The tetragrammaton, YHWH, is the four-letter Hebrew name God gave for Himself in Exodus 3:14–15, meant to be remembered and used by His people. Over time, Jewish tradition avoided pronouncing YHWH out of reverence, replacing it with Adonai or Elohim, which led to English Bibles using “LORD” or “GOD” in all caps to represent YHWH. Because Hebrew originally lacked vowels, later scribes added misleading vowel marks to obscure its pronunciation, resulting in today’s uncertain renderings. Most scholars believe the name was originally pronounced “Yahweh,” though others say it is “Yahveh.” The more familiar “Jehovah” arose later through Latin influences. Though the original pronunciation has been lost, we are free to honor God using any of these forms—Yahweh, Jehovah, or LORD—so long as we do so with reverence and faith.
The letters in YHWH are the four English letters representing the four Hebrews consonants for God’s name. Only the consonants are written because, unlike English, Hebrew does not have vowel letters. That does not mean Hebrew speakers do not use vowels, just that there are no letters that represent the spoken vowels.
Long after the Old Testament was complete, Jewish scribes invented a system to add dots and dashes around the consonants, known as vowel pointings, to indicate how to pronounce the Hebrew words.
While early Judaism freely used God’s name, over time, the preference was to not say it at all, out of respect for God. When Hebrew scholars began adding the vowel pointings, to further prevent people from saying God’s name, they intentionally made the word YHWH unpronounceable by giving it the vowel pointings from other words for God (primarily the vowels for adonai, though sometimes the vowels from elohim were also used). This would be like replacing all the vowels in “California” with the vowels from the word “Colorado,” resulting in a difficult, if not impossible, to pronounce word. Eventually the actual pronunciation was completely lost from memory.
Because of the lost pronunciation, there are three common ways YHWH is said today: Jehovah (“Jeh Ho Va”), Yahweh (“Yah Way”), or Yahveh (“Yah Vey”).
The word “Jehovah” arose because of Latin influences in the 16th century, whereas Yahweh and Yahveh are more direct translations from Hebrew, with the debate being on how ancient Hebrews pronounced the “W” letter (“w” or “v”).
Because of influences in ancient language classes in schools and seminaries, which tend to adopt the “w” pronunciation, most English writers say, “Yahweh,” making it the “standard” pronunciation for God’s name.
Unfortunately, out of reverence and even sometimes superstition, Jewish tradition entirely prevented the use of God’s name. The Jewish Mishnah (a book of early Jewish traditions) even states, “He who pronounces the Name with its own letters has no part in the world to come!” However, that restriction and penalty contradict Scripture. It never prohibits us from saying YHWH and does not list saying God’s name as a sin or something that prevents us from entering heaven. We, therefore, would consider this an example of the traditions of men overriding what God said (c.f., Mark 7:8–9).
Therefore, despite Jewish tradition, we are free to use God's name. Though most Bibles prefer the more traditional “LORD,” a couple Bibles, with the Legacy Standard Bible being the most recent example, opt to use “Yahweh,” instead. Despite our freedom to use God’s given name, some may either find their conscience bothered by saying, “Yahweh,” or be more comfortable with the older pronunciation of “Jehovah.” Different opinions on using Jehovah, Yahweh, or LORD should not cause disunity within the church. As long as the word choice is to honor, not dishonor, God, then they all are acceptable.
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