God’s scared name, also called the Tetragrammaton, is the topic of many discussions today. What is the ancient name for God is the question. To find the answer we must go to the oldest sources available and translate them to English. This article is not to convince you as to what you should call God; it is to let you know my research and where it has led me. Please pray about it and let the Holy Spirit lead your direction in the matter.
Almost 2000 years ago now, Flavius Josephus a first century
historian does tell us there was a scared name. He states the scared name
contained four vowels. The question is
whether Josephus Is referring to the sacred name of God the Father or Jesus? Or
do they share the scared name since they are one?
“A miter also of fine linen encompassed his head, which was tied
by a blue ribbon, about which there was another golden crown, in which was
engraven the sacred name; it consists
of four vowels.” Josephus,
War.5.5.7 (235)
The verses below show that God, Lord and Jesus are all the same person.
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Does Scripture actually identify Jesus as the God of Israel? Old
Testament – New Testament |
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The Lord Jesus saved Israel out of the land of Egypt “Thus the LORD [Jesus] saved Israel that
day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on
the seashore.” ESV Exodus 14:30 “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that
Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed
those who did not believe.” ESV Jude 1:5 |
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Old & New Testament, call upon the name of the Lord, Jesus
shall be saved. “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls
on the name of the LORD [Jesus] shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in
Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among
the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.”
ESV Joel 2:32 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved. ESV Rom 10:9 ….”For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.”” ESV Romans 10:9-13 |
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Old & New Testament, to Jesus every knee shall bow “By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out
in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’” ESV Isaiah
45:23 “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” ESV Philippians 2:9-11 |
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The Lord Jesus laid the foundation of the earth “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.” ESV Psalms 102:25 “And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the
beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish,
but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will
roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and
your years will have no end.”” ESV Hebrews 1:10-12 |
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Old Testament, they will look on me, who they pierced “And I will pour out on the house of David and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when
they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall
mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him,
as one weeps over a firstborn.” ESV Zechariah 12:10 “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they
did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a
spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his
testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also
may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be
fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture
says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” ESV John 19:33-37 |
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Thomas calls Jesus ‘My
Lord and my God’. As commanded we are
to have no other gods. “You shall have no other gods before me.”
ESV Exodus 20:3 “Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and
put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas
answered him, “My Lord and my God!” John 20:27-28 |
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YHWH > IEUE > JEUE
> Jesus (current English translation) “Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 |
Now let’s dig deeper into this subject, in the following order:
- Decipher ancient artifacts using ancient alphabets to translate to English.
- Then we will look for insight in old newspapers.
- Then we will review what some early Christians believed.
- Then we will review more bible verses showing the safest name to call God the Father is Father. And to also show that we should pray in the name of Jesus only.
Ancient Artifacts Summary
Shown below are four places the scared name was discovered in
ancient paleo-Hebrew. Also reflected is the translation from ancient picture
Hebrew and into English including the English sound. Notice that in English there are four vowels
in the scared name as stated by Josephus.
Below are tables I used to make these translations. Do notice that these ancient alphabets did have vowels.
(you can click on the pictures to get a better view.)
Now we will review each artifact using other sources for
translating each.
Moabite
Stone 840 BC
The Tetragrammaton’s oldest place found maybe the Moabite Stone
from the 9th century, about 840 BC. The
Moabite Stone was written in a variant of the Phoenician alphabet which is
closely related to the Paleo-Hebrew script.
The Moabites were Moab’s descendants who was Lot’s son. They were Hebrews since they were descendant
to Eber just as Abraham was (see genealogy here and here). In the book of Genesis, Abraham and Lot were
both speaking the same language. Therefore,
I am sure that Lot’s son Moab also spoke the same language. So, it is not surprising that they used an
alphabet closely related to the ancient Hebrew.
The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868.
Remember this is the translation using their alphabet. They did not pronounce those letters the way
we do in English. So, we must research
this further. If you look at the table
below you will see the H is really an E in English. The Y is really an I. Their W is either a V, U, Y or F.
The table below shows more information that can be used to
translate the scared name into Greek and Latin.
The last column provides the Greek and Roman translations of the scared
name. Notice the Roman translation shows several choices.
He is E
Researching the letter ‘E’ you find that it developed from the semitic ‘He’.
“The Latin letter 'E' differs little from its
source, the Greek letter epsilon, 'Ε'. This in turn comes from the Semitic letter hê, which has been
suggested to have started as a praying or calling human figure
(hillul 'jubilation'), and was most likely based on a
similar Egyptian hieroglyph that indicated a different pronunciation.
In Semitic, the letter represented /h/ (and /e/ in
foreign words); in Greek, hê became the letter epsilon,
used to represent /e/. The various forms of the Old Italic
script and the Latin alphabet followed this usage.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Sinaitic_script#Synopsis
Waw is U
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Sinaitic_script#Synopsis
Yod is J
Researching ‘Yod’ and ‘J’ letter history, I found that they are related; in fact ‘J’ is a descendant to the Phoenician and Paleo-Hebrew “Yod’.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J
Quote from Voiced Palatal Approximant on Wikipedia:
“The voiced palatal approximant,
or yod, is a type of consonant used in many spoken
languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabe [IPA] that
represents this sound is ⟨j⟩. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist
phonetic notation it is ⟨y⟩.
Because the English name of the letter J, jay,
starts with [d͡ʒ] (voiced palato-alveolar affricate), the approximant is
sometimes instead called yod (jod), as in the phonological history terms yod-dropping and yod-coalescence.
The palatal approximant can
often be considered the semivocalic equivalent of the close front
unrounded vowel [i].
They alternate with each other in certain languages, such
as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages as ⟨j⟩ and ⟨i̯⟩, with the non-syllabic
diacritic used in different phonetic transcription systems to represent
the same sound.” Quoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_palatal_approximant
“In phonetics and phonology,
a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is
phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as
the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a
syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the consonants y and w in yes and west,
respectively. Written /j w/ in IPA, y and w are
near to the vowels ee and oo in seen and moon, written /iː uː/ in IPA.
The term glide may alternatively refer to any type of transitional
sound, not necessarily a semivowel.” Quoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semivowel
Notice above the ‘y’ is written ‘j’ and is near to the vowel
‘ee’. This ‘ee’ is in the English
translation in the summary above also. I
am not an expert in this field, this is just my understanding.
Now remember that Flavius Josephus stated the scared name was 4
vowels; see above there are lots of vowels used in the Greek and Roman possible
translations.
Sources:
Phoenician
alphabet - Wikipedia
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/greekpast/4739.html
Los
Lunas Stone between 1000 BC and 600 BC
The Los Lunas Stone contains the tetragrammaton three times; twice
in the stone below and then again in a stone very close to this one. These
letters were written using Phoenician script which is the same as Paleo-Hebrew
script. The letters are exactly the same letters used in the Moabite Stone;
therefore, the same translation is applied here. They say that EUEI or IEUE translates to
Jehovah, I will explain this below.
Discovered in 1880 and again in 1933.
Source or more info:
https://www.loslunasdecalogue.org/decalogue-introduction.html
Los Lunas
Decalogue Stone - Wikipedia
Lachish
Letters 590 BC
The Lachish Letters, or Lachish Ostraca, are letters written in
carbon ink containing ancient Israelite inscriptions in Ancient Paleo Hebrew on
clay ostraca. The letters were written about 590 BC, shortly before Lachish
fell to the Babylonian army of King Nebuchadnezzar II in 588/6 BC during the
reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah (Jeremiah 34:7). These letters were written using Phoenician
script which is the same as Paleo-Hebrew script. The letters are exactly the
same letters used in the Moabite Stone; therefore, the same translation applies
here.
The Lachish Letters were discovered in 1935.
Sources:
Paleo-Hebrew
alphabet - Wikipedia
Dead
Sea Scrolls dated 200 BC
The Dead Sea Scrolls are always shown upside down on the internet so that they appear to be written from ‘right to left’; however, they are really written from ‘left to right’. Below is an example that I turned right side up:
Notice the text is now sitting on the lines. I can now make out several of the letters.
Below is how
it was reflected on the internet:
Upside down makes it hard to interrupt.
Dead Sea Scroll 11Q5 reflects the scared name. It was discovered between 1946 and 1956. The table below shows how the scared name
letters are translated from paleo-Hebrew, to Roman and then to English (see
above for more information).
Sources:
File:Tetragrammaton11Q5-1.jpg
- Wikimedia Commons
The Dead Sea
Scrolls - B-496376 (see 2nd column)
http://cpart.mi.byu.edu/home/dss/about-dss/
http://www.facsimilefinder.com/facsimiles/dead-sea-scrolls-facsimile#&gid=1&pid=2
Old
News about the Tetragrammaton
Below are old
newspaper articles that mention the Tetragrammaton. At the time these articles were written the
Dead Sea Scrolls had not been found.
1894 news
Below from Column 4 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/kyu_batman_ver01/data/sn86069161/00100481881/1894061301/0357.pdf
Regarding the Tetragrammaton JHVH.
· J - ‘Yod’ is a ‘J’ in English today.
· H - ‘He’ is an ‘E’ in English today since the ‘h’ was been dropped. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-dropping )
· V - ‘Waw’ used to be reflected as ‘V’ in English and now it is a ‘U’. In the Latin and early writing systems, the sharp letter V was used for both the vowel "u" and the consonant "v" sounds. Today you will see the word county spelt as ‘covnty’ engraved on historic county courthouses. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V#Descendants_and_related_letters_in_the_Latin_alphabet )
1896 news – The Divine Name
Below from Column 3
1910 news regarding HIS name: first four columns of this article
regarding Jehovah & Adonai http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069867/1910-07-10/ed-1/seq-3.pdf
The vowel points for YHWH come from either Adonia or Elohim, depending on the sources you read. It is not really safe to call God, Jehovah or Yahweh because of the made-up vowel points.
1914 news
Notice that this article states that YHVH are four constants which is a direct contradiction to our early historian Josephus who said it was four vowels.
From column 1 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/gu_kesil_ver01/data/sn89053729/00514157157/1914011803/0996.pdf
A book was published 1923 called “Irish
Wisdom Preserved in the Bible and Pyramids”
Name Used by Jewish Newspapers – Yahweh
The Jews frequently referred to God as Yahweh in old
newspapers. The name of Yahweh comes
from YHWH of the Masoretic text and is not how we pronounce those letters
today, as shown above. The Masoretic
text was invented in 750AD; therefore, it is not an ancient source.
From column 5 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/iune_cinnabar_ver01/data/sn90053038/00332897974/1879081501/0480.pdf
From column 3 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/txdn_ferrari_ver02/data/sn89070104/00200296928/1921080501/0599.pdf
Sources:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aleppo_Codex_(Deut).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rashi%27s_Talmud_Commentary.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint
Dating Early Bible Translations
The Masoretic text version of the bible was not invented until 8th or 9th century AD and it is the only source that used the tetragrammaton of YHWH. The earlier Greek and Latin versions of the bible never used that tetragrammaton.
The original text of these bibles are shown below so you can see
how different the Masoretic text is. This is why it is best to translate
directly into the Roman alphabet to get sounds we use today. The Greek and the Latin versions used letters
similar to our alphabet today.
Sources:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aleppo_Codex_(Deut).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rashi%27s_Talmud_Commentary.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint
Early Christians
Several early Christians, including early Church Father Justin
Martyr, Meister Eckhart, and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, argued that God
does not have a proper name like humans do, viewing terms like "God,"
"Father," or "Creator" as descriptions of His actions
rather than inherent names. Only things
that are born are given a name by their parents; God has no parents so HE has
no name.
- Attalus
(2nd Century Martyr): Reportedly told his persecutors that God has no
name like a human.
- Justin
Martyr (2nd Century): Stated God the Father is nameless because any
name implies an elder who bestowed it; names like Father or Creator
describe His works, not a proper noun.
- Pseudo-Dionysius
the Areopagite (5th-6th Century): A Neoplatonic Christian mystic who
believed God is beyond all names and concepts, emphasizing God's ineffable
nature.
- Meister
Eckhart (13th-14th Century): A German mystic who taught that God is
"above names and nature," asserting that naming God limits Him,
though saints' names for Him are permissible.
Source:
Abba, Father!
Jesus never used the phonetic pronunciation ‘Yahweh’ or ‘Jehovah’
in the New Testament texts, instead addressing God as ‘Father’ (Abba) or
quoting Old Testament passages using terms like "Lord" (Adonai
or Kyrios). Our Father in Heaven
stated that the Israelites should call him father.
“And I said, So be it, Lord, for thou saidst I
will set thee among children, and will give thee a choice land, the inheritance
of the Almighty God of the Gentiles: and I said, Ye shall call me Father; and ye shall not turn away from me. But
as a wife acts treacherously against her husband, so has the house of Israel
dealt treacherously against me, saith the Lord.” LXX Jer 3:19-20
Jesus said “Pray then like this: “Our Father
in heaven, hallowed be your name.” ESV Mat 6:9
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are
sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into
fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”” ESV Rom 8:14-15
“And because you are sons, God has sent the
Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!
Father!”
Gal 4:6
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will
depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings
of demons [G1140 daimonion; a daemonic being].” ESV 1Ti 4:1
“The rest of mankind, who were
not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor
give up worshiping demons [G1140 daimonion; a daemonic being] and idols of gold and silver and
bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they
repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their
thefts.” ESV Rev 9:20-21
The definition
of G1140, demons is:
An evil-spirit, demon, fallen angel.
Monic being; by extension a deity -- devil, god. Neuter of a derivative of
G1142 daimon. Emphasizes the evil nature of fallen angels.
Conclusion
Our Father in Heaven has commanded us to honor our Fathers and
Mothers (Exo 20:12); this includes all of our grandparents or forefathers. In honor and respect to them we must ask
ourselves why they never developed a custom or tradition of calling our Father
in Heaven either ‘Yahweh’ or ‘Jehovah’? Yahweh
started being mentioned more commonly in churches only within the last ten
years. Jehovah was rarely mentioned. Maybe
it is because they agreed with the early Christian teachings that God only had
titles and no name, since only things that are born have names.
The New Testament does not include this tetragrammaton. The New Testament is the fulfillment that God
came to earth was named Jesus when he was born. God did instruct Mary to name her son Jesus. The
God of the Old Testament is Jesus in the flesh in the New Testament. Therefore, we only need one name and not two
different names. You would need two
different names only if they were two different entities. Directly from the Dead Sea Scroll it can be
translated into Jeue, which today translates to ‘Jesus’ in English. Jesus is the current day English translation of
Iesu. Adoni (judge, ruler) and Kurios
(master, lord) are titles. Since God is
the Father, it is proper to call him Father.
It has never been proper to call our Father on earth by his name, the
same would hold true for our Father in Heaven.
“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for
thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.” KJV Luk 1:30-31
The ancient Levites were to wear the mitre with the scared name on
it on the Day of Atonement each year (Levitus 16). The Day of Atonement was the day that the
Israelites expected our Father in Heaven to come each year to the Holy of Holies
and was also the day of Jesus’ birth.
The scared name on the mitre was there to remind them of the expected
Savior, Jesus Christ, who was to come and atone for the sins of Israel.
Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant and the only one we are
to pray to; therefore, the only name that we really need.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through
me.” ESV John 14:6
“Whatever you ask in my name,
this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me
anything in my name, I will do it.” ESV Joh 14:13-14
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you
ask the Father in my name, he may
give it to you.” ESV Joh 15:16
“In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you,
whatever you ask of the Father in my name,
he will give it to you. Until now you
have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be
full.” ESV Joh 16:23 -24
“For there is one God, and there is one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself
as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” ESV 1Ti 2:5-6
“But as it is, Christ has
obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant
he mediates
is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” ESV Heb 8:6
“and to Jesus, the mediator of a new
covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than
the blood of Abel.” ESV Heb 12:24
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