Jehovah: The Name That Never Was

Wayne Burger

In the September 2010 Gospel Advocate, Owen D. Olbricht had an article by the title that
I have given this article. My article will not be a repeat of his, even though I am using his
title and some of the information gleaned from him.
The Christian world in general understands that the word “Jehovah” is God. But most of the
Christian world does not realize that “Jehovah” is not a biblical word. Nearly all the Old
Testament was written in Hebrew. The Hebrew language did not have vowels until about 500
A.D. Therefore, all Hebrew words consisted of consonants and people knew how to pronounce
each word by hearing it spoken by others.
“In the Old Testament, the name God revealed to the Hebrew people is represented by
four Hebrew consonants corresponding with the English letters, YHWH. This name is known as
the Tetragrammaton from the Greek tetra, meaning ‘four,’ and gramma, ‘letter’” (Olbricht).
We have examples of biblical characters such as Eve, Abraham, and David (Genesis 4:1;
15:8; II Samuel 12:22) speaking orally and using this word for God (McCord, “YHWH—An
Erroneous Contention”—September 1992, Gospel Advocate). But because God had said that His
name should not be taken (spoken) in vain (Exodus 20:7), somewhere in time, the Jews quit
pronouncing YHWH. When the Jews were reading the Hebrew text and came to the word
YHWH, they would say Adonai (Lord). Therefore, without the vowels and without hearing
others pronounce YHWH, people soon did not know how to pronounce this word.
The English use of the word “Jehovah” is attributed to Petrus Galatinus, who in 1518 A.D.
transliterated the four Hebrew letters with the Latin letters JHWH (“w” is pronounced like “v”)
together with the vowels of the Hebrew word adonai(e) or (adonay) “Lord.” [Remember, the
Hebrew language reads from right to left, therefore the insertions of the letters are in this order
“e”—“o”—“a” to produce the spelling “Jehovah”) [The Theology of the Old Testament, A.B.
Davidson, p. 47]. (Hugo McCord, who was a Hebrew scholar in our brotherhood, gives about the
same information in an appendix in the fourth edition of his translation of the Bible (The
Everlasting Gospel).
About 100 years after Galatinus used the word “Jehovah,” the King James Version was produced
(1611) and the translators used the word “Jehovah,” but only in four passages (Exodus 6:3;
Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 12:2; 26:4—and in a few other passages where YHWH is combined with
other attributes of God). When the American Standard Version was produced in 1901, they used
the word “Jehovah” in nearly all 6,823 times that the Hebrew word appears. Through the
exposure of the KJV and the ASV, the world became familiar with the word “Jehovah” and
thought it was a biblical word. But, in reality, it is a man-made word and not a biblical word.
Versions since that time usually translate YHWH with the word “Lord,” putting each letter
in caps: “LORD.” Scholars now believe that the best transliteration of YHWH is “Yahweh.”
It is unfortunate, and without biblical evidence, that the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization
has put such an emphasis on God’s name being “Jehovah.” They even use “Jehovah” in the New
Testament and there are absolutely no Greek words which can be translated “Jehovah.”