The Name of God

Shalom to all.

Most people are misinformed about God's Name. Some say that God's Name is "Jesus." Others say His Name is "Jehovah," and still others will say His Name is "Yahweh." Some just always call Him "God" or "Lord" or "Father." Let's talk about it a little:

First, "God" is what He is; He is the Creator of all and His designation of "God" describes Him as that Creator and the Sustainer of all that we see and experience. This is "Elohiym" or just "El" in Hebrew and "Theos" in Greek.

"Lord" describes His relationship with us as our "Master" and our relationship to Him as His servants or slaves. The Hebrew word is "Adonai," and the Greek word is "Kurios."

Now, His actual Name is spelled in Hebrew with the equivalent letters to "YHVH," spelled "yud-hei-vav-hei." (Hebrew has no vowels in its alefbet; all letters are consonants, vowel pointing not being invented until the intertestamental period.) Since the "vav" can often be used as a "w," some theologians will pronounce this as "Yahweh," thinking that this is the proper way to pronounce it, and that is ONE way of pronouncing it.

In the early English translations of Scripture, the English "J" had that "Y" sound; so, the letters were written as "JHVH." However, by then, the Jews would instruct others not to pronounce the Name so they wouldn't inadvertantly "use the name of the LORD thy God in vain." The Jews would say "haShem," meaning "the Name," or they would substitute the word "ADONAI" written in all capital, English letters for the tetragrammaton ("four-letters") "YHVH."

However, in the process of transcription, they would write out the tetragrammaton but use the vowel pointing for the word "Adonai," instead, as a reminder to say the name "ADONAI" instead of trying to pronounce the Name.

Later, when the early versions of the Bible were translated into English and not understanding the basis for the vowel pointing associated with the Name, the translators translated His Name into "Jahovah" or "Jehovah."

However, the typical Hebrew rules of pronunciation allow the vav to be treated as either the consonant "v" or "w," but it may also represent a vowel sound, either "ow" (pronounced "Oh") or "uw" (pronounced "oo" as in "moon"). So, two other possible pronunciations of the Name could be "Yahowh" (like "Yah-HO") or "Yahuwh" (like "Yah-HOO").  (I favor the latter because of the Hebrew pronunciation of some names, like "Yesha`yahu" ["Isaiah"] and "Mattityahu" ["Matthew"].)

In any case, a common abbreviation of the Name is to use just the first two letters (with the associated vowel pointing), "YAH." The Psalmist David would often use this abbreviation, so the Jews are fine with it, even though it's a bit too close to the full Name. It still requires one's full respect!

"Yeshua`" was a common name in the Jewish community of the first century B.C., and the Son of God was so named. In the transliteration of that name into Greek, the name became "Ieesous." Greek doesn't have a "Y," so they used the iota instead which could simulate the "Y" sound. I use the "ee" for the eta, but eta was used to transliterate the tsere vowel sound of Hebrew. Greek has no "sh" sound; the best they could do was use a sigma for the Hebrew shin, and the omicron-upsilon dipthong gives an "oo" sound in Greek. The final sigma (or stigma) is commonly placed at the end of proper nouns, as in "Zacharias" for the Hebrew "Zechariah," both transliterated into English.

When this Greek transliteration, "Ieesous," was transliterated into Latin and then into English, the iota was changed to the Latin "I" and that became the English "J" which had a "Y" sound at the time. The eta was written as a single "e," the sigma and the stigma were each written as an "s," and the omicron-upsilon was first changed to the Latin "u" (still pronounced "oo"), and then to the English "u" (also pronounced "oo" as in "moon"). Thus, by the time it came to the English letters, the name "Yeshua`" was written "Jesus," pronounced as its Greek counterpart, "Yay-SOOS" or "YAY-soos," depending on the context of the Greek and the accent appropriate for that context.

Today, we pronounce "Jesus" TOTALLY different than it used to be pronounced in the English of the early transliterations (although the Spanish pronunciation of the name, "HAY-soos," is still fairly close). I said all that to say this: His GIVEN name was "Yeshua`," even though He is now commonly called "Jesus" in English-speaking cultures. Although it probably doesn't matter to Him what you call Him, "there is nothing so sweet to the human ear as a person's name."

In closing for now, remember this: Technically speaking, "Yeshua`" or "Jesus" is the name given to the SON of God whom many call "God the Son." We'll deal with this more at a later date. Suffice it to say that even in the Trinity, there is a DIFFERENCE between God the Father and God the Son.

In the Messiah's love,
Retrobyter