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JEHOVAH (YAHWEH2)
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See also:JEHOVAH (YAHWEH2) , in the See also:Bible, the See also:God of See also:Israel. " Jehovah " is a See also:modern mispronunciation of the See also:Hebrew name, resulting from combining the consonants of that name, Jhvh, with the vowels of the word ddonay, " See also:Lord," which the See also:Jews substituted for the proper name in See also:reading the scriptures. In such cases of substitution the vowels of the word which is to be read are written in the Hebrew See also:text with the consonants of the word which is not to be read. The consonants of the word to be substituted are ordinarily written in the margin; but inasmuch as Adonay was regularly read instead of the ineffable name Jhvh, it was deemed unnecessary to See also:note the fact at every occurrence. When See also:Christian scholars began to study the Old Testament in Hebrew, if they were ignorant of this See also:general See also:rule or regarded the substitution as a piece of Jewish superstition, reading what actually stood in the text, they would inevitably pronounce the name Jehovah. It is an unprofitable inquiry who first made this blunder; probably many See also:fell into it independently. The statement still commonly repeated that it originated with Petrus ' These details are scarcely the invention of the chronicler; see See also:CHRONICLES, and Expositor, Aug. 1906, p. 191. 2 This See also:form, Yahweh, as the correct one, is generally used in the See also:separate articles throughout this See also:work. Galatinus (1518) is erroneous; Jehova occurs in See also:manuscripts at least as See also:early as the 14th See also:century. The form Jehovah was used in the 16th century by many authors, both See also:Catholic and See also:Protestant, and in the 17th was zealously defended by See also:Fuller, See also:Gataker, Leusden and others, against the criticisms of such scholars as See also:Drusius, Cappellus and the See also:elder See also:Buxtorf. It appeared in the See also:English Bible in See also:Tyndale's See also:translation of the See also:Pentateuch (1530), and is found in all English Protestant versions of the 16th century except that of See also:Coverdale (1535). In the Authorized Version of 1611 it occurs in Exod. vi. 3; Ps. lxxxiii. 18; Isa. xii. 2; See also:xxvi. 4, beside the See also:compound names Jehovah-jireh, Jehovah-nissi, Jehovah-shalom; elsewhere, in accordance with the usage of the See also:ancient versions, Jhvh is represented by LORD (distinguished by capitals from the See also:title " Lord," Heb. adonay). In the Revised Version of 1885 Jehovah is retained in the places in which it stood in the A. V., and is introduced also in Exod. vi. 2, 6, 7, 8; Ps. lxviii. 20; Isa. xlix. 14; Jer. xvi. 21; Hab. iii. 19. The See also:American See also:committee which co-operated in the revision desired to employ the name Jehovah
wherever Jhvh occurs in the See also:original, and See also:editions embodying their preferences are printed accordingly.
Several centuries before the Christian era the name Jhvh had ceased to be commonly used by the Jews. Some of the later writers in the Old Testament employ the appellative Elohim, God, prevailingly or exclusively: a collection of See also:Psalms (Ps. xlii.–lxxxiii.) was revised by an editor who changed the Jhvh of the authors into Elohim (see e.g. xlv. 7; xlviii. to; 1. 7; li. 14); observe also the frequency of " the Most High," " the God of See also:Heaven," " See also: If so, the secrecy had the opposite effect; the name of the god of the Jews was one of the See also:great names ,in magic, heathen as well as Jewish, and miraculous efficacy was attributed to the See also:mere utterance of it. In the See also:liturgy of the Temple the name was pronounced in the priestly See also:benediction (Num. vi. 27) after the See also:regular daily See also:sacrifice (in the synagogues a substitute—probably Adonay—was employed);' on the See also:Day of See also:Atonement the High Priest uttered the name ten times in his prayers and benediction. In the last generations before the fall of See also:Jerusalem, however, it was See also:pro- nounced in a See also:low See also:tone so that the sounds were lost in the See also:chant of the priests.' 3 See Josephus, See also:Ant. ii. 12, 4.; Philo, Vita Mosis, iii. 11 (11. §See also:I14, ed. See also:Cohn and Wendland); ib. iii. 27 (ii. § 206). The Palestinian authorities more correctly interpreted Lev. xxiv. 15 seq., not of the mere utterance of the name, but of the use of the name of God in blaspheming God. ° Siphreee, Num. §§ 39, 43; M. Sotah, iii. 7; Sotah, 38a. The tradi- tion that the utterance of the name in the daily benedictions ceased with the death of See also:Simeon the Just, two centuries or more before the Christian era, perhaps arose from a misunderstanding of See also:Mena-both, Io9b; in any See also:case it cannot stand against the testimony of older and more authoritative texts. ' Ponta, 39b; Jer. Yoyna, iii. 7; Kiddushin, 71a. After the destruction of the Temple (A.D. 70) the liturgical use of the name ceased, but the tradition was perpetuated in the See also:schools of the rabbis.' It was certainly known in Babylonia in the latter See also:part of the 4th century,2 and not improbably much later. Nor was the knowledge confined to these pious circles; the name continued to be employed by healers, exorcists and magicians, and has been preserved in many places in magical papyri. The vehemence with which the utterance of the name is denounced in the Mishna—" He who pronounces the Name with its own letters has no part in the See also:world to come!" 3—suggests that this misuse of the name was not uncommon among Jews. The See also:Samaritans, who otherwise shared the scruples of the Jews about the utterance of the name, seem to have used it in judicial oaths to the See also:scandal of the rabbis.¢ The early Christian scholars, who inquired what was the true name of the God of the Old Testament, had therefore no great difficulty in getting the See also:information they sought. See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria (d. c. 212) says that it was pronounced Iaoue.2 See also:Epiphanius (d. 404), who was See also:born in See also:Palestine and spent a considerable part of his See also:life there, gives Ia/3e (one See also:cod. Iave).6 See also:Theodoret (d. c. 457),' born in See also:Antioch, writes that the Samaritans pronounced the name Ia$e (in another passage, Ia(3at), the Jews See also:Ala.8 The latter is probably not Jhvh but Ehyeh (Exod. iii. 14), which the Jews counted among the names of God; there is no See also:reason whatever to imagine that the Samaritans pronounced the name Jhvh differently from the Jews. This See also:direct testimony is supplemented by that of the magical texts, in which Ia13e ?-e,6vG (Jahveh Sebaoth), as well as Ia(3a, occurs frequently.9 In an Ethiopic See also:list of magical names of Jesus, purporting to have been taught by him to his disciples, Yawe is found.10 Finally, there is See also:evidence from more than one source that the modern Samaritan priests pronounce the name Yahweh or Yahwa." There is no reason to impugn the soundness of this substantially consentient testimony to the pronunciation Yahweh or Jahveh, coming as it does through several See also:independent channels. It is confirmed by grammatical considerations. The name Jhvh enters into the See also:composition of many proper names of persons in the Old Testament, either as the initial See also:element, in the form Jeho- or Jo- (as in See also:Jehoram, Joram), or as the final element, in the form jahu or jah (as in Adonijahu, See also:Adonijah). These various forms are perfectly regular if the divine name was Yahweh, and, taken altogether, they cannot be explained on any other See also:hypothesis. See also:Recent scholars, accordingly, with but few exceptions, are agreed that the ancient pronunciation of the name was Yahweh (the first h sounded at the end of the syllable). Genebrardus seems to have been the first to suggest the pronunciation Iahue,12 but it was not until the 19th century that it became generally accepted. Jahveh or Yahweh is apparently an example of a See also:common type of Hebrew proper names which have the form of the 3rd pers. sing. of the verb. e.g. Jabneh (name of a See also:city), Jelin, Jamlek, Jiptah (See also:Jephthah), &c. Most of these really are verbs, the suppressed or implicit subject being 'el, " numen, god," or the name of a god; cf. Jabneh and Jabne-el, Jiptah and Jiptah-el. The ancient explanations of the name proceed from Exod. iii. 14, 15, where " Yahweh" hath sent me " in v. 15 corresponds to " Ehyeh hath sent me " in v. 14, thus seeming to connect the name Yahweh with the Hebrew verb hdydh, " to become, to be." The Palestinian interpreters found in this the promise that R. Johanan (second See also:half of the 3rd century), Kiddushin, 71a. 2 Kiddushin, l.c.=Pesahim, 5oa. 3 M. Sanhedrin, x. 1; Abba See also:Saul, end of 2nd century. Jer. Sanhedrin, k. 1; R. Mana, 4th century. Strom. v. 6. Variants: Ia oue, la See also:oval.; cod. L. Iaou. c Panarion, Haer. 40, 5; cf. See also:Lagarde, Psalter juxta Hebraeos, 154. Quaest. 15 in Exod. ; Fab. haeret. compend. v. 3, sub fin. 9 Ala occurs also in the great magical See also:papyrus of See also:Paris, 1. 3020 (Wessely, Denkschrift. Wien. Akad., Phil. Hist. KI., See also:XXXVI. p. 120), and in the See also:Leiden Papyrus, xvii. 31. 9 See Deissmann, Bibelstudien, 13 sqq. 1° See See also:Driver, Studia Biblica, I. 20. " See See also:Montgomery, See also:Journal of Biblical Literature, See also:xxv. (1906),49–51. 12 Chronographia, Paris, 1567 (ed. Paris, 1600, p. 79 seq.). '3 This transcription will be used henceforth. God would be with his See also:people (cf. v. 12) in future oppressions as he was in the See also:present See also:distress, or the assertion of his eternity, or eternal constancy; the Alexandrian translation 'Eyw claw. d 6v . . . 'O cl,v b,ai rr&\i by ,ue epos bµas, understands it in the more metaphysical sense of God's See also:absolute being. Both interpretations, " He (who) is (always the same)," and " He (who) is (absolutely, the truly existent)," import into the name all that they profess to find in it; the one, the teligious faith in God's unchanging fidelity to his people, the other, a philosophical conception of absolute being which is See also:foreign both to the meaning of the Hebrew verb and to the force of the tense employed. Modern scholars have sometimes found in the name the expression of the aseity" of God; sometimes of his reality, in contrast to the imaginary gods of the heathen. Another explanation, which appears first in Jewish authors of the See also:middle ages and has found wide See also:acceptance in recent times, derives the name from the causative of the verb; He (who) causes things to be, gives them being; or calls events into existence, brings them to pass; with many individual modifications of See also:interpretation—creator, life-giver, fulfiller of promises. A serious objection to this theory in every form is that the verb hayah, " to be," has no causative See also:stem in Hebrew; to See also:express the ideas which these scholars find in the name Yahweh the See also:language employs altogether different verbs. This See also:assumption that Yahweh is derived from the verb "to be," as seems to be implied in Exod. iii. 14 seq., is not, however, See also:free from difficulty. " To be " in the Hebrew of the Old Testament is not hawah, as the derivation would require, but hayah; and we are thus driven to the further assumption that hawah belongs to an earlier See also:stage of the language, or to some. older speech of the forefathers of the Israelites. This hypothesis is not intrinsically improbable—and in Aramaic, a language closely related to Hebrew, " to be " actually is hawa—but it should be noted that in adopting it we admit that, using the name Hebrew in the See also:historical sense, Yahweh is not a Hebrew name. And, inasmuch as nowhere in the Old Testament, outside of Exod. iii., is there the slightest indication that the Israelites connected the name of their God with the See also:idea of " being " in any sense, it may fairly be questioned whether, if the author of Exod. iii. 14 seq., intended to give an etymological interpretation of the name Yahweh," his See also:etymology is any better than many other paronomastic explanations of proper names in the Old Testament, or than, say, the connexion of the name 'Arr6)Xwv with iuroXobwv, alroXuwv in See also:Plato's Cratylus, or the popular derivation from 6,1r6A)wµt. A See also:root hawah is represented in Hebrew by the nouns howah (Ezek., Isa. xlvii. II) and hawwah (Ps., Prov., See also:Job) " disaster, calamity, ruin." '2 The See also:primary meaning is probably " sink down, fall," in which sense—common in Arabic—the verb appears in Job See also:xxxvii. 6 (of See also:snow falling to See also:earth). A Catholic commentator of the 16th century, Hieronymus ab Oleastro, seems to have been the first to connect the name " Jehova " with howah interpreting it contritio, sive pernicies (destruction of the Egyptians and Canaanites); Daumer, adopting the same etymology, took it in a more general sense: Yahweh, as well as Shaddai, meant " Destroyer," and fitly expressed the nature of the terrible god whom he identified with See also:Moloch. The derivation of Yahweh from hawah is formally unimpeachable, -and is adopted by many recent scholars, who proceed, however, from the primary sense of the root rather than from the specific meaning of the nouns. The name is accordingly interpreted, He (who) falls (baetyl, (3airvXos, See also:meteorite); or causes (See also:rain or See also:lightning) to fall (See also:storm god); or casts down (his foes, by his thunderbolts). It is obvious that if the derivation be correct, the significance of the name, which in itself denotes only " He falls" or "He fells," must be learned, if at all, from early Israelitish conceptions of the nature of Yahweh rather than from etymology. 14 A-se-itas, a scholastic Latin expression for the quality of existing by oneself. " s The See also:critical difficulties of these verses need not be discussed here. See W. R. See also:Arnold, " The Divine Name in See also:Exodus iii. i4," Journal of Biblical Literature, XXIV. (1905), 107–165. 's Cf. also hawwah, " desire," Mic. vii. 3; Prov. X. 3. A more fundamental question is whether the name Yahweh originated among the Israelites or was adopted by them from some other people and speech.' The biblical author of the See also:history of the sacred institutions (P) expressly declares that the name Yahweh was unknown to the patriarchs (Exod. vi. 3), and the much older Israelite historian (E) records the first See also:revelation of the name to See also:Moses (Exod. iii. 13-15), apparently following a tradition according to which the Israelites had not been worshippers of Yahweh before the See also:time of Moses, or, as he conceived it, had not worshipped the god of their fathers under that name. The revelation of the name to Moses was made at a See also:mountain sacred to Yahweh the mountain of God) far to the See also:south of Palestine, in a region where the forefathers of the Israelites had never roamed, and in the territory of other tribes; and See also:long after the See also:settlement in See also:Canaan this region continued to be regarded as the See also:abode of Yahweh (Judg. v. 4; Deut. xxxiii. 2 sqq.; 1 See also:Kings xix. 8 sqq. &c.). Moses is closely connected with the tribes in the vicinity of the holy mountain; according to one See also:account, he married a daughter of the priest of See also:Midian (Exod. sqq.; iii. I) ; to this mountain he led the Israelites after their deliverance from See also:Egypt; there his See also:father-in-See also:law met him, and extolling Yahweh as " greater than all the gods," offered (in his capacity as priest of the place?) sacrifices, at which the See also:chief men of the Israelites were his guests; there the religion of Yahweh was revealed through Moses, and the Israelites pledged themselves to serve God according to its prescriptions. It appears, therefore, that in the tradition followed by the Israelite historian the tribes within whose pasture lands the mountain of God stood were worshippers of Yahweh before the time of Moses; and the surmise that the name Yahweh belongs to their speech, rather than to that of Israel, has considerable See also:probability. One of these tribes was Midian, in whose See also:land the mountain of God See also:lay. The See also:Kenites also, with whom another tradition connects Moses, seem to have been worshippers of Yahweh. It is probable that Yahweh was at one time worshipped by various tribes south of Palestine, and that several places in that wide territory (See also:Horeb, See also:Sinai, Kadesh, &c.) were sacred to him; the oldest and most famous of these, the mountain of God, seems to have lain in See also:Arabia, See also:east of the Red See also:Sea. From some of these peoples and at one of these holy places, a See also:group of Israelite tribes adopted the religion of Yahweh, the God who, by the See also:hand of Moses, had delivered them from Egypt.' The tribes of this region probably belonged to some See also:branch of the great Arab stock, and the name Yahweh has, accordingly, been connected with the Arabic bawd, " the void " (between heaven and earth), " the See also:atmosphere," or with the verb hazed, cognate with Heb. hawdh, " sink; glide down " (through space); hemmed " See also:blow " (See also:wind). " He rides through the See also:air, He blows " (See also:Wellhausen), would be a See also:fit name for a god of wind and storm. There is, however, no certain evidence that the Israelites in historical times had any consciousness of the See also:primitive significance of the name. The attempts to connect the name Yahweh with that of an Indo-See also:European deity (Jehovah-Jove, &c.), or to derive it from See also:Egyptian or See also:Chinese, may be passed over. But one theory which has had considerable currency requires See also:notice, namely, that Yahweh, or Yahu, Yaho,' is the name of a god worshipped throughout the whole, or a great part, of the See also:area occupied by the Western Semites. In its earlier form this See also:opinion rested chiefly on certain misinterpreted testimonies in Greek authors about a god 'Iaw, and was conclusively refuted by Baudissin; re-cent adherents of the theory build more largely on the occurrence in various parts of this territory of proper names of persons ' See HEBREW RELIGION. 2 The divergent Judaean tradition, according to which the fore-fathers had worshipped Yahweh from time immemorial, may indicate that See also:Judah and the kindred clans had in fact been worshippers of Yahweh before the time of Moses. ' The form Yahu, or Yaho, occurs not only in composition, but by itself ; see Aramaic Papyri discovered at See also:Assuan, B 4, 6, i 1 ; E 14; J 6. This is doubtless the original of 'Iaw, frequently found in Greek authors and in magical texts as the name of the God of the Jews.and places which they explain as compounds of Yahu or Yah.4 The explanation is in most cases simply an assumption of the point at issue; some of the names have been misread; others are undoubtedly the names of Jews. There remain, however, some cases in which it is highly probable that names of non-Israelites are really compounded with Yahweh. The most conspicuous of these is the king of Hamath who in the See also:inscriptions of See also:Sargon (722—705 B.C.) is called Yaubi'di and Ilubi'di (compare See also:Jehoiakim-Eliakim). Azriyau, of Jaudi, also, in inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser (745—728 B.C.), who was for- merly supposed to be See also:Azariah (See also:Uzziah) of Judah, is probably a king of the See also:country in See also:northern See also:Syria known to us from the Zenjirli inscriptions as Ja'di. See also:Friedrich See also:Delitzsch brought into notice three tablets, of the See also:age of the first See also:dynasty of See also:Babylon, in which he read the names of Ya- a'-ve-ilu, Ya-ve-ilu, and Ya-ii-um-ilu (" Yahweh is God "), and which he regarded as conclusive See also:proof that Yahweh was known in Babylonia before 2000 B.c.; he was a god of the Semitic invaders in the second See also:wave of See also:migration, who were, according to Winckler and Delitzsch, of See also:North Semitic stock (Canaanites, in the linguistic sense).5 We should thus have in the tablets evidence of the See also:worship of Yahweh among the Western Semites at a time long before the rise of Israel. The reading of the names is, however, extremely uncertain, not to say improbable, and the far-reaching inferences See also:drawn from them carry no conviction. In a tablet attributed to the 14th century B.C. which Sellin found in the course of his excavations at Tell Ta'annuk (the Taanach of the O.T.) a name occurs which may be read Ahi-Yawi (See also:equivalent to Hebrew Ahijah);6 if the reading be correct, this would show that Yahweh was worshipped in Central Palestine before the Israelite See also:conquest. The reading is, however, only one of several possibilities. The fact that the full form Yahweh appears, whereas in Hebrew proper names only the shorter Yahu and Yah occur, weighs somewhat against the interpretation, as it does against Delitzsch's reading of his tablets. It would not be at all surprising if, in the great movements of populations and shifting of ascendancy which See also:lie beyond our historical See also:horizon, the worship of Yahweh should have been established in regions remote from those which it occupied in historical times; but nothing which we now know warrants the opinion that his worship was ever general among the Western Semites. Many attempts have been made to trace the See also:West Semitic Yahu back to Babylonia. Thus Delitzsch formerly derived the name from an Akkadian god, I or Ia; or from the Semitic nominative ending, Yau;7 but this deity has since disappeared from the See also:pantheon of Assyriologists. The See also:combination of Yah with See also:Ea, one of the great Babylonian gods, seems to have a See also:peculiar See also:fascination for amateurs, by whom it is periodically " discovered." Scholars are now agreed that, so far as Yahu or Yah occurs in Babylonian texts, it is as the name of a foreign god. Assuming that Yahweh was primitively a nature god, scholars in the 19th century discussed the question over what See also:sphere of nature he originally presided. According to some he was the god of consuming See also:fire; others saw in him the See also:bright See also:sky, or the heaven; still others recognized in him a storm god, a theory with which the derivation of the name from Heb. hawdh or Arab. haw' well accords. The association of Yahweh with storm and fire is frequent in the Old Testament; the See also:thunder is the See also:voice of Yahweh, the lightning his arrows, the See also:rainbow his See also:bow. The revelation at Sinai is amid the See also:awe-inspiring phenomena of See also:tempest. Yahweh leads Israel through the See also:desert in a See also:pillar of See also:cloud and fire; he kindles See also:Elijah's See also:altar by lightning, and translates the See also:prophet in a See also:chariot of fire. See also Judg. v. 4 seq. ; See a collection and critical estimate of this evidence by Zimmern, See also:Die Keilinschriften and das Alte Testament, 465 sqq. 5 See also:Babel and Bibel, 1902. The enormous, and for the most part ephemeral, literature provoked by Delitzsch's lecture cannot be cited here. 6 Denkschriften d. Wien. Akad., L. iv. p. 115 seq. (1904). T Wo lag das Paradies? (1881), pp. 158-166. Dent. xxxiii. 1; Ps. xviii. 7–15; Hab. iii. 3–6. The cherub upon which he rides when he flies on the wings of the wind (Ps. xviii. to) is not improbably an ancient mythological personification of the storm cloud, the See also:genius of tempest (cf. Ps. civ. 3). In See also:Ezekiel the See also:throne of Yahweh is See also:borne up on See also:Cherubim, the See also:noise of whose wings is like thunder. Though we may recognize in this poetical imagery the survival of ancient and, if we please, mythical notions, we should err if we inferred that Yahweh was originally a departmental god, presiding specifically over meteorological phenomena, and that this conception of him persisted among the Israelites till very See also:late times. Rather, as the god—or the chief god—of a region and a people, the most See also:sublime and impressive phenomena, the See also:control of the mightiest forces of nature are attributed to him. As the God of Israel Yahweh becomes its See also:leader and See also:champion in See also:war; he is a See also:warrior, mighty in See also:battle; but he is not a god of war in the specific sense. In the inquiry concerning the nature of Yahweh the name Yahweh Sebaoth (E. V., The LORD of Hosts) has had an important place. The hosts have by some been interpreted of the armies of Israel (see 1 Sam. xvii. 45, and note the association of the name in the Books of See also:Samuel, where it first appears, with the See also:ark, or with war); by others, of the heavenly hosts, the stars conceived as living beings, later, perhaps, the angels as the See also:court of Yahweh and the See also:instruments of his will in nature and history (Ps. lxxxix.) ; or of the forces of the world in general which do his bidding, cf. the common Greek renderings, K6ptos rwv Svvaµewv and K. 7ravroKparwp, Universal Ruler). It is likely that the name was differently understood in different periods and circles; but in the prophets the hosts are clearly superhuman See also:powers. In many passages the name seems to be only a more See also:solemn substitute for the See also:simple Yahweh, and as such it has probably often been inserted by See also:scribes. Finally, Sebaoth came to be treated as a proper name (cf. Ps. lxxx. 5, 8, 20), and as such is very common in magical texts. Additional information and CommentsAlthough the origin of name Yahwah (jehova,yaho...etc) is still controversial,the myths associated with the name especially myths of creation are now believed to be babylonian in origin.The important point here is that another name of God i.e.Alah is undoubtly connected with Yahwah or Elohim taking into consideration that Al in arabic is just a definitive article which means that ah or ha or hw etc. is the main part of name.Hw was also a known name among Egyptian deities but with minor significance.It is strange enough that a western semitic deity taking its full position among great deities of ancient World by faculty of co-operative mind allover this World.
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