Tetragrammaton

Occurrences and Content in Scripture

The Korean term for the Tetragrammaton, sinseong samunja, means "sacred four letters." In the Old Testament, the personal name of the God of Israel consists of four Hebrew consonants (יהוה, romanized as YHWH), and these four letters are referred to by this term. In Greek they are called the Tetragrammaton ("four letters"). The name is known to occur about 6,800 times in the Hebrew Old Testament and appears throughout the books from Genesis to Malachi.

The principal passage that directly addresses the meaning of the name is Exodus 3:12–15. God reveals himself to Moses as "I AM THAT I AM" and declares that this is his name for ever. In Exodus 6:2–3, God says that he appeared to the patriarchs "by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them." The third commandment of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:7) declares, "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain."

Background

Ancient Hebrew was written with consonants only. As a result, the original pronunciation of the name has not been reliably preserved. The name is commonly understood to be related to the Hebrew verb meaning "to be" or "to become."

To avoid uttering the name casually, Jews substituted Adonai, meaning "Lord," when reading Scripture. When the Masoretes added vowel points to the Masoretic Text, they supplied these four letters with the vowels of Adonai. Reading those consonants and vowels together as written produces the form Jehovah. On the basis of ancient Greek sources and other evidence, scholars reconstruct the original pronunciation as something close to "Yahweh," but this too is conjecture.

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are written in the script of their day but render these four letters alone in the older Paleo-Hebrew script. This shows that the name was already being given special treatment at that time.

Significance Across Scripture

The Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, generally rendered the name as "Lord" (Kyrios). The New Testament follows this convention when quoting the Old Testament, and the Tetragrammaton does not appear in any extant New Testament manuscript.

In Romans 10:13, Paul quotes "whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD" from Joel 2:32 as "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord" and connects it with confession of faith in Jesus. For this reason, many interpreters read the confession "that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:11) in light of the Old Testament name of God. Some interpreters also link Jesus' words "I am" in John 8:58 with Exodus 3:14.

Interpretations and Issues

• Rendering: Protestant tradition has mainly used "Jehovah," while scholars and some translations use "Yahweh." Scholars broadly agree that "Jehovah" is not the original pronunciation. Nevertheless, as a long-established traditional rendering, "Jehovah" remains in wide use.
• Pronouncing the name: Judaism does not pronounce the name directly but substitutes other words for it. The Catholic Church likewise uses "the Lord" in its liturgy. Jehovah's Witnesses regard using God's name as an important part of their faith and insert "Jehovah" even into the New Testament of their own Bible translation. Other denominations criticize this practice as having no basis in the New Testament manuscripts.

In the Korean Church

The Korean Revised Version (New Revised Edition) renders the name as "Yeohowa" (Jehovah), which has become the most familiar form in Korean Protestantism. The Common Translation renders it as "Yahweh," and the New Korean Standard Version generally renders it as "Ju" (Lord). The Catholic Church's 2005 Seongyeong (The Holy Bible) renders it as "Junim" (the Lord).

In Protestant churches, "Jehovah" is commonly used in preaching, prayer, and hymns. The name also appears in the "jah" of Hallelujah and in expressions such as Jehovah-jireh.