A Misunderstood Jehovah - by: Matteo Pierro.

A Misunderstood Jehovah - by: Matteo Pierro.

July 27, 2017byletusreason

A Misunderstood Jehovah

John Pacheco 'the Founder of the Apologists of St. Francis De Sales' Ottawa,Ontario,Canada says: In the Hebrew language, there is no ?J? sound.  Many Jewish names in the Bible have become traditionally Hellenized, and therefore they have assumed Greek pronunciations. For instance, "Jacob" is really pronounced "Yah-kobe" in Hebrew - likewise for ?Jehovah? and YHWH.  Furthermore, according to Strong?s Concordance (word number 1943) ?Hovah? (the second part of ?Je-hovah?) actually means ?ruin? and ?mischief? or ?disaster?.  It occurs three times in the Hebrew Old Testament (Isaiah 47:11[1], Ezekiel 7:26 [2]).  Now the question is:  is ?mischief?  what God?s name is supposed to be rooted on?  Give me a break.  Far from elevating God?s name, the Witnesses have ironically blasphemed the Holy Name, and go on insisting that everyone do the same!

Truth: This unfortunate missive comes from someone with little or no knowledge of the original languages. The last 3 letters, HWH(howah) do not change in the original languages whether you translate YHWH as Jehovah or Yahweh. So if Jehovah comes from a word meaning "?ruin? and ?mischief? or ?disaster?", then so does Yahweh. So, did the Catholic Jerusalem Bible "ironically blaspheme" the Holy Name by translating it 6800 times? Of course not! The HWH comes from the verb HAYAH(1961, as even Strong's will tell you). Now check the footnotes of any Catholic Bible, and they will tell you exactly the same thing. So what is the difference between 1943(hovah) and 1961(hayah) if they both contain the same hebrew characters? YHWH(Jehovah and/or Yahweh) uses the verb form HAYAH(1961) to define his name at Exodus 3:14. No respected theologian/scholar would say otherwise.
Is Jacob really "Yah-kobe"? Yes. Do we say Yahkobe when we refer to Jacob? No. Do we render John 1:19 as "This is Yochanan's testimony, when the Yehudim sent Kohanim and
Levites from Yerushalayim to ask him, "Who are you" ?? HNV No, this is too awkward.

"In the history of the English language however, the letter J has a written counterpart in the German J, although the latter J in German is pronounced like an English Y. The bulk of theological studies having come from the German sources, there has been an intermixed usage in English of the J and the Y. Our English translations of the bible reflect this, so we have chosen to use J, thus Jehovah, rather than Yahweh, because this is established English usage for Biblical names beginning with this Hebrew letters. No one suggests that we ought to change Jacob, Joseph, Jehoshaphat, Joshua etc. to begin with a Y, and neither should we at this late date change Jehovah to Yahweh." -Bible Translator Jay P. Green, Sr.

The following names would lose the "Jeho" if we would be so discriminating in all respects to Bible translation: Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jehoiachin, Jehoiada, Jehoiakim, Jehonadab, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, Jehosheba, Jehozabad. 

Thankfully, the Catholic Encyclopedia is much more respectful of the name Jehovah at: http://www.newadvent.org:80/cathen/08329a.htm

"Jehovah (Yahweh)" The proper name of God in the Old Testament; hence the Jews called it the name by excellence, the great name, the only name, the glorious and terrible name, the hidden and mysterious name, the name of the substance, the proper name, and most frequently shem hammephorash, i.e. the explicit or the separated name, though the precise meaning of this last expression is a matter of discussion (cf. Buxtorf, "Lexicon", Basle, 1639, col. 2432 sqq.).

Jehovah occurs more frequently than any other Divine name. The Concordances of Furst ("Vet. Test. Concordantiae", Leipzig, 1840) and Mandelkern ("Vet. Test. Concordantiae", Leipzig, 1896) do not exactly agree as to the number of its occurrences; but in round numbers it is found in the Old Testament 6000 times, either alone or in conjunction with another Divine name. The Septuagint and the Vulgate render the name generally by "Lord" (Kyrios, Dominus), a translation of Adonai—usually substituted for Jehovah in reading."

Catholic Bob Stanley writes: "show me a Greek dictionary which lists jehovah
as meaning kurios? No JW document please, any secular Greek dictionary only.
Betcha cant find even one." 

Response: Well the above Catholic document should more than make up...besides, you have Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words which says under the many meanings and uses of kurios, "(g)kurios is the Sept. and N.T. representative of Heb. Jehovah." p.379 

Catholic Bob Stanley answers:The Catholic Encyclopedia is not an official Catholic
publication..

What other Bible Translations use the Divine Name? 

The King James Version uses Jehovah at Ex.6:3, Ps.83:18, Is.12:2;26:4
The American Standard Version uses Jehovah thousands of times.
Young's Literal Translation uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The Holy Bible by J.N.Darby uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The Literal Translation/King James 2 Version by Jay P. Green uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The Emphasized Bible by Rotherham uses Yahweh thousands of times.
The Recovery Version by Livings Dreams Ministry uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The New English Bible uses Jehovah at Exodus chapters 3 and 6.
The World English Bible uses Yahweh thousands of times.
The Jerusalem Bible uses Yahweh thousands of times.
The New Jerusalem Bible uses Yahweh thousands of times.
The Living Bible/Protestant and Catholic editions uses Jehovah over 300 times.
The English Revised Version uses Jehovah at Ex. 6:2,3,6,7,8, Ps. 83:18, Is. 12:2;26:4.
The Bible in Living English by Byington uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The Webster Bible uses Jehovah in the same places as the KJV above.
The Modern Language Bible/New Berkeley Version uses Jehovah at Exodus 3:15; 6:3, Numbers 3:13, 45; 15:41; 21:14; 35:34, Ezra 6:21; Ps. 8:1, 9; 16:2, Is 12:2; 140:7; 141:8; 147:1, Hosea 12:5, Zech. 4:10 etc. 

The Complete Bible-Smith&Goodspeed uses Yahweh at Exodus 3:15, 6:3 and the shorter form Yah is used at Ps. 68:4, Is. 12:2; 26:4 

The New King James Version uses YAH at Is. 12:2; 26:4.
The New World Translation uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The Emphatic Diaglott uses Jehovah at Matt 21:42; 22:37, 44, 23:39, Mark 11:9 and Acts 2:34
The Amplified Bible uses Yaweh at Ex. 6:3 

Boothroyd's Versions uses Jehovah thousands of times.
S. Sharp's translation uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The Reina Valera Bible uses Jehova thousands of times.
The Moderna version uses Jehova thousands of times.
The Bover-Cantera Bible uses Yahveh thousands of times.
The Nacar-Colunga Bible uses Yave thousands of times.
The Evaristo Martin Nieto Bible uses Yave thousands of times.
The Biblia de Jerusalen uses Yahveh thousands of times.
The Cantera-Iglesias Bibles uses Yahveh thousands of times.
The Straubinger Bible uses Yahve thousands of times.
The Almeida Bible uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The Pontificio Instituto Biblico uses Jave thousands of times.
The Osty Bible uses Yahve thousands of times.
The Brasileira Bible uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The Elberfelder Bible uses Jehova thousands of times.
The Crampon Bible uses Jehovah thousands of times.
The Lienart Bible uses Yahweh thousands of times.
La Bible de Jerusalem uses Yahve thousands of times.
The Leidsche Vertaliing Bible uses Jahwe thousands of times.
The Willibrordvertaling Bible uses Jahwe thousands of times.
The Himmelriech Bible uses Jahve thousands of times.
The Canisiusvertaling Bible uses Jahweh thousands of times.

Catholic Bob Stanley says: All of these bibles you list are nothing more than one protestant lie being followed by other protestant liars, all lemmings following one another as the first one jumps off the cliff..
Response: As you can see, there is much hatred for the Divine Name, and it seems to stem from ignorance, as many of the Bibles mentioned above, including the Encyclopedia, are Catholic.

   

Addendum 1
This article was published on the Catholic magazine "Rivista Biblica", year XLV, n. 2, april-june 1997, p. 183-186. 

JHWH. The tetragrammaton in the New Testament

For a long time it was thought that the divine Tetragrammaton YHWH, in Hebrew written with the letters  YHWH/JHVH (which recurs over 6800 times in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament) did not appear in the original writings of the New Testament. In its place it was thought that the writers of the New Testament had used the Greek word for LORD, KYRIOS. However, it seems that such an opinion is wrong. Here below are some factors to consider:
 

1) The Tetragrammaton in the Greek Version of Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX).

One of the reasons produced to support the above mentioned opinion was that the LXX substituted YHWH (YHWH) with the term KYRIOS, (kurios) which was the equivalent Greek of the Hebrew word ADONAY used by some Hebrews when they met the Tetragrammaton during the Bible reading.

However, recent discoveries have shown that the practice of substituted in the LXX YHWH with KYRIOS started in a much later period in comparison with the beginning of that version. As a matter of fact, the older copies of the LXX keep the Tetragrammaton written in Hebrew characters in the Greek text. (See App. 1)

Girolamo, the translater of the Latin Vulgate confirms this fact. In the prologue of the books of Samuel and Kings he wrote: "In certain Greek volumes we still find the Tetragrammaton of God's name expressed in ancient characters". And in a letter written in Rome in the year 384 it says: "God's name is made up of four letters; it was  thought ineffable, and it is written with these letters: iod, he, vau, he (YHWH). But some have not been able to decipher it because of the resemblace of the Greek letters and when  they found it in Greek books they usually read it PIPI (pipi)". S. Girolamo, Le Lettere, Rome, 1961, vol.1, pp.237, 238; compare J.P.Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol.22, coll.429, 430.

Further confimation comes from The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, that says: "Recently discovered texts doubt the idea that the translaters of the LXX have rendered the Tetragrammaton JHWH with KYRIOS. The most ancient mss (manuscripts) of the LXX today available have the Tetragrammaton written in Hebrew letters in the Greek text. This was custom preserved by the later Hebrew translater of the Old Testament in the first centuries (after Christ)". Vol.2, pag.512.

Consequently, we can easily deduce that if the writers of NT in their quotations of the OT used the LXX they  would surely have left the Tetragrammaton in their writings the way it recurred in the Greek version of the OT. To confirm  the correctness of this conclusion it is interesting to note the following declaration made before the finding of the manuscripts proving that the LXX originaly continued the Tetragrammaton:

"If that version (LXX) would have kept the term (YHWH), or had used the Greek term for JEHOVAH and another for  ADONAY, such a use would have surely been followed in the  discourses and in the reasonings of the NT. Therefore our Lord, in quoting the 110th Psalms, insteand of saying: 'The LORD has said to my LORD' could have said: "JEHOVA has said to ADONI". Supposing that a Christian student was translating in Hebrew the Greek Testament: every time that he met the word KYRIOS, he should have had to consider if in the context there was something that indicated the true Hebrew correspondent; and this is the difficulty that would have arisen in translating the NT in whatever language if the name JEHOVAH would have been left in the Old Testament (LXX). The Hebrew scriptures would have constitued a standard for many passages: every time that the expression "the LORD's angel" recurs, we know that the term LORD represents JEHOVA; we could come to a similar conclusion for the expression "the LORD's word", according to the precedent established in the OT; and so it is in the case of the name "the LORD of armies". On the contrary, when the expression "my LORD" or "our LORD" recurs, we should know that the term JEHOVA would be inadmissible, when instead the words  ADONAY or ADONI should be used". R.B.Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, 1897, p.43.

For a stronger support of this argument there are the words of the professor George Howard, of the University of Georgia (U.S.A.) who observes: "When the Septuagint Version that the New Testamental Church used and quoted, contained the Divine Name in Hebrew characters, the writers of the New Testament included without doubt the Tetragrammaton in their quotations". Biblical  Archeology Review, March 1978, p.14.

Consequently several translators of the NT have left the Divine Name in the quotations from the OT made by the New Testament writers. It can be noted, for example  the versions of Benjamin Wilson, of Andrè Chouraqui, in Efik, and Malgascio languages.

2)The Tetragrammaton in Hebrew version of the NT.

As many know, the first book of the NT, the gospel of Matthew was written in Hebrew. The proof of this is found in the work of Girolamo De viris inlustribus, chap. 3, where he writes:

"Mattew, that is also Levi, that  became an apostle after  having been a tax collector, was the first to write a Gospel of Christ in Judea in the Hebrew language and Hebrew characters, for the benefit of those who where circumcised that had believed. It's not know with enough certainly who  had then translated it in Greek. However the Hebrew one it self is preserved till this day in the Library at Cesarea, that the martyr Pamphilus collected so accurately. The  Nazarenes of the Sirian city of Berea that use this copy have also allowed me to copy it". From the Latin text edited by E.C.Richardson, published in the series Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschicte der altchristlichen  Literatur, vol.14, Lipsia, 1986, pp.8,9.

It is therefore natural to conclude that when Matthew quoted passages from the OT in which the Tetragrammaton appeared (thing that occurred both in the Hebrew OT and in the Greek one then available) he would have surely left YHWH in his gospel as no jew ever dared to take away the Tetragrammaton from the Hebrew text of the Holy Scriptures.

To confirm this there are at least 27 hebrew versions of the NT that present the Tetragrammaton in the quotations of the OT or where the text requires it. (see note 11)

3) The Tetragrammaton in the christian Scriptures according to the Babylonian Talmud.

The first part of this Yewish work is called Shabbath (Sabbath) and it contains an immense code of rules that establishes what could have been done of a Sabbath. Part of it deals with if on the Sabbath day Biblical manuscripts could be saved from the fire, and after it reads:

"The text declares: 'The white spaces ("gilyohnim") and the books of the Minim, can't be saved from the fire'. Rabbi Jose said: 'On working days one must cut out the Divine Names that are contained in the text, hide them and burn the rest'. Rabbi Tarfon said: 'May I bury my son if I don't burn them toghether with the Divine Names that they contain if I come across them". From the English translation of Dr. H.Freedman.

The word "Minim" means "sectarians" and according to Dr. Freedman it's very probable that in this passage it indicates the Jewish-Christians. The expression "the white spaces" translates the original "gilyohnim" and could have meant, using the word ironically, that the writings of  the "Minim" where as worthy as a blank scroll, namely nothing. In some dictionaries this word is given as "Gospels". In harmony with this, the sentence that appears in the Talmud before the above mentioned passage says: "The books of the Minim are like white spaces (gilyohnim)."

So in the book Who was a Jew?, of L.H.Schiffman, the above mentioned passage of the Talmud is translated: "We don't save the Gospels or the books of Minim from  the fire. They are burnt where they are, together with their Tetragrammatons. Rabbi Yose Ha-Gelili says: "During the week one should take the Tetragrammatons from them, hide them and burn the rest". Rabbi Tarfon said: 'May I bury my children! If I would have them in my hands, I would burn them with all their Tetragrammatons'". Dr. Schiffman continues  reasoning that here "Minim" is refered to Hebrew Christians.

And it's very probable that here the Talmud refers to the Hebrew Christians. It is a supposition that finds agreement among the studious people, and in the Talmud seems to be well supported by the context. In Shabbath the passage that follows the above mentioned quotations relates a story, regarding Gamaliel and Christian judge in which there is an allusion to parts of the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore, this passage of the Talmud is a clear indication that the Christians included the Tetragrammaton in their Gospel and their writings.

Because of all we have said there are valid reasons to assert that the writers of the New Testament reported the Tetragrammaton in their divinely inspired work.
Matteo Pierro.
 

Appendix 1

List of LXX versions that have Tetragrammaton:
 

1) LXX P. Fouad Inv. 266, have the Tetragrammaton as:  +,

2) LXX VTS 10a, have the Tetragrammaton as:  .-

3) LXX IEJ 12, have the Tetragrammaton as:  .-

4) LXX VTS 10b, have the Tetragrammaton as:  0/

5) 4Q LXX Levb,  have the Tetragrammaton as:  1

6) LXX P. Oxy. VII.1007, have the Tetragrammaton as:  23

7) Aq Burkitt, have the Tetragrammaton as:  45

8) Aq Taylor, have the Tetragrammaton as:  67

9) Sym. P. Vindob. G. 39777, have the Tetragrammaton as:  89 o ;:

10) Ambrosiano O 39 sup., have the Tetragrammaton as:  ==

 

Appendix 2

List of Hebrew versions of the NT that have the Tetragrammaton:
 

1) Gospel of Matthew, a cura di J. du Tillet, Parigi, 1555

2) Gospel of Matthew, di Shem-Tob ben Isaac Ibn Shaprut, 1385

3) Matthew and Hebrews, di S. Munster, Basilea, 1537 e 1557

4) Gospel of Matthew, di J. Quinquarboreus, Parigi, 1551

5) Gospels, di F. Petri, Wittemberg, 1537

6) Gospels, di J. Claius, Lipsia, 1576

7) NT, di E. Hutter, Norimberga, 1599

8) NT, di W. Robertson, Londra, 1661

9) Gospels, di G. B. Jona, Roma, 1668

10) NT, di R. Caddick, Londra, 1798-1805

11) NT, di T. Fry, Londra, 1817

12) NT, di W. Greenfield, Londra, 1831

13) NT, di A. McCaul e altri, Londra, 1838

14) NT, di J. C. Reichardt, Londra, 1846

15) Luke, Acts, Romans and Hebrews, di J. H. R. Biesenthal, Berlino, 1855

16) NT, di J. C. Reichardt e J. H. R. Biesenthal, Londra, 1866

17) NT, di F. Delitzsch, Londra, ed.1981

18) NT, di I. Salkinson e C. D. Ginsburg, Londra, 1891

19) Gospel of John, di M. I. Ben Maeir, Denver, 1957

20) A Concordance to the Greek New Testament, di Moulton e Geden, 1963

21) NT, United Bibles Societies, Gerusalemme, 1979

22) NT, di J. Bauchet e D. Kinnereth, Roma, 1975

23) NT, di H. Heinfetter, Londra, 1863

24) Romans, di W. G. Rutherford, Londra, 1900

25) Psalms and Matthew, di A. Margaritha, Lipsia, 1533

26) NT, di Dominik von Brentano, Vienna e Praga, 1796

27) NT, Bible Society, Gerusalemme, 1986
 

This article was published on the catholic magazine "Rivista Biblica", year XLV, n. 2, april-june 1997, p. 183-186.

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20040603222120/http:/hector3000.future.easyspace.com:80/jehovah.htm#favorable

Letusreason (aka - Andrew Graham)