The Sacred Name YHVH

Part 2

Pronouncing a Word

You Can ONLY Learn to Pronounce a Word Correctly by Hearing it Spoken

NOT by Reading it!

Generally speaking, Most Children Learn How to Pronounce Words in

Their Own Language

By hearing those words pronounced long before they can

read those words.

Let me Give You an Example of a Word in English:

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Yes, this is REALLY an English word!

According to the Oxford English Dictionary

This is "a word invented in imitation of polysyllabic medical terms, alleged to mean ‘a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine sand and ash dust (mostly volcanic silica ash dust)’ but occurring only as an instance of a very long word.”

Here You DO Have Vowels to Help You Pronounce the Word!

And most North American English-speaking people will

STILL have difficulty pronouncing it!

This is NOT True of the Biblical Hebrew words!

They do NOT have Vowels!

The Biblical Hebrew Language

The Hebrew Bible was originally written only in Consonant’s.

Until The Massoretes

During the early part of the tenth century (895-1000 A.D.) there was a group of Jews called the Massoretes.

The Massoretes were a group of Scribes/Scholars headquartered mostly in Tiberius and Jerusalem, who devised a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides to preserve the proper pronunciations of God’s Word.

These Jewish scribes as all scribes were meticulous in their copying of the text. The texts they had were all in capital letters, and there was no punctuation or paragraphs.

The Masoretic text The Masoretic text has a system of dots and dashes called “pointing” (nikudot - these are vowel pronunciations) which had been added to the consonants in order to aid in the words pronunciation. The Masoretic text is the standard text used today for all Bible translations. Without these aids we would have no idea how to pronounce certain words.

Nikudot – Vowel Points

Without Vowels…

Even in our own language it would be difficult to figure out what the word exactly is or how to accurately pronounce it.

For example when we take away the vowels in our English language we may not know how to pronounce a word -for example: Love- lv, weather-wthr, redemption would look like rdmptn, or Rsrrctn (resurrection).

How Much Less in a Language that is NOT Our Native Language:

Hebrew

Even with the aids there is no absolute assurance of certain words spoken correctly the way the originally were, case in point God's name represented without the vowels YHWH.

Still, You Need to Know How it Sounds! You cannot Just Read it!

So, Let’s take the Original Hebrew without the Nikudot and see if we can pronounce this sentence in Leviticus 19:18 :

The Tetragrammaton – 4 Letters

In the Hebrew Bible God's personal name is the most often used noun. It occurs 6,823 times. In Hebrew texts it is spelled only with consonants: Y-H-V-H, and it is called the "Four-Letter" name or Tetragrammaton in Greek.

Strong’s Exhaustive #3068

Lord – YHVH From hayah; (the) self-Existent or Eternal One.

Used OVER 6000 Times in the Older Testament

ALSO Need to Use Your Interlinear with your Strongs!

Looking up the Name “Lord” does NOT always help you identify the YHVH passages!The Word “Adonai” (Lord) is ALSO used!

God Revealed The Name YHVH to Moshe in Exodus 3:14

��אמ�ר א�ל�ה�ים א�ל-מ�ש��הו �ה, י א�ה�י�ה א�ש��ר ��ה ת�אמר א�ה�י ��אמ�ר, כ ; וי

�י יש��ר�א�ל, �הל�ב�נ �י א�ה�י , ש��ל�חנ And God said unto Moses: 'I AM THAT I AM'; and 14.א�ל�יכ�ם

He said: 'Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto you.'

Exodus 3:15

א�ל-מ�ש��ה א�ל�ה�ים עו�ד ��אמ�ר , וייש��ר�א�ל, �י ��נ א�ל-ב ��ה-ת�אמר �הכ �הו י

א�ב�ת�יכ�ם א�ל�ה�י אב�ר�ה�ם א�ל�ה�י א�ל�ה�י �אל�ה�ייצ�ח�ק א�ל�יכ�ם; ו �י ש��ל�חנ יע�ק�ב,

י �ה-ש���מ� ��רז �כ�ר�י ל�ד�ר ד �ה ז �ז . ל�ע�ל�ם, ו15 And God said moreover unto Moses: 'Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.

Now, According to God in Exodus 62 God spoke to Moshe; he said to him, "I am ADONAI. 3 I appeared to Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya'akov as El Shaddai, although I did not make myself known to them by my name, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [ADONAI]. 4 Also with them I established my covenant to give them the land of Kena'an, the land where they wandered about and lived as foreigners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Isra'el, whom the Egyptians are keeping in slavery; and I have remembered my covenant.

However the YHVH is Written in Scripture Even BEFORE God Revealed

it to Moshe in Exodus 3:15!

Genesis 2:5 No shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for the LORD God (ה א�ל�ה�ים� �הו (יhad not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

Yet By Outward Appearances it Would Appear that Abraham KNEW the Name of the Lord!

Genesis 13:4 …unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first; and Abram called there on the name of the LORD.

�ב��ח, א�ש��ר-ע�ש��ה ש��ם, ז א�ל-מ�קו�ם, המ����ק�ר�א ש��ם אב�ר�ם, ב�� �ה; וי � ש�םב��ר�אש��נ

�ה �הו .י

We Have Talked About this in My D’rash on the Parsha of Exodus 6

AND we shall talk about it later in this series, but suffice it for now that the p’shat (plain and simple meaning) of Exodus 6 is that Avram DID NOT KNOW the Name (or the character of God as reflected in the NAME) when he “called upon the Name of the Lord.”

The NAME - Tetragrammaton

By the time the Massoretes began to copy these texts – the Jews were beginning to embrace the belief that THE NAME (“haShem”) was too sacred to utter. So the Massoretes came up with an ingenious plan: Where YHVH’s Name was written they would use the vowels from the word Adonai.

Variations of Pronunciations of Hebrew YHVH by Simply Changing

Vowel Points (Nikudot)

Use White Board

Bottom Line: You Cannot KNOW How a Word (any Word – including

the Sacred Name of God) is Pronounced

If you cannot Hear it

Regarding the True Pronunciation of the Sacred

Name of God

Historically: Who Last Knew How it Was Pronounced?

The Last Group of Men Who Actually Knew the Sacred Name and How it Was Pronounced –

(AND They had to Hear it)

Were the Cohanim! The priests – descendants of Aaron the High Priest, brother of Moshe and Miriam.

When they Pronounced the Sacred Name of God over the People

That Occurred Up to the Destruction of the Temple in 70

CE.

After that, because there was no more Temple, there was no more Temple service and evidently the passing on of the Name from father to son ceased amongst the cohanim!

Now Even They Don’t Know

I have a number of friends who are leaders (AND who are cohanim) in the Messianic Movement and they tell me that they don’t know the Name!

NowEither they are lying to me and don’t want “the Name” (Hebrew: “haShem”) brought out to be possibly be taken in vain by the Gentiles or they truly DON’T KNOW!

I Believe that They Honestly Don’t Know!

But When Yeshua Returns – Revelation 19 We ALL Will Know

the Name11 Next I saw heaven opened, and there before me was a white horse. Sitting on it was the one called Faithful and True, and it is in righteousness that he passes judgment and goes to battle. 12 His eyes were like a fiery flame, and on his head were many royal crowns. And he had a name written which no one knew but himself.