Jehovah

Jehovah is an English reading of יְהֹוָה, the most frequent form of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, the name of God in the Hebrew Bible, in the text with vowel points handed down by the Masoretes.

It is a direct phonetic transliteration. 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 יְהֹוָה (Jehovah) 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 some Christians as a mispronunciation,⁵ it has nevertheless found a place in Christian liturgical and theological usage. It is the regular English rendition of יהוה in the American Standard Version,⁶ and occurs seven 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."

The name Jehovah is associated in particular with Jehovah's Witnesses. They give the following position:

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

This pronunciation "Jehovah" is considered grammatically impossible by some; it arose through pronouncing the vowels of the "kere" (marginal reading of the Masorites: אֲדֹנָי = "Adonay") with the consonants of the "ketib" (text-reading: יהוה = "Yhwh")—"Adonai" (the Lord) being substituted with one exception wherever Yhwh occurs in the Biblical and liturgical books.⁵

"Adonai" presents the vowels "shewa" the composite ( ֲ ) under the guttural א becomes simple ( ְ ) under the ( י ), "holem," and "kamez," and these give the reading ( יְהֹוָה ) (= "Jehovah").

These substitutions of "Adonai"and "Elohim" for YHWH were devised to avoid the profanation of the "Ineffable Name" ( hence יהוה is also written ’ה, or even ’ד, and read "ha-Shem" = "the Name ").

The vowel points of Jehovah

Jewish tradition teaches that יְהֹוָה has the vowel points of אֲדֹנָי (Adonai), but the vowel points of these two words are not precisely the same, and scholars are not in total agreement as to why יְהֹוָה 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."⁵

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., יֱהֹוִה ) had to appear in order that a mistake might not be made and "Adonay" be repeated.⁵

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 יְהֹוָה as Y^ehovah.⁹

Modern usage of the rendering Jehovah

The 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.
The Coat of Arms of Plymouth [5] (UK) City Council bears the Latin inscription, "TURRIS FORTISSIMA EST NOMEN JEHOVA".¹⁰ (See ¹¹, ¹²) being the Latin translation of the first part of the Hebrew bible 'proverb' at Proverbs 18:10, (OT).

Although the original pronunciation of יהוה 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 original pronunciations for many of which have also been lost.

History

Under the heading "יהוה c. 6823", the editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write that יְהֹוָה occurs 6518 times in the Masoretic Text. ¹³

Early transcriptions of יהוה similar to "Jehovah"

Early transcriptions of יְהֹוָה similar to "Jehovah"

Transcriptions of יְהֹוָה similar to
"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 יְהֹוָה 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 יְהֹוָה 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 perpetuum

The 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, as elohim (God). This combination produces יְהֹוָה and יֱהֹוִה respectively, 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 "יְהֹוָה" 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. ¹⁶

Examining the vowel points of יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי

Hebrew Word #3068 YEHOVAH יְהֹוָה	Hebrew Word #136 ADONAY אֲדֹנָי
י	Yod	Y	א	Aleph	glottal stop
ְ	.Simple Shewa	E	ֲ	Hatef Patah	A
ה	Heh	H	ד	Daleth	D
ֹ	Holem	O	ֹ	Holem	O
ו	Vav	V	נ	Nun	N
ָ	Kametz	A	ָ	Kametz	A
ה	Heh	H	י	Yod	Y

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 ’ǎdônây 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).^{citation needed}

Critique of the transcription Jehovah in the 17th century

The 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. [7]

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 Jehovah

In defense of the transcription Jehovah

It is interesting to note, that in spite of Smith's comments, he consistently uses the name Jehovah throughout his dictionary and when translating Hebrew names. Some examples include Isaiah Jehovah's help or salvation, Jehoshua Jehovah a helper, Jehu Jehovah is He. This practice is also followed in the New Compact Bible Dictionary (Special Crusade Edition) of 1967 sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Peloubet's Bible Dictionary of 1947.

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.

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 יְהֹוָה. [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 יְהֹוָה with the precise same vowel points as are found in Adonay indicated that the vowel points of יְהֹוָה are the actual vowel points of God's name.

The Preface to the 1901 edition of the Standard American Edition of the Revised Version of the Bible states:

Resulting consensus

Reland 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 [19], that the pronunciation was "Yahweh". See also:

Use of "Jehovah" in English

Five Discourses in Opposition to the Transcription Jehovah
Author and Discourse	Comments
John Drusius [1550 -1616] Tetragrammaton, sive de Nomine Die proprio, quod Tetragrammaton vocant (1604)	John Drusius (= Johannes Van den Driesche) noting that the reading "Jehovah" is contrary to Jewish tradition, wrote about the 1518 form: "Primus in hunc errorem nos induxit Galatinus ... ante qui sic legerit, neminem novi" ("Galatinus first led us to this mistake ... I know [of] nobody who read [it] thus earlier..").[8] An editor of Drusius in 1698 knows of an earlier reading in Porchetus de Salvaticis however.[9] According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, יְהֹוָה (Qr אֲדֹנָי) occurs 6518 times, and יֱהֹוִה (Qr אֱלֹהִים) occurs 305 times in the Masoretic Text. John Drusius wrote that neither יְהֹוָה nor יֱהֹוִה accurately represented God's name.⁴
Sixtinus Amama [1593-1659]¹⁷ De nomine tetragrammato (1628) [10]	Sixtinus Amama, was a Professor of Hebrew in the University of Franeker. He was also a pious pupil of Drusius. [11]
Louis Cappel [1585-1658] De nomine tetragrammato, (1624)	Lewis Cappel reached the conclusion that Hebrew vowel points were not part of the original Hebrew language. This view was strongly contested by John Buxtorff the elder, as well as by his son.
John Buxtorff [1564-1629 ] Disserto de nomine JHVH	John Buxtorf the elder [12] controverted the views of Elias Levita regarding the late origin of the Hebrew vowel points, a subject which gave rise to the controversy between Louis Cappel and his (e.g. John Buxtorff the elder's) son, John Buxtorff the younger.
James Altingius [1618-1679] [13] Exercitatio grammatica de punctis ac pronunciatione tetragrammati

Five Discourses in Defense of the Transcription Jehovah
Author and Discourse	Comments
Nicholas Fuller [1557-1626]	Nicholas was a Hebraist and a theologian. [14]
Thomas Gataker [1574-1654][15] De Nomine Tetragrammato Dissertaio (1645) [16]	For further information, see: Memoirs of the Puritans Thomas Gataker.
John Leusden [1624-1699] Dissertationes tres, de vera lectione nominis Jehova	John Leusden wrote three discourses in defense of the name Jehovah. [17]

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