Hebrew scholars: Just what does Yahweh mean?

Question

It's usually translated "I am who I am" or "I am He who is", a lot of English for one Hebrew word!

Answer 1

"Yahweh" does NOT mean "I am that I am." "I am that I am" is ehyeh asher ehyeh, NOT Yahweh. Yahweh is the personal name of God in parts of the Old Testament and has NO meaning. It is a name. The author of Exodus made up the explanation that Yahweh is somehow related to the verb hayah "to be" and the first person singular present tense form ehyeh. He was making a theological point which has no basis in linguistic facts. The OT is filled with such linguistically impossible explanations for proper names in order to make a theological point. "Yahweh" comes from even older Northwest Semitic names for God(s) recorded in both Ebla and Ugarit as Yah. It has NO etymological meaning other than a name for God.



Yahweh is NOT a variant of "Jehovah". "Jehovah" is a misunderstanding of the Masoretic text of the Old Testament. The ancient Hebrews did not write vowels, so the name of God was written YHWH. When Hebrew went extinct as a living language, vowel points were invented so the Jews could still pronounce the sacred text. But by then they were reluctant to speak the name Yahweh, so they inserted the vowel points of Adonay "lord" into the consonants of YHWH. This way the rabbis remembered not to say Yahweh, but to say Adonay. When the OT was translated into Latin, the Latin scholars didn't know this and read the name of God with the consonants of Yahweh, but the vowels of Adonay--in other words, Jehovah (there was some variation in the way the vowel points were pronounced). JEHOVAH is a completely invented word from a misreading of the Hebrew text by the Latin translators in the 4th century.



LATER EDIT FOR LUCKY3: Lucky is closer to reality here, but made a couple of errors. The letter waw was not pronounced as a [v] until much later than the period when the OT was being written, possibly as late as the first or second century, but before the translation of the OT into Latin in the 4th century. Modern Hebrew and the medieval pronunciations of Ancient Hebrew lacked [w], but Ancient Hebrew HAD [w]. This is quite clear since every people that borrowed the alphabet from the eastern Mediterranean during the last century BCE used the letter waw for a [u] or [w] sound. It is also clear that waw was still [w] in the 3rd century BCE because the Hebrew word HWYLH (Latin/English Havilah) is transliterated Euilat in the Greek Septuagint translation of that time. The etymology of "hovah" as 'disaster' is just more incorrect folk etymology. The word "Jehovah" is NOT Hebrew, but a Latinized misreading of YHWH with the vowels of Adonay, this has been confirmed by hundreds of scholars in the field, by Jewish practice from the late centuries BCE, and by the Greek translation of the 3rd century BCE (which has, by Jewish practice, kurios 'lord' instead of YHWH or Jehovah). Arabic vowels are irrelevant here since by the time Yahweh was developed as a word, the Northwest Semitic languages (of which Hebrew is one) and the ancestor of Arabic had gone their separate ways. Also, the transliteration of 'hyh (imperfective first person singular of hyh 'be') is wrong. It is ehyeh, not eheye (she forgot the final 'h' even).

Answer 2

Yahweh Meaning

Answer 3

Yahweh is a Hebrew word meaning I AM.

Answer 4

First, let me clarify a couple things. Yahweh is an incorrect transliteration. It most likely was the result of a convenient, yet ignorant modification for better ease of use. Such translation lacks basic knowledge of the Hebrew language.



Secondly, YHWH is also incorrect. Hebrew does not have a letter (W). However, when the (W) sound is translated into Hebrew, it is depicted as [(Vav-Vav) (ו ו)]. Since the actual Hebrew tetragram is: [(Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey) (יהוה)]...with only one [(Vav) (ו)]...the corresponding Latin characters would be written as YHVH.



That said...the exact pronunciation of (יהוה) has been lost because the Hebrew alphabet does not contain specific vowels and the present Masoretic vowels are not genuine, as they appeared only after 500 CE. Before this epoch, the only vowels were the matres lectionis.



Despite this, the pronunciation is not completely lost. Like any language there are certain rules regarding pronunciation—like (knight) is pronounced as (nite). So in comparing the Qumran’s writing of the first century, YHVH would most likely be, Yehovah or Yahovah.



The discrepancy results because the first two letters, [(Yud-Hey) (יה)] are pronounced both ways. I’m sure there’s a more factual basis for the adoption of Yehovah, but some believe it was chosen to avoid an eventual blasphemous misinterpretation of the expression.



You see, (Ya) is the short name of God, as in Halleluya or praise Ya. And (hovah) means disaster. So in Hebrew, since the words (is) and (a) are incorporated into the words that precede or follow them—Ya-hovah may be interpreted as (Ya is a disaster).



For you, it would be best to write YHVH and to say Yehovah...

But this is only my opinion...



As far as YHVH meaning...

"I am who I am"

This is a falacy...



The verse from Exodus 3:14

eheye asher eheye = אהיה אשר אהיה

Literally means...

"I will be whatever I will be"...

Answer 5

"I am that I am" is a very poor translation of the Hebrew name of God.



You can see the word for word translation at this web site.



(Ignore the English text of the right, which I have found to be a very poor English translation)



http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/OTpdf/exo3.pdf



You will notice two things from the Hebrew.



1) Yahweh is the correct translation and not LORD.



2) The name literally means "I shall become who I am becoming" and not 'I am'.



Translating Yahweh as 'I am' is like saying "The Ultimate" means a little better than average.



As to Jehovah vs Yahweh



that is the same as Jesus vs Yeshua



Both convey the Name of the person being spoken about in the minds of those listening.



To translate YHWH as Jehovah or Yahweh is not wrong.



To translate YHWH as LORD is.



If you wrote a book about your life and the editors / publishers of that book replace your name with "Person"

Would you have warm fuzzy feelings toward those editors?



How do you think Jehovah / Yahweh feels about people claiming to worship him, and yet refuse to Glorify his Name.



John 12:28.



.

Answer 6

The term Yahweh is a variant of the Jehovah. Jews don't believe in creating images of God, to the extent that it's illegal to print or say God's name. The Hebrew letters Yod Hay Vav Hay are used in scripture to denote God. The literal pronunciation in Hebrew is Yehoveh. This has been translated to Yahweh in modern Christian literature.



The phrase "I am Who I am" comes from Moses's revelation. The legend of the burning bush describes how God spoke to Moses, and ordered him to lead the people Israel out of Egypt. Moses saw the burning bush, heard the voice, and asked "Who are you?" God replied "I am what I am".

Answer 7

Many Hebrew words cover complete thoughts also letters = #s & #s =letters, Yahweh does mean "I am that I am" But it was also the name of a Mountain that was worshiped by the pagans before Moses gave it to his one true "God"

Answer 8

Hebrew for God or Jehovah because they don't use"J"

I'm sure someone else can go into more detail for you.

Yeshua is Jesus.

Answer 9

Yahweh means "polka-dotted aligator". I've studied the word my whole life.

Answer 10

it means "The Lord" or " I Am The Lord" I learned it in religion class