What is
God’s Name?
How is it Pronounced?
and
Should We Use it?
Bruce Armstrong and Bruce Harris
Central Highlands
Congregation of God
Praise Jah! Praise the Name of Jehovah;
Praise, O you servants of Jehovah!
You who stand in the House of Jehovah, in the courts of
the House of our God, praise Jah, for Jehovah is good;
sing praises to His Name, for it is pleasant.
For Jah has chosen Jacob for Himself,
Israel for His special treasure.
For I know that Jehovah is great,
and our Lord is above all gods.
Psalm 135:1 to 5
It is widely taught that we should not use Jehovah as God’s Name, but instead we should only use LORD and GOD to refer to our Christian God, as is done in many popular Bible versions. This article shows how ancient Bible manuscripts reveal that our God’s name is Jehovah and that they explain exactly how to say it. We also highlight Jehovah’s desire for us to know that He is our God and that He wants us to know and use His Name.
We will present evidence that the name Jehovah has been used by our God and His followers from the creation of Adam and Eve through until today. We also look at the use of the contraction (familiar nickname) of God’s name to Jah, used in the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek scriptures.
Jeshua (Jesus), the name of God’s Son is also investigated, and we show that the formal version of His name goes all the way back to Joshua and Moses in Scripture.
We also look at the widespread disuse of Jehovah today and explore some of the reasons why this is so.
Let us begin by examining why most English Bible translators substitute Jehovah, our God’s personal name, with the title LORD or descriptor GOD, even when they are translating from the Hebrew Old Testament (OT), which actually has God’s name clearly written in it almost seven thousand times. They often combine these into ‘Lord GOD,’ which is just like claiming that my name is Mister Human.
The following quote from the Preface to the English Standard Version (ESV), 2011 Text Version Holy Bible, published by Crossway reveals how they look at this issue:
The Translation of Specialised Terms
In the translation of biblical terms referring to God, the ESV takes great care to convey the specific nuances of meaning of the original Hebrew and Greek terms. First, concerning terms that refer to God in the Old Testament: God, the Maker of heaven and earth, introduced himself to the people of Israel with a special personal name, the consonants for which are YHWH (see Exodus 3:14-15). Scholars call this the “Tetragrammaton,” a Greek term referring to the four Hebrew letters YHWH. The exact pronunciation of YHWH is uncertain, because the Jewish people considered the personal name of God to be so holy that it should never be spoken aloud. Instead of reading the word YHWH, they would normally read the Hebrew word ádonay (“Lord”), and the ancient translations into Greek, Syriac, and Aramaic also followed this practice. When the vowels of the word ádonay are placed with the consonants of YHWH, this results in the familiar word Jehovah that was used in some earlier English Bible translations. As is common among English translations today, the ESV usually renders the personal name of God (YHWH) with the word LORD (printed in small capitals). An exception to this is when the Hebrew word ádonay appears together with YHWH, in which case the two words are rendered together as “the Lord [in lower case] GOD [in small capitals].” In contrast to the personal name for God (YHWH), the more general name for God in the Old Testament Hebrew is élohim and its related forms of él or éloah, all of which are normally translated “God” (in lower case letters). The use of these different ways to translate the Hebrew words for God is especially beneficial to the English reader, enabling the reader to see and understand the different ways that the personal name and the general name of God are both used to refer to the One True God of the Old Testament.
The ESV is one of the more literal popular Bible versions around, so their unwillingness to retain God’s name is disappointing. There are many false, or at best misleading, statements in their explanation of why they refuse to use what they acknowledge as God’s “special personal name” in their Bible. Apart from using YHWH eight times and Jehovah once in their Preface (shown above) they only use YHWH once and only as a footnote to Exodus 3:15 in their entire Bible. In stark contrast with the ESV translation, Jehovah is actually used over six thousand, eight hundred times in the Hebrew Old Covenants (OC) manuscripts. Unlike these translators, Jehovah is proud of His name and wants us to know that He is the author of our Bible.
But the ESV is not alone in removing God’s name. The Tyndale, Rogers and Coverdale (TRC) Bible, published in 1535, only translates Jehovah correctly 22 times. The Geneva Bible, (1560), uses Jehovah eight times (in Genesis 22:14, Exodus 6:3, 15:3, 17:15, 23:17, 34:23, Judges 6:24 and Psalm 83:18). The Authorised Version (AV), also called the King James Version (KJV), first published in 1611, further reduces the translation of Jehovah to four times (Exodus 6:3, Psalm 83:18, Isaiah 12:2 and 26:4). The newer RSV, NAB, NASB, NKJV, NIV, GNB, GWT, NRSV, NCV, CEV, ESV, TEV, MEV, etc., all totally ignore God’s name and do not translate it as Jehovah even once. This passage in Jeremiah applies to them:
Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who try to make My people forget My Name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbour, as their fathers forgot My Name for ‘the LORD’. . . . Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says Jehovah, “who steal every one of My words from his neighbour. Jeremiah 23:26-27, 30
But let’s return to the errors in the ESV preface. Though they claim to take “great care to convey the...meaning of...Hebrew...terms”, they actually work hard at obscuring God’s name. Let us examine the original Hebrew, inspired by God, and then see what the ESV translators do to it.
The following image of Genesis 3:14 is from Jay Green’s The Interlinear Bible:
03068. יהוה Y@hovah yeh-ho-vaw’; from 01961; (the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah.
The Tetragrammaton (the Four Letters) referred to in the ESV Preface can be seen immediately after the Strong’s 03068, which are spoken as Yod Hey Vav Hey, the consonants of God’s name. Personal names such as Noah, Moses, Isaiah, Jehovah, etc are normally transliterated into English, rather than translated to the nearest equivalent word as is done with common words.
Here is the ESV translation for the first part of this verse:
So the ESV has correctly translated God. But as Green’s Interlinear and Strong’s Lexicon show, LORD is neither a transliteration nor a translation of Jehovah. The ESV has actually mutilated Scripture by taking away Jehovah, our God’s personal name, and replacing it with the generic title of LORD, using subtle small caps to confirm they know this is what they have done.
To see another way they do this, let us look at Green’s Genesis 15:2:
This time, both the Hebrew and Green’s have ‘Lord Jehovah’, with Lord coming from Strong’s number 136, אֲדֹנָי ádonay, which is the actual Hebrew for Lord, and once again Jehovah is there from 3068. This is what the ESV does with it:
So this time they correctly translate Lord, but then they again take away Jehovah and this time they replace His name with the descriptor GOD, with their small caps again confirming they know they have done this. These two examples clearly show that they know what Lord, God and Jehovah are in the Hebrew, but they deceitfully substitute Jehovah with these two distinctly different words. Only those who have read their lengthy Preface would realise that God’s name has been systematically stripped out.
Also contrary to the ESV preface claim, the Bible does not combine the Four Letters (the Tetragrammaton) and the vowels of ádonay to create an incorrect hybrid name. As will be verified in the next section, the correct Biblical pronunciation of our God’s name is Jehovah.
The ESV translators are using two old myths from Judaism to justify their actions, which are: (1) Jehovah is so holy it cannot be spoken and (2) as a consequence, how to pronounce God’s name has been forgotten. The Bible itself contradicts these myths:
But You, O Jehovah, will endure forever, and the remembrance of Your Name to all generations. Psalm 102:12
The truth is that God has never allowed His Name to be forgotten, and the Bible records many incidents of many people, both ordinary and remarkable, speaking and praising our God by His name of Jehovah through thousands of years. But these truths are hidden in most translations by these LORD and GOD substitutions. And as you will see, their other claim that the Syriac and Aramaic manuscripts follow their LORD and GOD substitutions for Jehovah is another lie.
It seems that the ESV and the many other translators who take away Jehovah’s name do not want to believe that Revelation 22:18-19 applies to them. Though they presumably want their names written into Jehovah’s Book of Life, they have disrespectfully deleted Jehovah’s name from His Holy Scriptures. Though the followers of Judaism will not speak God’s Name, at least they still retain His name written in their Hebrew Bibles. As the reasons these translators give for their substitutions are untrue, why are they really doing it? One wonders if it is part of an ecumenical plan to replace Jehovah with a different God, a bland generic one that is acceptable to most religions.
Let’s look closely at what this ancient Hebrew Bible, more than one thousand years old, actually says God’s name is.
The first Hebrew consonant is י (Yod, also pronounced Jod), which should be transliterated as Y or J. Though both are acceptable, we believe the J has a long history of use, as will be shown below.
In this fully vocalised example of God’s name, there are two vertical dots below the Jod (יְ). These are called Sheva, and they create a short ‘e’.
The second consonant is ה (Hey, pronounced as ‘he’ or ‘h’). So we now have “Jeh” as the start of God’s Name.
However, the ה (Hey) has a pointing above it, a single dot called a Holam ׂה which is pronounced as full ‘o’. This point inserts an ‘o’ after the Hey, giving us “Jeho”.
The third consonant is ו (Vav, pronounced as v). Now we now have “Jehov” as most of God’s Name.
There is a third vowel pointing below the ו (Vav), which is a Kamatz: ׇ The וָ Kamatz under the vav is usually pronounced as ‘a’, giving us Jehova.
Then there is the last consonant, another ה (Hey), which adds the final ‘h’ to God’s name, giving us His full Name: יְהֺוָ֨ה Jehovah.
It is pronounced pretty much as it is spelt: Je-ho-VAH, with the emphasis on the last syllable. We know this because there is an accent mark above the ו (Vav): ו֨ called a Cholam, which indicates that this is the strongest syllable of the word.
As noted above, Jehovah appears fully vocalised like this 50 times in the Leningrad Codex. The Aleppo Codex, almost eleven hundred years old and written by different scribes, also contains God’s name of Jehovah fully vocalised twelve times, and it has also been found in over one thousand Hebrew manuscripts, which are all confirming witnesses to His Name.
And in a clear digital version:
The phrase shown above translates as “And-said Jeh-vah God (elohim)”.
As we have seen, the Leningrad manuscript renders God’s name as Jehovah. Although it is frequently stated that the vowel pointings in God’s name are the vowels of ádonay (Lord in Hebrew), it can be clearly seen that neither of these versions of God’s name use the vowels of ádonay (which are AOA(Y), while Jehovah uses EOA and Jeh-vah uses EA). That claim is a lie intended to keep people from actually looking at these Bible codices and discovering that God’s name—Jehovah—is clearly written there for us to see and use.
The following table of Jewish translations from the Hebrew show what they think God’s name is.
This table, and the quote below it, are based on https://researchsupportsthetruth.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/why-is-gods-name-missing-from-many-bibles/
Jewish Translator |
Year of Publication |
Language |
God’s Name |
Immanuel Tremellius |
1579 |
Latin |
Jehova |
Baruch Spinoza |
1670 |
Latin |
Jehova |
Samuel Cahen |
1836 |
French |
Iehovah |
Joseph Magil |
1910 |
English |
Jehovah |
L. Golschmidt |
1921 |
German |
Yehovah |
Alexander Harkavy |
1936 |
English |
Jehovah |
“... non-superstitious Jewish translators always favored the name Jehovah in their translations of the Bible.
On the other hand one can note that there is NO Jewish translation of the Bible with Yahweh.”
—M. Gérard GERTOUX
There is no room for doubt that Jehovah (and/or Yehovah) is God’s name. We will look at the dubious origin of Yahweh later in this article.
The oldest Aramaic NC manuscripts we have today appear to be copies made about four centuries after Christ. They refer to Lord Jehovah by the contraction of His name to Lord Jah (MarJah in Aramaic—more on this below). Combining these New Covenant Jahs with the Old Covenants scriptures, we have God’s name used seven thousand times! We believe this is clear confirmation that the Aramaic NC is the authorised completion of God’s Word. Next we have the Aleppo and Leningrad Hebrew codices (referred to earlier) from about 930 and 1008 CE. As noted above, another point at which God’s name Jehovah is recorded is in the Tyndale TRC translation of 1535. It seems likely that he learned the spelling and pronunciation of Jehovah from the Sephardic Jews in Europe, who had retained this knowledge of God’s Name from antiquity. And Jehovah has remained in use as God’s name up to this day. So there is a six thousand year history of God’s name being Jehovah which goes all the way back to the first woman, the mother of us all.
A related question is who calls their God “Lord”? The Bible shows us that the Canaanites called their god Baal. Baal simply means Lord. Lord was the title that they used to refer to their main god Hadad, who was the king of their gods and also their god of war, fertility and storms. Baal (Lord) worship included sexual immorality and perversions and even child sacrifice (Hosiah 4:12-14, 2 Chronicles 28:2-4). The Canaanites developed the habit of calling him Lord instead of Hadad because they believed he was a fierce and unforgiving God. By not using his actual name, they hoped they might avoid drawing Hadad’s attention and then his punishment to themselves. However, Jehovah our god is a god of love and mercy, who wants to have an intimate relationship with us (John 17:20-24). Why would we imitate the Canaanites and be afraid to call out to our Father Jehovah?
As Psalm 135:1 says, we are to “Praise the name of Jehovah”. Converting Jehovah God to “LORD God” is misusing God’s name in a worthless way.
Jehovah, our God’s special personal name has several meanings: “the One Who Is”, “the Self-Existing”, “Giver of Life”, “the One Bringing into Being”.
They point out the connection between the name of YHVH and the root HYH to be. This connection is explicitly made in Ex 3:13-14, where we read,
“(13) And Moses said to God, Behold when I am coming to the children of Israel and say ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you’, and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’, what should I tell them? (14) And God said to Moses, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (I am that which I am), and He said, thus shall you say to the children of Israel, ‘Ehyeh has sent me to you’.” (Exo 3:13-14).
So Moses asks YHVH what name he should give the Israelites when they asked about God. YHVH replies that Moses should say that he was sent by Ehyeh which is a verb from the root HYH, to be, meaning “I am”. Immediately after declaring Himself to be Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, YHVH further explains that His eternal name is YHVH:”
(15) And God said further to Moses, thus shall you say to the Children of Israel: ‘YHVH the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you, this is my name forever, this is my mention for every generation’” (Exo 3:15).
But how can YHVH be related to HYH, to be? In Hebrew the letters Vav ו and Yod י are weak letters which are sometimes interchangeable with one another. For example, the word yeled יֶלֶד (child) has a variant form valad וָלָד in which the usual Yod is replaced with a Vav. We find a similar replacement in the root HYH to be. The present tense of the verb HYH to be is הוֶֹה hoveh (Ecc 2:22) with the Yod being replaced with a Vav.
This replacement seems to happen especially in names. Thus in Hebrew Eve is called חַוָּה Chavah, “because she was the mother of all that lives ( חָי chay)” (Gen 3:20). So in Eve’s name the Yod of chay חָי is replaced by a Vav of Chavah חַוָּה We should not conclude that Vav and Yod are always interchangeable but rather when a Hebrew root has a V/Y in it, sometimes the other letter can make an appearance in its stead. So linguistically there is no problem with YHVH being derived from HYH to be. This is why YHVH presents Himself to Moses as Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (I am that which I am), which is a veiled allusion to His name YHVH presented in the following verse.
So we see that Jehovah is an extension of To Be and To Exist. And as Jehovah is the only being who has always existed, exists now and will always exist, and He is responsible for creating all others and giving them life, it is a very appropriate name.
Jah is God’s intimate ‘nickname’. It is a contraction formed by retaining the Jod at the beginning of Jehovah, then removing the ‘ehov’ from the middle and retaining the ‘a’ and Hey at the end. Jah is used 49 times in the Hebrew Old Covenants and 131 times in our translation from the Peshitta New Covenant.
Below is Jah in Exodus 15:2, third word from the right:
The section shown translates as “Jah is my strength and song”. As in Jehovah, Jah begins with י (Jod), but this time there is a ָ (Kamatz) beneath the יָ (Jod). The ָ (Kamatz) is pronounced as ‘a’ and follows the letter it is beneath. This is followed by the ה (Hey), so we have Jah, not Jeh. The two dots above the י֔ (Jod) are a disjunctive accent called zaqep qaton, not a vowel pointing as it is when below a letter. The zaqep qaton indicates a small pause before Jah is spoken, which enhances its impact. The dot inside the הּ (Hey) does not change its pronunciation.
Jah is fully vocalised in the Leningrad manuscript each time. Yet for the same corrupt reasons used for not translating Jehovah, Jah appears only once in the KJV in Psalm 68:4. Jah is hidden as ‘the LORD’ the other 48 times, making Jah indistinguishable from Jehovah.
Jah is also fully vocalised as Jah throughout the Aramaic Peshitta New Covenant. It is correctly translated every time in our CHCoG Bible.
Many Bibles have a remnant of Jah in Rev 19:1-6, where they have Halleluyah or Halelujah (or truncated via the Greek into Alleluia), which is Aramaic for Praise Jah!
As mentioned earlier, MarJah is the Aramaic version of Jehovah, and it is used in both their Old and New Covenant scriptures as a replacement for Jehovah. It is likely that MarJah was their way of complying with the ban on using Jehovah, yet still honouring our God by using this contracted version of His name. MarJah is a combination of Mara, meaning Lord or Master and Jah. Our Bible version translates it as Lord Jah. Below is MarJah from the Peshitta, Matthew 1:22, but displayed in square Hebrew characters to make it easier to compare. (From The Aramaic Peshitta NT by Ewan MacLeod [https://jesusspokearamaic.com/]).
MarJah begins with מ (Mem—pronounced as ‘m’), which has a Kamatz ( ָ ) beneath it (מָ) which is pronounced as ‘a’ and follows the letter it is beneath. The next letter is ר (Resh—pronounced as ‘r’). This produces ‘Mar’ and means Lord. The last half of the word begins with י (Jod) as in Jah, and also has a ָ (Kamatz) beneath the יָ (Jod). This is followed by א (Aleph -usually silent, like k in know). This combination is pronounced as ‘Jah’. The whole word is thus Marjah, and translates to Lord Jah as Mar is a title that is translated to its nearest equivalent in English and Jah, as one of our God’s personal names, is transliterated.
MarJah is used frequently in the Peshitta New Covenant to refer to Jehovah God the Father and occasionally to His Son Jeshua.
There are many Scriptural and historical reasons to reject these claims and objections to using God’s personal Name.
First, let us examine the use of kurios (Lord) in the Greek manuscripts, beginning with the Septuagint. It is well known that the oldest fragments of the Septuagint that we have actually preserve God’s name (the Tetragrammaton—JHVH), embedded in them in Hebrew. Some of our group have had the pleasure of actually seeing some original pages of these ancient Septuagints including the Tetragrammaton with their own eyes. Below is a scan of a fragment of a Septuagint manuscript dating to the First Century CE (AD). The embedded Tetragrammatons are written in Paleo-Hebrew script and circled in yellow.
We must clearly understand why Constantine removed Jehovah, God’s name. These quotes are from our translation of the Peshitta NC:
Jeshua answered him, “The foremost of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, Jehovah your God, Jehovah is one. And you will love Jehovah your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.” Mark 12:29-30
For even though there are what are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us ours is one God, the Father, for everything is from Him, and we are in Him; and one Lord Jah—Jeshua the Messiah—for all is through Him, and we are also in His hand. 1 Corinthians 8:5-6
Removing God’s name is removing His Identity. Jehovah is reduced to just another of the many gods, and only a nameless one at that. Removing someone’s name is a common military tactic used on their prisoners. When their names are taken from them, they become just another number—less than human. No true Christian would do this to Jehovah, our Great and Unique God.
Nehemia’s Pronunciation article also explains where the name Yahweh came from and shows that it has no Scriptural basis whatsoever. It actually comes from attempts to write Jehovah in ancient Greek, which was essentially impossible as Nehemia observes:
First, we must observe that ancient Greek did not have an H sound in the middle of words. So the first H in YHVH, whatever the vowels attached to it, would be dropped by the Greek. Secondly, Greek did not have a W or a V sound. So the third letter of the divine name must also be dropped or distorted by the Greek. Finally the vowels of ancient Greek were much different than the Hebrew vowels system. Biblical Hebrew had 9 vowels which do not have exact correspondent vowels in Greek . . .
These difficulties explain why the original authors of the Septuagint gave up and simply copied the Hebrew for Jehovah directly into their manuscripts. The later and also unsuccessful translation attempt by Theodoret of Cyrus about 430 CE resulted in the unscriptural Yahweh.
The reality is that Jeshua and His apostles spoke Aramaic, as did most Jews at that time, and not Greek. Aramaic is a Syrian sister language to Hebrew which became the common Jewish language during their exile in the Medo-Persian empire. Parts of the Books of Daniel and Ezra are written in Aramaic. The apostles wrote the original, and thus divinely inspired, New Covenant in Aramaic. This Aramaic New Covenant has been preserved from then until today, and God’s Name has been preserved in these manuscripts, though as the more personal and intimate name of MarJah, which translates to English as Lord Jah.
Let us explore this idea of titles vs names a bit more:
Genesis 23:6—Abraham is called my lord.
Genesis 32:4—Esau is called lord.
Genesis 40:1—the king of Egypt is called lord.
Genesis 42:33—Joseph is called lord.
Numbers 32:25—Moses is called lord.
Judges 4:18—Sisera is called lord.
Ruth 2:13—Boaz is called lord.
1 Samuel 24:8—Saul is called lord.
1 Samuel 25:25—David is called lord.
2 Samuel 10:3—Hanun is called lord.
Matthew 18:26—A rich man is called Lord by his servant.
Matthew 27:63—The chief priests call Pilate Lord.
John 12:21—Some gentiles call Phillip Lord.
This is only a small sampling of those called by the title lord (adon, adonai, mar or kurios) in the Bible. Some are kings, some are heros, some are villains. But NONE of them are given God’s Name, Jehovah.
And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You will have no other gods before Me.
“You will not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you will not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, Jehovah your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
“You will not lift up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave anyone who lifts up His name in a worthless way unpunished.” Exodus 20:1 to 7
So it is that in just the first few verses of the Ten Commandments, Jehovah our God tells us four times that His name is indeed Jehovah. And He makes it clear that His name distinguishes Him from all other gods.
Some people claim, based on verse 7 above, that we should not use God’s name of Jehovah. Though vs 7 does say we are not to use God’s name in a worthless way, we are commanded and expected to use Jehovah in a righteous way:
That men may know that You, whose name alone is Jehovah, are the Most High over all the earth. Psalm 83:18
Oh, give thanks to Jehovah! Call upon His Name! Make known His deeds among the peoples.
Praise Jah! Praise the Name of Jehovah; Praise, O you servants of Jehovah!
You who stand in the house of Jehovah, in the courts of the House of our God, Praise Jah, for Jehovah is good; sing praises to His Name, for it is pleasant.
For Jah has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure.
For I know that Jehovah is great, and our Lord is above all gods. Psalm 135:1 to 5
So, if we love Jehovah and want to pray with Him and praise and worship Him, of course we will use our God’s Name. Though we have tried to make it clear how to pronounce His name and His Son’s name in this article, we have no doubt that Jehovah looks into our hearts and will accept even a poor pronunciation if He knows that we are doing the best we can with what we know.
There was one exception to this, where God commands a specific group of people to NOT use His Name because of their corrupt practices:
“Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying: ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, “We will surely perform our vows that we have made, to burn to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” You will surely fulfil your vows and perform your vows!’
“Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ‘Behold, I have sworn by My great Name,’ says Jehovah, ‘that My Name will no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “Lord Jehovah lives.”
‘Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end to them. Jeremiah 44:25-27
Note that God then destroyed everyone who followed these corrupt practices, thus ending this ban. This was clearly not a universal command instructing everyone—even those who were trying to become righteous—to no longer use God’s Name of Jehovah.
And there is one other that Jehovah allows to be called by His special Name: His Only True Son, Jeshua our Messiah. In this case, Jehovah is their family name. This is revealed at Jeremiah 15:16 and in the Aramaic New Covenant at Matthew 22:45, John 17:11, Romans 14:14, 1 Corinthians 8:6 & 11:27, Revelation 22:20, etc.
We also need to look more closely at the name of God’s Son Jeshua. As we will show, Jesus (or Iesous) arises from the Greek manuscripts. Jesus is not used as the name of God’s Son anywhere in the Hebrew or Aramaic scriptures. But Jeshua (Jayshua—Strong’s 3442) is only used twenty nine times in the Hebrew OC. Jeshua is a shortened and more intimate form of Jehoshua, which is used 199 times. However, most translations change Jehoshua (Strong’s 3091) to Joshua in their Old Testament translations. Jehoshua (the son of Nun) first appears in the Hebrew Scriptures in Exodus 17:9, but Numbers 13:16 explains that Moses had changed his name from Hoshea (He saves) to Jehoshua (Jehovah Saves), thus joining Jehovah’s name to his. Below, the second word from the right, is Jehoshua, from Exodus 17:10:
This name begins with the first three consonants of Jehovah. And under the י (Jod, the J), there are the two vertical dots יְ (Shva, pronounced as a short ‘e’), followed by the ה (Hey) again as in the Jeh portion of Jehovah. In this word, the dot above the וׄ (Vav) converts the ‘v’ into ‘o’. The dot above the right end of the שׁ (Shin) combine with it to give the ‘sh’. The three angled dots under the שֻ (Shin) are called Kabuts and make an “oo” as in pool. The line under the silent עַ (Ayin), called a Patach, provides the ‘a’ to complete Jehoshua. The diamond above the ש֗ (Shin) is an accent called a Rebia which emphasises the ‘SHU’ in this word.
Jehoshua is used through most of the Old Covenants, but as time passed, as shown in Ezra, Nehemiah and 1st and 2nd Chronicles, this name was simplified to become Jayshua (Strongs 3442—or Jashua). Below is an example from Nehemiah 8:17, again from the digitised Leningrad Codex:
Jayshua is the first word from the right. The phrase translates as “Jayshua son of Nun”. The ה (Hey) and the ו (Vav) have been removed and a new ו (Vav) has been inserted after the ש (Shin). But there are a few changes to the Jehoshua pointing that are required to give us Jayshua. First, the two vertical dots under the יְ (Jod, the J) are now two horizontal dots יֵ called Tsere, pronounced as ‘ay’. We still have the שׁ (Shin) with its top right dot giving us the ‘sh’. But the three dots under it are gone. Instead of them, there is a וּ (Vav) with a dot to its left middle called a Shurek. This combination replaces the ‘v’ with an “oo’ sound. Finally, there is the line under the silent עַ (Ayin) providing the ‘a’ to form Jayshua, though this is pronounced as Jeshua or Yeshua in the Aramaic of the Peshitta. As in Jehovah, there is a ֨ Cholam accent mark, but this time above the שׁ֨ (Shin), which indicates that SHU is the strongest syllable of the word.
Nehemiah 8:17 shows that the son of Nun is called both Jehoshua and Jayshua. Likewise, the meaning of Jayshua is still “Jehovah Saves”.
Jayshua remained in use throughout the time the Aramaic New Covenant was being written, but as it was Aramaic, it was written and pronounced as Jeshua.
Below is Jeshua, from the Peshitta, Matthew 1:16. (From The Aramaic Peshitta NT by Ewan MacLeod):
There are still the same four letters, but the pointing system used in Aramaic is a little different from Hebrew. There is י (Jod) making the J (or Y), with the two horizontal dots called a Rboso under the יֵ (Jod) usually making an “e” sound and the top right dot modified שׁ (Shin) making the ‘sh’ sound and the three dots under the שֻׁ (Shin) again making the ‘u’ sound. The unpointed ו (Vav) combined with the ע (Ayin) make the ‘a’ sound. The small ‘backwards’ L (munah) under the ש֣ (Shin) indicates that the SHU is the accented syllable in this word. So the Aramaic gives us Jeshua.
Therefore Jayshua, Jeshua, and Yeshua can all be accepted as faithful variants of the name of God’s Son. That these are shortened forms of Jehoshua is verified by the references to Jehoshua the son of Nun, who is also called Jayshua in Nehemiah 8:17 and Jeshua in Acts 7:45 and Heb 4:8. This also means that we can call God’s Son by His full name of Jehoshua when we want to be more formal.
And what of the Greek New Covenant’s Jesus? This is what the Online Bible Greek-English Lexicon says:
2424 Ιησους Iesous ee-ay-sooce’ of Hebrew origin 03091 ישוע Jeshua, later form of <03091> יהשוע ; n pr m; TDNT-3:284,360; {See TDNT 326 }
AV-Jesus 972, Jesus (Joshua) 2, Jesus (Justus) 1; 975
Jesus = “Jehovah is salvation”
What does this mean? That Jesus’ real name is Jeshua!
Replacing Jehovah and Jah with LORD or GOD and Jeshua with Jesus robs us of their true names and gives us a shallow and fragile knowledge of who we actually worship.
Jehovah’s claim to be our father is true on many levels. Not only did He create our ancestors Adam and Eve, He personally creates and joins the human spirit of every one of us to the embryo that will become us (Psalm 104:30). He then watches over us and provides us with what He knows will be best for each one of us until the time of our death.
Sadly, the ones who try to take away God’s name Jehovah are often the same ones who try to usurp Jehovah’s relationship with us as our Father. Jeshua warns us about this in Matthew 23:9:
“Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
Remember, only Jehovah God is our Father. Do not submit to impostors.
Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of Jehovah; but the LORD’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it.
“Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on Jehovah’s name; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.” So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”
Now Elijah said to the prophets of the LORD, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” So they took the bull which was given to them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of the LORD from morning even until noon, saying, “O LORD, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they had made.
And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their judgements, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And it was so, when midday was past, that they prophesied, going up to the sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of Jehovah that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Jehovah had come, saying, “Israel will be your name.”
Then with the stones he built an altar in Jehovah’s name; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four water pots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.”
Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.
And it came to pass, going up to the sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Jehovah God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Jehovah, hear me, that this people may know that You are Jehovah God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
Then the fire of Jehovah fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “Jehovah, He is God! Jehovah, He is God!”
And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of the LORD! Do not let one of them escape!” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon River and executed them there. 1 Kings 18:21-40
We must each decide who we will follow: Jehovah, our Creator and Saviour, or the pagan’s LORD?
Here are some of the more important names, titles and functions of Jehovah, listed in order of how often they are used in Scripture (CHCoG translation):
Hebrew |
English |
Location |
Number |
Jehovah (all Jehovahs inc NC) |
Jehovah (He causes to be) |
Genesis 4:1 |
7000 |
Elohim |
God (Strong One -plural) |
Genesis 1:1 |
2000 |
Adonai Jehovah |
Lord Jehovah |
Genesis 15:2 |
312 |
Jehovah Sabaoth |
Jehovah of Hosts (Armies) |
1 Samuel 1:3 |
261 |
Aba (Aramaic NC) |
Father |
Matthew 5:16 |
260 |
Jehovah Elohim |
Jehovah God |
Genesis 2:4 |
243 |
MarJah (Aramaic) |
Lord Jah |
Matthew 1:20 |
131 |
Jehovah Elohim Yisrael |
Jehovah God of Israel |
Exodus 32:27 |
107 |
Jah |
Jah (excluding Lord Jah) |
Exodus 15:2 |
53 |
Jehovah Towb |
Jehovah is Good |
Nahum 1:7 |
51 |
Kole Jehovah |
Voice of Jehovah |
Psalm 29:3 |
47 |
Jehovah Eli |
Jehovah my God |
Joshua 14:8 |
36 |
Adonai |
Lord (Plural) |
Exodus 33:9 |
34 |
Jehovah Machsi |
Jehovah my Refuge |
Psalm 91:9 |
29 |
Jehovah Hashopet |
Jehovah will Judge |
Deuteronomy 32:36 |
20 |
Chedvah Jehovah |
Joy of Jehovah |
Nehemiah 8:10 |
18 |
Elohim Abraham |
God of Abraham |
Genesis 26:24 |
17 |
Jehovah Rapha |
Jehovah Heals |
Psalm 6:2 |
16 |
Jehovah Qanna |
Jehovah is Jealous |
Exodus 20:5 |
15 |
Awb (Hebrew OC) |
Father |
Deuteronomy 32:6 |
15 |
Tawmak |
Our Upholder |
Isaiah 41:10 |
15 |
Gadowl Elohim |
Great God |
Exodus 18:11 |
14 |
El Day-aw |
God of Knowledge |
1 Samuel 2:3 |
14 |
Jehovah Ga’al |
Jehovah your Redeemer |
Isaiah 43:14 |
14 |
Jehovah Magen |
Jehovah my Shield |
Psalm 18:2 |
14 |
Alaha Desavra |
God of Hope |
Romans 15:13 |
13 |
El Elyon |
Most High God |
Psalm 78:35 |
10 |
Tsaddiyq mishpat Elohim |
Righteous Judgement of God |
2 Thessalonians1:5 |
9 |
Jehovah El Neqamah |
Jehovah, God of Vengeance |
Psalm 94:1 |
8 |
El Shaddai |
God Almighty |
Genesis 28:3 |
7 |
Jehovah Bara |
Jehovah Creator |
Isaiah 40:28 |
7 |
Jehovah Ma-Oz |
Jehovah is a Stronghold |
Psalm 28:8 |
7 |
Jehovah Yasha |
Jehovah your Saviour |
Isaiah 43:3 |
6 |
Shadday El |
Almighty God |
Genesis 17:1 |
5 |
Jehovah Palat |
Jehovah my Deliverer |
2 Samuel 22:2 |
5 |
Melek Kabowd |
King of Glory |
Psalm 24:7 |
5 |
Yare Elohim |
Awesome God |
Deu 7:21 |
5 |
El-Olam |
Eternal God |
Genesis 21:33 |
4 |
Jehovah M'Kaddesh |
Jehovah Sanctifies |
Exodus 31:13 |
4 |
Elohim ‘amen |
God of Truth |
Isaiah 65:16 |
4 |
Jehovah Tisdkaynu |
Jehovah our Righteousness |
Jeremiah 23:6 |
3 |
Attiyq Yowmyn |
Ancient of Days |
Daniel 7:9 |
3 |
Jehovah El Elohim |
Jehovah God of gods |
Joshua 22:22 |
2 |
Jehovah Chaqaq |
Jehovah our Lawgiver |
Deuteronomy 33:21 |
2 |
Jehovah Sel’i |
Jehovah my Rock |
Psalm 28:1 |
2 |
El Kabowd |
God of Glory |
Psalm 29:3 |
2 |
Awb Yathowm |
Father of the fatherless |
Psalm 68:5 |
2 |
Dayan Almanah |
Defender of widows |
Psalm 68:5 |
2 |
Jehovah Melek Yisrael |
Jehovah King of Israel |
Zephaniah 3:15 |
2 |
El Nasa |
God Who Uplifts |
Psalm 99:8 |
2 |
El Roi |
God Who Sees |
Genesis 16:13 |
1 |
Jehovah Jireh |
Jehovah will Provide |
Genesis 22:14 |
1 |
Elohim Naphtuwl |
God of Struggles |
Genesis 30:8 |
1 |
Jehovah Nicciy |
Jehovah is my Banner |
Exodus 17:15 |
1 |
Jehovah Shalom |
Jehovah is Peace |
Judges 6:24 |
1 |
Netsach Yisra’el |
Strength of Israel |
1 Samuel 15:29 |
1 |
Jehovah Machaceh Zerem |
Jehovah is a refuge from the storm |
Isaiah 25:4 |
1 |
Melek Ja’aqob |
King of Jacob |
Isaiah 41:21 |
1 |
Jehovah Ga’al ‘owlam |
Jehovah, our Redeemer from Everlasting |
Isaiah 63:16 |
1 |
El Ghemoolaw Jehovah |
God of Retribution, Jehovah |
Jeremiah 51:56 |
1 |
Jehovah Rohi |
Jehovah is my Shepherd |
Psalm 23:1 |
1 |
Jehovah Channuwn |
Jehovah is Gracious |
Psalm 116:5 |
1 |
The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek symbols being used are from the LibreOffice Writer’s Unicode library unless otherwise identified.
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Endnotes
1 E. Palmer, Executive Secretary of the NIV translators, even admitted in an interview that they refused to use God’s name because they thought it would restrict their sales and thus cost them money. Luke 16:13 comes to mind.
2 From the Online Bible, available at https://onlinebible.net/
3 Though to be precise, Elohim is the plural form of Eloah, so it means Gods.
4 Vocalisation in Hebrew is also known as pointing, which includes vowels and accents inserted around the consonants.
5 Digitised by the Westminster Hebrew Institute, Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC), Oct 2006 release.
6 Jehovah is also fully vocalised at Genesis 9:26, Exodus 3:2, 13:3, 13:9,13:15, etc. The full list of these 50 places is in Appendix 1.
7 In the photocopy of the Leningrad Codex, Genesis 3:14 is on the third page of the three column scripture pages, in the left column and the ninth row down.
8 Note that there the cholam above the ו (vav) is now gone and there is a small ‘s’ beneath the ו to the left of the ָ Kamatz. The ‘s’ is a conjunctive accent called a Darga, which means “stopping” and also marks the beginning of the stressed syllable. The changes mean the -Vah is still accented, but there is a ‘break’ in the word, indicating that the ‘o’ is now missing.
9 Usually one scribe would write all of the letters in the manuscript, and another would then add in all of the pointings for vowels, accents, syntax and cantillation. Some scholars say the pointing system was developed over almost one thousand years and was completed about 700 CE. John Gill (1778) and others claim that the vocalisation pointings were taught to Moses by Jehovah when he was given the Ten Commandments, and are therefore part of the divinely inspired text of the Bible. Most Hebrew writings do not include the vocalisations even today, but that does not mean that the vocalisation system does not now, or did not then, exist. It merely shows that it is quicker to write without them, as a type of shorthand.
10 We have given two witnesses each for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as a common translation error of Exodus 6:3 says that they did not know God as Jehovah. They, and also Abraham’s servant (Genesis 24:12), clearly did know Him as Jehovah. This passage was a rhetorical question to Moses which actually confirmed that they knew Jehovah very well.
11 Jehovah has many other compound names, such as Jehovah Jirah (Jehovah will Provide─Gen 22:14), Jehovah Rohi (Jehovah is my Shepherd -Psalm 23:1), Jehovah Rapha (Jehovah who heals─Exodus 15:26), Jehovah Tsidkenu (Jehovah is our Righteousness─Jer 23:6). For a fuller list, see Appendix 2.
12 A modern version of trying to force Jehovah to do our will is the “Name it and claim it” lie perpetrated by various TV ‘evangelists’.
13 Available at http://lhim.org/blog/2010/03/11/the-pronunciation-of-the-name/ (But be aware that Nehemia is an Ashkenazi Karaite who currently rejects Jeshua of Nazareth as the Messiah).
14 The Septuagint is a translation of the Hebrew Old Covenant into Greek, made about 200 BCE (BC) by seventy scholars.
15 The image is from http://lavia.org/EN_Name.html
16 See https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.116a.8?lang=bi
17 One of his bulk orders was for 50 Greek New Covenants which he required Eusebius of Caesarea to supply in 331 CE. These new Greek NCs soon replaced the remaining older Greek manuscripts.
18 As shown repeatedly in David Bauscher’s Original Aramaic New Testament.
19 Jeshua is Jesus in the Aramaic Peshitta as we shall show; Jesus is derived from the ancient Greek attempt to spell Jeshua.
20 Kurios in the Greek, Caesar in the Aramaic.
21 Our CHCoG translation is used throughout—it is available at https://chcpublications.net/Holy_Bible_CHCP.html
22 C.J. Koster, in Come Out of Her, My People claims that Jesus is derived from Ie-zeus, linking that name to the pagan Greek god Zeus.
23 Once can also claim that Father can be used as a descriptor, but it is still not a personal name.
24 These ‘fathers’ are in Deuteronomy 32:6; 2 Samuel 7:14; Isaiah 63:16 (2 times), 64:8; Jeremiah 3:4, 3:19, 31:9; Malachi 1:6; 2:10; Psalms 68:5, 89:26; 1 Chronicles 17:13, 22:10, 28:6
25 Jeshua uses the Aramaic title ‘Aba’, which means Father in English. This Aramaic word has been transliterated into the Greek manuscripts three times.
26 Pope is derived from the Latin for Papa, meaning Father.
27 https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/yahweh_not_to_be_used_in_liturgy_songs_and_prayers_cardinal_arinze_says -all forms of God’s name were banned, including Jehovah, Yehovah, Yahweh, YHWH and JHVH.
28 “The LORD” is the correct translation of the Canaanite title “Baal”, which means LORD. As this account makes clear, this unnamed LORD is the main pagan ‘god’ of the Canaanites. LORD with small capitals is used throughout to distinguish ‘Baal’ from Adonai, which is translated as Lord without small capitals.
29 The original list of these 50 places is from Keith Johnson’s His Hallowed Name Revealed Again (2011), Biblical Foundations Academy.