Is the English translation of God's name incorrect?

Question

YHWH (Yahweh) translated Jehovah.
I learned that the Jewish does not use (or have?) the letter J. If that is so, then how did the translation of YHWH come to be Jehovah? Should it not have been Yehovah? Which is more respectable to God. And if Jehovah is a wrong translated name, than whoever uses it to call on Him, does He still hears and listen? Or would it be like calling a false God. Tell me, what is your opinion and reason.

Answer 1

My name is Moises is spanish but in english is Moses, I don´t mind if you call me Moses cause are very similar, the same with YHWH that is his name the right pronunciation is not Jehovah but is a acceptable render, the same with the name of Jesus is Yeshoshua and who pronounce that name? nobody (well I have a friend that he does) the point is to thave at least the desire of use his name, the name is the most beatiful sound to our ears.

In Italian is Geovanni , in spanish is Jehova, etc etc

the most important is his pupose what is his purpose for us as humans and for this earth, that is the key.

Jehovah is the name of the father of Jesus according to Luke 1:32 and Psalms 83:18. so that is not the name of his son he had another powerful name is in the book of Daniel 12:1.

Answer 2

Jehovah in English is no more 'wrong' than saying Jesus, Jehu, Jeremiah, John.

If one name beginning with 'J' is wrong then all must be wrong.

the 'J' in our English bibles come by way of Germany.

The German 'J' is pronounced like the Hebrew 'Y'.

The same is true of the 'V' in German and the 'W' in Hebrew.

Since English is a Germatic language we have 'J's instead of 'Y's in our bibles.

I find it interesting that people try to make a big deal out of a letter, and yet totally ignore the name and the God it represents.

Why did the recently published “New International Version” (NIV) of the Bible fail to use the name of God where it appears about 7,000 times in ancient Bible manuscripts? In response to a person who inquired about this, Edwin H. Palmer, Th.D., Executive Secretary for the NIV’s committee wrote:

“Here is why we did not: You are right that Jehovah is a distinctive name for God and ideally we should have used it. But we put 2 1/4 million dollars into this translation and a sure way of throwing that down the drain is to translate, for example, Psalm 23 as, ‘Yahweh is my shepherd.’ Immediately, we would have translated for nothing. Nobody would have used it. Oh, maybe you and a handful [of] others. But a Christian has to be also wise and practical. We are the victims of 350 years of the King James tradition. It is far better to get two million to read it—that is how many have bought it to date—and to follow the King James, than to have two thousand buy it and have the correct translation of Yahweh. . . . It was a hard decision, and many of our translators agree with you.”

Here is one bible scholar who agreed that Jehovah or Yahweh should be in the bible but didn't use it because of 'money'.

Jehovah's Witnesses really don't care which name of God you prefer to use.

We just want you to know the one true God, the Father of Jesus (Yeshua) Jehovah (Yahweh).

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Answer 3

1) The invention of the name "Jehovah" from a mistake in copying and/or translation is an established fact.

As one learned answerer pointed out, the name (transliterated from Hebrew) is YHWH, normally referred to as the tetragrammaton. (important: *ancient* Hebrew writing had no vowels) Since speaking the "ineffable name" was forbidden, many old Hebrew manuscripts inserted the vowels for the word "Adonai" above YHWH. (Adonai - transliteration from Hebrew, means "Lord") Thus a reader would *see* the word YHWH but be reminded that he was supposed to *speak* the word "Adonai".

Later (Christian) readers misunderstood this convention and combined the two words which, once anglicized, became Jehovah. You can see a similar anglicization in many bible names (Joshua and Jesus from "Yeshua", Elijah from "Eliyahu", etc. etc. The "J" sound is an anglicization.)

That being said, the true pronunciation of the tetragrammaton is uncertain, since ancient Hebrew did not have vowels and vowels were not added to the tetragrammaton in manuscripts once they had been invented. (Masoretic texts still use the tetragrammaton.) Most biblical scholars agree that Yahweh is likely, but Yahveh is also well-accepted (and equally uncertain).

You can see one reason why Jews are so cautious about pronouncing (or mis-pronouncing!) the ineffable name.

As far as the "potency" of using Jehovah in prayer, etc., it's authority is probably no less diminished from the actual pronunciation than that of using "Jesus" for Yeshua. In other words, if you believe that correct pronunciation of the name is important, then this pronunciation is flawed. Likewise if you use Jesus instead of Yeshua. Personally, I believe that God recognizes the foibles of different accents and different languages and realizes that we humans are imperfect (and, in this case, uncertain). Does God want us to worship him, or his name? My worship may not be perfect, but it *is* *him* that I worship, whatever his true name.

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Answer 4

The name of יהוה is not intended to be pronounced. The letters reading from right to left are yud, hay, vov, hay so phonetically you would get something like Yehovah, but this is counter to the Jewish tradition, which maintains that the name is too sacred to say, and has no pronunciation, anyway.

Whenever the word is encountered, I was taught to say Adonai, which means "Lord our G-d."

Answer 5

This is a tough one, because usually I do think it's appropriate to call people by their true names as much as possible. However, God is our Father, and He hears us all the time. When we are sincerely talking to Him, I don't think that He will not listen because of pronunciation. Also, He understands all languages. It's also fine to call him Father, rather than by name.

(P.S. Jehovah is actually a name for Jesus Christ, not the Father.)

Answer 6

I wouldn't know, I'm not really an ancient Hebrew scholar or anything. I realize there is no point in me saying that or 'answering' this question, but i guess i did anyway because I'm bored.

Answer 7

i was gonna answer but solly said what i was gonna say.
you gonnif :)

Answer 8

No, it is not.