By Anthony V. Gaudiano
The sacred name of our creator is not ‘jehovah’. That word is a proven transliteration error from the 13th century. Do some Protestants still perpetuate this reasonably well know error?
Our creator personally revealed his sacred name in Hebrew to Moses. The four characters of the sacred name have come down to us in Hebrew as 
. Most scholars agree the equivalent characters in English are YHWH.
Proper names are transliterated from one language to another, i.e., written to obtain the same sound. Other words are translated to obtain the same meaning.
Several early Greek writers of the Christian Church testify that the sacred name was pronounced ‘Yahweh’. Many authoritative biblical, archeological, linguistic, and grammatical sources agree.
Conformation also comes from an unexpected source.
The Governing Body of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society makes doctrine for Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Doctrines are promulgated through its large publishing organization. Several of their publications acknowledge that the sacred name is “correctly pronounced YAHWEH”.
To their credit, they also admit ‘jehovah’ is an error in transliteration and document how it occurred. They espouse the j-word error because it is “more widely known”.
Watch Tower publications elevate the admitted error to proper name status, and equate it with the true sacred name Yahweh. They obscure clear thinking by adding the proper noun title ‘God’ to the error (i.e., Jehovah God). Witnesses commonly invoke the error. They develop a personal relationship with it and praise the attributed name of their ‘god’ in worship and in hymns.
They do not question the contradiction of worshiping an error instead of the truth. Neither do they find it incredibly condescending of the Governing Body, that the latter assigned a name of their choosing, to the creator of the universe!
Protestants should carefully ponder the following questions:
Do Witnesses seemingly worship a false god called ‘jehovah’?
Do they teach their children to do the same?
Do we?
Is there a contradiction between error and the truth if Protestants perpetuate the j-word error in worship and in hymns?
If we sing hymns to ‘jehovah’, is it not intentional worship of a false god? Do we not teach hymns with the j-word error, to our children? Do we find it a contradiction that the j-word error is used in some Protestant worship and hymns, but not in Catholicism where the error originated? The great gain of the Protestant Reformation was truth. Truth alone must decide if any form of the j-word error is perpetuated by Protestants. What is the truth about the j-word error?
Anyone can obtain the following facts from sources at home, at a public library, on the Internet, or by request:
- The character j, (J) is relatively modern. Therefore, the j-word error cannot be the ancient sacred name of our creator. The ‘j’ was the last character added to the English alphabet. It is not older than the invention of movable type, only about 500 years ago. There were two characters in English like the ‘i’. One had a long descending tail which would protrude into a lower line of type if the character were capitalized. Dutch printers overcame the problem by attaching a short ‘tail’ to the lower left side of the capital ‘I’. The result looked like a reversed L.
In contrast, written text of a Scripture with the sacred name was discovered in a tiny sliver amulet now in the Israel Museum. It was found during archeological excavations of a family tomb outside of Jerusalem. The contents of the tomb have been dated to 700 B.C.E. When carefully unrolled, the amulet contained the blessing which Yahweh gave to Moses for Aaron and his sons to use. It is found in the Bible in Numbers 6:24-26. The sacred name
is visible three times in Paleo-Hebrew from 2700 years ago.
A shard of pottery about 2900 to 2800 years old has been found with Paleo-Hebrew writing on it. It is clearly a receipt for “Silver of Tarshish to the House of Yahweh three Shekels” [English capitalization convention]. This is the temple which Solomon built.
The Moabite Stone which dates to 900 B.C.E, is in the Louvre in Paris, France. Carved on the stone is King Misha’s story of a battle with the Israelites. It is described less flatteringly in 2 Kings 3:21. The stone contains the four characters of the sacred name in Moabite, a Semitic language close to Paleo-Hebrew. The stone is about 2900 years old.
- The J-word is a gross error. Watch Tower publications report that the j-word error occurred about 1270 A.D. A Spanish monk of the Dominican Order, Reymundus Martini, attempted to transliterate the sacred name from Hebrew into Latin for his booklet Pugeo Fidei. Apparently he used manuscripts in which the Hebrew Priests had the vowel points of the word ‘Adonai’ (Lord), intentionally attached to the characters of the sacred name (
). The priests are said to have done this initially to prevent blasphemy. The now Latinized yohoua error went unnoticed in Catholicism for many years.
In the 16th century Petrus Galatinus, a confessor to Pope X, used the form ‘Iehoua’ in his book De Arcanis Catholic Veritatis II. The character ‘h’ was added to the end of the word (i.e., ‘Iehoua(h)’). This was about the time of printing when a reversed L evolved into the character ‘J’. Dr. J.B. Rotherham writes the following about the j-word error “The pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520, when it was introduced by Galatinus; but was contested by Le Mercier, J. Drusius, and L. Capellus, as against grammatical and historical propriety.” He may not have known about R. Martini.
- The early King James Version of the Bible did not contain the j-word error. Early Protestant translations of the Bible were based on the Latin Vulgate. It was translated by Jerome using several Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of various traditions. Protestant translators were hampered by their lack of scholarship in Hebrew and unavailability of complete early manuscripts. It was at this time that translators started to substitute proper noun titles (i.e., God, Lord, etc.) for the sacred name.
The first copies of the 1611 King James Version (KJV) used the character ‘i’ where the ‘j’ is used today. The ‘i’ was pronounced with the sound of ‘y’. The pages show Iermyah (pronounced ‘Yermayah’) instead of Jeremiah. Later editions of the KJV contained the j-word error. The wide use of the KJV is how perpetuation of the j-word error began.
- No character in Hebrew transliterates into the equivalent of the English character j. Most common dictionaries under ‘alphabet’ will have a table that shows a Hebrew character equivalent to a ‘y’ in English, but not ‘j’. All characters of the sacred name () transliterate into English equivalents (YHWH). This includes the three consonants in Hebrew which can also be used as vowels (YHW).
- There is no j sound in Hebrew. French usage of the reversed L character of Dutch printers resulted in the sound and final shape of the character j, (J) which was adopted into English. French words such as judge, justice, etc., are examples of the j sound.
Although other languages such as German have words which are spelled with a ‘j’, they are pronounced today as if ‘y’. The name of the WWII German aircraft we call Junker is pronounced by them as ‘Yunker’. This is true of every word in the Scriptures now spelled with ‘j’. The Hebrew appellation ‘HalleluYah’ (i.e., praise Yahweh) is shown correctly here. The abbreviated poetic form of the sacred name Yah, is from Psalms 68:4.
- No scholarly reference supports perpetuation of the j-word error. Numerous scholarly references not listed here, verify no support for the j-word error. Excerpts from many of these references are quoted in the literature identified on the References page.
Who perpetuates the 700 year old j-word error? It is perpetuated principally through Watch Tower publications, in some KJV influenced Masonic rites, and by incorrect references.
Protestants perpetuate the error principally by purchase of Bibles containing the error, supporting the placement of such Bibles in hotel rooms, and by purchase of hymnals which contain the error.
Should Protestants perpetuate this reasonably well known error: in worship, in hymns, or by the purchase of Bibles or hymnals which contain the error?
The preponderance of evidence, plain common sense, and at least one Commandment scream:
NEVER!
References
Meyer, Jacob O., The Memorial Name – YAHWEH, 1987, Assemblies of Yahweh, Bethel PA: p.25
Melvin, Gail, Yahweh, Yahshua, and You, 1998, Jubilee Publications, Panama City, FL: p.25
Roth and Wigoder, 1978, God, Names of, Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol.7: p.680
Franz, Frederick W., “Does God have a Name?”, The Watchtower, Feb. 1, 1980, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania: p.5
Safran, Clarie, “Mystery of the Buried Amulet,” Readers Digest, June 1987: p.95-99
Shanks, Hershel, “Three Shekels for the Lord,” Bible Archaeological Review, 23 November-December 1997: p.28-32
Franz, Frederick W., Jehovah, Aid to Bible Understanding, 1971, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.: p.882
Rotherham, James Byrant, Introduction, Emphasized Bible, The Standard Publishing Company: p.23-25
New Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia, 1997
Mish, Frederick C., Alphabet Table, Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1987, Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, MA: p.47
Mansager, Donald R. and Mansager, Alan R., The MISTAKEN J, 1996, Yahweh’s New Covenant Assembly, Kingdom City, MO: p.32
Additional references are available in following literature which is free, and without obligation. Request:
The MISTAKEN J: Soft bound, 50 pages —- Web page: http://www.ynca.com
The Memorial Name – YAHWEH: Soft bound, 245 pages —- Web page: http://www.assembliesofyahweh.com
Though not required, a small donation is recommended to offset cost of printing and shipping.