Chapter
3
"THE ONLY TRUE GOD"
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"I
am the LORD (Yahweh), that is my name; my glory I give
to no other"
Isaiah
42:8 |
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APPENDIX:
The Spelling of God's Name: YAHWEH According
to the Old Testament, the Jews frequently used God's name
YAHWEH in everyday conversation, but later generations (on
the basis of Exodus 20.7) abstained from pronouncing the word
at all. What happened, then, when the Hebrew Scriptures were
to be read aloud in temple or synagogue services? They adopted
the simple expedient of substituting a title of God, usually
ADONAI, in place of YAHWEH, whenever the latter appeared in
the sacred text, whether it stood alone or in combination
(as in YAHWEH ELOHIM). However, the combination ADONAI YAHWEH
also occurs quite frequently, so to avoid a repetition of
ADONAI here the title ELOHIM was substituted for YAHWEH; thus
both combinations were read out as ADONAI ELOHIM. The Authorised
Version distinguishes between these two original combinations
by printing the translations as "LORD God" and Lord
GOD" respectively (i.e. full capitals represent YAHWEH
in the Hebrew text) 19
In a 'pointed' Hebrew text, i.e. one which supplies the vowels
as small dots and dashes under the Hebrew letters (which are
all consonants), the reader was always reminded of these substitutions
by the following expedient:
the
vowel points of the substitute title replaced the vowels
which would have belonged to the name YAHWEH.
Unfortunately, early translators did not appreciate that this
replacement signalled to the reader that he should pronounce
the substitute title (either ADONAI or ELOHIM) when reading
the text out loud. Instead they proceeded to incorporate the
substitute vowels into the original consonants. From this
misunderstanding arose the form 'JEHOVAH' (more strictly 'Y'HOVAH),
which has the consonants YHWH (strictly YHVH) with the vowels
of ADONAI!
The true vowels of YHWH are a matter of debate amongst scholars,
but the general consensus is that they were A and E, producing
the form 'YAHWEH'. 20
REFERENCES
19.
On just seven occasions the A.V. itself uses JEHOVAH instead
of LORD or God. The form 'YAH' (A.V. 'JAH' in Psa.68.4) is
an abbreviation of Yahweh; it occurs frequently as a component
of Hebrew personal names, and 24 times in the compound 'Hallelu-Yah'
(plus 4 times in the N.T.)
20.
See F.F. Bruce: The books and the Parchments, London 1950,
pp. 119-120.
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