Is God's name Jehovah, Yaweh, or simply Lord?

by pr_capone 90 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Narkissos

  Just to add as a side comment that the prefixed form in theophoric names is either yhw/yehô or yw/yô. Several names are found in both forms, e.g. Yehochanan/Yochanan, Yehoyada/Yoyada, Yehoyakin/Yoyakin, Yehoyaqim/Yoyaqim, Yehotsadaq/Yotsadaq, Yehoram/Yoram, Yehoshaphat/Yoshaphat...

  Hellrider,

  "Hallowed be thy name" has an excellent rabbinical parallelism in the Qaddish, which shows that such an expression was quite compatible with the (equally rabbinical) belief that the Tetragrammaton should not be pronounced.

  From a historical perspective, Yhwh as a vestige of polytheism (where it was actually used as the name of one god among others) became a quite embarrassing feature in monotheism. Only different sections of Judaism dealt differently with the problem. One solution was to treat it as a hyper-holy name and ban it from common use, at the risk of relegating it to underground magical use (if it was such a holy name it had to be powerful); and there are indeed traces of magical uses of Yhwh; another was to interpret it theologically (as Exodus 3 does). Philo almost feigns to ignore its existence, considering "Lord" to be the name for all practical use and "I am who I am" as a mere refusal to reveal any name.
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  Leolaia

  The Aramaic Qaddish states:

  "Exalted and hallowed be his great name in the world which he created according to his will. May he cause his kingdom to rule in your lifetime and in your days and in the whole house of Israel, speedily and soon. Praised be his great name from eternity to eternity. And to this say: Amen."

  Bear in mind that in Hebrew and Aramaic, the word for "name" was often used to mean "reputation" (i.e. "let us make a name for ourselves"), and I think it clearly has this sense here. The prayer is asking for God to be known throughout the world and hallowed by all, and states that God is exalted over any human or worldly "name".
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  trevor

  Names are just labels, or name tags. They have no meaning in themselves and so they are irrelevant. What is more important is what concept we are attempting to attach a label to.

  Can a power so vast be named or labelled?

  Why do we feel the need to label such a power?

  Perhaps it is because we have not yet understood what we are trying to attach a label to?

  .................
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  Hellrider

  Ok, thanks, Narkissos and Leolaia! I always thought that "hallowed be thy name"-thing was kind of strange. After all, why say "hallowed be thy name", in the sense that it should be used, and then not use it at all, anywhere in the NT.

  Another weapon for my anti-JW-arsenal
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  Darth Yhwh

  Darth Yhwh a Sith master that spoke the universe into existance. His first act of creation was his son and apprentice Darth Plagueis the wise. Together they ruled in peace, happiness and harmony. The rest is history.
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  Cygnus

  OK so the name was originally written and spoken in Hebrew, as well as names that have the tetragram built in, such as Jehoaz, somebody somewhere knew how to translate these names into Greek, then Latin, then English where we get the Js.

  Why, in English, do these names have 3 syllables in association with their inclusion of the tetragram? Also, Dan Stern's Jewish New Testament published by the JPS on pg. xxiv in the Intro says that "Y-H-V-H" is God's personal name, which is "Jehovah"; it doesn't say "Yahweh" so apparently he agrees with "Jehovah."

  Then again, Matthew 1:8 speaks of "Yo-ram" which footnote identifies him as "Jehoram, Joram, Jorim." So can either way be said to be conclusively correct or is this, yet again, a matter of opinion?
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  LittleToe

  Father, Pater, or Abba, works well for me

  "...What is His name, and what is the name of His Son, if thou knowest?" Prov.30:4
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  Leolaia

  Why, in English, do these names have 3 syllables in association with their inclusion of the tetragram?

  They don't, as far as the theophoric element is concerned, which is always two (yhw) or one syllable (yh, yw) in length in Hebrew and English (i.e. Jeho-, Jo-, and -iah in English). The vocalization of the glide (i.e. /w/) in "Jeho-" puts the "h" and "w" into a single syllable (namely, the second syllable). The name "Jehovah" instead makes the glide part of a third syllable (i.e. Je-ho-vah). The similarity between "Jeho-" in names and the first two syllables of "Jehovah" is thus an illusion. The "o" in "Jehovah" is not derived from the glide but instead through the insertion of a holem vowel point after the medial he. The initial sheva vowel of Jeho- names is also due to a different reason, it results from the prefixation of the theophoric element to the initial position (causing a loss of stress in the first syllable of the DN). Elsewhere, the vowel is qamats (i.e. "a"). The sheva vowel in "Jehovah" is not due to the same reason, as no morphological process is involved.

  Does this help clear things up?

  Then again, Matthew 1:8 speaks of "Yo-ram" which footnote identifies him as "Jehoram, Joram, Jorim." ; So can either way be said to be conclusively correct or is this, yet again, a matter of opinion?

  As Narkissos pointed out, yhw is often reduced in names to yw, so "Jehoram" becomes "Joram". This is a regular process, observable in many seperate names.
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  Kaput

  Leolaia;

  Just curious. Are you a movie prop collector?
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  Leolaia

  LOL, no, but I did see the original Staff of Ra headpiece when I visited Skywalker Ranch (along with many other Indiana Jones and Star Wars props) back in 1999.