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. Below are the oldest sources that I have collected over the last several years. If you have found more ancient sources, please provide your information in the comment section. 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. Now someone has
inserted [of God], therefore, we cannot be sure that is what he is referring
to.
“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 [OF GOD]; it consists of
four vowels.” Josephus, War.5.5.7 (235)
First, we will look at artifacts and ancient alphabets. Then we will look for insight in old
newspapers. Then we will review what the bible says.
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
(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 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
a 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 but I do not know how that is accomplish.
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 200 BC
Discovered between 1946 and 1956.
Sources:
File:Tetragrammaton11Q5-1.jpg
- Wikimedia Commons
The Dead Sea
Scrolls - B-496376 (see 2nd column)
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
1896 news – The Divine Name
Below from Column 3 (I never heard this before) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/mnhi_audi_ver01/data/sn89081128/00280766239/1896112501/0395.pdf
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
1914 news
Notice that this article states that YHVH are four constants. 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 can only be derived from the Masoretic text.
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
The Masoretic text was used to create a version of the bible and the Talmud in the 8th and 9th century. This text was never used by the ancient Israelites.
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 version 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:
Conclusion
The New Testament does not include this tetragrammaton. The New Testament is the fulfillment that God
came to earth as Jesus. The God of the Old
Testament is the same as Jesus 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 they tell us is
close to the name of Jesus. I personally
cannot tell you how it becomes in English Jesus; however, that is the tradition
of the current day Israelites that has been taught for many years now.
Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant and the only one we are
to pray to; therefore, the only name that really matters.
“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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