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Jehovah
Ex 6.3 displaying Jehovah in 1671 KJV Jehovah is an English reading of , the most frequent form of the Tetragrammaton , the name of God in the Hebrew Bible, in the text with vowel points handed down by the Masoretes. Although a direct phonetic transliteration, it is arguably based on a misunderstanding. By long tradition, in modern Jewish culture the Tetragrammaton is not pronounced. Instead the above vocalization indicates to the reverent Jewish reader that the term Adonai is to be used. In places where the preceding or following word already is Adonai, the reading Elohim is used instead, indicated by a different vocalization of the Tetragrammaton.[1] It is generally agreed therefore, in line with Jewish teaching, that is a "hybrid form",[2] created when the Masoretes added the vowel pointing of Adonai to the consonants of YHWH. Early English translators, unacquainted with Jewish tradition, read this word as they would any other word, and transcribed it (in very few places, namely those where the Name itself was referred to) as Jehovah. The form thus achieved wide currency in the translations of the Protestant Reformation,[3] and although seriously critiqued by John Drusius in 1604 A.D.,[4] and later regarded by both Jews and Christians as a mispronunciation,[5] it has nevertheless found a place in Christian liturgical and theological usage. It is the regular English rendition of in the American Standard Version,[6] and occurs four times in the King James Version. [7] It is also used in Christian hymns such as "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".[8] The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8, 1910 edition, page 329, states: ?Jehovah, the proper name of God in the Old Testament." Popularly, the name Jehovah is perhaps particularly associated with Jehovah's Witnesses. They give the following position (as expressed in the Watchtower):
Some however question the received view that the vowels of Jehovah originate with the word Adonai rather than an ancient pronunciation of YHWH. They note that details of vocalization differ between the various early extant manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, and note that the vowel points of Jehovah and Adonai are not precisely the same, and that scholars are not in total agreement as to why this should be. The pronunciation Jehovah
Front side of the Roman-Catholic Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, or the Old Cathedral, built at 1834 and located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri near the Gateway Arch. The Tetragrammaton is seen at the top of the front arch. This pronunciation "Jehovah" is grammatically impossible; it arose through pronouncing the vowels of the "kere" (marginal reading of the Masorites: = "Adonay") with the consonants of the "ketib" (text-reading: = "Yhwh")—"Adonay" (the Lord) being substituted with one exception wherever Yhwh occurs in the Biblical and liturgical books.[9] "Adonay" presents the vowels "shewa" the composite ( ) under the guttural becomes simple ( ) under the ( ), "holem," and "kamez," and these give the reading ( ) (= "Jehovah").
These substitutions of "Adonay"and "Elohim" for Yhwh were devised to avoid the profanation of the Ineffable Name ( hence is also written ?, or even ?, and read "ha-Shem" = "the Name "). The vowel points of JehovahJewish tradition teaches that has the vowel points of (Adonai), but the vowel points of these two words are not precisely the same, and scholars are not in total agreement as to why does not have the precise same vowel points as Adonai has. The use of the composite "shewa" "hatef segol" ( ) in cases where "Elohim" is to be read has led to the opinion that the composite "shewa" "hatef patah" ( ) ought to have been used to indicate the reading "Adonay."[10] It has been argued in reply that the disuse of the "patah" is in keeping with the Babylonian system, in which the composite "shewa" is not usual. But the reason why the "patah" is dropped is the non-guttural character of the "yod"; to indicate the reading "Elohim," however, the "segol" (and "hirek" under the last syllable, i.e., ) had to appear in order that a mistake might not be made and "Adonay" be repeated.[11] Early English translators, unacquainted with or in opposition to Jewish tradition, read this word as they would any other word, and transcribed "Iehouah" (1530 A.D.), "Iehovah" (1611 A.D.), or "Jehovah" (1671 A.D.). In Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890 A.D.), James Strong transliterated as Yehovah.[12] Modern usage of the rendering JehovahThe following works, either always or sometimes render the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah:
In Italian, the divine name of God is rendered as Jeova, or Geova (soft 'G'), and some Catholic churches in Italy bear the name in this form in their architecture. Although the original pronunciation of has become lost, for many centuries the popular English word for the personal name of God has been ?Jehovah?. This is why some religious groups, notably Jehovah's Witnesses and the King-James-Only Movement, make prominent use, in English speaking countries, of the pronunciation, "Jehovah." Among Jehovah's Witnesses, the name varies according to the common pronunciation in the language spoken, and terms definitively referencing the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, such as Yahweh, are considered equally useful. Similarly well-established English substitutions for Hebrew personal names include Joshua, Isaiah, Jesus, and others, the precise pronunciations for many of which have also been lost. History
A Latin rendering of the Tetragrammaton has been the form "Jova", sounding very similar to "Jehovah". Origenis Hexaplorum, edited by Frederick Field, 1875. Early transcriptions of similar to "Jehovah"
'#' marks forms listed by Sir Godfrey Driver. Early transcriptions of similar to "Jehovah"
Excerpts from Raymond Martin's Pugio Fidei adversus Mauros et Judaeos of 1270 CE (page 559). (The text in the image reads: "Jehova, or [rather] Adonay".) 
The word Jehovah displayed at the Roman Catholic Church named St. Martinskirche, Olten, Switzerland, 1521. 
Graven image of the divine name as it is written on the wall of a Norwegian church. (Source: The Divine Name in Norway) "Jehovah" occurred as early as the 13th century.
The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write that the pronunciation "Jehovah" was unknown until 1520 when it was introduced by Galatinus; but it was contested by Le Mercier, J. Drusius, and L. Capellus, as against grammatical and historical propriety. The English transcription "Jehovah" appears in King James Versions as early as the 1670s and in subsequent versions. The critique of the English transcription Jehovah, as well as the critique of Galatinus's Latin Transcription Iehoua, and the earlier English transcriptions Iehouah and Iehovah, is based on the belief of scholars that the vowel points of are not the actual vowel points of God's name. Thus while most scholarly sources say that scholars are critiquing the name "Jehovah", Galatinus's Latin Transcription Iehoua and the earlier English transcriptions Iehouah [1530 A.D.] and Iehovah [1611 A.D.] were being critiqued before the English transcription "Jehovah" [1671] ever started to appear. From a pronunciation standpoint in English, Iehouah has the same pronunciation and sounds identical to Jehovah. All three transcriptions have the vowels "e" and "o" and "a", and scholars believe that those vowels are from another word [i.e. Adonay / Adonai], but as noted in the introduction of this article, the vowel points of and the vowel points of Adonay / Adonai are not precisely the same. [See Section 3 and Section 3.1 for more information] Kethib and Qere and Qere perpetuumThe original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was provided with vowel marks by the Masoretes to assist reading. In places where the consonants of the text to be read (the Qere) differed from the consonants of the written text (the Kethib), they wrote the Qere in the margin as a note showing what was to be read. In such a case the vowels of the Qere were written on the Kethib. For a few very frequent words the marginal note was omitted: this is called Q're perpetuum. One of these frequent cases was God's name, that should not be pronounced, but read as adonai ("My Lord [plural of majesty]"), or, if the previous or next word already was adonai, or adoni, as elohim (God). This combination produces and respectively, non-words that would spell "yehovah" and "yehovih" respectively. The first early modern English Bible translators to transcribe God's name into English did not contact Jewish scholars, and did not know of the Q're perpetuum custom, but transcribed "" into English as they saw it. It therefore became Iehouah in 1530 (Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch), Iehovah in 1611, and Jehovah in editions of the King James Bible dated 1670 or so. The spelling gradually settling down as Roman alphabet J and V became distinct letters from I and U. The transcription Iehouah was used in the 16th century by many authors Roman Catholic and Protestant, but not Coverdale's Bible translation in 1535. [19] Examining the vowel points of and
The spelling of the Tetragrammaton and connected forms in the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Bible, with vowel points shown in red. In the table below, Yehovah and Adonay are dissected
Note in the table directly above that the "simple shewa" in Yehovah and the hatef patah in Adonay are not the same points. The same information is displayed in the table above and to the right where "YHWH intended to be pronounced as Adonai" and "Adonai, with its slightly different vowel points" are shown to have different vowel points. The difference between the vowel points of ??dônây and YHWH is explained by the rules of Hebrew morphology and phonetics. Shva and hataf-patah were allophones of the same phoneme used in different situations: hataf-patah on glottal consonants including aleph (such as the first letter in Adonai), and simple shva on other consonants (such as the 'y' in YHWH). Critique of the transcription Jehovah in the 17th centuryThe transcription Jehovah [Iehouah] was used in the 16th century by many authors, both Catholic and Protestant. A publication by John Drusius in 1604 was the start of a bitter debate that lasted for a century. Fuller, Thomas Gataker, and Johann Leusden wrote five discourses defending the transcription "Jehovah" [or Iehouah, Iehovah] against the five discourses written by Drusius, Amama, Cappellus, Buxtorf, and Altingius which opposed the transcription Jehovah.
Hadrian Reland collected and published these ten discourses in 1707.
Note that while Louis Cappel and John Buxtorf are both listed as authors who opposed the transcription Jehovah, they each were involved in serious controversy with each other concerning the origin of the Hebrew vowel points.
Summary of the criticism of the transcription JehovahThe following text is found in
William Smith concludes:
In defense of the transcription Jehovah
Geneva Bible, 1560. (Psalm 83:18) As mentioned in the previous section, the defenders of the transcription Jehovah believed that theophoric names such as Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, etc, indicated that Jehovah was the actual name of God. 
William Blake's manuscripts containing the word Jehovah. The following text is found in the first sentence of the article: "Jehovah" in William Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible":
The two vocalizations of the Tetragrammaton shown above were both critiqued by John Drusius in 1604 A.D.. However as noted below, Davidson defends the vowel points of ???????. [See also sub section 3.1 above.] In Scott Jones' article "Jehovah", under the heading "Davidson on the Tetragrammaton", Davidson explains why he believes that the fact that the Masoretes did not point with the precise same vowel points as are found in Adonay indicated that the vowel points of ??????? are the actual vowel points of God's name.
George W. Buchanan argues:
The Preface to the 1901 edition of the Standard American Edition of the Revised Version of the Bible states: The change first proposed in the Appendix - that is which substitutes "Jehovah" for "LORD" and "GOD" (printed in small capitals) - is one which will be unwelcome to many, because of the frequency and familiarity of the terms displaces. But the American Revisers, after a careful consideration, were brought to the unanimous conviction that a Jewish superstition, which regarded the Divine Name as too sacred to be uttered, ought no longer to dominate in the English or any other version of the Old Testament, as it fortunately does not in the numerous versions made by modern missionaries. This Memorial Name, explained in Ex. iii. 14, 15, and emphasized as such over and over in the original text of the Old Testament, designates God as the personal God, as the covenant God, the God of revelation, the Deliverer, the Friend of his people; - not merely the abstractly "Eternal One" of many French translations, but the ever living Helper of those who are in trouble. This personal name, with its wealth of sacred associations, is now restored to the place in the sacred text to which it has an unquestionable claim. Resulting consensusReland agreed with the opponents of "Jehovah", and since his days the majority opinion has been roughly what is expressed in the article "JEHOVAH" of the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 http://bible.tmtm.com/wiki/JEHOVAH_%28Jewish_Encyclopedia%29, that the pronunciation was "Yahweh". See also:
Use of "Jehovah" in English
William Baillie's The First Twelve Psalms in Hebrew (1843) p. 22. The Latin reading of the Tetragrammaton as "Yehovah" is seen. Similarly, the transliteration of the Hebrew text gives the vocalization "Yehovah".
See also
References
als:JHWH ar:???? ast:Xehová bs:Jehova bg:???? ca:Jehovà cs:JHVH de:Jehovah et:Jahve es:Yahveh eo:Jehovo fa:???? fr:YHWH fur:Jeova ko:?? ia:Jehovah is:JHVH it:Tetragramma biblico he:??? ?????? kw:Yehovah la:Iehovah hu:Jahve cdo:Ià-huò-huà nl:JHWH ja:???? no:JHVH nn:JHVH pl:JHWH pt:Tetragrama YHVH ro:YHWH sq:JHVH sh:Jahve fi:Jahve tl:Jehova ta:???? th:??????????? tr:Yehova zh-yue:??? zh:??? External linksThe Divine Name That Will Live Forever Source: Wikipedia | The above article is available under the GNU FDL. | Edit this article
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