WHAT IS THE NAME OF GOD?
In the Bible, God is called by several names: ELOHIM (אֱלוֹהִים), that means "God"; ELOAH (אֱלוֹהַּ), that means "God"; EL (אֵל), that means "God"; ELION (עֶלְיוֹן), that means "The Most High"; SHADAY (שַׁדַּי), that means "Almighty"; ADONAY (אֲדוֹנָי), that means "Lord" and YAHVEH (יַהְוֶה), that means "He causes to exist ".
This last name, YAHVEH, is the only name that is really the proper name of God. The other names are more titles than names properly.
This name is derived from the causative form of the Hebraic verb HAVAH (הוה), that means "to be", or "to exist".
The name YAHVEH means “He causes to exist”.
The name YAHVEH appears a lot of times in the Tanach (Old Testament).
This name is considered the most sacred of the names of God.
However, in most of the translations of the Bible, where appears the name YAHVEH, this name is substituted by the word “Lord” or by the word “God”.
This happens for the following reason:
Starting from the century III B.C., the Jews stopped pronouncing the sacred name of God, YAHVEH, because they thought it would be a profanation to pronounce it, and because of this, when they read the Bible, where it was written YAHVEH, they pronounced ADONAY, that means “Lord”. For this reason, when the Bible was translated to the Greek, where the sacred name YAHVEH appeared, they placed KYRIOS, that in Greek means "Lord". Later, when they translated the Bible to Latin, where appeared the sacred name, they placed "Dominus", that means “Lord”, and then, when they translated to English, they placed “Lord”.
In some more modern translations, where appears the name YAHVEH, they placed LORD, with all the letters in the upper case, in order that the reader know that there the word LORD is substituting the sacred name of God, YAHVEH. And when in the original text of the Bible, in Hebrew, appears the name ADONAY, they place Lord, with only the initial letter in upper case.
The name YAHVEH, when adapted to the English language, is YAHVEH, or YAHEVEH. This is because, in Hebrew, the name is pronounced YAHVEH or YAHEVEH, as it is pronounced in faster or slower way.
Some people pronounce the sacred name of God as YEHOVAH, and they adapt it to English language as JEHOVAH. However, the right pronunciation is YAHVEH.
This divergence of pronunciation happened for the following reasons:
The Tanach (Old Testament) was written in Hebrew.
In the Hebrew alphabet, originally, vowels did not exist, only consonants existed. It was not necessary to write the vowels, because the people that know the Hebrew language well, read perfectly the text written only with consonants, and including the roots of the words, in Hebrew, are only constituted by consonants, that are vocalized in several ways, to form verbs, substantives nouns, adjectives, etc.
When the Jews stopped pronouncing the name YAHVEH, this name continued to be pronounced by the priests, in the Temple, when they blessed the people with the priestly blessing (Numbers 4:24-26). Therefore, the true pronunciation of the Sacred Name continued known.
However, in the year 70 CE, the Temple of God was destroyed by the Romans, and then the Jews completely stopped pronouncing the Sacred Name of God, and because of this, little by little, the true pronunciation went falling in the forgetfulness, although the Jewish tradition says that some rabbis, along the centuries, knew the true pronunciation of the Sacred Name of God, that is also called Sacred Tetragrammaton, because it is formed by four consonants: YHVH (יהוה).
On the same occasion in which the Temple of God was destroyed, the city of Jerusalem was also destroyed, and the Jews were expelled from their land and were dispersed among the nations.
Due to that, began to appear the risk of nobody knowing anymore which is the correct pronunciation of the text of the Bible.
Then the Jews invented some signs, constituted by points and lines, that are placed below or above the consonants, that represent the vowels, and they placed these signs of vowels on the whole text of Tanach (Old Testament).
As where appeared the name YAHVEH they pronounced ADONAY, then they placed in the consonants of the name YAHVEH the vowels of ADONAY, and this caused to appear the form YEHOVAH.
However, three old Christian writers, one called Clement of Alexandria, other called Theodoret and other called Epiphanius of Salamis, wrote the sacred name of God in Greek letters. Clement of Alexandria wrote IAOUE, that is pronounced IAUE, because in Greek OU is pronounced U.  Theodoret wrote IABE, that is pronounced IAVE, because in Greek the letter B is pronounced V. Epiphanius of Salamis also wrote IABE, that is pronounced IAVE. The Hebrew letter vav, that corresponds to our v, originally was pronounced with the sound of u, and because of this in Hebrew the letter vav sometimes is used to represent the sound of u. Because of this, some transliterate the letter vav as w, and not as v.
Clement of Alexandria wrote approximately in the year 215 CE. Theodoret wrote approximately in the year 466 CE. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote approximately in the year 370 CE.
At the time in which they wrote, the correct pronunciation of the Sacred Name of God was still known. As they wrote in Greek letters, and in the Greek alphabet there are vowels, we came to know that the correct pronunciation of the name of God is YAHVEH (יַהְוֶה).
Including, it is interesting to note that the Jews, that before always used the word ADONAI to substitute the name YAHVEH in the reading of the Bible and in the prayers, from a certain time to now started to use, for this purpose, the word HASHEM, that means "The Name".
It is possible that the rabbis that still knew the true pronunciation of the name of God have stimulated the Jews to use the word HASHEM to so conserve the memory of the true vowels of the Sacred Name of God, because the vowels of HASHEM are the same vowels of YAHVEH.
It is possible that they have made this because they know that it is necessary to preserve the true pronunciation of the name of God, because the Temple of God, in Jerusalem, will be reconstructed soon, and then the priests will have to use the Sacred Name of God, YAHVEH, to bless the people with the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:22-27), because in Numbers 6:27, it is written that God said: "And they will put My Name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them”.
There is also an abbreviated form of the name of God, that is YAH (יָהּ). This name is the same name YAHVEH, but abbreviated. This name appears mainly in poetic texts, as, for instance, in the song of Moses (Exodus 15:2), and in the Psalm 118, verse 5.
This abbreviated form YAH also appears in the expression HALELU YAH, that is adapted to the English as HALLELUJAH, and that means "PRAISE YAH".
The fact that the vowel of this abbreviated form of the name of God is A shows that the first vowel of the name of God is A, what evidences that the true pronunciation of the name of God is YAHVEH (יַהְוֶה).
There are in the Bible several personal names that are formed with abbreviated forms of the name of God. Examples: Yesha'yahu (Isaiah), Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah), Netanyahu (Nethaniah), Yehoshua (Joshua), Yehochanan (Johanan), Yehoshafat (Josaphat).
In some personal names, the abbreviated form of the name of God appears in the end of the word, and in others, the abbreviated form of the name of God appears in the beginning of the word.
The abbreviated form of the name of God that appears in the end of personal names is “Yahu” (יָהוּ).
The abbreviated form of the name of God that appears in the beginning of personal names is “Yeho” (יְהווֹ).
In Hebrew, the vowels of the word alter when the word receives a suffix.
For example: The word "sefer" (book), when receives the suffix "im" to make the plural, becomes "sefarim" (books).
Another example: The word "davar" (word), when receives the suffix "eikhem" (suffix of the plural with second person plural pronoun), becomes "divreikhem" (your words).
Therefore, to know which were the original vowels of the name of God, we must base ourselves on the abbreviated form of the name of God that appears in the end of the proper names, that is "Yahu" (examples: Yesha'yahu, Yirmeyahu, Netanyahu).
“Yahu" is an abbreviated form of "Yaheveh", as well as "yehí" is an abbreviated form of "yiheyeh”).
Therefore, the name of God is "Yaheveh", name this that, when is pronounced quickly, is pronounced "Yahveh".
The abbreviated form “Yeho", that appears in the beginning of several proper names (as, for instance, Yehoshua, Yehochanan, Yehoshaphat), is the same abbreviated form “Yahu”, that had its vowels altered because was added to it a suffix, that is the second part of the proper name (in the examples above, “shua", “chanan" and "shaphat”).
When the Jews stopped pronouncing the name of God, in the century III BCE, they made a great mistake.
They stopped pronouncing the name of God, because they misinterpreted the commandment of God that is in Exodus 20:7, and they thought that this commandment means that we must not pronounce the name of God in vain.
However, the true meaning of this commandment is other.
The correct translation of Exodus 20:7, is the following: “THOU SHALT NOT RAISE THE NAME OF YAHVEH THY GOD FOR FALSEHOOD".
This means that we must not use the name of God to deceive our neighbor, swearing by the name of God and unfulfilling the oath.
It means that when we swear by the name of God, we must fulfill the oath.
God commanded that we swear by His name, as it is written in Deuteronomy 6:13: "THOU SHALT FEAR YAHVEH THY GOD; AND HIM SHALT THOU SERVE, AND BY HIS NAME THY SHALT SWEAR."
And in Psalms 105:1 it is written: "GIVE THANKS TO YAHVEH, CALL UPON HIS NAME".
Therefore, we see that God wants that we pronounce his name.
In Exodus 23:13, it is written: "AND IN ALL THINGS THAT I HAVE SAID TO YOU TAKE YE HEED: AND MAKE NO MENTION OF THE NAME OF OTHER GODS, NEITHER LET IT BE HEARD OUT OF THY MOUTH."
Therefore, we see that God doesn't want that we pronounce the names of the other gods, the false gods, that are demons (Deuteronomy 32:17), and we also see that God said that not to pronounce the name of somebody is a demonstration of execration, and not of respect.
Wherefore, it is verified that God wants us to pronounce His name, and that we swear by his name, and that we fulfill the oaths.
It is written in Joel 3:5 (in some Bibles it is 2:32): “AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT ALL THAT CALL THE NAME OF YAHVEH SHALL BE SAVED”.
See also this page:
Yahveh bless you.
João Paulo Fernandes Pontes.
Published in March 14, 2008.
Updated in May 5, 2016.