What is God’s Name & How is it Pronounced?

The subject of God’s name has proven to be both a controversial subject, and complicated subject, for many, many hundreds of years.

Sadly, a great number, if not most Christians in the world today, have no idea that God has a personal name. Most are only familiar with “God”, “LORD”, “Father”, or “Adonai” (Hebrew for “The Lord”) and “El-Shaddai” (God Almighty), or “Hashem” (Hebrew for “the name”) if you’re a Jew.

The cause of this is that most modern day translations of the Bible have removed the divine name, but proof of God’s name can still be found in various ancient manuscripts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, some early copies of the Greek Septuagint, and the Hebrew Masoretic Texts.

According to various Jewish scholars, such as Richard E. Rubinstein and Nehemiah Gordon being two of the most prolific that I personally am familiar with, the historical reasons are numerous, ranging from the Jew’s later held belief that God’s name was “too holy to pronounce”, in combination with the Hellenisation of the Jews at the hand of the Greeks during the Maccabean period, who wanted all people to worship “all the gods” in order for the Greek empire to remain unified, which the Jews of course refused to do.

These reasons led the Jews to replace the divine name with titles like Adonai, in order to not make a drama with the Greeks, in that nobody would know that they were exclusively praying to the one true God by using the ambiguous phrase “Lord”, and so that the holy name would not be abused by anyone. This was hardened down on when Christians came on the scene, in that the Jews didn’t want them using the name of their God in worship, therefore driving them further to conceal the name.

Likewise, a similar thing may have happened again when the later Christians became Romanised and the Pagan Emperors wanted to make Christianity the state religion.

Though Rome was not the ‘root’ or ‘origin’ of the practice, they may have further promoted the removal of the divine name from Christian scriptures to have it replaced with the ambiguous phrase “LORD”, so that all the civilians could still pretend to be praying to their favourite god, be that Zeus, Saturn, Athena, or whatever god the Pagans wished to believe the “LORD” of the Bible was, whilst claiming to be Christian at the same time, in conjunction with many other forms of Roman-Christian syncretism.

Where is God’s name found in Scripture?

We can find God’s name in the Old Testament in the manuscripts over 6000 times, and also in some Christian New Testament Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts. It appears most times in a four letter form; YHWH (יְהוָ֔ה), this form is known as the “Tetragrammaton” or “Tetragram”.

This form is extremely ancient. As the written Hebrew language contains no vowels, this is why we only have four letters in total written down, despite the full vocalised name being longer. This tradition was carried down for hundreds if not thousands of years, and written in many of the manuscript texts, of which we have to this day.

The name also appears in a shortened form, “Yah” in various scriptures, including the New Testament via the form “hallelujah”, which means “praise Yah”.

“allēlouia – literally, “praise Yahweh, transliterated hallelujah” – HELPS Word-studies

“Halleluiah: Of Hebrew origin (imperative of halal and Yahh); praise ye Jah!, an adoring exclamation — alleluiah”. – Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

• “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name YHWH I did not make Myself known to them“. – Exodus 6:3
• “May they know that You alone, whose name is YHWH, are Most High over all the earth”. – Psalm 83:18
• “Sing to God! Sing praises to His name. Exalt Him who rides on the clouds/deserts—His name is Yah—and rejoice before Him”. – Psalm 68:4
• “Hallelujah (Praise Yah)! Give praise, O servants of YHWH; praise the name of YHWH“. – Psalm 113:1
• “And I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude, like the rushing of many waters, and like a mighty rumbling of thunder, crying out: “Hallelujah (Praise Yah)! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns”. Revelation 19:6
  

What is God’s True full Name & How is it Pronounced?

As all currently known manuscripts only contain the four letter version of God’s name, “YHWH”, there has been much contestment between scholars over how the original name was fully spelled and pronounced.

The two most common suggestions for the name are; “Yahweh” and “Yehovah”. There are several variations of these renditions written in the English language, such as; Jahwah, Jahvah, Jehovah, Jehowah, and Yehowah.

Besides these most common forms, there are also less common or “fringe” varients spelled by some, such as; Yahoweh, Yahoah, Yaho, Yeho, and Yahuah.

The reasons for these all alternative versions are simply from the suggested combinations of vowels which make up the full meaning of the name. Furthermore, in Hebrew language, sometimes Ws can pronounced as Vs, depending on grammar or dialect. Additionally, some variations of the name are due to the natural evolution of modern language, for example, renditions that use a “J” instead of a “Y”, is simply because in Old English, Js used to be pronounced like Ys.

Of the two most popularly contested names; Yahweh and Yehovah, both have come under fire by scholars who prefer one over the other, either grammatically, religiously, or historically.

Arguments for “Yehovah”

One of the most famous and vocal adherents of “Yehovah”, is the Jewish scholar Nehemiah Gordon, who enthusiastically claims it to be the only true form of the name, and has brought forth what he claims to be Jewish manuscript evidence from the 15th century, in which various Jewish Rabbis have claimed, the full true name is “Yehovah”.

He will also argue that the phrase “halleu-jah” makes use of the “latter half” of God’s name, which they claim proves the ending of the name is “vah” and not “weh”.

Some other scholars, also make grammatical arguments, that various other names which “contain” God’s name, prove it to be “Yehovah”, names such as Yeshua, or Yehoshua, which means “YHWH saves”. By pointing to the fact that they contain the letters “Yeho”, another shortened version of God’s name.

Some also make the claim that “Yahweh” originated as a name of the Pagan god Jupiter, during the Hellenisation period of Israel, when some Jews began to sacrifice to Pagan gods at the temple altar, which is how the name became so common in Jewish speaking cultures, though others oppose the notion.

Arguments for “Yahweh”

However, other rival scholars have used the exact same styled arguments, but in defence of “Yahweh”.

Scholars such as Peter Van Rensberg and Justin Van Rensberg, have taken a stance against those like Nehemiah, claiming that the name “Yehovah” originates from Kabbalist Jews (occultic Jews), who believed in magic, and claim that they inserted false vowels into God’s name, in accordance to their magical beliefs, as they believed the way certain words and names were pronounced had some kind of “mystical power”.

These scholars in fact have claimed to prove this case, by revealing and examining the “proof manuscripts” Nehemiah Gordon used, of which, all of them were Kabbalah practising Rabbis, making their statements highly untrustworthy.

Justin and Peter, and other scholars also argue against the claim that “Yahweh” came from the name “Jupiter”, claiming that the internal grammatical rules of the Hebrew Bible texts, perfectly support the rendition, without any need of external references to other sources, of which they have claimed to demonstrate on their YouTube channel video series.

An additional argument made by various scholars supporting this rendition, is that the vowels which make up the version of the name “Yehovah”, are “dummy vowels”, which are taken from the phrase “adonai” (Lord), in place of the original vowels.

Like those prefering “Yehovah”, “Yahweh” supporters too make linguistic arguments, but in support of the name Yahweh, claiming that scholars such as Nehemiah and others are “reading Hebrew backwards”, and that the shortened versions of the name, such as Yeho, are in fact “contractions” of the name, of which when expanded, transform into “Yah” variables.

Arguments for Other Variants

Though Yehovah and Yahweh are the two most well known and popular assertions, other lesser known and fringe researchers have claimed that neither such rendition is accurate, and that it could be anything such as “Yahoh”, “Yahuah” or “Yahoah”.

Such assertions come from claims that in the most ancient historical references from early Christian writers, Hebrew writers from the early Second Temple period, as well as from Gentiles who had interacted with Jews, might point toward this type of pronouncing the name.

For example, Greg Stafford, a well known anti-Trinitarian apologist in the theological debate world and scholar of ancient Biblical languages, believes he holds such evidence for these claims in some of his works and videos:

The Meaning of God’s Name

Though different interpretations can be argued of what the full pronunciation of the true name is, what is even more arguably important, is the ‘meaning’ of God’s name.

According to Exodus 3:14, God tells Moses, the meaning of his name.

99% of Bible translations will write this verse as “I AM” or “I AM what I AM. However, the scrolls have some variants in how it is actually written and pronounced.

Hebrew Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scroll and Masoretic Hebrew version of this verse, dated to the 3rd Century B.C.E and 1100s A.D respectively, uses the phrase “ehyeh” or “hayah”, which means; “become“ or “be“, not “I am”, which would be the phrase “ani”.

The word “ehyeh” has been used for things that both “come about” and for the “state” things are in. We see the references in Genesis alone demonstrates these variants:

The full phrase thus here either being:

• “I become what/who I become”
• “I be what/who I be”

“A primitive root (compare hava’); to exist, i.e. Be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary) — beacon, X altogether, be(-come), accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), do, faint, fall, + follow, happen, X have, last, pertain, quit (one-)self, require, X use”. – Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

“Hayah
Definition: to fall out, come to pass, become, be” – Strong’s Concordance

“Either, be done, be brought about, or occur, come to pass…” – Brown-Driver-Briggs

Greek Scrolls

As for the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament, written some time in the 300s-200s B.C.E as a translation of the older Hebrew, the phase is “Ego Emi ho ōn”, which means;

“I am The Being… tell them, The Being has sent you”.

The main term used in the Greek Septuagint in Exodus 3:14 as we see is “on” (ων).

Many Biblical interlinears will translate “ων” to say “being”, and will claim that it contains the same meaning as “I am”, and will link it to the Greek phrase “emi”.

However, though it can have connections the the phrase “emi” or “am, the term on its own means “be, “come” or “have”:

ὤν
Transliteration: ón, ousa, on
Phonetic Spelling: (oan)
Definition: be, come, have – Strong’s Concordance

be, come, have:
Including the feminine ousa (oo’-sah); and the neuter on (on) present participle of eimi; being — be, come, have. – Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

Which Version is the most Authentic?

Seeing we have two ways expressed here, we thus have a debate between the three versions. Is God’s name “The BEING”, “I BECOME” or “I BE”?

According to Jewish tradition and scholars, “YHWH” is likely a compound word made up of the verbs: “hayah hoveh yi’yeh”, meaning; “He was, He is, He will be”. And this seems essentially to be a combination or overall transliteration of all the above versions of the scrolls we’ve seen, as an expression of eternity, past present future.

But is this just a empty tradition or guess on how to handle the name?

There is in fact a clue in the Greek of this being an authentic explanation, when we look to how the Greek phrase is used throughout the Greek New Testament, we see many examples of its context:

We should note the Greek phrase used is often used to a “state of being”. This lends to further vindicate the Jewish compound “hayah hoveh yi’yeh (was, is, be)”, and is likely the true meaning of “Being” in the Greek transliteration.

Therefore, it would seem likely that the true meaning of God’s name is something between “I be what I be” (Hebrew), and “I Be” (Greek), both of which expresses eternity.

This is inferring to us, that God can achieve all things, will do whatever is required to fulfil his promises, that he always will “be”, and simply “is”. His name therefore contains the very core of his nature. A pure unstoppable and eternal power.

This makes sense when we read the context of God’s conversation with Moses, as he was being sent to save the Hebrews out of slavery, and so it would have been an encouraging thing for Moses to tell the people, that he is the all powerful force that will always be there for them, and has always been there, and will be what he needs or deems to be to save them.

Conclusion

Pronunciation disputes aside, because the interpretation of true pronunciation of the full name is so contested, it is my personal opinion to adopt the most safe and concrete route, which is by using the name “Yah”.

This name is the universally agreed upon short pronunciation of God’s name by all scholars, and is fully spelled out for us in scripture without ambiguity. Therefore, we can’t go wrong with that, and through it, we are able to bring praise to the name of the true God of the Heavens and the Earth.

The most important thing to keep in mind, of course, being the “meaning” of God’s name, that “He is and will be”.

“Praise Yah! Give praise, O servants of YHWH; praise the name of YHWH. Blessed be the name of YHWH, both now and forevermore”.
Psalm 113:1-2