Our Father's Name

When I hear my name, I turn my head towards the person calling my name. They grab my attention and I am listening to whatever they are trying to say. I will often answer to “Di, Dee, Diane, Anna, Dinah, and Dianna”. I will also turn my head when a child says, “Mom, Mommy, and Mother” as well as “Grandma,” especially if the voice is similar to one of my children or grandchildren. On the other end of the spectrum, I will not turn my head when someone calls, “Sally, Judy, or Molly”. If someone is trying to get my attention by calling these names, I will not turn my head because none of these verbal cues are associated with any of my names. This is true for anyone including our Father in Heaven.

Our Creator and Father is a Living Entity. He has ears to hear and a mouth to speak. He has eyes to see and a heart that feels. He is not an elohiym of wood and stone. He has a Name. If we want Him to turn His head towards us, then pronouncing His actual Name will get His attention. This is our goal. We want to grab His attention so that He will be attentive to our prayers as the following passage proclaims.

If our Father in heaven can hear then He has ears to hear. He will turn His head when He hears a rendition of His Name: “Yahuah, Yahweh, Yah or Yehovah”. He will not turn His head when He hears “Odin, Zeus or Apollo”. He does not realize people are talking to Him when these names are uttered. If He were to answer to these names, wouldn’t He be validating their use? If He answers to the name “Zeus” then people will continue to call Him by the name of “Zeus”. In this study, we are going to tackle the subject of the pronunciation of His Name based on the available evidence.

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible illustrates the pronunciation of His Name as “Yehovah”. Here is the entry with the pronunciation.

This is His Name as it is written in Strong’s entry in the modern Hebrew language with and without dots and dashes.

The dots and dashes represent vowel sounds such as A, E, I, O and U in the English language. The larger symbols are letters in the Hebrew alphabet and represent the consonant sounds Y, H, V, and H in the English language. In Hebrew, words are read from right to left. So, the first letter pronounced in His Name is the “yod” and it has the same sound as our “Y”. The “yod’” is highlighted in orange below.

The second and fourth letter are the same and it is called a “hey” in the Hebrew language and has the “H” sound. The letter ‘hey’ is highlighted in orange.

The third letter from right is the “vav” or “waw” and it has a “V” or “W” sound. The letter “vav” or “waw” is highlighted in orange.

This is the reason some claim it is pronounced as “Yehovah” or “Yahweh”. The “vav” also has two vowel sounds. When a dot is located above the letter “vav”, it does not have the “V” sound. It is pronounced with a long “O” sound as in hope, soap and bloat. Here is the way it appears in the Hebrew text:

When the dot is in the middle of the “vav”, it has an “EW” sound as in moon, dune and soon. Here is the way it appears in the Hebrew text:

The dots and dashes were added by the Masoretes which was a group of Jewish scribes and scholars responsible for the Masoretic Hebrew texts of the Hebrew writings. All modern-day translations use the Masoretic text to translate their respective versions of the Bible. Following is an excerpt from Wikipedia regarding the Masoretes.

The Masoretes existed from the 5th to the 10th century and were responsible for adding the dots and dashes to the Hebrew text in an effort to standardize pronunciation of the Hebrew words. Many of the common pronunciations of the Name of our Creator are based upon these dots and dashes. On the Ancient Hebrew Research Center website, owner and author, Jeff A. Benner, wrote an article titled, A History of the Masoretic Hebrew Texts. Following is an excerpt regarding the dots and dashes or vowel pointings.

The dots and dashes or vowel pointings were added around the 10th century by Jewish scribes. This particular vowel system was the Tiberian Pointing also known as Ben Asher. At the time, there were three systems: Tiberian, Babylonian and Palestinian. Jeff A. Benner wrote another article titled, Is Ancient Hebrew a Dead Language. Here is an excerpt from this article followed by the two references mentioned in the excerpt.

These three groups were not in complete agreement with interpretations or pronunciations of words in the Hebrew text of the Word. For this reason, the dots and dashes or vowel points established by the Masoretes cannot be considered the final authority or inerrant. This fact was also emphasized in Mr. Benner’s article.

The nikkudot or vowel pointings are simply the expressions and perspectives of the Masoretes and cannot be considered authoritative. The entry in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is relying upon the dots and dashes established by the Tiberian vowel pointing system who were one of three sects of Jewish scribes.

The goal of the Masoretes was to codify pronunciation of Hebrew words. However, there are two different sets of vowel points used on our Creator’s Hebrew Name which provide two different pronunciations of His Name. The first entry in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is #H3068 and is pronounced “Yehovah”.

The second entry is Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance #H3069 and is pronounced “Yehovee”.

Here are both Hebrew Names enlarged for comparison. The Hebrew letters are the same but the dots and dashes are not the same. The presence of the dots and dashes directly effects the way the word is pronounced.

H3068 occurs 6,412 times and H3069 occurs 304 times. If the goal of the Masoretes was to codify pronunciation, why is there a difference in the pronunciation of the Name of our Creator. Which one is correct?

The Masoretes were Jewish scribes and practiced Rabbinic Judaism. In their belief system to this day, the Rabbis have a prohibition against speaking the Name of our Creator. Their goal was not to preserve the pronunciation of His Name in ways that could commonly be read by anyone reading the text. The goal was to provide a solution allowing a reader of the text to use an approved substitution in place of His Name.

When the dots and dashes or vowel pointings were added to our Creator’s Name in Masoretic text, the scribes would add the dots and dashes from the Hebrew word “Adonai” to the Name of our Creator. Following is the entry for Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance #H136 with its associated pronunciation.

This word is translated as “the Lord” in the following passage:

Because it was prohibited to utter the Name of our Creator, the dots and dashes associated with our Creator’s Name communicated to the reader to pronounce “Adonai” rather than the Name itself. In the following example, the reader would see the Tetragrammaton and pronounce “Adonai” and not our Creator’s Name.

In the following example, three of the four dots and dashes are identical between “Adonai” and “Yehovah”. Those that are similar are highlighted in orange. The first word on the right is the Hebrew word for “Adonai” and the second word on the left is the Name of our Creator with the vowel points from “Adonai” #H3068 pronounced as “Ye-ho-vah”.

When people would be reading from the Hebrew text aloud, they would see the vowel points under the Name of our Creator and would say “Adonai” rather than “Yehovah”.

In the following passage, the Hebrew word “Adonai” translated as “the Lord” is next to “GOD” in all capital letters which is reference #H3069. It is also the Name of our Creator.

In this passage, the actual word “Adonai” is used as a title for our Creator. If the Jewish scribes placed the dots and dashes for “Adonai” around our Creator’s Name next to the Hebrew word “Adonai”, the reader would end up saying, “Adonai Adonai” which sounds a bit awkward as illustrated in the same verse below:

In order to avoid this situation, the Jewish scribes decided to use the dots and dashes associated with the Hebrew word “Elohiym” when our Father’s Name is paired with the Hebrew word “Adonai”. Following is the entry in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #H430 with its pronunciation.

This word is most often translated as “God” or “gods” as illustrated in the following passage:

In the following example, three of the four dots and dashes are identical as well. Those that are similar are highlighted in orange. The first word on the right is “Elohiym” in the Hebrew language with its dots and dashes. The second word on the left is the Name of our Creator with the vowel points from “Elohiym” #H3069 pronounced “Ye-ho-vee”.

When the reader sees these vowel markings by our Creator’s Name when reading the Hebrew text, they would say, “Elohim” rather pronounce the actual Name of our Father in heaven as illustrated in Bereshith (Genesis) 15:8:

The Jewish scribes could not use the dots and dashes for “Elohiym” throughout the Hebrew writings either, because a reader would end up saying “Elohiym Elohiym” when reading the text as illustrated below in the following passage:

It would be awkward to say, “Elohiym Elohiym”. In the English language, we can determine which pronunciation is being used in the underlying Hebrew. “LORD” in all capital letters is “Yehovah” which are the dots and dashes from the Hebrew word “Adonai”. “GOD” in all capital letters is “Yehovee” which are the dots and dashes for “Elohim”. Here is an illustration of both examples.

Because the word “Elohiym” is associated more often with the Name of our Creator, the number of vowel points from the word “Adonai” attached to the Tetragrammaton are significantly higher which leads an uninformed reader to conclude that “Yehovah” is the correct pronunciation of our Creator’s Name. If the Jewish scribes had a prohibition against speaking the Name of our Creator, why would they put the dots and dashes in the text to aid the reader in actually pronouncing the Name aloud? This was not their intent. The dots and dashes were a guide to the reader to help them determine when they should pronounce “Adonai” or “Elohiym” in place of our Creator’s Name.

The main reason “Yehovah” cannot be the pronunciation of our Creator’s Name involves the letter “vav” which is the third letter from the right in His Name. As a consonant, the “vav” makes a “V” sound.

The “vav” with a dot on top is a long “O” sound as in the word “hope”. The following Hebrew word is pronounced “Bo” with a long “O” sound and it means “come”. The “vav” in this instance does not have the “V” sound.

The “vav” with a dot near the belly of the letter has an “EW” sound as in the word “moon’”. The following word is “Yehudah” which is also known as “Judah”. There is no “V” sound in this word either.

The sound produced by the “vav” is either a vowel sound or a consonant but not both. The Name of our Creator only has one “vav” so it is either pronounced as an “EW” or long “O” or the consonant “V”.

The pronunciation of “Yehovah” assigns two sounds to the letter “vav”: the long “O” sound and the “V” sound.

Ye-ho-vah

If this were the pronunciation of our Creator’s Name, there would need to be two “vavs” in His Name: one for the long “O” vowel sound and one for the “V” sound. It would look like this in the Hebrew language:

But this is not the case. His Name only has one “vav” so it is either a “V” sound, a long “O” sound or an “EW” sound. This particular discrepancy was addressed by Jeff A. Benner in a letter addressed to Nehemiah Gordon who is a Karaite Jew and noted Hebrew scholar. Dr. Gordon promotes the pronunciation of “Yehovah” and has been a significant influence in the Messianic community for adopting this pronunciation. Following is an excerpt from this letter in which Mr. Benner addresses the area of concern.

The word “cholam” is the name assigned to the letter “vav” with a dot above it which has the long “O” sound.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were ancient documents discovered between 1946 and 1956. All of the documents discovered do not contain the dots and dashes representing vowel sounds in the Hebrew texts.

If the goal of the Masoretes was to preserve the pronunciation of the Name of our Creator, they would have gathered their information from writings similar to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Mr. Benner is saying that in order for the Masoretes to place the vowel points or dots and dashes that elicit a pronunciation of “Yehovah” that the Name of our Creator would require double vavs in His Name in the Dead Sea Scrolls as illustrated below.

Mr. Benner says that the Name of our Creator does not have the double “vav” in the Dead Sea Scrolls so therefore “Yehovah” cannot be the pronunciation of our Creator’s Name. Nehemiah Gordon provided a response to Mr. Benner’s letter. In an effort to justify the pronunciation of “Yehovah”, Nehemiah Gordon cited three examples in which a single letter “vav” has the “V” sound as well as the long “O” sound in a word. Following are the three Hebrew words he cites as examples and their location in scripture.

Mr. Gordon adds the comment below regarding his three citations.

Mr. Gordon could only find three examples. Based on this information, the letter “vav” usually serves as one sound in any Hebrew word. His findings indicate that it is not a very common practice to pronounce the letter “vav” with a “V” sound and a long “O” sound.

In order to verify his information, each word was evaluated in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, as well as the place in which it is found. The first word in Mr. Gordon’s citation is “Kaloveh” and it only has one “vav” and is pronounced with the “V” sound as well as the long “O” sound as illustrated in the Hebrew.

“Kaloveh” is translated as “so with the borrower” in the following passage:

The second word is “Kovay” and it only has one “vav” but is pronounced with a “V” sound as well as a long “O” sound as illustrated in the Hebrew.

“Kovay” is translated as “that wait” in the following passage:

The third word is “Kovacha” and it only has one “vav” but is pronounced with the “V” sound and the long “O” sound as illustrated in the Hebrew.

“Kovacha” is translated as “them that wait on” in the following passage:

“Kovay” and “Kovacha” are words from the same word family with the same reference number in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #H6960. Essentially, this means that Mr. Gordon only has two citations in all of scripture to validate his use of “Yehovah” for the Creator’s Name.

Mr. Benner responded with the following to Mr. Gordon in a subsequent letter.

Nehemiah Gordon did not provide a response to this comment.

Because languages and the pronunciation of words change over time, the prophet Yeshayahu (Isaiah) may have pronounced the word in 24:2 as “kalavah” during his time and today it is pronounced as “kalovah” which means the “vav” in this word represents only the “V” sound. In essence, Mr. Benner is saying that it is a very real possibility that the letter “vav” may have been used solely as the “V” sound in this word in the past. This same reasoning could be applied to all three examples presented by Nehemiah Gordon.

As previously discussed, the Masoretes were only one of three groups attempting to codify the pronunciation of the Hebrew language. Not all groups agreed. How do we know if one or two of the groups pronounced “kaloveh” as “kalavah” in the 10th century? This would nullify Nehemiah Gordon’s position completely. The reality is that the dots and dashes are not authoritative and do not necessarily express the perspectives of the original authors who lived thousands of years prior to the development of the vowel pointing systems in the 10th century. Based on this evidence, the pronunciation of our Creator’s Name is not “Yehovah”.

In the book of Bemidbar (Numbers), the Priests were instructed to place the Name of our Creator upon the House of Israel.

In the context of these passages, this would indicate that His Name is literally placed upon His people and they are identified by His Name. Is it possible to determine the pronunciation of His Name by examining the names of people who are known to be His?

“Jehu” or “Yahu” or ‘Jehu’ was a King of Yahudah (Judah). Brown-Drivers-Briggs defines it the following way:

“Yehu” or “Yahu” is identified with the Name of our Creator. Here is the name “Yehu” with the dots and dashes in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and it is pronounced “Yay-hoo” with these dots and dashes. The letter highlighted in orange is a suffix meaning “he”.

As we have established previously, the dots and dashes represent the perspective of one group of people and are not authoritative. It is possible that other vowel sounds can be applied to the name “Yehu”. In scripture, “Yah” is a shortened form of our Creator’s Name used in the Hebrew as illustrated in the following passage:

Following is the entry of the shortened version in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance #H3050.

The term “Yah” is not seen very often in scripture because it is most often translated as “LORD” in all uppercase letters as noted in the following examples which have Strong’s #H3050.

The Hebrew word for “praise” is “hallel”. When the Hebrew word for “praise” is combined with “Yah” as it is in Tehillim (Psalms) 150:6, it is spoken as “HalleluYah”. Nehemiah Gordon teaches that this shortened form takes the first and the last letter of the Tetragrammaton with the vowel sound associated with last syllable.

The last vowel sound makes an “AH” sound as in “saw”. It looks like a little “T” under the letter “vav” in the above example. However, it may also be possible that the shortened form of our Creator’s Name used the first and second letter of His Name and is also pronounced “Yah”. If the Name of our Creator has been placed upon His people, it is possible that the pronunciation of “Yehu” is actually “Yahu”. Based on this evidence, “Yehudah” could be pronounced “Yahudah” as well.

Here is a long list of Hebrew names found in scripture with the “Yahu” on the end of their name. The orange highlights were added for emphasis.

These are the names of just 42 men who belonged to the tribes of Yashar’El… people who bear the Name of our Creator. Following is the entry for “Yirmeyahu” or “Jeremiah” in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #H3414:

There are two possibilities for pronunciation: “Yirmeyah” and “Yirmeyahu”. Both of these names bear the Name of our Creator. The parts highlighted in orange are “Yahu” in “Yirmeyahu” and “Yah” in “Yirmeyah” which is the prophet “Jeremiah”.

The endings are pronounced “ya-hoo” and “yah”. In the very first verse of his scroll, Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) uses his name as one called by our Father in heaven. He has written and uses the name with the letter “vav” (ו) on the end. It is highlighted in orange.

The prophet calls himself “Yirmeyahu”. The letter “vav” is most commonly used as the “EW” sound or a “U”. Yirmeyahu says the Name of our Creator is literally upon his name in the following passage:

“Yahu” bears three of the four letters of the Tetragrammaton and is literally attached to the name “Yirmeyahu”.

The prophet Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) is literally called by His Name. The next name we will examine is “Zekaryahu” otherwise known as the prophet “Zechariah”. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #H2148:

He also has two versions of his name in this entry: Zekaryah and Zekaryahu. The part highlighted in orange is “Yahu” in “Zekaryahu” and “Yah” in “Zekaryah”.

The prophet calls himself Zekaryah (Zechariah) in the following passage without the letter “vav” (ו) as noted in the name highlighted in orange.

The next name is “Yeshayahu” or the prophet “Isaiah”. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #H3470:

The part highlighted in orange is “Yahu” in “Yeshayahu” or the name of the prophet “Isaiah”.

The prophet calls himself “Yeshayahu” (Isaiah) in the following passage which has the “vav” (ו) on the end of his name highlighted in orange.

The next name is “Eliyahu” or “Elijah” the prophet. This entry is from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #H452 and there are two versions for his name as well.

The part highlighted in orange is “Yahu” and bears three of the four letters of the Tetragrammaton.

In the scriptures, the prophet is identified as “Eliyahu” with the letter “vav” (ו) on the end of his name highlighted in orange.

The next name is “Yahudah” or “Judah” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #H3063:

In this name, “Yahu” is found at the beginning of the name and only has one version. The part highlighted in orange is “Yahu” in “Yahudah” or the tribe of “Judah”.

The next name is “Yahusef” or “Joseph” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #H3084.

This is a fuller version of the patriarch’s name with only one occurrence noted below:

Here is his name highlighted in orange in the Hebrew:

His name has three of the four letters of our Creator’s Name… ‘Yahu’ as in ‘Yahuseph:

The next name is “Yehosha” or “Joshua”. It is also the name given to our Messiah. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible #H3091:

In this particular name, the Masoretes decided to use the “vav” with the long “O” sound rather than the “vav” with the “EW” sound. As stated previously, dots and dashes are simply the opinion and perspective of one people group and are not authoritative. In the following passage of scripture, no dots and dashes have been added.

If we are following the pattern already illustrated in so many other names, the first part of this name would be pronounced “Yahu” and the last part is pronounced “sha”. This would make the pronunciation of this name “Yahusha”. “Yahu” in this name is highlighted in orange as well.

In all of these examples, the names include three of the four letters found in our Creator’s Name as illustrated below highlighted in orange.

If all these names plus the ones listed pronounce these letters as “Yahu,” then the evidence strongly illustrates that the first three letters of our Creator’s Name are also pronounced “Yahu”. With the added letter “hey”, His Name would be pronounced “Yahuah”.

Let’s examine another angle towards the pronunciation of His Name. The name “Yahudah” actually includes all four letters of our Creator’s Name with the addition of a “dalet” or the letter “D” sound. Here are the two for comparison with the “dalet” in ‘Yahudah’ highlighted in orange.

The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible written by Jeff A. Benner defines “dalet” the following way.

This is a prophecy of the coming Messiah who would come through the line of Yahudah and specifically through the line of King David. In essence, the “Messiah is the door to Yahuah” and this is what he says in the eyewitness account of Yochanan (John).

In the eyewitness account of Mattithyahu (Matthew), Yahusha (Jesus) is the man who stands at the door and determines who will enter into the Kingdom of Yahuah Elohim. He is saying he is the door to Yahuah.

This confirms the evidence revealed in our study of the names of men from the House of Yashar’El who are called by His Name. However, there is one more witness to consider. When Adam was created, he was a whole entity until Yahuah Elohim removed something from him to create woman.

A man is not a whole being without his long, lost rib… woman. In the Hebrew language, names of women will often end with an “H” sound or the Hebrew letter “hey”. Following are names of Hebrew women in scripture with letter ‘hey’ on the end.

When we add the names of men and women from Yashar’El, the Name of our Creator is found with both of them combined. Together a man and a woman bear the image and likeness of Yahuah Elohim.

The Name of our Father within the man’s name “Yahu” combined with the ending in the woman’s name “ah” provides the pronunciation “Ya-hoo-ah”. Let us take it another step further. Many Hebrew words in general are designated as either masculine or feminine. For example, the Hebrew word “Torah” is often translated as “Law” in the King James Bible and is a feminine noun in the Hebrew language. Here is a portion of the entry in the Brown-Drivers-Briggs Lexicon:

Here is the Hebrew word “Torah” with the letter “hey” on the end of the word highlighted in orange.

When the word “Torah” is combined with the name of a man from Yashar’El such as “Yirmeyahu”, they make a man in the image and likeness of Yahuah Elohim and bear His whole Name. A man is whole and complete with the Torah which is a representation of His Word or Instructions.

“Yahu” in the name “Yirmeyahu” combined with the ending “-ah” in “Torah” provides the pronunciation of “Ya-hoo-ah” for the Name of our Creator.