Wiccans: Is Yahweh a false god?

Answer 1

Wiccans don't tend to call any god a 'false god', in my experience.
They just don't follow or worship Him, in general.

Answer 2

The Hebrew name “Yahweh” (or “Yehowah”) seems to accurately pronounce the divine name represented by the four Hebrew characters known as "the Tetragrammaton". Just as the Hebrew name “Yeshua” (or “Yehoshua”) is translated into “Jesus” in English, the Hebrew name “Yahweh” is translated into “Jehovah” in English.

The important thing is to use God’s personal name in whatever language you speak, rather than insisting upon the impersonal! The name “Yahweh” is certainly preferable to the non-name “God” or “Lord”, especially if you speak Hebrew. If you speak English, feel free to use the name "Jehovah".

(Psalms 83:18) That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, You alone are the Most High over all the earth

(John 17:26) [Jesus said] I have made your name known to them and will make it known, in order that the love with which you loved me may be in them

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/library/na/index.htm

Answer 3

That question should not be addressed to Wiccans. It should be addressed to Jehovah's Witnesses. Yahweh is all part of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH). This is their belief on determining God's name, Jehovah. Of course, God has another name, you've probably heard of a guy named...Jesus.

Answer 4

Yahweh never identified himself as a god.

Answer 5

all gods are false gods,good people are gods

Answer 6

There are no 'false' Gods. We are all Goddesses & Gods! ; )

Answer 7

all gods are false, it is imaginary

Answer 8

Yahweh and Jehovah are two different English transcriptions of יהוה [ i.e. the non vocalized Tetragrammaton ], which is accepted by both Jews and Christians as being God's Hebrew name, as it was preserved in the original consonantal Hebrew text.

Jehovah is an English transcription of יְהֹוָה, a specific vocalized spelling of יהוה which is found in the Masoretic Text.
Under the heading "יהוה c. 6823" the editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write that: יְהֹוָה occurs 6518 times in the Masoretic Text, however in 1863, and quite possibly even earlier, scholars had rejected this Hebrew spelling יְהֹוָה, believing that the Masoretes had not pointed יהוה with the actual vowel points of God's name. In the latter half of the 19th century, Hebrew scholars were proposing various punctuations of יהוה, which they each believed were more likely than יְהֹוָה to accurately result in the correct pronunciation of God's Hebrew name.[1]
Yahweh is thought by many modern scholars to be the likely original pronunciation of יהוה.
Beside the heading "יהוה c. 6823" (mentioned above),
the editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write:
"i.e. יַהְוֶה n.pr.dei Yahweh, the proper name of the God of Israel."
The heading "יהוה c. 6823", indicates that "יהוה ( e.g. the Tetragrammaton without any vowel points), occurs approximately 6823 times in the original consonantal Hebrew Text.
יַהְוֶה is a Hebrew spelling of יהוה proposed by Gesenius [2] in the early 19th century.
While יַהְוֶה is found in no extant Masoretic Text, in the early 20th century many scholars began to believe that יַהְוֶה might accurately represent the original pronunciation of יהוה.

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Contents [hide]
1 Jehovah [ a.k.a. "Iehouah" (1530-1611) and "Iehovah" (1611-1769)]
1.1 Iehouah [1530 to 1611]
1.2 Iehovah [1611 to 1769]
1.3 Jehovah [1769 to the present time period]
2 "Iehovah" [ a.k.a. Jehovah ] is both critiqued and defended in the 17th century
2.1 The ten discourses on Iehovah [ a.k.a. Jehovah ] in the 17th century
3 Twentieth Century criticism of the name "Jehovah"
3.1 Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906’s criticism of the name Jehovah
3.2 The vowel points of יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי are not precisely the same
3.3 The Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911's criticism of the name Jehovah
4 Jehovah and Theophoric Names
5 "יַהְוֶה" (i.e. Yahweh)
5.1 Wilhelm Gesenius [1786-1842] proposed the punctuation "יַהְוֶה" (i.e. Yahweh)
5.2 The Brown-Driver-Briggs' Lexicon translates "יַהְוֶה" as "Yahweh"
6 Greek forms that "יַהְוֶה" might have been based on
6.1 Iαουε and Ιαβε are both Greek forms of יהוה.
6.1.1 The Greek forms Iαουε and Ιαβε both favor the pronunciation Yahweh
7 William Smith believed that "יַהְוֶה" was represented by Epiphanius's "Iαβε"
8 Other sources believe that "יַהְוֶה" [ i.e. Yahweh ] was represented by Clement's "Iαουε"
8.1 The Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911
8.2 Professor Anson F. Rainey
8.3 On-line Ante Nicene Fathers Vol II
9 Criticism of the form "Yahweh"
9.1 The name "Yahweh" is not clearly found in the Hebrew Scriptures
10 Yahweh and Theophoric Names
11 Usage of YHWH
11.1 In ancient Judaism
11.2 In later Judaism
11.3 Among the Samaritans
11.4 Among early Christian writers
11.4.1 Epiphanius
11.4.2 Theodoret
11.5 In the The Magical Texts
11.6 Among modern Samaritan priests
11.7 In the writings of Genebrardus
11.8 In cults
12 Derivation
12.1 Putative etymology
12.2 Cultus
12.3 Alternative derivations
12.4 Mesopotamian influence
13 Attributes
14 References [ Includes 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica Footnotes ]
15 See also
16 External links



[edit]
Jehovah [ a.k.a. "Iehouah" (1530-1611) and "Iehovah" (1611-1769)]
The first English translators to transcribe God's name into English had no reason to believe that the vowel points of "יְהֹוָה" might be incorrect, so they transcribed "יְהֹוָה" into English just as it was written.

[e.g. Iehouah in 1530 A.D. and Iehovah in 1611 A.D. and Jehovah in 1769 A.D.] + : [e.g.
The name means "He Who Causes To Become" or "He Who Purposes" referring to His ability to make anything and everything he says come true. [citation needed]

[edit]
Iehouah [1530 to 1611]
The transcription Iehouah was used in the 16th century by many authors, both Catholic and Protestant.

Iehouah [3] is the first English transcription of God's name and first appeared in an English Bible in Tyndale's translation of the Pentateuch (1530). Iehouah is found in all English Protestant versions of the 16th century except that of Coverdale (1535).

In the year 1530 A.D. the English letter "u", when being used as a consonant,
was pronounced like the English letter "v" is pronounced today.
[edit]
Iehovah [1611 to 1769]
IEHOVAH[4][in all capital letters] is the 1611 A.D. English transcription of the Biblical Hebrew name יְהֹוָה. "IEHOVAH" [in all capital letters] is found only four times in the King James Bible of 1611 A.D..

[edit]
Jehovah [1769 to the present time period]
JEHOVAH [in all capital letters] is an English transcription of יְהֹוָה that is found four times in an 18th century revision of the King James Bible. The King James Bible, which is commonly sold in bookstores, is an 18th century revision of the of King James Bible of 1611 A.D. In the original Hebrew text, this name occurs almost 7,000 times, whereas many popular Bibles mention it only a few times.

[edit]
"Iehovah" [ a.k.a. Jehovah ] is both critiqued and defended in the 17th century
The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon write:

The pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520 when it was introduced by Galatinus; but it was contested by Le Mercier, J. Drusius, and L. Capellus, as against grammatical and historical propriety.
On page 311 of the article "JEHOVAH (YAHWEH)" in the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911, the editors write:

The form Jehovah was used in the 16th century by many authors, both Catholic and Protestant, and in the 17th was zealously defended by Fuller, Gataker [1574-1654], Leusden and others, against the criticisms of such scholars as Drusius, Cappellus and the elder Buxtorf.
Note: Strictly speaking, the form used in the 16th century was "Iehouah" and not "Jehovah"
Note: Strictly speaking the form "Iehovah not the form "Jehovah" was both "zealously defended" by some, and criticized by others in the 17th century.
The English form "Jehovah" did not exist until about 1769 A.D
[edit]
The ten discourses on Iehovah [ a.k.a. Jehovah ] in the 17th century
[NOTE: The actual ten discourses were published in 1707 by Hadrian Reland.[5] ]
The following text is found in Memoirs of the Puritans: Thomas Gataker:

[NOTE: The dates in brackets are not found in the original article.]
"With this object in view, he [ i.e. Thomas Gataker (1574-1654) ] published, in the year 1645,
his laborious discourse on the name by which God made himself known to Moses and the children of Israel.
In this profound, curious, and instructive performance, he discovered uncommon proficiency in the Hebrew tongue; and the work was so well received in the learned world, that it has passed through many editions.
It is entitled, De Nomine Tetragrammato Dissertatio, qua vocis Jehovah apud nostros receptae usus defenditur, et a quoruudam cavil]ationibus iniquis pariter atque inanibus vindicatur.
It was reprinted in 1652.
It is also inserted in his Opera Critica, and makes one of the ten discourses on the same subject, collected and published by Hadrian Ryland.
The first five of these were written by
John Drusius [1550[6]-1616[7]],
Sextinus Amama,
Lewis Capel,
John Buxtorff [1564-1629][8],
and James Alting [1618-1679],
who opposed the received usage
which is strenuously defended in the other five;
the first of which was written by
Nicholas Fuller,
the second by our author,
"and the other three by John Leusden.":
The editor of Smith’s 1863 “A Dictionary of the Bible” writes:

In the decade of dissertations collected by Reland,
Fuller, Gataker [1574-1654], and Leusden do battle for the pronunciation Jehovah, against such formidable antagonists as Drusius, Amama, Cappellus, Buxtorf, and Altingius, who, it is scarcely necessary to say, fairly beat their opponents out of the field;
the only argument of any weight, which is employed by the advocates of the pronunciation of the word as it is written being that derived from the form in which it appears in proper names, such as Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, &c.
Their antagonists make a strong point of the fact that, as has been noticed above, two different sets of vowel points are applied to the same consonants under certain circumstances. To this Leusden, of all the champions on his side, but feebly replies.
The same may be said of the argument derived from the fact that the letters מוכלב, when prefixed to יהוה, take, not the vowels which they would regularly receive were the present pronunciation true, but those with which they would be written if אֲדֹנָי, adonai, were the reading; and that the letters ordinarily taking dagesh lene when following יהוה would, according to the rules of the Hebrew points, be written without dagesh, whereas it is uniformly inserted.
Whatever, therefore, be the true pronunciation of the word, there can be little doubt that it is not Jehovah.
JEHOVAH is a phonics nightmare in modern English. The most obvious problem is the "J" in the JEHOVAH spelling. Perhaps at least the "J" in JEHOVAH should be replaced to help Americans better pronounce the Hebrew word. Many do not know that the "J" in the tetragram was pronounced like a "G" or a "J" in "Jury". (English pronunciation has significantly changed since the middle ages.) JEHOVAH was a good spelling to give a reasonable Hebrew-like pronunciation in Roman, Latin, German, and old English, but the current Yankee pronunciation of this spelling does not sound like any Hebrew or German Masonic word. R. Baggett
[edit]
Twentieth Century criticism of the name "Jehovah"
[edit]
Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906’s criticism of the name Jehovah
In the BibleWiki article: JEHOVAH (Jewish Encyclopedia) The editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 write:

A mispronunciation (introduced by Christian theologians, but almost entirely disregarded by the Jews) of the Hebrew "Yhwh," the (ineffable) name of God (the Tetragrammaton or "Shem ha-Meforash").
This pronunciation is grammatically impossible; it arose through pronouncing the vowels of the kere"
(marginal reading of the Masorites: אֲדֹנָי = "Adonay")
with the consonants of the "ketib"
(text-reading: יהוה = "Yhwh")
—"Adonay" (the Lord) being substituted with one exception wherever Yhwh occurs in the Biblical and liturgical books.
"Adonay" presents the vowels "shewa"
(the composite ( ֲ ) under the guttural א becomes simple ( ְ ) under the י),
"holem,"
and "kamez,"
and these give the reading ( יְהֹוָה ) (= "Jehovah").
Sometimes, when the two names ( יהוה ) and ( אדני ) occur together,
the former is pointed with "hatef segol" ( ֱ ) under the י
— thus, יֱהֹוִה (="Jehovah")
—to indicate that in this combination it is to be pronounced "Elohim" ( אֱלֹהִים ).
These substitutions of "Adonay"and "Elohim" for Yhwh were devised to avoid the profanation of the Ineffable Name ( hence יהוה is also written ’ה, or even ’ד, and read "ha-Shem" = "the Name ").
[edit]
The vowel points of יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי are not precisely the same
Most modern scholars agree with the editors of Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 that when the Masoretes added vowel points to the consonantal Hebrew text, they had not placed the correct vowel points of God's name above and below the consonants of YHWH. Instead modern scholars believe that the Masoretes had placed a modified version of the vowel points of ’ǎdônây above and below the consonants of YHWH to indicate to the Jewish reader that he was to substitute ’ǎdônây for the proper name in reading the scriptures (see Q're Perpetuum).


The spelling of the Tetragrammaton and connected forms in the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Bible, with vowel points shown in red. (Click on image to enlarge.)In the table below, Yehovah and Adonay are dissected

Hebrew Word #3068 Hebrew Word #136
YEHOVAH ADONAY
יְהֹוָה אֲדֹנָי
י..........Yod..........Y א......Aleph...Silent
Ö°...Simple Shewa..E Ö²..Hatef Patah..A

ה...........Heh..........H ד.......Daleth........D

Ö¹..........Holem..........O Ö¹........Holem........O

ו...........Vav............V נ.........Nun..........N

Ö¸........Qamets.........A Ö¸......Qamets......A

ה..........Heh..........H י........Yod.........Y


Note in the table directly above that the "simple shewa" in Yehovah and the "hatef patah" in Adonay are not the exact same vowel points.

The same information is displayed in the table above and to the right where "YHWH intended to be pronounced as Adonai" and "Adonai, with its slightly different vowel points" are shown to have different vowel points.

The difference between the exact vowel points of ’ǎdônây and YHWH is explained by the rules of Hebrew morphology and phonetics. Both short vowels, shva and hataf-patah, were allophones of the same phoneme used in different situations. The Hebrew word Adonai, grammatically a plural form of the word Adon with the possessive suffix, uses the pattern "shva-holam-kamatz", but, because of the glottal nature of aleph, the shva in Adonai is replaced by hataf-patah. Since yod is not a glottal consonant, it uses the vowel shva required by the pattern.

[edit]
The Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911's criticism of the name Jehovah
In the article JEHOVAH, the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911 write:

"JEHOVAH (YAHWEH), in the Bible, the God of Israel. Jehovah is a modern mispronunciation of the Hebrew name, resulting from combining the consonants of that name, Jhvh, with the vowels of the word ădōnāy, Lord, which the Jews substituted for the proper name in reading the scriptures. In such cases of substitution the vowels of the word which is to he read are written in the Hebrew text with the consonants of the word which is not to be read. The consonants of the word to he substituted are ordinarily written in the margin; but inasmuch as Adonay was regularly read instead of the ineffable name Jhvh, it was deemed unnecessary to note the fact at every occurrence. When Christian scholars began to study the Old Testament in Hebrew, if they were ignorant of this general rule or regarded the substitution as a piece of Jewish superstition, reading what actually stood in the text, they would inevitably pronounce the name Jěhōvāh. It is an unprofitable inquiry who first made this blunder; probably many fell into it independently. The statement still commonly repeated that it originated with Petrus Galatinus (1518) is erroneous; Jehova occurs in manuscripts at least as early as the I4th century."
[edit]
Jehovah and Theophoric Names
As mentioned in Section # 2.1, the editor of Smith’s 1863 “A Dictionary of the Bible” writes:

In the decade of dissertations collected by Reland,
Fuller, Gataker [1574-1654], and Leusden do battle for the pronunciation Jehovah,
against such formidable antagonists as Drusius, Amama, Cappellus, Buxtorf, and Altingius,
who, it is scarcely necessary to say, fairly beat their opponents out of the field;
the only argument of any weight,
which is employed by the advocates of the pronunciation of the word as it is written
being that derived from the form in which it appears in proper names,
such as Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, &c.
Note that as early as approximately 1650 A.D., defenders of the name Jehovah have been pointing to the construction of theophoric names, [ e.g. Theophoric names starting with the letters "Jeho" or "Jo" ] as evidence that God's name is actually Jehovah.

While Wilhelm Gesenius is noted for being the first Hebrew scholar to propose the punctuation "Yahweh", Gesenius believed that Yehowah more satisfactorily explained the Theophoric names which began with the "abbreviated syllable YHW [Yeho] or YW [Yo]".

In a post made on 08/22/03 at 12:36 am the following information is found:
Gesenius in his Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament Scriptures agrees saying:
"Those who consider that YHWH [Yehowah] was the actual pronunciation
are not altogether without ground on which to defend their opinion.
In this way can the abbreviated syllables YHW [Yeho] and YH [Yo],
with which many proper names begin, be more satisfactorily explained."
George Wesley Buchanan Professor Emeritus, Wesley Theological Seminary Washington, DC
The name JHVH enters into the composition of many proper names of persons in the Old Testament, either as the initial element, in the form Jeho- or Jo- (as in Jehoram, Joram), or as the final element, in the form -jahu or -jah (as in Adonijahu, Adonijah). George Buchanan explains in Biblical Archaeology Review: “In ancient times, parents often named their children after their deities. That means that they would have pronounced their children’s names the way the deity’s name was pronounced. The Tetragrammaton was used in people’s names, and they always used the middle vowel.” Thus the names of Biblical figures—the correct pronunciation of which was never lost—provides tangible evidence to the ancient pronunciation of God’s name.

In the dozens of Biblical names that incorporate the divine name, this middle vowel sound appears in both the original and the shortened forms, such as in Jehonathan and Jonathan. Therefore, Professor Buchanan says regarding the divine name: “In no case is the vowel oo or oh omitted. The word was sometimes abbreviated as ‘Ya,’ but never as ‘Ya-weh.’ . . . When the Tetragrammaton was pronounced in one syllable it was ‘Yah’ or ‘Yo.’ When it was pronounced in three syllables it would have been ‘Yahowah’ or ‘Yahoowah.’ If it was ever abbreviated to two syllables it would have been ‘Yaho.’” [9] Therefore a two-syllable pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton as “Yahweh” would not allow for the o vowel sound to exist.

Therefore as Everett Fox in his introduction to his translation of The Five Books of Moses, stated “Both old and new attempts to recover the ‘correct’ pronunciation of the Hebrew name [of God] have not succeeded; neither the sometimes-heard ‘Jehovah’ nor the standard scholarly ‘Yahweh’ can be conclusively proven.”

[edit]
"יַהְוֶה" (i.e. Yahweh)
[edit]
Wilhelm Gesenius [1786-1842] proposed the punctuation "יַהְוֶה" (i.e. Yahweh)
Wilhelm Gesenius [1786-1842] is noted for being one of the greatest Hebrew and biblical scholars.[10] In the first half of the 19th century, Wilhelm Gesenius believed that the Medieval vowel points of "יְהֹוָה" were not the actual vowel points of God’s name, and had sought to reconstruct the original pronunciation of יהוה from early Greek transcriptions.


William Gesenius's Hebrew punctuation (i.e. Yahweh).In Smith's " A Dictionary of the Bible" [published in 1863] William Smith notes[11]that Wilhelm Gesenius had punctuated YHWH as "יַהְוֶה" (see image to the right).

This vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton "יַהְוֶה" (i.e., Yahweh), is sometimes referred to as a "Scholarly Reconstruction" and is believed to have been based in large part on various Greek transcriptions, such as (ιαουε—iaoue and ιαουαι—iaouai and ιαβε—iabe) dating from the first centuries AD.

It was common knowledge in 1863 that not only Wilhelm Gesenius, but several other scholars had proposed possible punctuations of יהוה that they believed might be closer to the true punctuation of God's name than "יְהֹוָה" was.

In Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible", William Smith does not consider that Gesenius's punctuation "יַהְוֶה" was the best scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton which he is aware of. However, although "יַהְוֶה" was not William Smith's first choice in 1863, it gradually became accepted as the best scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton.

[edit]
The Brown-Driver-Briggs' Lexicon translates "יַהְוֶה" as "Yahweh"
The editors of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament write "יַהְוֶה" under the heading "יהוה", and describes "יַהְוֶה" as:

"n.pr.dei Yahweh, the proper name of the God of Israel."
[edit]
Greek forms that "יַהְוֶה" might have been based on
[edit]
Iαουε and Ιαβε are both Greek forms of יהוה.
In the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906‘s Article:Tetragrammaton, under the Article Heading:"Church Fathers and Magic Papyri", the editors write:

It was in connection with magic that the Tetragrammaton was introduced into the magic papyri and, in all probability, into the writings of the Church Fathers, these two sources containing the following forms, written in Greek letters:
"Iaoouee," "Iaoue," "Iabe,";
"Iao," "Iaho," "Iae";
"Aia";
"Ia."
It is evident that
represents יהוה
יהו
אהיה
יה
The three forms quoted under (1) are merely three ways of writing the same word, though "Iabe" is designated as the Samaritan pronunciation. There are external and internal grounds for this assumption; for the very agreement of the Jewish, Christian, heathen, and Gnostic statements proves that they undoubtedly give the actual pronunciation

Note that the editors of the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 state that the forms Iaoue and Iabe, written in Greek, are merely two separate ways of writing יהוה in the Greek Language
[edit]
The Greek forms Iαουε and Ιαβε both favor the pronunciation Yahweh
The editors of the Anchor Bible Dictionary, Volume 6 [1972] write:

Instances of the divine name written in Greek letters, such as Iao (equivalent to "Yaho"), Iabe (known to the Samaritans, Theodoret [4th century A.D.], and Epiphanius), Iaoue, Iaouai (Clement of Alexandria [3rd century]), and Iae also favor the form "Yahweh" (NWDB, 453).
The editors of The New Bible Dictionary (1962) write:

The pronunciation Yahweh is indicated by transliterations of the name into Greek in early Christian literature, in the form Ιαουε (Clement of Alexandria) (For Theodoret this was Ιαβε and by this time β had the pronunciation of v)
[edit]
William Smith believed that "יַהְוֶה" was represented by Epiphanius's "Iαβε"
In Smith's 1863 " A Dictionary of the Bible", William Smith supposes that "יַהְוֶה" was represented by the "Iαβε" of Epiphanius.[12]

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 says: Inserting the vowels of Jabe [e.g. Latin form of Iabe] into the Hebrew consonant text, we obtain the form Jahveh (Yahweh), which has been generally accepted by modern scholars as the true pronunciation of the Divine name; [13]

[edit]
Other sources believe that "יַהְוֶה" [ i.e. Yahweh ] was represented by Clement's "Iαουε"
[edit]
The Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911
Iαουε is found in Clement of Alexandria's Stromata Book V. Chapter 6

On page 312 of the article JEHOVAH (YAHWEH) in the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911 the editors write:

"The early Christian scholars, who inquired what was the true name of the God of the Old Testament, had therefore no great difficulty in getting the information they sought. Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 212) says that it was pronounced Iαουε"5
Footnote # 5 at the bottom of page 312 of the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911 reads:

"Strom. v. 6. Variants: Iα ουε, Iα ουαι; cod. L. Iαου."
Note that Footnote # 5 says that variants are found at Stromata Book v. Chapter 6 in different editions of the Greek writings of Clement of Alexandria. To find more information concerning the variant Iαου.", which is found in the 11th century Greek Codex L, go to Iaoue

As noted previously in section # 6.1.1 Iαουε favors the pronunciation "Yahweh".

[edit]
Professor Anson F. Rainey
Professor Anson F. Rainey, of Tel-Aviv University in Israel provides a translation of one famous sentence found in Clement of Alexandria's Greek Stromata Book V. Chapter 6. Professor Rainey quotes Clement of Alexandria as writing:

"The mystic name which is called the tetragram­maton … is pronounced Iaoue,
which means ‘Who is, and who shall be.’ "
As noted previously in section # 6.1.1 Iαουε favors the pronunciation "Yahweh".

[edit]
On-line Ante Nicene Fathers Vol II
In the on-line Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II :
Scroll down to the heading "Clement of Alexandria", and then click on [ Book V ]:

Under the heading "Book V" scroll down to:
"Chapter VI.-The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture."
In the 5th paragraph of Chapter VI, the editors have written:
"Further, the mystic name of four letters which was affixed to those alone to whom the adytum was accessible, is called Jave, which is interpreted, 'Who is and shall be.' "

As noted previously in section # 6.1.1 Iαουε favors the pronunciation "Yahweh", however Jave would be considered an acceptable English translation of Ιαουε. Halleluyahweh has been shorten to be halleluyah.[verification needed]

[edit]
Criticism of the form "Yahweh"
In Biblical Archaeology Review, reference is made to the fact that a two-syllable pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton as "Yahweh" would not allow for the o vowel sound to exist as part of God’s name. Thus the article stated:

"When the Tetragrammaton was pronounced in one syllable it was ‘Yah’ or ‘Yo.’ When it was pronounced in three syllables it would have been ‘Yahowah’ or ‘Yahoowah.’ If it was ever abbreviated to two syllables it would have been ‘Yaho.’"[14]
[edit]
The name "Yahweh" is not clearly found in the Hebrew Scriptures
One criticism of the name "Yahweh" is that the vocalized Hebrew spelling "Yahweh" [ i.e. "יַהְוֶה" ] is found in no extant Hebrew Text.

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Yahweh and Theophoric Names
The editors of The Jewish Encylopedia of 1901-1906 in the Article:Names Of God state:
If the explanation of the form above given be the true one,
the original pronunciation must have been Yahweh ( יַהְוֶה ) or Yahaweh ( יַהֲוֶה ).
From this the contracted form Jah or Yah ( יהּ ) is most readily explained,
and also the forms Jeho or Yeho ( יַהְוְ = יְהַו = יְהוֹ ) and Jo or Yo ( יוֹ ) contracted from ( יְהוֹ ),
which the word assumes in combination in the first part of compound names,
and Yahu or Yah ( Hebrew font omitted ) in the second part of such names.



In the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition (New York: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1910-11, vol. 15, pp. 312, in the Article “JEHOVAH”) the editors state:
The name Jhvh enters into the composition of many names of persons in the Old Testament,
either as the initial element, in the form Jeho- or Jo- (as in Jehoram, Joram),
or as the final element in the form -jahu or -jah (as in Adonijahu, Adonijah).
These various forms are perfectly regular if the divine name was Yahweh,
and, taken altogether, they cannot be explained on any other hypothesis.



In Chapter 1 of The Tetragrammaton and the Christian Greek Scriptures, under the heading: THE PRONUNCIATION OF GOD'S NAME the editors state:
The issue of pronunciation of God's name may best be summarized by a statement from Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2, page 7:
Hebrew Scholars generally favor "Yahweh" as the most likely pronunciation.
They point out that the abbreviated form of the name is Yah (Jah in the Latinized form),
as at Psalm 89:8 and in the expression Halelu-Yah (meaning "Praise Yah, you people!").
(Ps 104:35; 150:1,6)
Also, the forms Yehoh', Yoh, Yah, and Ya'hu, found in the Hebrew spelling of the names of Jehoshaphat, Joshaphat, Shephatiah, and others, can all be derived from Yahweh...Still, there is by no means unanimity among scholars on the subject, some favoring yet other pronunciations, such as "Yahuwa," "Yahuah," or "Yehuah.
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Usage of YHWH
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In ancient Judaism
Several centuries before the Christian era the name YHWH had ceased to be commonly used by the Jews. Some of the later writers in the Old Testament employ the appellative Elohim, God, prevailingly or exclusively: a collection of Psalms (Ps. xlii. lxxxiii.) was revised by an editor who changed the Yhwh of the authors into Elohim (see e.g. xlv. 7; xlviii. 10; 1. 7; ii. 14); observe also the frequency of the Most High, the God of Heaven, King of Heaven, in Daniel, and of Heaven in First Maccabees.

The oldest complete Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) versions, from around the second century A.D., consistently use Kyrie, Lord, where the Hebrew has YHWH, corresponding to the substitution of Adonay for YHWH in reading the original; in books written in Greek in this period (e.g. Wisdom, 2 and 3 Maccabees), as in the New Testament, Kyrie takes the place of the name of God. However, older fragments do contain the name YHWH. [15] It should also be noted though that in the P. Ryl. 458 (perhaps the oldest extant Septuagint manuscript) there are blank spaces leading some scholars to believe that the Tetragrammaton must have been written where these breaks or blank spaces are. [16]

Josephus, who as a priest knew the pronunciation of the name, declares that religion forbids him to divulge it; Philo calls it ineffable, and says that it is lawful for those only whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom to hear and utter it in a holy place (that is, for priests in the Temple); and in another passage, commenting on Lev. xxiv. 55 seq.: "If any one, I do not say should blaspheme against the Lord of men and gods, but should even dare to utter his name unseasonably, let him expect the penalty of death."[17]

Various motives may have concurred to bring about the suppression of the name. An instinctive feeling that a proper name for God implicitly recognizes the existence of other gods may have had some influence; reverence and the fear lest the holy name should be profaned among the heathen were potent reasons; but probably the most cogent motive was the desire to prevent the abuse of the name in magic. If so, the secrecy had the opposite effect; the name of the god of the Jews was one of the great names, in magic, heathen as well as Jewish, and miraculous efficacy was attributed to the mere utterance of it.

In the liturgy of the Temple the name was pronounced in the priestly benediction (Num. vi. 27) after the regular daily sacrifice (in the synagogues a substitute— probably Adonai— was employed);[18]on the Day of Atonement the High Priest uttered the name ten times in his prayers and benediction.

In the last generations before the fall of Jerusalem, however, it was pronounced in a low tone so that the sounds were lost in the chant of the priests.[19]

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In later Judaism
After the destruction of the Temple (A.D. 70) the liturgical use of the name ceased, but the tradition was perpetuated in the schools of the rabbis.[20] It was certainly known in Babylonia in the latter part of the 4th century,[21] and not improbably much later. Nor was the knowledge confined to these pious circles; the name continued to be employed by healers, exorcists and magicians, and has been preserved in many places in magical papyri.

The vehemence with which the utterance of the name is denounced in the Mishna—He who pronounces the Name with its own letters has no part in the world to come!".[22] —suggests that this misuse of the name was not uncommon among Jews.

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Among the Samaritans
The Samaritans, who otherwise shared the scruples of the Jews about the utterance of the name, seem to have used it in judicial oaths to the scandal of the rabbis.[23]

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Among early Christian writers
The early Christian scholars, who inquired what was the true name of the God of the Old Testament, had therefore no great difficulty in getting the information they sought.

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Epiphanius
Epiphanius (d. 404), who was born in Palestine and spent a considerable part of his life there, gives IαΒε (one cod. Iανε ).[24]

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Theodoret
Theodoret (d. c. 457),[25] born in Antioch, writes that the Samaritans pronounced the name IαΒε (in another passage, Iαβαι), the Jews Aια.[26] The latter is probably not Jhvh but Ehyeh (Exod. iii. 14), which the Jews counted among the names of God; there is no reason whatever to imagine that the Samaritans pronounced the name Jhvh differently from the Jews.

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In the The Magical Texts
This direct testimony is supplemented by that of the magical texts, in which Iave (Jahveh Sebaoth), as well as IαΒα, occurs frequently.[27] In an Ethiopic list of magical names of Jesus, purporting to have been taught by him to his disciples, Yawe[28]is found.

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Among modern Samaritan priests
Finally, there is evidence from more than one source that the modern Samaritan priests pronounce the name Yahweh or Yahwa.[29] There is no reason to impugn the soundness of this substantially consentient testimony to the pronunciation Yahweh or Jahveh, coming as it does through several independent channels. It is confirmed by grammatical considerations.

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In the writings of Genebrardus
Genebrardus seems to have been the first to suggest the pronunciation Iahue, [30] but it was not until the 19th century that it became generally accepted.

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In cults
::See also House of Yahweh, Nation of Yahweh

Various sacred name groups, such as the House of Yahweh, and Nation of Yahwe also recognizes Yahweh as the name of the Creator and Heavenly Father.

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Derivation
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Putative etymology
Jahveh or Yahweh is apparently an example of a common type of Hebrew proper names which have the form of the 3rd pers. sing. of the verb. e.g. Jabneh (name of a city), Jabin, Jamlek, Jiptal (Jephthah), &c. Most of these really are verbs, the suppressed or implicit subject being 'el, "numen, god", or the name of a god; cf. Jabneh and Jabne-el, Jiptah and Jiptah-el.

The ancient explanations of the name proceed from Exod. iii. 14, 15, where "Yahweh [31] hath sent me" in v 15 corresponds to "Ehyeh hath sent me" in v. 14, thus seeming to connect the name Yahweh with the Hebrew verb hayah, "to become, to be". The Palestinian interpreters found in this the promise that God would be with his people (cf. v. 12) in future oppressions as he was in the present distress, or the assertion of his eternity, or eternal constancy; the Alexandrian translation 'Eγω ειμι ο ων . . . ' O ων απεσταλκεν με προς νμας understands it in the more metaphysical sense of God's absolute being. Both interpretations, "He (who) is (always the same};" and , "He (who) is (absolutely the truly existent);"import into the name all that they profess to find in it; the one, the religious faith in God's unchanging fidelity to his people, the other, a philosophical conception of absolute being which is foreign both to the meaning of the Hebrew verb and to the force of the tense employed.

Modern scholars have sometimes found in the name the expression of the aseity[32]of God; sometimes of his reality in contrast to the imaginary gods of the heathen.

Another explanation, which appears first in Jewish authors of the middle ages and has found wide acceptance in recent times, derives the name from the causative of the verb; He (who) causes things to be, gives them being; or calls events into existence, brings them to pass; with many individual modifications of interpretation—creator, life giver, fullfiller of promises. A serious objection to this theory in every form is that the verb hayah, "to be" has no causative stem in Hebrew; to express the ideas which these scholars find in the name Yahweh the language employs altogether different verbs.

Spinoza, in his Theologico-Political Treatise (Chap.2) asserts the derivation of "Jahweh" from "Being", writing that, "Moses conceived the Deity as a Being Who has always existed, does exist, and always will exist, and for this cause he calls Him by the name Jehovah, which in Hebrew signifies these three phases of existence." Following Spinoza, Constantin Brunner translates the Shema (Deut. 2-4) as, "Hear, O Israel, Being is our God, Being is One."

This assumption that Yahweh is derived from the verb "to be", as seems to be implied in Exod. iii. 14 seq., is not, however, free from difficulty. "To be" in the Hebrew of the Old Testament is not hawah, as the derivation would require, but hayah; and we are thus driven to the further assumption that hawah belongs to an earlier stage of the language, or to some older speech of the forefathers of the Israelites.

This hypothesis is not intrinsically improbable— and in Aramaic, a language closely related to Hebrew, "to be" actually is hawa—in adopting it we admit that, using the name Hebrew in the historical sense, Yahweh is not a Hebrew name. And, inasmuch as nowhere in the Old Testament, outside of Exod. iii., is there the slightest indication that the Israelites connected the name of their God with the idea of "being" in any sense, it may fairly be questioned whether, if the author of Exod. 14 seq., intended to give an etymological interpretation of the name Yahweh,[33] his etymology is any better than many other paronomastic explanations of proper names in the Old Testament, or than, say, the connection of the name 'Aπολλων with απολουων, απολυων in Plato's Cratylus, or popular derivations from απολλυμι.

A root hawah is represented in Hebrew by the nouns howah (Ezek., Isa. xlvii. II) and hawwah (Ps., Prov., Job) "disaster, calamity, ruin."[34]The primary meaning is probably "sink down, fall," in which sense—common in Arabic—the verb appears in Job xxxvii. 6 (of snow falling to earth).

A Catholic commentator of the 16th century, Hieronymus ab Oleastro, seems to have been the first to connect the name "Jehova" with "howah" interpreting it contritio sive pernicies (destruction of the Egyptians and Canaanites); Daumer, adopting the same etymology, took it in a more general sense: Yahweh, as well as Shaddai, meant Destroyer, and fitly expressed the nature of the terrible god whom he identified with Moloch.

The derivation of Yahweh from hawah is formally unimpeachable, and is adopted by many recent scholars, who proceed, however, from the primary sense of the root rather than from the specific meaning of the nouns. The name is accordingly interpreted, He (who) falls (baetyl, βαιτυλος, meteorite); or causes (rain or lightning) to fall (storm god); or casts down (his foes, by his thunderbolts). It is obvious that if the derivation be correct, the significance of the name, which in itself denotes only "He falls" or "He fells", must be learned, if at all, from early Israelitish conceptions of the nature of Yahweh rather than from etymology.

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Cultus
A more fundamental question is whether the name Yahweh originated among the Israelites or was adopted by them from some other people and speech.[35]

The biblical author of the history of the sacred institutions (P) expressly declares that the name Yahweh was unknown to the patriarchs (Exod. vi. 3), and the much older Israelite historian (E) records the first revelation of the name to Moses (Exod. iii. 1315), apparently following a tradition according to which the Israelites had not been worshippers of Yahweh before the time of Moses, or, as he conceived it, had not worshipped the god of their fathers under that name.

The revelation of the name to Moses was made at a mountain sacred to Yahweh, (the mountain of God) far to the south of Canaan, in a region where the forefathers of the Israelites had never roamed, and in the territory of other tribes; and long after the settlement in Canaan this region continued to be regarded as the abode of Yahweh (Judg. v. 4; Deut. xxxiii. 2 sqq.; I Kings xix. 8 sqq. &c).

Moses is closely connected with the tribes in the vicinity of the holy mountain; according to one account, he married a daughter of the priest of Midian (Exod. ii. 16 sqq.; iii. I); to this mountain he led the Israelites after their deliverance from Egypt; there his father-in-law met him, and extolling Yahweh as greater than all the gods, offered (in his capacity as priest of the place?) sacrifices, at which the chief men of the Israelites were his guests; there the religion of Yahweh was revealed through Moses, and the Israelites pledged themselves to serve God according to its prescriptions.

It appears, therefore, that in the tradition followed by the Israelite historian the tribes within whose pasture lands the mountain of God stood were worshippers of Yahweh before the time of Moses; and the surmise that the name Yahweh belongs to their speech, rather than to that of Israel, has considerable probability.

One of these tribes was Midian, in whose land the mountain of God lay. The Kenites also, with whom another tradition connects Moses, seem to have been worshippers of Yahweh.

It is probable that Yahweh was at one time worshipped by various tribes south of Palestine, and that several places in that wide territory (Horeb, Sinai, Kadesh, &c.) were sacred to him; the oldest and most famous of these, the mountain of God, seems to have lain in Arabia, east of the Red Sea. From some of these peoples and at one of these holy places, a group of Israelite tribes adopted the religion of Yahweh, the God who, by the hand of Moses, had delivered them from Egypt.[36]

The tribes of this region probably belonged to some branch of the great Arab stock, and the name Yahweh has, accordingly, been connected with the Arabic hawa, the void (between heaven and earth), "the atmosphere, or with the verb hawa, cognate with Heb. hawah,"sink, glide down" (through space); hawwa blow (wind). "He rides through the air, He blows" (Wellhausen), would be a fit name for a god of wind and storm. There is, however, no certain evidence that the Israelites in historical times had any consciousness of the primitive significance of the name.

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Alternative derivations
The attempts to connect the name Yahweh with that of an Indo-European deity (Jehovah-Jove, &c.), or to derive it from Egyptian or Chinese, may be passed over.

But one theory which has had considerable currency requires notice, namely, that Yahweh, or Yahu, Yaho,[37]is the name of a god worshipped throughout the whole, or a great part, of the area occupied by the Western Semites.

In its earlier form this opinion rested chiefly on certain misinterpreted testimonies in Greek authors about a god 'Iαω and was conclusively refuted by Baudissin; recent adherents of the theory build more largely on the occurrence in various parts of this territory of proper names of persons and places which they explain as compounds of Yahu or Yah.[38]

The explanation is in most cases simply an assumption of the point at issue; some of the names have been misread; others are undoubtedly the names of Jews.

There remain, however, some cases in which it is highly probable that names of non-Israelites are really compounded with Yahweh. The most conspicuous of these is the king of Hamath who in the inscriptions of Sargon (722-705 B.C.) is called Yaubi'di and Ilubi'di (compare Jehoiakim-Eliakim). Azriyau of Jaudi, also, in inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser (745-728 B.C.), who was formerly supposed to be Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah, is probably a king of the country in northern Syria known to us from the Zenjirli inscriptions as Ja'di.

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Mesopotamian influence
Friedrich Delitzsch brought into notice three tablets, of the age of the first dynasty of Babylon, in which he read the names of Ya- a'-ve-ilu, Ya-ve-ilu, and Ya-u-um-ilu( "Yahweh is God" ), and which he regarded as conclusive proof that Yahweh was known in Babylonia before 2000 B.C.; he was a god of the Semitic invaders in the second wave of migration, who were, according to Winckler and Delitzsch, of North Semitic stock (Canaanites, in the linguistic sense).[39]

We should thus have in the tablets evidence of the worship of Yahweh among the Western Semites at a time long before the rise of Israel. The reading of the names is, however, extremely uncertain, not to say improbable, and the far-reaching inferences drawn from them carry no conviction.

In a tablet attributed to the I4th century B.C. which Sellin found in the course of his excavations at Tell Ta'annuk (the Taanach of the O.T.) a name occurs which may be read Ahi-Yawi (equivalent to Hebrew Ahijah);[40]if the reading be correct, this would show that Yahweh was worshipped in Central Palestine before the Israelite conquest.

The reading is, however, only one of several possibilities. The fact that the full form Yahweh appears, whereas in Hebrew proper names only the shorter Yahu and Yah occur, weighs somewhat against the interpretation, as it does against Delitzsch's reading of his tablets.

It would not be at all surprising if, in the great movements of populations and shifting of ascendancy which lie beyond our historical horizon, the worship of Yahweh should have been established in regions remote from those which it occupied in historical times; but nothing which we now know warrants the opinion that his worship was ever general among the Western Semites.

Many attempts have been made to trace the West Semitic Yahu back to Babylonia. Thus Dehitzsch formerly derived the name from an Akkadian god, I or Ia; or from the Semitic nominative ending, Yau;[41]but this deity has since disappeared from the pantheon of Assyriologists.

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Attributes
Assuming that Yahweh was primitively a nature god, scholars in the 19th century discussed the question over what sphere of nature he originally presided. According to some he was the god of consuming fire; others saw in him the bright sky, or the heaven; still others recognized in him a storm god, a theory with which the derivation of the name from Heb. hawah or Arab. hawa well accords (see also Job chs. 37-38). The association of Yahweh with storm and fire is frequent in the Old Testament; the thunder is the voice of Yahweh, the lightning his arrows, the rainbow his bow. The revelation at Sinai is amid the awe-inspiring phenomena of tempest. Yahweh leads Israel through the desert in a pillar of cloud and fire; he kindles Elijah's altar by lightning, and translates the prophet in a chariot of fire. See also Judg. v. 4 seq.;

Many religions today do not use the name Jehovah as much as they used to. The original Hebrew name יהוה appeared almost 7,000 times in the Old Testament, but is often replaced with "LORD" in popular Bibles. The religion to most commonly use the name "Jehovah" is that of Jehovah's Witnesses, who believe that God's name is found at PSALMS 83:18.

hope this helps answer your questions. I had always believe that Jehoviah and Yahweh are one in the same.