Did the Hebrews
Pronounce the Divine Name?

A Restoration Light Publication

"God said moreover to Moses, "You shall tell the children of Israel this, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. "
Exodus 3:15, World English Version.

Unless otherwise stated, all quotations from the Holy Scriptures are from the World English Bible translation.

It has been argued by some that the various people who are recorded as speaking the divine name in the Hebrew Scriptures actually did not pronounce the name of God, but rather substituted EL, ELOHIM, ADONAI, or some other generic title when they spoke. Not one scripture supports this claim. However, we do know that the disobedient Jews did later adopt this custom of substituting titles for the divine name, supposedly with the belief that the divine name was too sacred to be pronounced. Jews in general still follow this tradition to this day. Jesus condemned the traditions of the Jews. (Matthew 15:1-11; Mark 7:4-15) He called the Jewish leaders children of the devil. -- John 8:44.

The argument is put forth that the divine name was not pronounced because it contains no vowels. In truth, however, no written Hebrew name has vowels; indeed, not one word in the original Hebrew has any written vowels. Thus such an argument would make all of the words and names in Hebrew unpronounceable, which, of course, is ridiculous.

Someone has stated that we have the pronunciation of the other words since the Masoretes gave us the pronunciations and they are preserved in the Masoretic text. Actually, we don't know for sure how those Hebrew words names were pronounced. The vowel points as provided by the Masoretes are claimed by many to be incorrect in many ways. Indeed, if they were correct, we would know for sure how to pronounce the divine name, since the Masoretes have provided vowel points for that name, as well as all other Hebrew words and names. Most scholars tell us that those vowel points are wrong. Additionally, many believe the Masoretes also gave false pronunciations for many other Hebrew names, such as Jehoaddin, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jehohanan, Jehoiachin, Jehoiakim, Jehoshaphat, etc., in order to keep the divine name from being pronounced in the beginning of names. Whether these arguments are true or not is not of our concern, for *** add more here...

Someone has written: "The Masoretes were not faulty in the current Hebrew text today compared to a recent find from over 1000 years ago found in Yemen a few years ago only 9 letters were found different." We don't know of what the writer speaks here, as there are more than 9 letters that are different in the Qumran texts and that of the Masoretic text. But this is beside the point. None of these earlier texts have the Masoretic vowel points in them, so there is nothing gained by citing these texts. The Qumran scroll of Isaiah does add the Hebrew letters "waw" and "yod" to words as pronunciation helps to indicate vowels, but this is generic, since it does not indicate what vowel sounds are to be inserted.

http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller/qumdir.htm

Something else we might notice is that the Qumran scroll of Isaiah gives 4 different spellings for Hezekiah:

http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller/qum-28.htm#28:29

Therefore, the vowel points added in the Masoretic text are very questionable; otherwise you would have to say that the divine name should be pronounced Yehowah or Yehovah.

To further complicate the matter, even the original pronunciation of many of the consonants are disputed among Hebrew scholars. For instance, was the 6th letter pronounced like our "v" or our "w", or somewhere in between? Was the tenth letter pronounced like our "y" or like our "j", or somewhere in between? Many lengthy studies have been published over the correct pronuciation of these Hebrew letters, each with very convincing arguments for their particular claims. Thus it is clear that we do not know for sure how many of the names of the Old Testament were originally pronounced.

Do we have any proof that the Hebrews in Old Testament times did pronounce the divine name? Josephus stated, in speaking of God's appearance to Moses: "Whereupon God declared to him his holy name, which had never been discovered to men before; concerning which it is not lawful for me to say any more." (*Antiquities of Jews*, Book II, chap. XII, par. 4) Thus he appears to be saying, in effect: I used to be permitted to pronounce the divine name, but not any more. Some have stated that later Jewish writings claim that the name was not permitted to be pronounced in the first century, and that it had not been pronounced since as early as the fifth century BCE, but according to Josephus, the name evidently was at least tolerated to be pronounced, at least in the earlier part of the first century, which would include the time Jesus was on earth. It is claimed that in the second century BCE, the Jewish leaders proclaimed that the divine name was ineffable, and not to be pronounced by humans, basing this upon certain scriptures, such . More than likely the Jewish leaders did claim that its pronunciation was in violation of certain scriptures, but the idea was probably not enforced until the latter part of the first century, so that many of the Jewish people did continue to use the name until that time.

But from the scriptures we do find evidence that the divine name was not considered ineffable, and that it was pronounced by the Hebrews, as well as others, in the Old Testament times. Surely God spoke his own name to Moses, and commanded Moses to speak the name to the children of Israel, when he said (Exodus 3:15-19): {3:15} God said moreover to Moses, "You shall tell the children of Israel this, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. {3:16} Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt; {3:17} and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey."' {3:18} They will listen to your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall tell him, 'Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh, our God.'

How could the divine name be a memorial to all generations if it is not to be pronounced, or if was only a temporary arrangment? And surely Moses pronounced the divine name in his reply (Exodus 4:1): Moses answered, "But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, 'Yahweh has not appeared to you.'" Not only does this indicate that Moses spoke the name, but it also indicates the possibility of the elders speaking the name of Yahweh in reply. This indicates also that the elders already knew the name "Yahweh", and had been speaking it before.

Further evidence can be seen, for surely God used his own name when he later told Moses (Exodus 4:22, World English Bible translation): {4:22} You shall tell Pharaoh, 'Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn. Later when Moses told Aaron all these words, and Aaron related these words to the elders, are we to think they changed the words of Yahweh to say Adonai instead of Yahweh, as some have claimed? -- Exodus 4:27-31.

Additionally, when Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh we read (Exodus 5:1): Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, "This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, 'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'" We cannot accept that Moses misrepresented the matter, and disobeyed Yahweh by not pronouncing the divine name, as some have claimed. He did not write anywhere that he never pronounced the name of God at all; nor does he say that instead he substituted Adonai or Elohim. Lacking any proof otherwise, we conclude that Moses recorded the matter as it ocurred, that is, that Moses and others actually did speak the divine name. Indeed, to believe otherwise would make Moses disobedient to Yahweh.

Not only this, we also read of Pharaoh (Exodus 5:2): Pharaoh said, "Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don't know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let Israel go." Does Moses actually falsify the report in this regard? Or did Pharaoh actually say: Who is Elohim? or something else? Again, it is inconceivable to think Moses put the divine name into Pharaoh's mouth.

In fact one could go through all the Hebrew Scriptures in this way. The idea that the speakers represented in the Hebrew Scriptures never pronounced the divine name would make the writers of these scriptures appear to give a false testimony, to say the least.

Some claim that the name was given to Moses was to be only used temporarily, and was later not be pronounced, being replaced by another name (such as Jesus) or a title (such as Adonai [Lord] or Father). But there are some that actually believe that the name spoken by God to Moses was not really spoken, although as yet we have not seen any clear explanation as to how this could be. The record of Exodus would not make sense if this were true, as we have shown above.

We know that the Israelites often fell into worship of the idol-gods around them. Thus we read: "They forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked Yahweh to anger." (Joshua 24:15) "The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth." (Judges 3:7) "It happened, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the prostitute after the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god. The children of Israel didn't remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side." (Judges 8:33,34) "The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Yahweh, and didn't serve him." (Judges 10:6) "How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal." (Jeremiah 23:26,27) Yes, through worship of other gods, the people were led to forget the name of Yahweh.

We are not to think that in their forgetting the name of Yahweh for the names of other gods meant that they literally forgot the divine name and never said it. Indications are that they actually did use the name of Yahweh, but mixed its use in with the worship of the idol-gods, thus, in effect, denying the meaning of the divine name. **** (more to be added here)

Due their forgetting God's name in favor of idolaty, we know that the Israelites were taken captive to Babylon. Thus, Yahweh told Jeremiah to say to them: "Because your fathers have forsaken me, says Yahweh, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don't listen to me: therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor." (Jeremiah 16:11-13) That which was their sin became their punishment, for they were serve the gods they wanted to worship "day and night", that is, continually, in Babylon. A few, while in Babylon, refused to serve the Babylonish idol-gods (Daniel 3:12; 6:7.14), but from this scripture, we are led to believe that the majority of the Israelites did serve these "gods". No doubt, their service to these gods took them farther away from remembering the name of the true God. ****More to be added here****

Some point to some scriptures which they claim forbids one to pronounce the divine name. The main scriptures that are usually quoted are Exodus 20:7 and Leviticus 24:16: "He who blasphemes the name of Yahweh, he shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the sojourner, as the home-born, when he blasphemes the name [of Yahweh], shall be put to death."

****More to be added here****

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Last update: October, 2003.

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