Exploring the Name of God Ep. 10

Pastor Spell explores how the mistake of translating God's name to Jehovah took place 

Transcript

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Welcome to Know Your Bible Institute classes. I'm your host, Pastor Lynwood C. Spell, and we study the Bible because it helps us recognize and hear the Spirit of Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, as He talks to us day by day. We believe the Bible has a language that as we learn it, its stories, the Bible, its stories, its content, we will gain a capacity to recognize the voice of God, that language, that logic. So the study of God's word is so phenomenal. It's everything absolutely necessary to live a life in relationship with the divine. Today's session will be on exploring the name of God. What do we call God? What do we say about God? This session will discuss medieval mistakes and how Jehovah, a word that is used, came to be. So first, imagine a Christian monk in thirteenth century Europe hunched over a Hebrew manuscript by candlelight. He's learned Hebrew, no small feat in the era when few Christians studied the language, because he wants to read scripture in its original tongue to get closer to God's pure revelation. He comes to the divine name, written in four Hebrew letters, Yod He Volv He. But something strange appears in his manuscript. Below and within these consonants are vowel points, dots and dashes that indicate how words should be pronounced. The points show the vowels E, O, and A. Being a diligent scholar, he does what seems logical. He pronounces the consonants with the vowels is written Y E H O V A H. And what would that produce? Yehovah. What he doesn't understand, what no one has explained to him, because the connection between Christian and Jewish scholarship is virtually nonexistent at this point, is that these vowel points aren't meant to be pronounced with these consonants. They are a reminder to say something else entirely. Adonai, the Hebrew word for Lord. The Masoretes, Jewish scribes who added these vowel points centuries earlier, never intended anyone to pronounce Yod He Volve as written. The vowels were instructions, not pronunciation guides. And this honest mistake, made by well-meaning scholars, would echo through centuries, eventually becoming so entrenched in Christian tradition that many would defend Jehovah as the actual historical name of God. It's a cautionary tale about the danger of cultural ignorance, the importance of consulting living tradition, and how easily mistakes can become cemented as truth. The historical context, first Hebrews and Christians. To understand how Jehovah came to be, we need to understand the state of Hebrew learning in medieval Christian Europe. First, there's the Great Divorce. After the first century, Christianity and Judaism increasingly separated. What began as a Jewish sect proclaiming Jesus as Messiah gradually became predominantly Gentile and increasingly hostile to Judaism. By the fourth century, after Christianity became the Roman Empire's official religion, the relationship between church and synagogue was often antagonistic. Church fathers like John Chrysostom preached virulent sermons against Jews. Medieval European Christians subjected Jews to persecution, forced conversions, expulsions, and pogroms. The crusades saw massacres of Jewish communities. Jews were forced to live in ghettos, forbidden from many professions, and made to wear distinctive badges. In this environment, meaningful scholarly exchange between Christian and Jews was rare. Christians generally didn't learn Hebrew, and Jews weren't eager to teach their sacred language to those who persecuted them. The Old Testament was read in Latin, Jerome's Vulgate, and that was considered sufficient. But then the Renaissance of Hebrew learning. Things began to change during the late medieval and Renaissance period. Few factors converge. Number one, humanist interest in original languages. The Renaissance humanists championed the slogan ad fontes, which means back to the sources. They wanted to read classical texts in their original languages, not through the filter of medieval Latin translations. This impulse extended to Scripture. If you really want to understand the Bible, shouldn't you read Hebrew and Greek? Jewish and number two, Jewish and Christian intellectual exchange. In certain places and times, particularly in Spain before the expulsion of 1492 and in Italy during the Renaissance, some intellectual exchange occurred between Jewish and Christian scholars. Jewish converts to Christianity sometimes taught Hebrew to Christian scholars. And number three, the printing press. The invention of the Gutenberg movable type printing in the 1450s made Hebrew texts more widely available. Hebrew Bibles could now be printed and distributed, not just laboriously hand copied. And then lastly was the Protestant Reformation. The reformers' emphasis on sola scriptura, which means scripture alone, created urgency about reading the Bible in original languages. Hebrew became essential for Protestant clergy. But this renewed interest in Hebrew came with the problem. Most Christian scholars were learning the language without adequate instruction in Jewish reading traditions and interpretive practices. The Masoretic texts and the vowel points. Well, to understand the Jehovah's Mistake, we need to revisit briefly the Masoretic tradition discussed in chapter two. The Masoret's careful work. Between roughly six hundred to one thousand AD, Jewish scribes known as Masoretes undertook the mask of task of standardizing the biblical text and adding vowel markings. Ancient Hebrew was written with consonants only. Readers had to supply the vowels based on context and tradition. The Masoretes developed a sophisticated system of dots and dashes called Nikud, placed above, below, and within the consonants to preserve tradition pronunciations. This was crucial because Hebrew was no longer anyone's daily spoken language. It was preserved for liturgy and scholarly use, and without vowel markings, correct reading was becoming harder. Special care of the Tetragrammaton. When the Mazoretes came to Yodhe Volve, they faced a unique challenge. By their time the tradition of not pronouncing the name had been in place for over a thousand years. When reading scripture allowed Jews and would say Adonai whenever they encountered Yodhe Volve. Some texts used Elohim, which is God instead, particularly when Adonai appeared in the same context. The Masorete solution was ingenious. They put the vowel points for Adonai or sometimes Elohim under the consonants of Yod He Volve as a reminder. When you see Yod He Volve with the vowels of Adonai, you say Adonai. The visual cue triggers the correct substitution. However, Hebrew grammar required a slight modification. The A vowel of Adonai became a Shiva when placed under the Yod of Yod He Valfe. So the Hebrew vowels became AOA, which would yield something like Yehowa if you ignored the instruction and tried to pronounce it. The Masoretes never imagined anyone would actually pronounce these letters with these vowels. It would be like putting a footnote saying, say Lord here, and having someone pronounce the footnote as part of the text. The Jewish readers understood. For Jewish readers, this system made perfect sense. They understood the scribal conventions, they knew the history of the name, they knew that Yodevolve was never pronounced, that Adonai was always substituted, and that the vowel points were instructional rather than phonetic. A Jewish boy learning to read the Torah would be taught when you see those four letters with those vowels, you say Adonai, not what's written. It was as natural as learning that Wednesday is pronounced Wednesday and not Wednesday. But Christian scholars coming to Hebrew without this cultural context, without this living tradition, without Jewish teachers explaining the system, they saw consonants and vowels and did what seemed obvious. They tried to pronounce them together. So now the birth of Jehovah. Early Christian Hebrews. The exact origin of the pronunciation of Jehovah is difficult to pinpoint because Hebrew scholarship developed gradually and records aren't always clear, but we can trace the general trajectory. Raymundus Martini in the 1200s was a Spanish Dominican friar, and he was a scholar and used the form of Yahuwah in his work, Pago Fide, in the 1200s. This may be one of the earliest Christian attempts to vocalize the Tetragrammaton using the Masoretic vowel points. Next is Porcadus de Salvatis writing around the 1300s. He used Ahua very close to what would become Jehovah. Peter Gallatin and Italian Franciscan used something similar in his book in the 1500s. And by the early 16th century, Hebrew studies spread among Christian scholars in the form Jehovah, depending on Latin verses and vernacular spelling, had become relatively standard in Christian academic circles. So why the J? Well, this alert readers might notice Hebrew has no J sound. The first letter of the tetragrammaton is yod, which makes a Y sound like the Y in yes. The shift from Y to J reflects Latin and European language developments. In medieval Latin, the letter I, which would represent both the vowel I and the consonant y began to be written as J when it represented the consonant sound in certain positions. Eventually, J developed in its own sound in various European languages, the Z sound in French or Jean or the J sound in English Jesus. So Yod He Volfe in Latin letters J H V H with consonant or I written as J, Jehovah with the Latin pronunciation. This is purely a quirk of Latin orthography and has nothing to do with Hebrew. The tetragrammaton has always begun with the yo, which sounds like yeah, never j. Next the reformers and Jehovah. By the time of the Protestant Reformation, Jehovah was familiar enough that some reformers used it, though with varying frequency and conviction. In the late 1400s and early 1500s, you have William Tyndale, whose English Bible translation was foundational for all later English Bibles, and he used Iowa in a few places, particularly in Exodus 6.3, and occasional marginal notes. However, he generally followed the conventional translation practice of using Lord all caps for Yod He Volve. Next is the Geneva Bible in the 1500s as well, 1560s. This was beloved by Puritans and brought to America by the pilgrims, and this book used Iova in a few places, but predominantly used Lord all caps. Then 1611, the King James Version, which would dominate English speaking Protestantism for centuries. And there are places where it uses Yahovah exactly four times Exodus, Psalm, Isaiah, and Isaiah. Twice in Isaiah. While using Lord all caps or God all caps thousands of times to translate Yod He Valve, the King James translators clearly understood that Jehovah was not the standard rendering, using it only in poetic context where they wanted to emphasize the specific name. Martin Luther used Jehovah occasionally in his German translation. Her Lord. The pattern is clear. Even scholars who use Jehovah treat it as exceptional rather than standard. They seemed to sense something was off about it, even if they couldn't fully articulate why. The scholarly correction. By the seventeenth century, Christian Hebraus who engaged seriously with Jewish scholarship began to understand their mistake. Johannes Buxtorf the Elder, in the mid late 1500s, early sixteen hundreds, was a Swiss Christian Hebraus and his son Johannes Buxtorf the Younger, both taught Hebrew and published important Hebrew grammars and lexicons. The younger Buxtorf explained clearly in Dissertasio de Nomine de Tetragramato that the vowel points under Yodhe Valfe were not its actual vowels but instructions to say Adonai. However, despite scholarly understanding improving, Jehovah had gained popular currency. Once a pronunciation enters hymns and devotional literature and popular piety, correcting it becomes much harder than correcting academic errors. The nineteenth century, scholarly consensus versus popular usage. Well, by the nineteenth century, the scholarly consensus was clear Jehovah was an error. Wilhelm Jacinius, whose Hebrew grammar became the standard reference work, stated clearly that Jehovah was a mistake resulting from combining Yodhe Valve's consonants with Adonai's vowels. The American revised version in 1901 broke with the King James tradition and used Jehovah consistently throughout the Old Testament, a decision that was immediately controversial, widely criticized by scholars. This translation, while influential in some circles, was rejected by mainstream Christianity precisely because of this and other idiosyncratic choices. Modern scholarship is unanimous. Jehovah never existed in ancient Israel. No Hebrew speaker ever said it. It's a hybrid word created by medieval Christian understanding of Hebrew scribal traditions. Why Yahweh is different. Some readers might ask, if Jehovah is wrong, why do scholars use Yahweh? Isn't that a modern guess? And there's a crucial difference. The historical evidence for Yahweh, number one, ancient Greek transliterations. Early Christian writers who tried to explain the Hebrew name to Greek readers use forms like Io or Iabe. For example, Clement of Alexandria wrote Aoe, suggesting a pronunciation like Yahweh. Next is Samaritan pronunciation. The Samaritans who split from Judaism before the exile and preserved their own traditions pronounce the name as something like Yahweh or Yahweh. Theophic names, biblical names incorporating the divine name, provide clues. Names like Isaiah, Jeremiah, show the name functioning as Yahuwah, Yah, consistent with Yah as the full form. Then the Hebrew grammar, based on the verb Hayah to be, Yahweh fits Hebrew verb pattern forms better than Jehovah. It appears to be a causative form, meaning he causes to be or he brings into being. So Yahweh is a scholarly reconstruction based on actual historical evidence. An educated guess, yes, but one grounded in linguistic analysis and ancient testimony. Jehovah, by contrast, is simply a mistake. Reading instructions as if they were the text itself. So a crucial distinction, however, and this is important, even scholars who use Yahweh in academic context generally don't advocate using it in worship or devotion. Why? Because the tradition of not pronouncing the name isn't just about lacking information, it's about reverence. If we could reconstruct the exact pronunciation with certainty, which we can't, the Jewish tradition reach teaches us something profound. God's name is holy, and treating it with reverence means not treating it casually or familiarly. Most modern Bible translations return to the ancient practice, translate Yod He Volfeh as Lord in all capitals to distinguish it from Adonai, preserving both the distinction and the reverence. The persistent appeal of Jehovah. If Jehovah is demonstrably a mistake, why does it persist in some Christian communities? Historical momentum. Once a word enters hymns, prayers, and beloved scripture translation, it gains emotional and spiritual associations. People have met God in prayer calling him Jehovah. They've sung, Guide me, Oha, great Jehovah. For generations. Their grandparents use this name. Telling them it's a mistake feels like attacking their faith. And this is understandable, but sentiment doesn't change historical or linguistic facts. The word is still an error, even if people have used it sincerely. Some religious groups have made Jehovah central to their identity, claiming that using this name distinguishes them from false Christianity. Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, take their very name from this word. And teach that using Jehovah is essential for true worship. This creates resistance to correction. If you built your entire religious identity around using the true name of God, admitting that name is a medieval era, becomes not just a scholarly question, but an existential crisis. The ignorance of Hebrew. Most Christians don't study Hebrew. They don't understand the Masoretic vowel point system. They don't know Jewish reading traditions. So when someone tells them Jehovah is wrong, it sounds arbitrary, like one expert opinion against another. Education is the solution here. Understanding how the mistake occurred doesn't diminish God or scripture. It just helps us understand scriptural practices and translation history. The illusion of power in names. There is a persistent belief rooted in ancient magical thinking, but persisting in some Christian circles that knowing God's true name gives you special power or access. This belief makes Jehovah appealing. Seems like secret knowledge, like you're using the real name that others don't know. But this fundamentally misunderstands biblical faith. Relationship with God isn't about pronouncing a name correctly, it's about knowing God through revelation and responding in faith. The thief on the cross never knew how to pronounce the tetragrammaton yet. Jesus promised him, Today you shall be with me in paradise. So the theological problem with Jehovah, beyond the historical and linguistic errors using Jehovah creates theological problems. Number one, it ignores the tradition of reverence. The Jewish practice of not pronouncing the name wasn't superstition, it was reverence, born from deep understanding that God transcends human categories, that his name represents mystery we can't fully grasp, that approaching the holy requires humility. When Christians casually use Jehovah, especially in contexts where they think they're using the true name, they're rejecting this tradition of reverence. They're treating as ordinary what ancient Israel treated as holy. It misses the point of incarnation. As we saw in chapter 7, God's ultimate revelation of his name isn't a pronunciation guide for the tetragrammaton. It's Jesus Christ. Emmanuel, God with us, the word made flesh. Jesus reveals who Yod He Volve is far more clearly than any pronunciation ever could. When Christians obsess over Jehovah as if correct pronunciation matters, they're looking backwards past the incarnation. They're seeking in Hebrew linguistics what God has already provided in Jesus Christ. It also substitutes formula for relationship. There's a subtle but dangerous tendency to treat Jehovah as a magic formula, the true name that, if pronounced correctly, grants special access or power. This is closer to ancient pagan magic than biblical faith. And biblical faith is about relationship, covenant, trust, knowing God through his self-revelation in Scripture and supremely in Christ. You can know God deeply without ever pronouncing Jehovah. And you can't say Jehovah a thousand times while remaining far from God. When groups claim that using Jehovah distinguishes true believers from false ones, they create unnecessary division in the body of Christ. They make a medieval mistake into a test of orthodoxy, dividing over a word that never existed in ancient Israel. And then unity in Christ matters more than uniformally using a particular pronunciation, especially a pronunciation that's historically incorrect. All right. So we want to conclude today. The story of Jehovah is ultimately a story about human limitation, cultural ignorance, and how easily mistakes can become tradition. Well meaning scholars lacking access to Jewish interpretive traditions made an honest era. Their era got amplified through printed Bibles and popular usage until it seemed like ancient truth rather than medieval mistake. So we're going to open the lines up if there be any questions. Amen. All of you all participants are unmuted. Hanging out with us for our study on the name of God. Any questions on this session today for the study of God's name? Reading from our book, What if Everything You Knew About God's Name was a mistake? A shocking medieval mistake that changed Christianity forever. And you can unmute yourselves. Any questions, going once. Any comments, going twice. All right. I'm gonna love you and bless you in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Father God, we come before your heavenly throne room, saying thank you for life today. Thank you for the privilege of prayer. Bless us, O God. We ask in this as we go forward in the rest of this day to do that which is more pleasing and glorifying in your sight. We love you, Father. We thank you. Meet the needs of your children, Father God, meet their needs according to your riches and glory. Let your spirit, Father God, increase and grow within us. And we'll be careful, children, now and always to give you the glory, honor, and praise. In Jesus' name we ask it all, and for his sake we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, beloved. Well, God bless y'all, God keep you. We'll be back on tomorrow. Have a blessed and wonderful rest of your day. Goodbye.