WHY "JEHOVAH" IS A MIS-TRANSLATION OF THE NAME OF GOD
1. The Masoretic Text
The Hebrew texts of the Bible were originally written with only the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which only represent consonantal sounds.
HEBREW ALPHABETS
Hebrew Alphabet
Name Transliteration א Alef silent ב Bet b ג Gimel g ד Dalet d ה Hay h ו Waw w ז Zayin z ח Chet ch ט Tet t י Yod y כ ך Kaf k ל Lamed l מ ם Mem m נ ן Nun n ס Samech s ע Ayin silent פ ף Pe p צ ץ Tsade ts ק Qof k ר Resh r שׂ שׁ Sin Shin sh s ת Taw t
As no vowel sounds were originally included in the text, they had to be memorized. Around the 10th Century AD, a group of Jewish scribes called Masorites, created a system of dots and dashes, called vowel points and added these to the Hebrew text (known as the masoretic text).
VOWEL POINTS
These vowel points served to supply the vowel sounds to the text in order to codify the pronunciation.
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL TEXT AND THE MASORETIC TEXT
2. The Kethibh and Qere
An interesting feature in the printed Hebrew Bible is that corrections of recognized errors are made in the margin or footnote, while the uncorrected words are retained in the text. The uncorrected word in the text is the Kethibh (i.e., it is written). The corrected reading in the margin or footnote is the Qere (i.e., to be read).
A SAMPLE PAGE OF THE MASORETIC TEXT
A type of deliberate change in reading due to reverence is the name of God יהוה (transliteration: yhwh). The name was considered too sacred to be pronounced (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11); so the consonants of this word יהוה were written in the text (Kethibh), but the word read (Qere) was אֲדֹנָי (transliteration: ʾădonay, meaning "Lord"). The consonants of the (Kethibh) were given the vowels of the (Qere) namely T ֹ : , producing the impossible form יְהוָ֗ה (transliteration: Yehowah, i.e., the English "Jehovah"). Since the name of God occurs so often in the Bible, the printed editions do not put the reading required (Qere) in the margin or footnote; the reader is expected to substitute the Qere for Kethibh, without having his attention drawn to it every time it occurs.
Due to the above reason, most scholars believe the name "Jehovah" to be a hybrid form derived by combining the Hebrew consonants יהוה with the vowels of אֲדֹנָי. The vocalization of the "Jehovah" was first introduced by William Tyndale in his translation of Exodus 6:3 and appears in some other early English translations including the Geneva Bible and the King James Version. Nowadays, "Jehovah" does not appear in most mainstream English translations, some of which use "Yahweh" but most continue to use "Lord" or "LORD" to represent the name of God.
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