Recently, some people asked me if there is a word, Jehovah in Psalm 83:18. Although in my previous articles and talks, I discussed this but I still want to give some time for our brothers who are asking if there is a Jehovah written in Psalm 83:18.
It is not new to us that there are some persons insisting that YHWH is Jehovah since there are translations of the Bible where Jehovah is written. But for those who studied Biblical Hebrew, they will not say that YHWH is Jehovah.
Here is the screenshot of Psalm 83:18 from my Hebrew Bible. We can see Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey.
The added notations around are simple. The shewa under Yod and the Qamets under Vav have nothing to do with the word YHWH; they are the vocalization marks from another synonym of YHWH. There is no vowel, Holem so it can have the “O” and to say that “Yehowah” is in the text.
Before, there were those who used Leningrad Codex to prove that Jehovah is written in the text. Here is the manuscript used from Leningrad Codex and for them the Hebrew word in the manuscript is “Yehowah.”
The simple pronunciation would be "yehwah," but its not that simple. The Masoretes did not intend for the consonants to be pronounced, but to realize from the jarring pointing that one should read a different word for God. It is the fact that the pointing for the Tetragrammaton is the pointing of one word (Elohim) for the consonants of another (YHWH).
The _| shaped after the vowel Qamets (Psalm 83:18) is one of the accent marks called "munach."
The munach is a conjunctive accent, part of the vocalization and cantillation system to aid in the recitation/singing of the text. By no means is it a permission to pronounce the name; it is a symbol to pronounce the synonym (eloah/elohim) although the written word is YHWH.
In their tradition, the Jews are very strict when it comes to the name of God. For them, the YHWH is very sacred and they avoid committing a sin against God’s second commandment, "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name."(Deuteronomy 5:11)
That is why Jews use “Adonai” which they use to introduce God in their preaching.
In jewish tradition, both the Qere and the Ketiv are considered highly significant. When reading the torah scroll in the synagogue, jewish law stipulates that Qere is to be read and not the Ketiv. It means that when they read the Torah Scrolls and go over YHWH, they read it as “Adonai.” So, Jehovah is incorrect; it is a mixture of Qere (aDONAI) and Ketiv (YHWH). Jehovah is an erroneous mix of two different words by people who know elementary hebrew.
That is why in the Great Isaiah Scroll, we can notice YHWH was replaced by the scribes with four dots or tetrapuncta so they will not utter the sacred name of God.
The image in manuscript were taken from The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1995- 2020. You can visit their website at dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah.
No comments:
Post a Comment