YHWH (He יהוה) is the name of God in the Hebraic Bible. The word is composed of four consonants, yōḏ (He י), hē (He ה), wāw (He ו) and hē (He ה). Its guematric value is 26.

Etymology

The Tétragramme YHWH is a form of the verb HWH, havah (“to be”, “to become”), which combines the first ( I am ) and the third ( It is ) nobody of the singular, the past ( I was ), the present ( I am ) the accomplished one (all times of the past, therefore carried out), the unaccomplished one (all potential times of the future to the subjunctive and conditional).

Exode  3: 13-14 (episode of the Burning bush ): Brace said to God: “Here, I will find the Jews and I say to them: " God of your fathers sent to me towards you. ” But if they say to me: " Which is its name? " , what will I say to them? God called to Moïse: " I am what I am " (AHYH ASR AHYH Ehyéh Acher Ehyéh אֶֽהְיֶ֖האֲשֶׁ֣ראֶֽהְיֶ֑ה ) And he says: " Here what you will say to the Jews: " I suis" (AHYH, Ehyéh ) sent to me towards you. " ” (" translation; Bible of Jerusalem). The expression is returned by “I am that which am” (translation of the Bible Louis Segond 1910) or “I am who I will be”, according to TOB. The Bible of Rabbinate speaks Être invariable.

The theory presented by Henri Meschonnic, in Gloires (translation of the Psaumes) affirms that this name refers to an old divinity of the name of Yah (YH, יה), specific C-W communication which one finds 26 times in the Hebraic Bible instead of YHWH

According to another etymology, the name would derive from Iahu, Déesse sumérienne whose name means Colombe of in top and who is identified with Eurynomé, the goddess of all things of the myth pélasge of creation.

According to the Christian doctrines, YHWH appeared in Abraham with the oak of Mambré with two angels (to compare Genèse 19:1 and Genèse: 18: 1-2; 16; 22) which left then for the town of Sodome.

Nevertheless, always according to these same doctrines to make a parallelism in the book of Jean of New Testament, according to the TOB and the Bible in French running, Jesus states itself to be “I Am” by specifying in Abraham itself had seen its day and that it had been transported in the joy. (to compare, and Exodus 3:14).

Pronunciation

Prohibited

The Judaism avoids pronouncing the Tétragramme, by application of the third Command.

  • One uses in general the term Adonaï ( ʾDNY , אדני, “Lord”).

  • Elohim, plural which one translates in an approximate way though inaccurate by “the Almighty” during a reading with high voice, according to the vocalization indicated by the Massorètes under the consonants.
  • In the conversation they use HaShem which can be translated of Hebrew by the name (first use in Lévitique 24:11).
  • Of many Jews Anglo-Saxon speakers uses Gd in their correspondences.

Uncertainty

In old Hebrew, one does not register vowels in the texts; the readers must add of memory the vowels appropriate to the context of the reading. In fact the massorètes created in the middle of the first millenium a system of points vowels (see the article Diacritiques Hebrew alphabet).

Especially the Jews assert a prohibition to pronounce Tétragramme, based on the third command: “you will not call upon the Name of YHWH in vain your God”. Other expressions are substituted to him for the oral examination, like Adonay (My Lord) or ´Èlohim (God), or haChem (the Name), for example when the reader meets the tétragramme in the Hebraic Writings. This substitution names the permanent Qéré and would explain the vowel-points: a-o-a for Adonay , e-o-i for ´Elohim .

For these two reasons, the exact pronunciation of the tétragramme remains dubious. Uncertainty thus does not relate on the consonants, but to the place and the standard of the vowels.

Uncertainty also relates to the existence of this pronunciation. Joel Mr. Hoffman, for example, in his work In the Beginning , supports that the tétragramme forever have pronunciation. Others hébraïsants, being based inter alia on the names Théophore S like Juda ( Yehouda ), and the reported remarks in the writings containing the tétragramme, do not share this point of view. They return in the passing known under the usual name of the dream of Isaïe , of which prosody and assonances in " O" and " OU" reveal a usual pronunciation at times of the drafting of this text among oldest of the biblical corpus.

Pronunciations suggested

This name is returned in certain translations by Yahweh or Yahvé , form reconstituted by hébraïsants and considered as the original pronunciation in medium Catholique. Jéhovah (or connected transcriptions as Iehovah ) is a used Western form in the Religion Chrétienne since the medieval time until the beginning of the 20th century, popularized by Victor Hugo and the translation of the bible of John Nelson Darby. It is obtained by the tétragramme supplemented vowel-points e-o-a. These vowel-points there were establish by the Massorètes with an aim of recording the various regional pronunciations, as indicates it, the Codex of Leningrad which does not contain less than 6 " prononciations" different, whose system of vocalization is largely the work of the famous family Ben Ascher. There is not thus to seek “real pronunciation” of the divine Name in this system.

According to Gerard Gertoux, sympathizer of the Pilot of Jéhovah, it is possible to find the pronunciation of the tétragramme:

This name YHWH is read without difficulty since he decides like he is written, or according to its letters to take again the expression of Talmud. Indeed, until in 70 of our era, the large priests read the day of Yom Kippour the blessing of 6:24 Numbers - 27 by pronouncing YHWH according to its letters, i.e. like he is written. The Hebrew names were vocalized thanks to the three letters Y, W, H, like the writings of Qumrân largely confirmed it. The letter Y was read I (or E), the letter W: U (or O), and the letter H: With at the end of the words. Name YHWH was thus read IHÛA (Ihoua). For better hearing the letter H (quasi inaudible) one could associate an E to him dumb. This light improvement gives for name YHWH the pronunciation I-eH-U-HAVe (Iehoua), the equivalent of the massoretic pronunciation YeHoWaH.

Nevertheless, the choice of the pronunciation of Gertoux is discussed owing to the fact that the conferences " Witnesses of Jéhovah" only " gather; Witnesses of Jéhovah" and do not correspond so that " is named; the evaluation by the pairs" in the scientific world. It is thus a doctrinal pronunciation which is recognized only by those which share the doctrines.

Some on the basis of the same principle of the four vowels fall on the pronunciations Yao or Yaoue.

Traditions related to the tétragramme

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