This is a PDF file they sent me on God's name. This Website provides insight on the historic view of religion.
So for those who are interested it's 'academia.edu'.
To continue reading this article go here:
https://www.academia.edu/10728293/Gods_name_readable_but_unpronounceable_why?email_work_card=thumbnailWeydevu
//modified by ADMIN from poster to page size . . . ///God's name: readable but unpronounceable, why?
Abstract. The understanding of God's name YHWH is so controversial that it is eventually thecontroversy of controversies, or the ultimate controversy.
Indeed, why most of competent Hebrew scholars propagate patently false explanations about God's name? Why do the Jews refuse to read God's name as itis written and read Adonay "my Lord" (a plural of majesty) instead of it? Why God's name is usually punctuated e,‰ (shewa, qamats) by the Masoretes what makes its reading impossible, because the 4consonants of the name YHWH must have at least 3 vowels (long or short) to be read, like the wordsÕaDoN‰Y and ÕeLoHâ€M "God" (a plural of majesty), which have 4 consonants and 3 vowels? At last,why the obvious reading "Yehowah", according to theophoric names, which all begin by Yehâ„¢-, withoutexception, is so despised, and why the simple biblical meaning, "He will be" from Exodus 3:14, is rejected.
The name of the God of Abraham (written YHWH in Hebrew) is really paradoxicalbecause, despite being the best known God today on earth Ñhe is worshipped by at leastone billion Christians and one billion Muslims, and his name is held in high esteem ÑtheLord's prayer begins by
Let your name be sanctified
and all the Surahs of the Quran (except the9th) begin by
In the name of God
, it remains an enigma, even for the most brilliant scholars. As a result, for most Christians the name of the God of Abraham is the Lord, for Muslimsit is Allah and for Jews it is Adonai. Consequently the first paradox is: most people think itlogical of worshiping the same God whereas their God does not even have the same name.Second paradox: most people think logical to use a title for naming God: my Lord(Adonai), Allah (the God), Father, etc., rather than using YeHoWaH, his proper name inthe Hebrew Bible. Third paradox: most people think it is logical that the name of the Almighty has been lost, in spite of the fact that most Egyptian gods were able to preservetheir names (R‰, Amun, Thoth, Isis, Horus, Aten, etc.), but not the god of the Bible:
ThenGod said once more to Moses: This is what you are to say to the Israelites, Jehovah the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is myname forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation
(Ex 3:15). I quotedseveral official translations to illustrate how the scholarly ÒdeliriumÓ performs. Indeed Inoticed that, very often, smart people become irrational when they study God's name. Forexample, given that the information regarding the name YHWH Ñits pronunciation andmeaning, come exclusively from the Bible, one would have to take them into account morethan any scholarly guesses, but incredibly it is not the case. Even if you don't knowHebrew, it is very easy to find the pronunciation and meaning of God's name. The(religious)
1meaning of God's name is
Õehyeh
Ã’
I shall [prove to] be
Ó according to Exodus 3:15,this verbal form is found just before and just after Ò
I shall [prove to] be
with your mouth (Ex3:12; 4:12)Ó. This verbal form at the 3
rd
person singular is Ã’
it will [prove to] be
(Ec 11:3)Ó.How to pronounce God's name? When Jesus read aloud a passage from Isaiah'sscroll in the synagogue at Nazareth (Lk 4:17-21) he inevitably pronounced the divine name(YHWH), since the quoted passage mentions it:
The spirit of Lord YHWH is on me forYHWH has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken-hearted,to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison, to proclaim a year of favour from YHWH and aday of vengeance for our God, to comfort all who mourn (Is 61:1-2). Some sceptics quibble that wedo not know exactly how Jesus uttered God's name, which is strictly true (indeed, weunfortunately did not record his reading), but this is also true for all other Hebrew names without exception. However, it is reasonable to assume that the name Jesus (from Iesous inGreek) was pronounced Yeh™shžaÔ in Hebrew, often abbreviated as YeshžaÔ (Yeshž in
1
Yehowah means nothing in Hebrew because Moses, who obviously knew Hebrew, asked God to know its meaning.
2
Aramaic), in the same way that John was pronounced Yehâ„¢hanan, Jonathan waspronounced Yehâ„¢nathan, etc. It is easy to see that all theophoric names, which include thedivine name YHW- at their beginning, are always pronounced Yehâ„¢- (or Yehow-), withoutexception (or Iâ„¢- in the Septuagint because it there is no H in Greek). This elementaryobservation allows us to deduce that the divine name YHWH had to be pronounced
Yehowah
because all the Hebrew proper names ending in -WH in Hebrew are always read-wah (or -w‰)
2, again without exception
3
, like Alwah (Gn 36:40), (Eve) Hawwah (Gn 4:1),Ishwah (Gn 46:17), Iwwah (2R 19:13), Puwah (Nb 26:23) and Tiqwah (2K 22:14).However, this obvious fact only appears in Hebrew because in Aramaic, final gutturals (H, Ôand Õ) were not any more pronounced already in the 3r century BCE, which has influencedsome Greek transcriptions like Eve instead of Hawwah, Iesou instead of Yeshža, Tekoueinstead of Tiqwah, etc., but -weh is never found (except for Yahweh!).In order to muddle common people, specialists deliberately confuse the great nameof God YHWH with its shorten form YH, which appears in the New Testament (Rv 19:1-3) in the famous Hebrew expression ÒAlleluiaÓ which means ÒPraise YahÓ, not ÒPraiseGodÓ (Alleluel). In the Bible there is a clear distinction between the great name Yehowah(Ps 83:18), the short name Yah (Ps 68:4), which can appear together (Is 12:2, 26:4) and theancient Hebrew substitute
hžÕ
ÒHe/ HimselfÓ understood
4
as Ò[God] HimselfÓ:
Name MT LXX Meaning Reference Abihu Abi-hž Abi-oud My Father :He (only) Ex 6:23; Lv 10:1 Abijah Abi-yah Ab-ia My Father : Yah 1Ch 3:10 Abijah Abi-yahž Ab-ia My Father : Yah-himself 2Ch 13:20 Joab Y™-abI™-ab Y(eh)ow (ah) : Father 2Sa 8:16 Jehu Ye-huIe-ou Ye(howah) : Himself 1Ch 2:38Elihu Eli-hž Eli-ou My God :He (only) Job 32:2,4Elijah Eli-yah El-ia My God : Yah Ezr 10:21Elijah Eli-yahž Eli-ou My God : Yah-himself 1Ki 17:1 Joel Y™-elI™-el Y(eh)ow (ah) : God 1Ch 5:12
As a result there are three kinds of theophoric names, those having as prefix a partof the great name (YHWH), those having as suffix the short name YH, sometimes with thesubstitute HW ÒHeÓ (YHW). A paramount remark concerns the respective place of thegreat name (Yehowah) and small name (Yah or Yahž) in theophoric names. For example,the famous French rabbi Rashi of Troyes (1040-1105) explains in his commentary onNumbers 26: 5 that all God-bearing names begin with Yeh™- or end up with -yah (or yahž):
Therefore, the Holy One, blessed is he, appended His Name to them, the letters of H' [YHWH] at thebeginning and Y. [YH] at the end, as if to say ÒI bear witness for them, that these are the sons of their fathers.Ó This is stated explicitly by David Ç the tribes of Yah, testimony to Israel È (Ps. 122:4) Ñthis Name testifies for them regarding their tribes
. There is absolutely no exception, including in theSeptuagint, no theophoric name begins with Yah- (or Yahž-) or ends up with Ãyehâ„¢: Name LXX MT Meaning ReferenceNathan Nathan Nathan He has given 2Sa 7:2Nethaniah Nathan-ias Nethan-yah He has given - Yah 1Ch 25:2Nethaniah Nathan-iou Nethan-yahž He has given - Yah himself Jr 36:14 JonathanIâ„¢-nathan Yehâ„¢-nathan Yehow [ah] - has given 1Sa 14:6 JonathanIâ„¢-nathan Yâ„¢-nathan Y(eh)ow [ah] - has given 1Sa 14:1Eliehoenai El-iâ„¢-na El-yehâ„¢-Ôenay Toward Yehow [ah] my eyes 1Ch 26:3Elioenai El-iâ„¢-na El-yâ„¢-Ôenay Toward Y(eh)ow [ah] my eyes 1Ch 4:36
2
The final H being a vowel it should be noted ‰. It is for this reason that many authors write Juda instead of Judah.
3
Even the Assyrian name "Nineveh" (Gn 10:11), which is spelled NYN
WH
in Hebrew, is written
uru
NINA
ki
in cuneiform (probablyfrom NIN.AN ÒLady of HeavenÓ) and is read Ninua in Akkadian or Ninuwa in Mari letters dated 18
th
century BCE.
4
This substitute is sometimes written
hžÕah
or
hžÕh‰
at Qumran.