YHWH as Yahweh: The Evidence

As we shall see, the evidence we have points to the pronunciation of YHWH as "Yahweh."

1. Derivation of "YHWH." It is important to first understand how YHWH is derived. Its first attested use is by God in His speaking with Moses in Exodus 3:14: "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.'"" In Hebrew, God calls Himself "'ehyeh asher 'ehyeh," and charges Moses to tell Israel that 'ehyeh sent him to them. If we analyze "'ehyeh," we see that it is a first person common singular imperfect form of the verb "hayah," to be. This form was turned from a first person to a third person (from "I am" to "he is"), and we have a change of glides: w/y are often interchanged in Hebrew, and the form we see later is YHWH, which, if translated, would be closest to "He is," or "He will be." A non-altered third person masculine singular form of "hayah" would be "yihyeh." The Divine Particle in Names and Translation. The first half of the Tetragrammaton-- YH-- was often used in names and even as shorthand for the name of God. Its shorthand form is used in Exodus 15:2 and it is "Yah" there, and this very form was transliterated into the Syriac Peshitta of Exodus 15:2. We also find this same phonomenon in names-- Elijah (Eliyahu; the "u" ending provides more credence that the final half is pronounced "weh"), Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu), and Hezekiah (Hizikiyahu or Hizikiyah, and corresponding evidence from Assyrian cuneiform). Since Hebrew tends to accent words on their ultimate or penultimate syllables, these examples with the divine particle at the end of the names gives us the best evidence to show that the first half of the Tetragrammaton was pronounced "Yah."

2. Early Christian Witnesses. We have three accounts from the "church fathers" of the first few centuries of Christianity regarding the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton. Clement of Alexandria, around 180 CE, relates the following: "Further, the mystic name of the four letters which was affixed to those alone to whom the adytum was accessible, is called "Iaoue," which is interpreted, "Who is and shall be." The name of God, too, among the Greeks contains four letters [Greek theos, where "th" is represented with theta-- ed.]," (Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, V. 6). Theodoret and Epiphanius, both later, establish that they heard the name as "Iabe." From this information we confirm that the Tetragrammaton was pronounced "Yahweh," since we must recognize the phonological differences between Greek and Hebrew: Greek has no consonantal "y" and recognizes the letter as the vowel "i" (as "Yeshua" becomes "Iesous"); Greek has no "h" save rough breathings at the beginnings of some words and does not account for the letter; Greek has neither "w" nor "v," and it is very likely that a Greek listener (as were Theodoret and Epiphanius) would hear a "b" when a Jew said "v" (since in Hebrew b and v are separated by spirantization of the former only), and hearing "w" would sound like "ou."

From this evidence, therefore, we can conclude that the Tetragrammaton was most probably pronounced as "Yahweh."

What About "Jehovah?"

It will be asked by many, however, regarding the word "Jehovah," the common translation (and supposed transliteration) of the Tetragrammaton in English Bibles. This form can be traced back to about 1489, and introduced popularly in 1520 by one Galatinus, a "confessor" of Pope Leo X (cf. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, p. 218). Its derivation is explainable as the mistake of a Christian reader of the Hebrew Bible who did not understand its pointing. Let us explain a bit about the pointing of the Hebrew Bible. When the Masoretes pointed the Hebrew text of the Old Testament in the latter half of the first millennium, they recognized that there were many probable errors in the text. Since they held the text in high esteem, however, they would never alter any of the text itself, but instead favored a system called the ketib/qere system (ketib, meaning "written," and qere, meaning "said"). When there was a word of some difficulty in the text, the consonants would remain unaltered, but there would be a note in the margin in Aramaic explaining what word should be read in synagogue. The vowel pointing in the text itself, however, would be the vocalization of what should be read (the "qere") and NOT what was written (the "ketib"). A knowledgable Hebrew reader would look at the word and recognize that the vowel pointing was not consistent with the written word and would therefore look for the "qere" in the margin to read. This is precisely what happened with the Tetragrammaton, but as opposed to having a marginal note with the proper consonants listed it was considered a "perpetual ketiv/qere," meaning that whenever one saw the consonants YHWH as the Tetragrammaton one would recognize that it was a "ketiv" and that the "qere" should be one of the various other designations for God-- Elohim, Adonai, Ha-Shem ("the name"), etc. Depending on the text, YHWH would appear with the vowel pointings for one of the other designations. Our medieval friends came to one such Hebrew manuscript and simply transliterated what he saw: the consonants YHWH with the vocalization for Adonai: a o a, and we have "Yahoah." Adapt the term to fit German reckoning, and we have "Jehovah."

"Jehovah," then, is a medieval misunderstanding of the Hebrew text and should not be understood as the proper pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton. Its constant use in Bible versions (starting with one use in the KJV and becoming the translation of choice for YHWH in the ASV) secures its place in the English language and it will probably always be used to describe the LORD, the God of Heaven. While it is inaccurate it is not a "sinful" designation, but as those who strive to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15), we ought to recognize and understand that YHWH was never pronounced as Jehovah but more likely as Yahweh. Let us therefore recognize that if we are to pronounce the Tetragrammaton YHWH accurately, we should use "Yahweh" and not "Jehovah."