Where does the name Jehovah come from?

Two theologians argue over the name of God. They have different opinions and discuss them openly. While they measure their arguments against each other, they do everyday chores: weave mail, fetch coffee, and what a book publisher does. I experienced this situation in the Christian book publishing house Haan-Gruiten (today R. Brockhaus Verlag im SCM-Verlag GmbH und Co. KG [LINK]), when I worked there as a packer in 1978.

I never followed this discussion because the name Jesus was and is important to me, but the question of the real name of God as a problem in my life has reappeared. For I have information that presents the name Jehovah as pure misunderstanding in writing and reading. If there is something true about this matter, that the name Jehovah is based on a sad error, then not only in me, but in many people the suspicion might rise that the Watchtower Society then looks forward to its probably unavoidable unmasking.

The information was sent to me by a well-meaning Jehovah's Witness. He probably didn't read the website properly. No wonder! He is not allowed to check foreign literature. The Watchtower Society forbids that. So this Jehovah's Witness, without wanting to, has opened a topic that might break the neck of the Watchtower Society.

Where does the name Jehovah come from?

Out of reverence for the name of God and fear of misusing it, it was forbidden for Jews to pronounce the name of Yahweh in pre-Christian times: rather, Adonaj or Edonaj (="Lord") was read in its place. When in the second half of the first millennium A.D. the Hebrew consonant text was provided with vowel signs, the vowel signs of Edonaj were placed under the four consonants of the name of God, so that for the non-hebrewer the factually incorrect reading JeHoWaH resulted. The common pronunciation "Yahweh" is confirmed by the Christian church fathers, who were not forbidden to pronounce the name and who knew the pronunciation from Jewish fringe groups or gentiles (e.g. Samaritans).

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So that the readers of the Old Testament might be reminded that where YHWH was written, it was not Yahweh who had to be spoken, but a paraphrase that had to be used, they wrote under YHWH »Edonai« (Lord). From the 3rd century B.C. onwards the scribes then only placed the Hebrew vowels of this word, namely E, 0, A, under the consonants JHWH. Gentile readers associated the consonants of one name with the vowels of the other, and so Jehowah came into being. A mistake, nobody can change that. Also not his witnesses.

Source: www.archiv-vegelahn.de/jehova.html

Further research

As already mentioned, the name of God has not been pronounced since the 3rd century BC. When reading the biblical text it was usually replaced by the word the Hebrew expression for "my Lord", which means "my Lord". To indicate this changed reading, the Masorets, when dotting the Hebrew consonant text, wrote the vowels of the Hebrew expression for "my Lord" ["adonaj"] under the tetragram the Hebrew expression for "Yahweh" ["jhwh"]. This was then misunderstood by Christians from about the 12th century A.D. onwards. They then actually read the tetragram with the vowels of the Hebrew expression for "my Lord" [ "adonaj"]. Thus the false reading "Jehowah" arose, which today still haunted literature and was the inspiration for the naming of "Jehovah's Witnesses".

But the original reading "Yahweh" can be deduced from the old Hebrew verb the Hebrew expression for "his" and "become" ]"hajah"] or the Hebrew expression for "his" and "become" ["hawah"] beyond doubt. It is also confirmed, for example, by the Samaritans, for whom the pronunciation of the name of God, contrary to custom, continued to be customary.

Source: www.joerg-sieger.de

The problems begin on page 14 at the latest. There we read that it is very important to address God by the right name and that this name is «Jehovah». Where does this name come from? A look at the preface of the Elberfelder Bible (4th edition 1992) brings clarity: The Israelites never said «Jehovah», but probably «Yahweh». Later they did not dare to pronounce the holy name of God anymore and instead said «Adonaj» (=lord). So that one was now reminded while reading from the Bible «Adonaj» to read and not inadvertently «Yahweh»the Jews set the vowels of the word «Adonaj» (eoa) in their Bible manuscripts to the consonants of the name «Yahweh» (JHWH), so that the uninitiated had to read «Jehowa» from it. Consequently, it follows that «Jehovah» is not a name and should therefore not be written and pronounced in our language.

Source: www.jodler.ch/bstocker/?m=200605

For this reason it was assumed for centuries that the Jews called their God "Jehovah", since the word "JHV" was more frequently encountered in the Scriptures. But a Greek historian mentioned in one of his texts that the Jews call their God "Jahbe". Since there is no letter for the sound "w" in Greek, he took the letter most similar to this sound: the "beta". In modern Greek, for example, Warsaw is also written with this letter.

Quelle: www.geocities.com/kaaba_online/texte/1allah.htm (no longer available – 05-06-2010)

After some time, the Bible researchers identified even more with Jeremiah, when in 1931 it was announced at a congress in Columbus, Ohio, USA, that the name for this courageous group of Christians should be "Jehovah's Witnesses" (Isaiah 43:10-12). ... It was therefore fitting that God's people at God's appointed time were suited to bear that name – "Jehovah's Witnesses" (John 17:6, 11, 12).

Source: Watchtower, 1 April 1988, pages 23, 24

My request now is that anyone who can provide relevant information about this question should not be afraid to indicate it here for publication. For even if the above presentations sound very plausible, they should nevertheless be checked for their truthfulness. If they are correct, the Watchtower Society will be exposed as a liar in one fell swoop. For then there is nothing bright or divine about their divine light, and the food of the faithful and intelligent slave is not spiritual nourishment, but only spiritual laxative!