The Name: pronouncing it and its meaning

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we are going to look today at the pronunciation of the name of God and to understand what it means so I don't know where you may sit on this topic I know it can be very divisive uh some people say we should not say the name some say that we should and I believe that we should I pronounce as yehovah there many opinions on this is Yahweh is yah um and I thought we would get into why many feel at this time that we need to get back to saying the name and that we shouldn't feel bad about that now scripture that comes to mind is from The Book of Ruth in Ruth chapter 2 verse4 uh we read of a very uh familiar type situation in Israel where the workers in the field and here we have with Boaz and uh and his work is this greeting that they gave to one another um at Ruth 2 ver4 says and behold Boaz came from Bethlehem and said unto the Reapers yehovah be with you and they answered him yahovah bless you now this is an interesting thing because right now to say the name has become such a taboo and there many reasons why this has happened historically but it's important to realize originally God's people would actually call upon the name and would pronounce it there was nothing wrong with pronouncing it that was wasn't to uh to Sul it or make it dirty in any way it was you just you called upon the name of your god um a quote I have on this um tells how the the change happened with time the missioner confirms that there was no prohibition against pronouncing the name in ancient times in fact the missioner recommends using God's name as a routine greeting to a fellow Jew 95 however by the time of the talmud it was the custom to use substitute names for God some rabbis asserted that a person who pronounces yahovah according to its letters instead of using a substitute has no place in the world to come and should be put to death so we see there it's quite a serious thing and where this got to in terms of you using the name and how this strong tradition of substitution came to be and so this is important to realize so how do we understand substitution today well we see this all over our Bibles don't we we see the use of Lord in capital letters that is the main substitute now it it this came from the Jewish people who taught when you see the name of God you say Adonai which means Lord or master and so we can see that in English versions that this was passed on uh also occasionally I'll get into this occasionally you would also say God uh where you see the name and uh we will we will look into why that is and uh and anyway to understand that there were these uh substitutions that happened and a more recent one which is quite interesting I've seen this with in Jewish uh websites uh safaria is one of them which is a really good translation uh they use they have a sub a new substitution is coming out where Adonai or often Hashem has been used a new one is the Eternal which is an interesting one because it actually gets to the heart of what the name means and so this is important uh regardless of pronunciation when we pronounce it what do we think it means and this is what's beautiful about the God of Israel is that there's an ele there's element of him that is transcendent but also that he is known and his name is in some ways known revealed in four letters yud he V and he but it's also Transcendent in that what that yud he V uh is describing is just above us and so eternals a good a good example of this where we try and understand his name and we can't understand Concepts like eternity we we know we're trying to describe but we can't truly fathom them so what's interesting is that in this week's Torah portion we see that the Mal Elohim came to Moses and well and reveals the this essence of our God and why he is unfathomable and Transcendent and it's it's we see this in the letters so what we see when we look at the letters is that it seems to be uh the the last three we can pretty much understand is behind this idea of I am and so we see this in phrases like what the said we also see this in the different tenses of ha the root for I am we get ha and if you to say he will be you would say ye and it seems to be that also might explain where the first uh yud comes from the we can understand very easily the last three letters but that first one where it's that he will be so it's he and followed by this uh this this fullness of who he is is just crammed into this name that when we call upon him he is the one who is T Timeless spaceless Supernatural above all we can understand and so we declare that when we say his name now when it comes to trying to understand pronunciation this is a challenge you've got to understand that we've had uh Millennia and we've lost all the record tapes from Moses and and what this means is uh well we just we have lines we have we have writing we have uh certainly letters that are trying to portray a sound but that actual sound there's a bit of we have to go historically we have to look at related languages and and uh and try and understand as best as we can what's also important to see within Hebrew of the various forms of haah you will notice that even the consonants or the the Y and changes to a in and this is also part of languages where this just is the tradition that it changes in different places not just the vows but sometimes as with within the name of God the yud can become a V and so uh this is important a lot of people say well I don't believe a language should be this way and the Jews have an expression which is K which is like just get over it and it is a bit like that because it kind of is what it is the way the language is spoken and uh how the vowels change whether certain vowels are placed at one part of a word or at another or consonants it does shift around we can see that so so this is important when trying to understand the pronunciation and the best uh the best example well the best hope I think that we have is to understand the the merites they codified the Hebrew language and basically put in these nicod do these vowel sounds and little lines to help you understand uh where the emphasis was placed on certain words and how it was said with the vows and and the various things needed to really codify how the language was spoken and so you might say well this is wonderful let's get to the name of God and there we can see how at least uh they were from the 7th Century to the 10th 11th century codifying it uh we could see at least thousand years ago how they were pronouncing the name the problem is that they they said that they were um trying to mask the name they didn't want people to pronounce it and we can see in the way they represented the vows that you begin to see they were they were doing this and the tradition also supports this so what do we see when we look at the name as they represented well 83% of the time we see um of that 6,800 uses of it of the name in the tanak 83% of the time it's represent as ye without the middle and uh and so we see the the large tradition was to drop the middle vow when they would would come to the name of God they would drop that middle vow and not represent it uh another 11% of the time the front vow drops away but this is actually just within Hebrew grammar and uh and so when there's a a prefix of V K or we see that this uh the front vow would disappear but that but still the middle vow in this situation as well would be dropped and uh and then also what's interesting is that we see the use of another 4% of the time again the middle vow is drop but what's interesting is in this rendering of the name it's rendered as ye and that's strange so there's a e sound at the end and so what's this got to do with well when you look at it what you see is that it is always used in when the word Adonai is used in conjunction with uh the name of God and it would read funny if you said Adonai Adonai so what they taught was you should rather say Adonai Elohim and so when the name was in conjunction with Adonai they would uh yeah they would change the last letter to an e sound um so you wouldn't say ay ay but what we do see is that the vow is Dro that middle V has dropped 98 whatever per of the time and then there these few places where you can see all three vows and you may say yay Hallelujah we know all three vows we can say the name of God well the push back has been that they definitely wanted you to say Adonai and what has been conventional wisdom scholarly thought is that these are the vows of uh Adonai that have been placed on top of the name I will be honest I have a lot of doubt in what has mainly been put forward as uh that this is these are the vowels of Adonai a lot of people are standing back say well what grammatical rules are stopping them from putting just a here and it would have the short a sound so it should be yahovah if you're adding the vows of Adon so this is this is something we uh we push back on where what are these grammatical rules it seems to just be something that is said again and again and it loses the linguistic Integrity a sh sounds like a air sound not as a a and so in general people trust the vows but with the name we see there's a lot going on here and so some people of the opinion that these are just the names of Adonai placed on and uh and others will say yes we see the influence of uh changing letters here and there to encourage Adonai and Elohim to be said but the there seems to also be reason to believe that actually maybe these were the original origal uh vows but that they reduced they would pull out 98% of the time for that reason they pulled out the middle vow as as a practice um there's another reason why a lot of people are also convinced with this to to to to think of these as true vows and that is because of theophoric names as as I've explained with Hebrew when you putting certain elements of words in different places the vowels can be all over the place but what you see with certain names that have the name of God in the beginning of of them they seem to have the same vows now that's you know that's quite the coincidence if uh these were not really the vows you know there's quite there's definitely a connection to be seen so there's names like yahoshua yanan um yonatan all the these various theophoric names and you will see that they have the air o combination and so with that being at the front of the name of God another reason why a lot of people would say would see it could make a lot of sense to see those vows as being legitimate the Shiva and the as well now I want to encourage people that whatever your your take on the pronunciation to pronounce his name don't be scared with the different version whether it's yve or uh Yahweh or whatever it may be however you understand it call upon his name and they seek to try and understand how that name was said um but and I also am very appreciative for people that have at least explained what the name means because it's so much more than just pronunciation it's so much more than just learning a few you know a few letters and and saying them to have the understanding that this is describing a God who is uh ineffable just uh above all we can understand and um comprehend and Transcendent and we he is the I am he just is and we can't fully fathom and to understand this within the Hebrew letters and to to be shown the root of haah and that masculine third person it means a lot that when you call upon it you're saying he is that and to remember that and to encourage you in your walk that wherever you wherever you are at just know he is above uh and is completely virtuous because what we see is despite him being all glorious all Transcendent all of that what's beautiful about the God of Israel it's different to the the god of the Pless and what it really influenced much of Christianity and Judaism is that no we see this with Moses he wishes to reveal himself as well that he can be active in our creation he sends his son speaks to prophets his word his glory goes out that we may know him and one thing we know about him is he says many times call upon my name and so I want to encourage you to do that and more importantly than that when you call upon his name know of what he represents in his character and his essence the one who is virtuous beyond all we can understand that is what it means to call upon his name know who he truly is so I pray that it would be more than just letters today but it would encourage you within those letters it would encourage you to understand who he is and when you call upon his name that you understand you're calling upon that character that is above all we can understand and yet manifest to us so Shalom to you wherever you are I pray that you're a blessed Sabbath wherever you may be listening to this teaching shalom
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Channel: Andrew Hodkinson
Views: 4,256
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Length: 17min 32sec (1052 seconds)
Published: Fri Jan 05 2024
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