Bible Question:
Where did that come from? I don't think for a moment anyone bought anything the Jehovah Witnesses are selling. They can't even get God's name right. Jehovah is a made up word by William Tyndale in the 1500's. He took the constants in the Tetragram YHWH and added the vowels from the Latin Adonai and using common laws of speech came up with Jehovah. But thanks for the thought. |
Bible Answer: Apparently the King James Version translators fell into the trap set by Tyndale in giving us "Jehovah" for the tetragrammation YHWH. Jehovah is a hybrid linguistic contrivance that is the result of an "ignorance gap" by the translators, both Tyndale and the King James committee, of the Hebrew language and customs. They did well with what they had, but much more has been added to the lore of the ancient languages and customs since 1611. YHWH, the name itself, was considered by the Hebrews as too holy to utter so the Hebrew word adonai (Lord) was substituted when the text was read. Most modern translations have set Lord in upper-case type, LORD, to indicate YHWH is meant. The designation "tetragrammaton" is from the Greek, meaning "four letters". --Hank |