[VoiceInWilderness]

I posted this question on b-Hebrew:

Jehovah vs Yahweh
Postby SteveMiller » Sat Dec 05, 2015 11:47 pm

Why are scholars fairly sure that God's name is pronounced Yahweh? Is it just a guess? Is Jehovah just as good a guess?
Thanks.

All the answers say that Yahweh is a guess. Some that it is a better guess than Jehovah.

Here are all the answers I got:

1. Karl is the most active poster on b-Hebrew. Self taught. Knows Hebrew very well. Evangelical.

Re: Jehovah vs Yahweh
Postby kwrandolph » Sun Dec 06, 2015 12:52 am

Steve:

This is one of the few words, if not the only one, where scholars admit uncertainty in the pronunciation. It is generally recognized that the points for Adonai were added when YHWH was found in the text, which come out as “Jehovah” in English. This is probably the most common Kethib/Qere pair in Tanakh.

The story told to me is that the name “Yahweh” was an invention of Gesenius, and because he is held in such high regard most scholars follow him. As far as I know, most modern dictionaries from ancient Hebrew to English are basically updates of his dictionary.

Well, in actuality, yes.

Because ancient Greek had neither “h” nor “w”, the jumble of vowels used to transliterate the name can be read as anything from “Yahweh” to “Yehowah” to “Yehowahe” (the last one is the one that I think is most accurate, with the accent on the third syllable).

The question on pronunciation came up on an earlier thread, which included the Greek transliterations. I probably should have saved those transliterations for this discussion.

Personally, I’m not dogmatic on any of the pronunciations. So take your pick.

I have seen more than one indication that in Biblical Hebrew, i.e. before the Babylonian Exile, that the writing was not an alphabet, rather a syllabary. As a syllabary, every consonant was followed by a vowel. That’s why indications of which vowels was not included, because people who were native speakers could recognize which vowels to include.

Jst lk ths sntnc, a ntv spkr of Englsh wd rcgnz whch vwls t insrt.

So a word with four letters would have had four syllables, four consonants each followed by a vowel. Hence the pronunciation would probably have been similar to Yehowahe. I suspect that the transliteration of יה came out as ιαω, that this was not the transliteration of the full four letter name.

I don't believe there're any Greek manuscripts at Qumran that have Joshua transliterated. I know that the Greek Minor Prophets scroll doesn't have the name extant amongst its pages.


The New Testament, one example Hebrews 4:8, mentions Joshua but transliterates that name as ιησους “Jesus”.

Ancient Greek also didn’t have the “v” sound, so transliterated that as “b”. When we look at names transliterated into Greek, the ו is almost always transliterated as a vowel, or omitted listing only its vowel, rather than giving a hard consonant.

My understanding is that Yemenite pronunciation as well maintained that “w” sound until fairly recently.

2. Ste. A top poster. Very knowledgeable in Hebrew, Gk, LXX and DSS. Christian.

Re: Jehovah vs Yahweh
Postby S_Walch » Sun Dec 06, 2015 9:49 pm

I believe the Moabite Stone/Mesha Stele has helped in understanding the V/W connection.

As for the vowels for Yahweh - The fact that names ending in -yh or -yhw are vocalised -yah or -yahu has convinced many, not to mention the Greek manuscripts from Qumran have it transliterated into Greek as Ιαω/Ιαο

Does it need to have a vowel after the H?

(The Hebrew Vav/waw transliterated into Greek as ω is the most common, so I'm not quite sure as to whether the Greek omega had more a -u rather than an -o sound than currently understood).

Did it not? I don't think we actually know how ancient Hebrew/Greek was pronounced.

Seeing as though there're more than a few Hebrew names transliterated into Greek using ω for a Waw, one may find a correlation between the two.

I would guess it would be pronounced Ee-ah-ou - but that's just how I pronounce it

I don't believe there're any Greek manuscripts at Qumran that have Joshua transliterated. I know that the Greek Minor Prophets scroll doesn't have the name extant amongst its pages.
Ste Walch

3. Jonathan, a top poster. An advanced theological student. Christian.

Re: Jehovah vs Yahweh
Postby Jemoh66 » Mon Dec 07, 2015 1:48 am

I believe the basic reason for this pronunciation is taken from the Samaritan pronunciation, [jɑ-vɛ'], taken from the Greek transliteration, Ἰαβέ. In my opinion it was probably pronounced with a /β/ (voiced biblabial fricative). Try to say a /v/ with both lips, instead of using your upper teeth touching the lower lip.

If the vav was a consonant, then it most surely was a /w/, not a /v/. However, it seems that by the time of the 2nd Temple period, that the Samaritans pronounced the vav at least as a /β/.

[yao].
Jonathan E Mohler
Studying for a MA in Intercultural Studies
Baptist Bible Theological Seminary

4. Martin. PhD on Qohelet in Australia, and part time professor on Wisdom Literature.

I did not find his answer helpful, and when I asked him for details he did not respond. Not very active on b-Hebrew.

Re: Jehovah vs Yahweh
Postby enkidu » Sun Dec 06, 2015 3:02 am

There are quite a few considerations which favour Yahweh over Jehovah. These include theophoric elements in names, sounds in cognate languages, transliterations into some languages, and so forth. Consequently it is widely believed that ו (waw) was pronounced as "w" not "v" and that "j" is just wrong (just look at how other names beginning with yod are read in modern translations). So while there will always be some uncertainty over the precise pronunciation (and there may have been some variation in pronunciation in different regions and at different times anyway), it is pretty certain that "Jehovah" is wrong while "Yahweh" is close.
Martin Shields,
Sydney, Australia.