction between the letters "u" and "v" is recorded in a Gothic alphabet from 1386, where "v" preceded "u". By the mid-16th century, the "v" form was used to represent the consonant and "u" the vowel sound, giving us the modern letter "u". Capital "U" was not accepted as a distinct letter until many years later.” (Pflughaupt, Laurent (2008). Letter by Letter: An Alphabetical Miscellany. trans. Gregory Bruhn. Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 123–124.)

So the Hebrew form Yehuah was transcribed by Latin Scholars as Iehouah and later, because of pronunciation changes in languages, the form Jehovah came about. Therefore, the misconception that the name Jehovah is based only on the Masoretic vowel points is wrong. It can be derived from theophoric names as well, which gives the vowel points (e-o-a) more credibility if anything. Therefore, criticism of the name Jehovah is completely unwarranted.

The Name Jehovah

The truth is, nobody knows for sure how the name of God was originally pronounced. The language used in writing the OT was Hebrew, and when the Hebrew language was written down, the writers wrote only consonants, not vowels. therefore, when the inspired writers wrote God’s name, they obviously did the same thing and wrote only the consonants. While ancient Hebrew was an everyday spoken language, this presented no problem. The pronunciation of the Name was familiar to the Israelites and when they saw it in writing they supplied the vowels. As time went by, the ancient Hebrew language itself ceased to be spoken in everyday conversation, and in this way the original Hebrew pronunciation of God’s name was eventually forgotten.

In order to make sure that the pronunciation of the Hebrew language would not be completely lost, Jewish scholars of the second half of the first millennium C.E. invented a system of points to represent vowels. These vowel points were placed around the consonants in the Hebrew Bible. Therefore, for the first time, both the vowels and consonants were written down, and the pronunciation as it was at that time was preserved. When it came to God’s name, we really have no way of knowing for sure if they used at least some of the proper vowel points, or if they used the vowel points from a completely different word, such as Adonai. However, the vowel points supply the same form that we get from theophoric names, which are YeHoWaH or Iehouah, and, eventually, Jehovah. Jehovah became the accepted pronunciation of the divine name in English for many years. This form retains the original consonants and the vowel points (right or wrong) of God’s name from the Hebrew manuscripts.

Many people prefer the pronunciation Jehovah because it has a familiarity that other names do not have. But what about all the arguments that have been put forth to abandon the use of Jehovah? Is it reasonable to abandon the use of the name Jehovah because it might not be the true pronunciation? No, it is not reasonable at all. Take for example the name Jesus, do we know how Jesus’ name was pronounced in Hebrew? The truth is, no one knows for certain, it may have been something like Yeshua or Yehoshua. In the Greek language, the inspired writers did not try to preserve that original Hebrew pronunciation. Rather, they rendered the name in Greek, Iesous. Interestingly, even though we have a pretty good idea of how Jesus name was pronounced in both Hebrew and Greek, we do not use either of these original pronunciations.

What makes this comparison even more relevant, is the fact that many Christians believe Jesus is God, equal in every way to YHWH. This would naturally imply that the names YHWH and Jesus are equal as well. If this is so, then all the arguments that have been put forth in opposition to the form Jehovah, must also apply to the name Jesus. For example, there is no “J” in the Hebrew language, Jesus is not the true Hebrew or Greek pronunciation, and finally, it was the same Jews who refused to pronounce God’s name, that rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah. Why do Christians follow these Jews in their opinion concerning God’s name, but do not follow these same Jews in their opinion of Jesus?

Therefore, should we stop using the name Jesus because most of us, do not really know its original pronunciation? Would we be showing respect to Jesus if we removed all mention of his name from the Bible and replaced it with a title like “Lord,” or “Christ”? No, we relate to Jesus when we use his name the way it is pronounced in our own language. Similar observations could be made regarding all the names we read in the Bible. We pronounce them in our own language and do not try to reproduce the original pronunciation. We say Jeremiah, not Yirmeyahu. We say Isaiah, not Yeshayahu. Even biblical scholars who speak Hebrew use these modern pronunciations, not the ancient. And the same is true with the name Jehovah. Even though the modern pronunciation Jehovah might not be exactly the way it was pronounced originally, this in no way detracts from the importance of the name. It identifies the Creator, the living God, the Most High.