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THE
NAME OF THE
ALMIGHTY
The
pronunciation of the Name of Yahweh should never be a contentious issue
as we are all little children in His eyes and trying to pronounce His
Set Apart Name could be likened to a child saying "dada" for the first
time. The Name of the Almighty in modern Hebrew looks like this:
יהוה
Hebrew is read
from
right to left, so the letters are as follows:
י-
Yod, ה-
Hay, ו-
Waw, ה-
Hay.
Like
certain
letters in the English
language, a number of Hebrew letters have a vowel
and a consonant
sound and
the majority of scholars and historians conclude that in the Name of
YHWH, all the letters are sounded as vowels.
י=
ee, ה=
ah, ו=
oo, ה=
ay.
Put
it all together and you get:
ee-ah-oo-ay
Or phonetically:
YAHWEH
It is generally undisputed that the first two letters - "yod" and "hay"
sound out: YAH as in halleluYAH, or some of the prophets: IsaiYAH,
JeremiYAH, etc.
As for the
last two letters, searching through the Hebrew Scriptures, one example
of a name that ends with "waw", "hay"- the same last two letters as in
the Name of YAH is the place known as Nineveh. It is common knowledge
that the "v" sound has changed over the last thousand years and
originally was a "w" or "oo" sound giving the pronunciation of: NineWEH.
So joining the "YAH" with the
"WEH" we get the familiar "YAHWEH".
On one
hand it does not matter so much how we spell the Name
using English letter as we are attempting to transliterate the Name of
the Almighty to be pronounced correctly. Various spelling attempts are
acceptable ie.
YAHWEH, YAHUEH, YAHWAY, IAUE, etc.
A
less common
pronunciation gives a consonant sound to the "h" sounding: Ya-hoo-ah.
This pronunciation is in error as we note that all ancient records show
that the Name of the Almighty is comprised of four vowels. For example, Josephus the 1st century C.E Jewish
historian raised in the priesthood writes:
“His
head was covered by a tiara of fine linen, wreathed with blue,
encircling which was another crown, of gold, whereon were emblazoned
the sacred letters, to wit, four
vowels
(φωνήεητα
τέσσαρα; phonhenta
tessara).”
The
noted pagan Greek historian Diodorus
(1st
century B.C.E.) says:
“Among
the Jews, Moses referred his laws to the deity who is invoked as Ἰαώ”
Ἰαώ
is pronounced Ya'oo. There is no appearance of a consonantal 'h'
pronounced; all are Greek vowels
approximating the Hebrew vowels יהו (ee,
ah, oo). The same pronunciation appears in the 2nd
century C.E 'Prayer of Jacob' and also the ancient writers Origen,
Irenaeus and Theodoret.
Many people
jump to assumptions on how the Name should sound based on the sound of
individual letters, but as with English, the pronunciation of a word or
name can change depending on the placement and order of the letters
contained in that name or word. Take for example the word:
Hear. (Heer)
Just adding a "d"
to the end changes the sound of the word to:
Heard. (Herd)
If we add a "t" instead of a "d" it changes yet again to:
Heart. (Hart)
The Ya-HOO-aH pronunciation is also
based on the premise that the name given to
one of the sons of Ya'aqob (Jacob) of the twelve tribes of Yisra'ĕl is
Yahudah (Judah) and
has similar spelling to YHWH; in Hebrew:
Yod, Hay, Waw, Daleth, Hay.
The assumption is, that by removing the Daleth, the pronunciation would
be YaHUaH
As well as the
grammar issues
mentioned above, the "h" sound 'hay'(ה) is often
silent
in Hebrew which is why our Anglocized version is pronounced "Judah" and
not "Jahudah". Even modern Hebrews pronounce this name "Yudah".
Probably the most convincing evidence that the Name of the Almighty is
pronounced YAHWEH is the support of ancient documentation, whereas
there is not one source that supports the pronunciation: Yahuah.
Clement
of Alexandria (140 AD - 215 AD) writes that the
Sacred Name is Ἰαουέ and
Ἰαουαί both forms approximating
the pronunciation Yahweh.
In various Jewish-Egyptian papyri
it is most frequently written
Ἰαωουηε but also appears
Ἰαωουηι,
Ἰαωουεη,
Ἰαωουε and
Ἰαωουεα (all
approximating Yah-ou-ay). It
should not go unnoticed that these Greek
writers all use vowels
to represent the Name of the Almighty.
Further
evidence of the 'h' not being pronouced is found in the Septuagint.
ישׁעיה (Yesha-yah
[Isaiah]) is also found as ישׁעיהוּ
(Yesha-yahu).
The LXX renders Yasha-yahu Ἡσαία
(Yesa-eeah),
showing the intercangeability between יהו and יה; Ἰεσσίου
(Yess-eeou);
and Ἡσαίου
(Yesa-eeou).
The other major problem with the pronunciation of Yahuah is that the
accent is emphasised on the 'hu' - Ya-HOO-ah
whereas the accent on Hebrew words is nearly ALWAYS on the LAST
SYLLABLE therefore Yah-WEH is in accordance with the
rules of Hebrew.
There is an erroneous claim being presented that the that
the last vowel was changed from Yahwah to
Yahweh by the Greeks due to the masculine
form being Yahweh using Noah - Noe as an example. The masculine form of
a name actually requires an 'ς'(s)
NOT an 'ε'(e). For
example: Joshua (Yahoshua) - Iesous, Matthew - Matthias, Eliyah -
Elias, Jonah - Jonas, Jeremiah - Jeremias, etc... The name of Noah does
not end with the Hebrew letter 'hay'(ה),
but 'chet'(ח) ie. Noach and
cannot
be compared to any of the names ending with a 'hay'(ה)
let alone the
Sacred Name of Yahweh when transliterated into Greek.
Another example of misinformation is that Hebrew words ending in 'hay'(ה) by default end with an 'ah' sound.
This is not at all the case and as well as Nineweh many famous names in
Scripture (not to mention words) ending in 'hay'(ה) end with 'eh' for example:
Mosheh/Moses (משׁה), Manashsheh/Manasseh (מנשּׁה), Yephunneh/Jephunneh
(יפנּה) etc.
Another example can be provided when Yahweh reveals Himself fully to
Mosheh in the phrase:
"I AM THAT I AM" - Heb. אהיה אשׁר אהיה (AYEH
ASHER AYEH)
The Hebrew word AYEH (אהיה)is
derived from the word HAYAH (היה)
originally HAWAH (הוה)
yet in this grammatical form is, of course pronounced AYEH,
therefore a 'Hay' at the end of a word does not automatically make an
'AH' sound.
Another fallacy being presented is that the Masorites vowel pointed the
Name YHWH to read Yahweh to
disguise it from being spoken... The opposite is the case! The
Masorites were a group of Jewish scribes who, up to 1000 years after
the Messiah indeed DID add vowel points to the Hebrew writings and DID
disguise the pronounciation of the Name YaHWeH to be read as YeHoWaH
(Adonai) or YeHoWiH (Elohim) and in the first instance
(which is by far the more common) actually resembles YaHuWaH
which we can conclude is the incorrect pronunciation.

SUMMARY
To summarise all the above, we find through history that all the
ancients knew the pronunciation of the Name of the Almighty and
approximated in their various languages the form: YaHWeH
It
wasn't till nearly 1000 years later that the Jewish scribes vowel
pointed it to YeHoWaH. Are we seriously to believe the claims of some
(often Christians defending their traditions) that the Almighty Yahweh
hid His Name from the entire world for nearly 2000 years, only to
reveal it to us in the last days... Or did He indeed preserve His Name
through the earliest writings to reveal it to those who love Him and
guard His Commands and diligently seek Him? The truth is, He promised
He would reveal Himself to those who obey:
John
14:21
“He who possesses My commands and guards them, it is he who loves
Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I shall love
him and manifest
Myself to him.”
Yahushua
made known His Father's Name to all those who would love Him:
John
17:26 “And I have made Your Name
known to them, and shall make it
known, so that the love with which You loved Me might be in
them, and
I in them.”
FURTHER
STUDY
For
an in-depth 300 page study on the Name of Yahweh with many historical
references covering the use and abuse and pronunciation click the
button below:
Pay
close attention to Chapter 9
Note:
Certain portions of
the study are
not necessarily the views of 2besaved.com
THE
NAME OF THE MESSIAH
The Name of the Messiah
also has a number of
varying pronunciations among believers; some understandably diverse and
some not so logical or factual.
The Name of the Messiah in
modern Hebrew looks like this:
יהושע
Reading from right to left,
the
letters are as follows:
י-
Yod, ה-
Hay, ו-
Waw, ש-
Shin, ע-
Ayin.
The
first three letters form part of the tetragrammaton from the Father's
Name YaHW. The Shin is vowel pointed with a Qibbuts giving us a Shu.
And the final letter being an Ayin is vowel pointed with a Patach
giving the Ah sound.
י-
ee, ה-
ah, ו-
oo, ש-
shu, ע-
ah.
putting
it all together gives:
ee-ah-oo-shu-ah
phonetically:
YAHUSHUA
Note:
there is no emphasis in the 'H' in His Name as this appears in Hebrew
as a vowel and is no mare than a breathing sound almost rendering the
pronunciation: YAHWSHUA.
One
of the more common errors of the pronunciation has been passed down
from Jewish tradition of not being allowed to speak the Name of Yahweh
thereby abbreviating Yahushua's Name to Y'shua, which in English has
been rendered Yeshua. Y'shua in Hebrew simply means 'salvation' and the
error here is obvious. By obliterating Yah
from the Name of the Son, this could be considered blasphemous. See article below:

Some favour the
pronunciation:Yahusha assuming that because there is no
waw between the shin and the ayin it cannot be Yahushua. Those who
follow this premise are obviously not aware of "defective writing" in
the Hebrew language. This phenomenon occurs with measured frequency in
the Hebrew texts where sometimes a vowel letter is written without the
contonant yod (י) or waw (ו).
For example
the name of Dawid occurs a majority of time in Scripture without the
yod. For example here is an exerpt from 'Basics of Biblical Hebrew':

The word 'sha' does not exist as a stand
alone word, whereas 'shua' (shin, waw, ayin or shin, ayin) exists in a
number of forms and has various meanings ranging from 'cry for help' to
'wealth' with the root meaning of the word being 'freedom'.
Furthermore, there are a number of names in Scripture that end with
'shua' spelled either fully - shin, waw, ayin or defectively - shin,
ayin. eg:
Elishua (אלישׁוּע - the full form of Elisha),
Malkishua (לכּישׁוּע) , Abishua (אבישׁוּע), Bathshua (בּת־שׁוּע)
and of course Joshua - properly Yahoshua (defective: יהושׁע or full:
יהושׁוּע)
There is no other names in Scripture other than Elisha (the
abbreviated form of Elishua) that end in 'sha' that have the meaning of
'deliverance' or 'salvation' or anything remotely close to the meaning
of 'shua'.
CONCLUSION
The
Name of the Messiah contains the Father's Name as Scripture says:
John
17:12 “When I was
with them in the world, I was guarding them in Your
Name which You have given Me...”
The Name of the Messiah means 'Yahweh is salvation' -
Yahu-shua
and is spelled in Hebrew exactly the same as the successor to Mosheh
and יהושע
(Yahoshua) the son of the High Priest in Zecharyah who was given this
prophecy:
Zecharyah
6:11-12
“And you shall take the silver and gold, make a crown, and set it
on the head of Yahoshua
the son of Yehotsadaq, the kohen ha'gadol, 12 and shall speak to him,
saying, ‘Thus said YHWH
of hosts, saying, “See, the Man whose
name is the Branch!
And from His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the Hĕykal
of YHWH.”
YAHUSHUA is the Branch prophesied
from times of old.
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