Where did the word YHWH come from?

Question

According to history, both the Torah and the Bible were originally written in Aramaic.

As it is, the following aramaic dictionary translates any word from english to aramaic.

http://www.peshitta.org/lexicon/

Type in the word GOD

What do you see?

So where did the word YHWH come from?

Answer 1

Neither the Torah nor the Bible were originally written in Aramaic. The Torah, as well as the rest of the Old Testament, was originally written in Hebrew (except for a few chapters of in the Prophets that were written in Aramaic). The New Testament was originally written in Greek.

YHWH (pronounced Yahweh) is the name of God. It is not analyzable (the famous "etymology" in Exodus 3:14 is just a folk etymology, it is not accurate). The name is very old in Hebrew and has cognates in the other Canaanite languages, meaning that it dates back before Hebrew was a separate language from the other Canaanite languages.

The original Hebrew was written without vowels in any words, so the first words of Genesis are, literally, brsyt br' 'lhym... There were, at that time, no restrictions on pronouncing the name of God, so you have MANY people in the Bible with Yahweh (or its short form, Yah) in their names (EliJAH, JEHOshaphat, JOshua, etc.). It was only after the Babylonian Exile that the restrictions on pronouncing God's name came into being. At that time, Hebrew became extinct as a spoken language, so vowel symbols had to be developed in order for people to know how to pronounce the Hebrew text of the Torah, etc. Since the restrictions on pronouncing God's name were developing at the same time, they put the vowel symbols of "Lord" (adonai in Hebrew) around the consonants YHWH. That combination led to the Latin word Jehovah, which we use today (originally the consonants of Yahweh with the vowels of Adonai). So when someone was reading the text aloud, they would see YHWH, but say Adonai.

Today, Christians don't have any restrictions on saying Yahweh, but Jews still maintain the ancient restriction and say Adonai when reading the Old Testament. In many Christian translations of the Bible, YHWH is translated as LORD, but Adonai is translated as Lord.

Answer 2

YHWH is both Aramaic and Hebrew. It comes from the verb root, HWH, pronounced "hwah", and meaning "he was". The imperfect (future) tense of this root is YHWH, pronounced "Yehweh" in Aramaic (with stress on the second syllable). Hebrew stopped using the root HWH and replaced it with the root HYH, but it would probably have been pronounced as "Yahweh" by Hebrew speakers.

YHWH simply means "He shall be". This reference in itself is not God's actual name, but man's reference to God's name. God's actual name is "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh", which roughly translates as "I shall be as I shall be". This is appropriate because God is who he is and he will be as he is for all time.

Shlam (peace).
Ya'qub

Answer 3

As it was forbidden by the Holy Scriptures to pronounce God's name (Yaveh) in ancient times, one imagined to write it using these letters, and without vowels, the word can't be pronounced.

Answer 4

God's name was supposedly too holy to be uttered by the lips of sinful (imperfect) humans. Out of respect for His holiness, the vowels were left out. As a consequence, we can never be 100% sure about how His name is pronounced. That's all right, though. Jesus told us to refer to God (reverently, of course!) as "Our Father."

Answer 5

yhwh? What word is this? Is it initials for something. I think we need the whole spelling or something.

Never mind, I read the first guys answer. I didn't know what yhwh was....sorry

Answer 6

Well,

This should help...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YHWH

Good luck...