Yahweh Is A Pagan Name
Copyright 1986 All Rights Reserved
May Not Be Posted On Any Other Web Site
By Dr. G. Reckart, Pastor The Protoindo European god Yayash, Yaë or Yave, a protective god whose symbol was a tree, signifying possibly '"walking", "going", "a pilgrim", has been dated back to the Indus River valley, circa 2900 B.C.E. He has been identified with the Turko Syrian Yahveh, a "sacred animal or organization".
"Yahweh appears to have been originally a sky god - a god of thunder and lightning. He was associated with mountains and was called by the enemies of Israel 'a god of the hills'. His manifestation was often as fire, as at Mount Sinai and in the burning bush." "A shorter form, 'Yah', was also used (Exodus 15:2) and some scholars believe that this is the older form, originating in an exclamation to God - 'Yah!' - which came to be accepted as the divine name. Others claim that it is from the root 'hayah', 'to be' or 'to become', and that it meant 'I am that I am' or I will be that I will be'. According to one tradition of the call of Moses, the divine name Yahweh was revealed to him in Egypt: - Great Events of Bible Times
"Originally, these four consonants [in YHWH] represented the four members of the Heavenly Family: Y represented El the Father; H was Asherah the Mother; W corresponded to He the Son; and H was the Daughter Anath. In accordance with the royal traditions of the time and region, God's mysterious bride, the Matronit, was also reckoned to be his sister. In the Jewish cult of the Cabbala God's dual male-female image was perpetuated. Meanwhile other sects perceived the Shekinah or Matronit as the female presence of God on Earth. The divine marital chamber was the sanctuary of the Jerusalem Temple, but from the moment the Temple was destroyed, the Matronit was destined to roam the Earth while the male aspect of Jehovah was left to rule the heavens alone." - Laurence Gardner, Bloodline of the Holy Grail, p. 18
One of the last items faced concerning the Scriptures is of more recent origin and may account for the vast majority of the linguistic problems that occur. I refer to the reworking of the Hebrew language by the Masorites and Tiberians, between the 6th to 12th centuries C.E. The Masorites were responsible for many of the alterations in the vowels and definitions of the Hebrew words. In that the language had not been a spoken one for at least a hundred years before their endeavor, and not until 1948 was it brought back to life again after not being spoken for nearly 1600 years. This is one reason why meanings of a number of words are unknown thus making it difficult for the modern scholar to rely solely on the Hebrew version as the last authority. This is why the tablets from Ebla are still important as the language is akin to the Hebrew and can give us a clearer understanding of 'uncertain' words.
- Rev. Robert Palmer (private correspondence).
Because the Hebrew language does not employ vowels in its written form, the correct pronunciation of the Ineffable Name of God was lost & not rediscovered until about 300AD by the Kabbalists who gave it the title Tetragrammaton, "the word of four letters," & "the square name," or more simply, "the square." At that time the Shem-ha-meforash became represented by the simple form YHVH. -Charles Ponce, Kabbalah, p 175
This hypothesis is not intrinsically improbable, and in Aramaic, a language closely related to Hebrew, "to be" actually is hawa--but it should be noted that in adopting it we admit that, using the name Hebrew in the historical sense, Yahweh is not a Hebrew name. -Ency Brit 11Ed Vol 15 p 321
The causative theme of hayah is found in no Semitic language, except the late Syriac, but is replaced by that of some other root. Those, therefore who still regard it as causative refer it to hawah, found once in Hebrew in the form hawa "fell"; they interpret this as "he who causes to fall" (Robertson Smith; cf. Arab. "haway". -Ency Brit 1958 Ed Vol 12, p 996
The oldest exegetes, such as Onkelos, and the Targumim of Jerusalem regard "Ehyeh" and "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh" as the name of the Divinity.
-Jewish Ency, Funk & Wagnalls, 1925 Ed p 119
Today we cannot know what the original vowels were, but Yahweh is as good as guess as we can make, though other spellings are often used. -Samuel Cartledge, A Conservative Introduction To The Old Testament, p51
It is perhaps true that God was known only by the word "Elohim" from Adam until Abraham. Abraham called God "Lord," ...in Hebrew Adonai (Genesis 18:3). Yet God said in Exodus 6:3 he was revealed to Abraham as Elshaddai and that by his name "Ehyeh" as given to Moses at the burning bush, he was not made known to Abraham. It was because Abraham called God "Adonai" that the Jews inserted this title meaning "Lord" into the scrolls at every instance "Ehyeh" was originally written after the revealing of it at the burning bush. There, when Moses asked God about his name, God said it was "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh" (translated I Am that I Am): and told Moses, tell them that "Ehyeh" (or I AM) has sent you. Since Moses wrote Genesis after he received the revelation of the new name of "Ehyeh" we can assume that Moses inserted into the sacred record the title "Adonai" or Lord, in such texts as Genesis 4:26. But it must be noted that in Genesis 4:26 the word "began" is Strongs #2490 in the Hebrew really means to profane the name of God by calling upon it in blasphemy. Noah had to put up with this prior to the flood. What is being said here is that men from that time, or the time of Enos, began to profane the name of God. Moses called God "Lord" (Adonai) here and the word rightly should be "Lord" and not as some backward interpolate, YHVH and then Yahweh. There can be absolutely no sacred name used prior to Exodus 3:14-15 other than those names revealed. Those revealed prior to this time were the names "God" (Elohim) and "Elshaddai" (God Almighty). Any place the title "Lord" appears prior to Exodus 3:14-15 is either an interpolation or it must have the meaning of Adonai (Strongs #136, 113). In each case of Abraham using the title "Lord" as in Genesis 22:14, the word was not a substitue of the tetragrammaton to then be translated Jehovah or Yahweh. Abraham had to say "Adonai jireh" (Lord I see, NOT Jehovah will privide). This is in harmony with the fact that until Moses received the sacred name "Ehyeh" at the burning bush, he, Isaac, and Jacob knew the Deity only as God, Elshaddai, and Adonai. One fact remaining: the word "Adonai" was not a name it was a title therefore God could say to Moses that he was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the name of Elshaddai, and by his name "Ehyeh or Ehjeh (the y has a J sound here)" he was not made known to them (Exodus 6:3).
Twenty Two Guess Names From The Tetragrammaton
Take Your Pick
| Yahueh (ya-hu-eh) Iahueh (i-a-hu-eh) Yahuah (ya-hu-ah) Iahuah (ia-hu-ah) Yahevahe (yah-e-va-he) Iahevahe (ia-he-va-he) Yohwah (yoh-wah) Iohwah (i-oh-wah) Yohweh (yoh-weh) Iohweh (i-oh-weh) | Yahwah (yah-wah) Iahwah (i-ah-wah) Yehwah (yeh-wah) Iehwah (i-eh-wah) Yehweh (yeh-weh) Iehweh (i-eh-weh) Yahweh (yah-weh) Iahweh (i-ah-weh) Yahwe (yah-we) Iahwe (i-ah-we) | Yahohewah (yah-o-he-wah) Iahohewah (i-a-ho-he-wah) Yahuwah (ya-hu-wah) Iahuwah (i-a-hu-wah) Yahveh (yah-veh) Yehveh (yeh-veh) Yahohevah (yah-o-he-vah) Jove (ho-ve) Jehovah (je-ho-vah) Iehovah (i-eh-ho-vah) |
 The famous Isaiah Dead Sea scroll written in Babylonian Aramaic
and shows the interpolation of the tetragrammaton written in the
ancient paleo-Hebrew script into a blank space in the original
document. This shows us that where the sacred name should have
existed or was in the ancient text, blanks were created to insert the
false name. Inserting the tetragrammaton into these blanks has been
at a 2,800 year old mystery. Who did it and upon what authority? |
