“If you make your ear attentive to wisdom and your mind open to discernment; if you call to understanding and cry aloud to discernment, if you seek it as you do silver and search for it as for treasures, then you will understand the awesomeness of Yahweh and attain knowledge of God. For Yahweh grants wisdom; knowledge and discernment are by His decree. (Proverbs 2:2-6)
The goal of this website is to separate myth, traditions, pagan practices, and man-made stories from the Truth of the Scriptures — the basis by which all things are judged, and from which all Truth is derived. Many people believe that because something has been written, taught, or practiced, for decades, or even centuries, it must be True. Yet, nothing could be further from the Truth. Time does not, necessarily, prove the validity of something.
One of the most important paths in understanding the Truth, is to return to the original writings of the Scriptures (as far back as we can), and understand them in their original Hebraic setting, with a Hebrew mindset. In doing so, we are better able to understand the original intent of what Yahweh brought forth in these writings, rather than a Western-based, Greek-influenced interpretation, which may, or may not, have a preconceived agenda. But, in all things, including the writings here, we encourage you to, thoroughly, search out the information given, to make sure it is within the bounds of Scripture.
Some people may find many of the articles, on this website, difficult to read. For many people, it’s hard to let go of teachings we received many years ago, given by people we believed to know the Truth.
“Jehovah” — A Christian Misunderstanding
In any attempt to understand the Bible, there is no substitute for a knowledge of ancient Jewish custom and practice. For example, the term Jehovah, which is found in many Christian translations of the Bible, originated because of a lack of awareness of Jewish custom.
Pronunciation
In Hebrew Scripture, the personal name of God, is written with four Hebrew letters — yod, heh, vav, heh (YHWH) — and, therefore, called the tetragrammaton. This name appears 6,829 times in the Hebrew Scriptures.
By linguistic comparisons with other ancient Semitic languages, scholars can be, almost, certain that the divine name was originally pronounced yahWEH. The pronunciation of the first syllable of the tetragrammaton is confirmed by the abbreviated form of God’s name yah (transcribed Jah in the King James Version), which is, sometimes, used in biblical poetry (Ps. 68:4). It is, also, confirmed by the yah that is attached, as a suffix, to many Hebrew names, such as ‘eliyah (Elijah) and ‘ovadyah (Obadiah).
In the First Temple period, at least until the Babylonian Exile in 586 bc, the divine name was regularly pronounced in daily life. By the third century bc, although the tetragrammaton was pronounced by priests in certain Temple liturgies, Jews avoided its use, employing, instead, many other substitutes, such as hamakom (the Place), hagavoah (the High), halashon (the Tongue), hag’vurah (the Power; compare Luke 22:69) and shamayim (Heaven). When reading or reciting Scripture, the custom was to substitute ‘adonai (LORD, literally, “my lords”) for the tetragrammaton, or to substitute ‘elohim when the tetragrammaton happened to appear together with ‘adonai. Even the less distinctive ‘elohim (God), which also could mean “false gods,” was avoided in conversation.
The reticence to pronounce the divine name was due to a literal interpretation of the third commandment (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11): “You shall not take the name of YHWH your God in vain.” Although its original meaning was, probably, that one must keep one’s vow when swearing by God’s name, it was soon taken to mean that one should not use the sacred name frivolously or irreverently, and, therefore, to avoid the risk of violating this commandment, it simply was not used in conversation. The pronunciation of the divine name was still known to all in the time of Jesus, however, some substitute was always used to avoid uttering it. This tradition continues until today, even among many secular Jews. The more orthodox even say ‘elokim in order to avoid saying ‘elohim, and English-speaking Jews often write G-d instead of God.
Vocalizing the Text
Until the early Middle Ages, Hebrew was written without vowels. As the knowledge of Hebrew declined, it became increasingly difficult, for each generation to remember the pronunciation of words in the biblical text. By the sixth century ad there were, relatively, few native Hebrew speakers left, and most Jews had only a passive knowledge of Hebrew. It was then, that a system of vowel signs was developed by the Masoretes, the Jewish scholars of the period, to aid the reader in pronunciation.
The Masoretes used the vowel signs, they had created, to vocalize the text of the Hebrew Bible, which, until then, had been composed, solely, of consonants. In accordance with the custom observed since the third century bc, when reading or reciting Scripture, they superimposed the vowel signs of the word ‘adonai upon the four consonants of God’s name. This was to remind the reader that he should not attempt to pronounce the unutterable name. Thus yhwh would be read as ‘adonai.
When Christian scholars, in Europe, first began to study Hebrew, they misunderstood this warning device. Sometimes lacking even the most elementary knowledge of Jewish culture and custom, their blunder was inevitable. In 1518 ad, in his De arcanis catholicae veritatis, a monumental work of Christian mysticism, the Italian theologian and Franciscan friar Galatinus, not realizing that the Masoretes had placed the vowel signs of another word with the consonants yhwh, fused the vowels of ‘adonai with the consonants of the divine name and, thus, gave the Church Jehovah, a word which has no meaning in Hebrew. The first consonant of the word, the “y” sound, was transliterated by “j” in Latin, and the third consonant, the “w” sound, by “v.”
I believe that, as Christians, we should be sensitive to this ancient Jewish tradition. Although we may feel that Jewish exegetes of old were too pedantic in their interpretation of the third commandment, we must remember that Jesus himself, apparently, always avoided the use of the divine name by employing substitutes, such as “Heaven” and “Power.” Certainly, we should not create new names for God, such as Jehovah, out of our ignorance of Jewish conventions.
To our embarrassment, we continue to perpetuate this error in Christian books, hymns, songs and translations of the Bible. The American Standard Version and The Living Bible use Jehovah for yhwh throughout, while translations, such as the King James Version, New English Bible, and New Berkeley Version, use Jehovah only occasionally. The non-word Jehovah would be, simply, an amusing mistake if it did not illustrate, so vividly, Christians’ continuing lack of understanding of Hebrew language and Jewish practice.
Footnotes
1. At the time when the Hebrew Bible was being composed, the vav, the third letter of the tetragrammaton, was pronounced as a “w” rather than a “v” as in modern Hebrew.
2. Louis F. Hartman, “Names of God,” in Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1971), 7:680. See also Ray Pritz, “The Divine Name in the Hebrew New Testament,” Jerusalem Perspective 31 (March/April 1991), 10-12.
3. Cf. David Bivin, “Jesus and the Oral Torah: The Unutterable Name of God,” Jerusalem Perspective 5 (February 1988), 1-2.
4. If the tetragrammaton happened to appear, in the biblical text, either before or after the word ‘adonai, then the Masoretes superimposed the vowels of ‘elohim (God) upon the tetragrammaton — YHWH (to be read ‘elohim). Thus these two combinations, ‘adonai YHWH and YHWH ‘adonai, were pronounced ‘adonai ‘elohim and ‘elohim ‘adonai, respectively. In English translations, of the Bible, they are usually translated as “Lord GOD.” and “GOD, the Lord”.
5. Each letter, in the Hebrew alphabet, has a numerical value (see “Hebrew Nuggets, Lesson Seventeen: vav,” Jerusalem Perspective 17 [February 1989], 3), and Hebrew letters are used to cite verses and chapters of the Bible. However, the two combinations yod-heh (10+5=15) and yod-vav (10+6=16) are replaced in Bible texts by tet-vav (9+6=15) and tet-zayin (9+7=16), respectively, so as to prevent, the possibility of, God’s name being taken in vain, by reading the number yod-heh as yah or the number yod-vav as yo (which, like yah, is a theophoric designation).
6. There is one small difference between the vowels of ‘adonai and those of the tetragrammaton. The Masoretes altered the “ah” vowel, of the first syllable, so that readers would not see “yah” and, inadvertently, blurt out the unutterable name.
What Does It Mean to Take Yahweh’s Name in Vain?
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” (Exodus 20:7)
- » Take (Strong’s #5375)
- The Hebrew verb, behind this English word, is nasa and is a very generic verb. This word has been translated as lift, carry, accept, exalt, regard, obtain, respect, just to name a few. In the context of this verse, lift would be most appropriate because it is the “name” that is being “lifted up.” One lifts up a name by making it known to others.
- » Name (Strong’s #8034)
- In our modern western culture, a name is nothing more than an identifier, really no different than being assigned a number. The Hebrew word, for a name, is shem But, in the ancient Hebrew culture, shem is much more than just a name; it is the “breath” of the individual. To the Hebrews, the breath is more than just the exchange of air in the lungs, it is his “character,” the internal qualities of an individual, that make him unique. This idea of the word shem meaning character can be seen in 1 Kings 4:31: “and his fame was in all the nations round about.” Here, the word fame is understood as his “character.”
All Hebrew names are words with meaning, and these words reflect their characters. For instance, Eve (Chavah in Hebrew) means “life,” as she is the mother of all the living (chay, a related word to Chavah, see Genesis 3:20). The names for God are no different. The name Yahweh means “He exists” and God (Elohiym) means “one of power and authority” [or “the might one”]. Some other names [actually, these are descriptions and attributes; see Who Is Your God and What Is His Name?—ed] of God, include Jealous (Exodus 34:14), One (Zechariah 14:9, which literally reads “His name is One”), Holy (Isaiah 57:15) and others. What is God’s name? Most will answer with Yahweh, or God, but we must remember that, a name, or shem in Hebrew, is the character of the individual, so the correct question should be “What is God’s character?” [Editor’s note: In Exodus 3.15, God states that “Yahweh” 
is His name forever. Therefore, as mentioned earlier, these others are attributes.]
- » Vain (Strong’s #7723)
- The third word, that we need to understand correctly, is the word vain. This is the Hebrew word sheva. This word, literally, means empty; and vain actions, are empty of substance. This word can also be understood as “falsely,” in the sense of being empty of its True substance. This idea can be seen in Exodus 23:1: “You shall not utter a false report.” The word false is the very same Hebrew word sheva.
Now that we have a more complete understanding of the words, in the passage, we are able to make a more Hebraic interpretation.
“You shall not represent the character of [Yahweh], Elohiym, falsely.“
So, what does this mean? In another study, we saw that, when it says “God Created man, in His own image” it is, in fact, saying that God had placed, within us, a representation of himself. This representation is His shem, or character, and we are to show this character to others. If, however, we represent that character falsely, in other words live our lives contrary to the character of God, then we are violating this command.
“Who Are You?”
We have another Blog Post, entitled “Who Are You?”, in which we asked if you identify yourself as a Christian. The Bible tells us, in the book of Acts, that the followers of Christ were not called Christians until they preached at Antioch, before that they were called, “Followers of the Way”.
In modern times, it has become a symbolic term for most North Americans to refer to themselves as “Christian”, simply because of tradition. In the middle east, it is not safe to be called a christian, because many, there, use the term as a guise to get close to those they end up killing or harming in some way. Therefore, the people who live there, target and kill anyone who calls themselves “Christian”.
For all intents and purposes, it is better, and more accurate, to be called believers, or followers of Christ.
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