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.