An Atheist's Guide to the Bible

Yahweh

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Yahweh is the name of God most often used in the Old Testament. He goes under other names, including Elohim and Adonai, and other less frequent uses which are discussed under Names of God.

In most modern English Bibles these names are hidden by being translated variously as God, Lord or Almighty. I think it is helpful to think of Yahweh as Yahweh, because that is how the writers of the books probably thought of him. He is a distinct character in the stories, in fact the central character throughout the Old Testament.

Some translations do reflect the different names. In the New International Version, for example, typographical styles are explained in the preface so you can tell which original word stood in each place. However, it seems more sensible simply to transliterate the original names directly, as is done in the New Jerusalem Bible, NJB.

Is Yahweh the same as Jehovah?

Yes, the traditional English spelling Jehovah is less favoured among most scholars now, and Yahweh is more generally used. But both spellings refer to the same name.

The form Jehovah came about because of a peculiarity of the textual history of the Hebrew Bible. In the Hebrew texts the sacred name is written with four letters - YHVH. Hebrew was originally written with consonants only, the vowels were added later using a system of dots and other marks underneath the letters. Thus the original pronunciation is sometimes no longer known.

The sacred divine name YHVH is generally not spoken by Jews, they traditionally say Adonai (Lord) instead, out of a desire not to use God's name in vain. The corresponding vowel marks, namely a-o-a, are written in above and below the name in the Hebrew text to remind readers to speak it Adonai.

So YHVH then looks as if it is written Yahovah - leading to the popular form Jehovah. This is almost certainly not how the word should be pronounced, but the correct way has actually been lost. Most scholars now believe that Yahweh is as close as we can get to the original form of the name.

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