Who is Jehovah?

Many people recognize the name "Jehovah," as in "Jehovah's Witnesses," but few realize where this name comes from (although, with the popularization of the internet, more and more people are learning about the name Jehovah). Jehovah is an Anglicization of the tetragrammaton, God's personal four-letter name that appears thousands of times in the original Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament. The four Hebrew letters that comprise this name are "yud," "heh," "vav," "heh," or, YHVH. (In Hebrew letters, the name looks like יהוה.) The Hebrew letter "yud," is often pronounced the same as our "y" in Hebrew, but is often translated as "j" in anglicized names. The names of Joseph, Jesus, and Jacob, for example, are names that begin with "yud" in Hebrew. "vav" can be translated as "v," or "w." Thus, sometimes, the name is also rendered in English as "Yahweh."

As for the vowels in the name, the fact is that ancient Hebrew had no system for writing vowels, thus words were copied only with consonants. For most words, this is not a problem, because words have been spoken throughout the centuries and there is an understanding of how to pronounce the word when someone comes upon it in writing. as for God's name, however, there was an ancient Hebrew superstition that one is not supposed to use God's name in everyday language. This comes from the seventh commandment not to use Jehovah's name in vain (in other words--not to misuse God's name). However, there is a big difference between mis-using a name, and using it with respect.

The fact is, the Bible contains God's personal name, Jehovah thousands of times, indicating that God did want us to know and to use his name. In fact, God wants us to know him as a person, that is why he provided us with the Bible. There are many types of information in the Bible, including information revealing the nature of God and identifying him as a personal being with distinct qualities or characteristics, not unlike each human with a distinct personality and qualities. One piece of personal information that God has chosen to share with us is his name.

one of the first things we get to know about a new friend is his or her personal name. And we use our friends' names in everyday speech without any disrespect towards our friends or their names. Likewise, we should not  be afraid to call upon God by name and share his name with others. Instead, however, ancient Hebrews decided to hide Jehovah's name, by pronouncing the word, "adonai," each time they came across the divine name in the written manuscripts. "Adonai" is translated into English as "lord," this is why you often see "LORD" (in all capital letters) in popular translations of the Bible. This makes God seem impersonal; whereas the Bible tells us to "draw close to God," so that he may draw close to us (James 4:8).

Each time you come across LORD in all capitals in the Bible, it is covering over Jehovah's personal name. This does more to disrespect God's name and God's holy word, the Bible than anything else another person might do, specifically for the reason that those who chose to disguise the name of God did so knowing full well that there were removing an important piece of information from God's holy word. Many religious leaders who recite the words, "hallowed by thy name" (meaning, let your name be sanctified or glorified) do everything but glorify God's name when they choose to hide it as if it were something evil that should not be repeated.

To see the reasoning and mentality of some who chose to replace God's personal name in the Bible, consider the preface of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which states, "For two reasons the Committee has returned to the more familiar usage of the King James Version: (1) the word 'Jehovah' does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew; and (2) the use of any proper name for the one and only God, as though there were other gods from whom he had to be distinguished, was discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church." Thus, their own view of what is appropriate has been relied on as the basis for removing from the Holy Bible the personal name of its Divine Author, whose name appears in the original Hebrew more often than any other name or any title. They admittedly follow the example of the adherents of Judaism, of whom Jesus said, "You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition" (Matt 15:6, NIV).

Because of Hebrew superstition and the lack of vowels in ancient Hebrew, the original pronunciation of Jehovah's name has long been lost. While there is some debate about just how to pronounce the tetragrammaton, there is evidence that the name is three syllables, and most likely "Yehowah" or "Yehowih" etc in Hebrew. You can Google "God's name, three syllables," to find websites that provide such evidence. For those who say we should not use the Divine name simply because we are unsure of its pronunciation, one thing is certain, "Jesus," was definitely NOT the original pronunciation of the name of Christ.

To those who would that first century Christians did not use God's personal name, nor is it found in the NT, actually, passages from the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures have been found containing the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew right in the Greek text itself. Also there are many places in the Greek Scriptures (11 places in Matthew alone) where Hebrew Scriptures containing God's name are being directly quoted. There is no reason to believe these passages were not quoted as they were written in Hebrew.

While there is some debate about the extent to which the Tetragrammaton was quoted or used by Jesus' disciples, they almost surely reflected Jesus' own thoughts on the matter, which are recorded at John 17:6, "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world," and again at John 17:26, "And I have declared to them Your name, and I will declare it, that the love with which you loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (NKJV)