Tetragrammaton

Common substitutions for Hebrew forms are hakadosh baruch hu ("The Holy One, Blessed Be He"), Adonai or HaShem ("The Name"). In the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Hebrew and Aramaic texts the tetragrammaton and some other names of God in Judaism (such as El or Elohim) were sometimes written in paleo-Hebrew script, showing that they were treated specially.

The name of God most often used in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton (YHWH ).

The Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius [1786–1842] suggested that the Hebrew punctuation יַהְוֶה, which is transliterated into English as Yahweh, might more accurately represent the pronunciation of the tetragrammaton than the Biblical Hebrew punctuation "יְהֹוָה", from which the English name Jehovah has been derived.

Jehovah is a Latinization of the Hebrew, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible and one of the seven names of God in Judaism.

The Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius [1786–1842] suggested that the Hebrew punctuation יַהְוֶה, which is transliterated into English as Yahweh, might more accurately represent the pronunciation of the tetragrammaton than the Biblical Hebrew punctuation "יְהֹוָה", from which the English name Jehovah has been derived.

He is credited, among other things, with the reconstructed pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, "Yahweh."

The letters, properly read from right to left (in Biblical Hebrew), are:

Some Qumran texts written in the Assyrian script write the tetragrammaton and some other divine names in Paleo-Hebrew, and this practice is also found in several Jewish-Greek biblical translations.

Short form Jah occurs 50 times: 43 times in the Psalms, one in Exodus 15:2; 17:16; Isaiah 12:2; 26:4, and twice in Isaiah 38:11.

Jah or Yah (, Yah) is a short form of Yahweh (in consonantal spelling YHWH, called the Tetragrammaton), the proper name of God in the Hebrew Bible.

The oldest complete or nearly complete manuscripts of the Masoretic Text with Tiberian vocalisation, such as the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, both of the 10th or 11th century, mostly write (yhwah), with no pointing on the first h.

Safeguarding of the Tetragrammaton; e.g. substitution of "Elohim" or "Adonai" for "YHWH" in some passages.

The Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius [1786–1842] suggested that the Hebrew punctuation יַהְוֶה, which is transliterated into English as Yahweh, might more accurately represent the pronunciation of the tetragrammaton than the Biblical Hebrew punctuation "יְהֹוָה", from which the English name Jehovah has been derived. Religiously observant Jews and those who follow Talmudic Jewish traditions do not pronounce, nor do they read aloud transliterated forms such as Yahweh; instead the word is substituted with a different term, whether used to address or to refer to the God of Israel.

Yahweh is frequently invoked in Graeco-Roman magical texts dating from the second century BCE to the fifth century CE, most notably in the Greek Magical Papyri, under the names Iao, Adonai, Sabaoth, and Eloai.

In places that the consonants of the text to be read (the qere) differed from the consonants of the written text (the ketiv), they wrote the qere in the margin as a note showing what was to be read.

Tetragrammaton).

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1007 – this manuscript in vitela form contains Genesis 2 and 3. The divine name is written with a double yodh. It has been assigned paleographically to the 3rd century.

Two Yuds in a row designate the name of God Adonai and in pointed texts are written with the vowels of Adonai; this is done as well with the Tetragrammaton.

It also appears in the Greek phrase Ἁλληλουϊά (hallelujah) in.

The second part, Yah, is a shortened form of YHWH, the name for the Creator.

In the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Hebrew and Aramaic texts the tetragrammaton and some other names of God in Judaism (such as El or Elohim) were sometimes written in paleo-Hebrew script, showing that they were treated specially.

The Septuagint typically translates YHWH as kyrios "Lord".

The reasoning here is that at the time that the Septuagint was written, when reading out loud Jews pronounced Adonai, the Hebrew word for "Lord", when they encountered the name of God, "YHWH", which was thus translated into Greek in each instance as kyrios.

The most complete copies of the Septuagint (B, א, A), versions from fourth century onwards consistently use Κύριος ("Lord"), or Θεός ("God"), where the Hebrew has YHWH, corresponding to substituting Adonai for YHWH in reading the original, but the oldest fragments have the tetragrammaton in Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew characters, with the exception of P. Ryl. 458 (perhaps the oldest extant Septuagint manuscript) where there are blank spaces, leading some scholars such as Colin Henderson Roberts to believe that it contained letters, and 4Q120 that has ΙΑΩ.

The manuscript has been used in discussions about the Tetragrammaton, although there are actually blank spaces in the places where some scholars such as C. H. Roberts believe it contained letters.

Its consistent use of Κύριος to represent the tetragrammaton has been called "a distinguishing mark for any Christian LXX manuscript", However, a passage in the Hebrew Tosefta, Shabbat 13:5 (written c. 300 CE), quoting Tarfon (who lived between 70 and 135 CE), says that it was permitted on the Sabbath to burn Christian works − gilyonim (gospels?) and other writings − even if they contained the names of God written in them (without specifying the form or forms in which the names of God were written − as the Aramaic or Paleo-Hebrew Tetragrammaton, as ΙΑΩ or otherwise).

Matthew was, likewise, originally written in Hebrew (Aramaic); many copies must, therefore, have been in circulation, and doubts must naturally have arisen concerning the manner in which they were to be disposed of, since they contained mention of the divine name.

David Trobisch has noted that, while Christian manuscripts of the Jewish Bible use Kύριος or the nomina sacra and (with a horizontal line above the contracted words) to represent the Tetragrammaton, manuscripts of Greek translations of the Old Testament written by Jewish scribes, such as those found in Qumran, reproduce it within the Greek text in several different ways.

An obvious parallel that likely offered some inspiration is the Jewish practice of writing the divine name of God, commonly rendered as Jehovah or Yahweh in English, as the Hebrew tetragrammaton (transliterated as YHWH) even in Greek Scriptures.

Philo calls it ineffable, and says that it is lawful for those only whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom to hear and utter it in a holy place (that is, for priests in the Temple).

A typical example is the name of God in Judaism, written as YHWH but substituted with "the Lord" or "HaShem" (the name) when reading.

In the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Hebrew and Aramaic texts the tetragrammaton and some other names of God in Judaism (such as El or Elohim) were sometimes written in paleo-Hebrew script, showing that they were treated specially.

For a limited time thereafter, the use of the Paleo-Hebrew script among Jews was retained only to write the Tetragrammaton.

The most complete copies of the Septuagint (B, א, A), versions from fourth century onwards consistently use Κύριος ("Lord"), or Θεός ("God"), where the Hebrew has YHWH, corresponding to substituting Adonai for YHWH in reading the original, but the oldest fragments have the tetragrammaton in Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew characters, with the exception of P. Ryl. 458 (perhaps the oldest extant Septuagint manuscript) where there are blank spaces, leading some scholars such as Colin Henderson Roberts to believe that it contained letters, and 4Q120 that has ΙΑΩ. The 4Q120, a Greek fragment of Leviticus (26:2–16) discovered in the Dead Sea scrolls (Qumran) has ιαω ("Iao"), the Greek form of the Hebrew trigrammaton YHW.

In addition to smaller text-critical variants, the manuscript displays the divine name in Greek characters, as ΙΑΩ (the trigrammaton) in Leviticus 3:12 (frg.

Rabbinic sources suggest that the name of God was pronounced only once a year, by the high priest, on the Day of Atonement.

In most Orthodox and some Conservative synagogues, the entire congregation prostrates themselves at each point in the recitation where the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) would pronounce the Tetragrammaton (God’s holiest name, according to Judaism).

The Names of God Bible (2011,2014) by Ann Spangler uses "Yahweh" throughout the Old Testament.

Some Bible versions, such as the Jerusalem Bible, employ the name Yahweh, a transliteration of Hebrew YHWH, in the English text of the Old Testament, where traditional English versions have.

In 1977, Professor George Howard in the pages of the Journal of Biblical Literature published a thesis of the presence of the Tetragrammaton in the biblical quotations cited by the writers of the New Testament, giving two sets of evidence:

The Tetragram and the New Testament Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 96, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), pp. 63–83

The Masoretes added vowel points (niqqud) and cantillation marks to the manuscripts to indicate vowel usage and for use in ritual chanting of readings from the Bible in Jewish prayer in synagogues.

For example, the words qol qore bamidbar panu derekh YHWH ( Isaiah 40:3) is translated in the Authorised Version as "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD".

Kabbalistic tradition holds that the correct pronunciation is known to a select few people in each generation, it is not generally known what this pronunciation is. In late kabbalistic works the tetragrammaton is sometimes referred to as the name of Havayah—הוי'ה, meaning "the Name of Being/Existence". There are some who believe that the tetractys and its mysteries influenced the early kabbalists.

His charisma, mystical teachings that included repeated pronunciations of the holy Tetragrammaton in public, tied to an unstable personality, and with the help of his greatest enthusiast, Nathan of Gaza, convinced the Jewish masses that the Jewish Messiah had finally come.

Namely, the upper cusp of the Yod is Arich Anpin and the main body of Yod is and Abba; the first Hei is Imma; the Vav is Ze`ir Anpin and the second Hei is Nukvah.

Its Tetragrammaton is YHVH, the name of God in Judaism.

There are some who believe that the tetractys and its mysteries influenced the early kabbalists.

A Hebrew tetractys has the letters of the Tetragrammaton inscribed on the ten positions of the tetractys, from right to left.