Originally posted by RJHinds
The JWs claim Jehovah is the name of God. When I respond with Exodus 3:13-14 of the King James Version of the Holy Bible giving the name of God, robbie carrobie says that makes no sense.
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall sa ...[text shortened]... children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.
Does Jehovah make sense? What say you?
ehyeh asher ehyeh: I am that I am, or I will be what I will be, etc. (The Hebrew is in the imperfect tense, signifying uncompleted or continuing action—there is no present or future tense in the classical Hebrew, per se.)
YHVH: a 3rd person verb construct from
ehyeh meaning “who is”, that is”, etc.
YHVH is taken as a name (names in classical Hebrew often, if not always convey meaning—in this case just uncompleted or continuing being or “beingness” ). But it is really a verb, not a noun.
Most Bibles substitute the word “LORD” for YHVH, in view of the traditional prohibition on pronouncing it. The New Jerusalem Bible uses “Yahweh” (though that may not be the way it was pronounced, and there are some arguments against it). An Orthodox Jewish Tanach that I have substitutes the word
hashem, which literally means “the name”, but is used as name. Liturgically, Jews use “Adonai” (lord), but non-liturgically
Hashem is the more often used word. Richard Elliot Friedman, in his translation of the Torah, just keeps YHVH.*
“Jehovah” is just a Latinization of YHVH, with vowels added for pronunciation.
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* An interesting aside on this: YHVH is all consonants—but happen to be the consonants that, in classical Hebrew, can sometimes be used as vowels. As all consonants, it is literally unpronounceable, but whether any, or all, of those letters were understood as vowels is unknown.