About YHWH, Yahweh or
Many names have been given to the Creator of Heaven and Earth ... however, He has but one name and that is Yahweh; all others are not names but descriptive titles ... and one, "Jehovah," actually curses the Father!
Here is the way of pronouncing the Father's Name:
According to Merriam-Webster, Lord is a reference to Yahweh, as it is to Yahshua ... but, obviously, this is not the Father's Name ... nor the Son's Name! In fact, the English way of saying "Lord" is "Ba'al" ... and in YirmeYahu (Jeremiah) 23:26-27, Yahweh speaks of those who have forgotten His Name for Ba'al.
Merriam-Webster clearly shows that "God", though often used to refer to the Father, may have many other connotations as well. And Yahweh's First Commandment makes it clear enough that He doesn't want us having any misconceptions about such things - there are all kinds of lords and gods but only one Creator!
"Adonai" (say "ahh-doe-nye") means "my master" ... "el" (say "ale") means "mighty" and "elohim" (say "el-oh-heem") is a plural reference meaning "mighty ones" ... however, when it is capitalized as "Elohim," it is a singular reference to "the Father, the Son, and His Qodesh Spirit." Greek interpretors also replaced the Father's Name with the terms Theos and Kurios ... but "Theos" means "God" and "Kurios" means "Lord" - both are titles that may refer to many false gods ... and none of these hallow the Father's Name.
Note: In the Book of Hanok (commonly known as the Book of Enoch), Satan's name is revealed as "Gadriel" (say "God-ree-ale") and the short of that name would be "Gad" ... the letter "A," in Aramaic/Hebrew, is always pronounced "ahh" - so "Gad" is pronounced "God." See what's been going on? Satan is awfully crafty, isn't he!
Considering how the Father commands us to honor His name, publish His name, glorify His name -- the list goes on and on -- I can't imagine why so many so-called scholars, who interpret the original Aramaic/Hebrew and Greek Scriptures into English, would remove His name altogether! But there you have it; they did! One excuse, which is often given for this abomination, involves a misinterpretation of the Third Commandment:
See the difference? Of course you do! Well ... their poor excuse is that, by not speaking it or printing it, they cannot be accused of taking it in vain. What they don't realize is He said we are not to bring it to nothing ... and not speaking it or printing it, does just that!
The Encyclopedia Britannica states:
"Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, revealed his name to Moses as four Hebrew consonants (YHWH) called The Tetragrammaton. After the exile (6th Century B.C.), and especially from the 3rd Century B.C. on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal religion through its proselytizing in the Greco-Roman world, the more common noun elohim, meaning "god," tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel's God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai ("My Lord"), which was translated as Kyrios ("Lord") in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament."
The New International Version of the Bible, in its preface, reads "In regard to the divine name YHWH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the translators adopted the device used in most English versions of rendering that name as "Lord"... " -- noting the fact that most all English translations of the Bible have indeed replaced Yahweh (or YHWH - ) with the Lord.
And finally, there's the all-popular Jehovah that we've all heard used. How and when did this name come into existence?
The Encyclopedia Brittanica states:
"The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew word Adonai or Elohim. Thus the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) came into being."
Even Merriam-Webster clearly points the name Jehovah to its origin of Yahweh. However, since there are no J's in the Hebrew alphabet, Jehovah is obviously a man-made attempt to Americanize Yah-Hovah ... and my problem with this is that Jehovah means Yahweh is ruin, chaos, disaster, misfortune and mischief! Even Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible blindly follows this error; if you look up "Jehovah" it will mistakenly tell you that this is the name of the Father while further revealing, through a more diligent study, that Yah refers to Yahweh ... while Hovah, as can be seen via reference number 01943, means ruin, disaster, misfortune and mischief. Therefore, Jehovah means Yahweh is ruin, disaster, misfortune and mischief! And that is a descriptive title of Satan! Need I say more?
Now, please don't misunderstand my intentions! The Bible tells us that the Father listens to our hearts and I believe that when we pray to "God" or cry out to "the Lord" or even to "Jehovah," he knows by our hearts whether someone is praying to Him or not. I'm certainly not trying to heap condemnation on anyone with these notes ... I'm only attempting to remind us of the Truth found through His Word: The Father has a name ... he commands us to hallow His name ... His name is not God ... it's not Lord ... and it's not Jehovah ... it's Yahweh. So ... all I'm saying is, why not obey Him -- why not properly esteem Him -- and use His true name?