Yahweh and Gaara: Difference between pages

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{{Infobox Naruto character

{{Otheruses}}

| image = [[Image:Gaara.jpg|200px|Gaara]]

:''[[Tetragrammaton]] redirects here. For other meanings see [[Tetragrammaton (disambiguation)]].''

| caption = Gaara by [[Masashi Kishimoto]]

[[Image:Tetragrammaton scripts.svg|frame|right|The Tetragrammaton in [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] ([[1100 BC]] to AD [[300]]), [[Aramaic]] ([[10th century BC]] to [[1 BC]]) and modern Hebrew scripts.]]

| character_name = Gaara

'''Yahweh''' is an English reading of {{Hebrew|יהוה}} (the '''''Tetragrammaton''''' "(the word) of four letters", from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''tetra- '' "four" + ''gramma'' (genitive: ''grammatos'') "letter, something written"<ref>http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=tetragrammaton</ref>), the name of God in the [[Bible]], as preserved in the original [[consonant]]al [[Hebrew Bible]] text. This form of God's name is used in modern [[Bible translations]] and literature during the last two centuries.

| character_name_unicode = 我愛羅

| debut = Manga chapter 35 <br> ''Naruto'' episode 20

| seiyu = [[Akira Ishida]]

| voice_actor = [[Liam O'Brien]]

| age = 12-13 in Part I <br> 15 in Part II

| height = 148.1

| weight = 40.2

| birthday = [[January 19]]

| blood_type = AB

| rank = [[Naruto ninja ranks#Kage|Fifth Kazekage]]

| current_affiliation = [[Land of Wind#Sunagakure|Sunagakure]]

| current_team =

| previous_affiliation =

| previous_team = Team Baki ([[Land of Wind#Baki|Baki]], [[Temari (Naruto)|Temari]], [[Land of Wind#Kankuro|Kankuro]], Gaara)

| relatives = [[Land of Wind#Fourth Kazekage|Fourth Kazekage]] (father, deceased) <br> [[Land of Wind#Karura|Karura]] (mother, deceased) <br> [[Temari (Naruto)|Temari]] (sister) <br> [[Land of Wind#Kankuro|Kankuro]] (brother) <br> [[Land of Wind#Yashamaru|Yashamaru]] (uncle, deceased)

}}

{{Nihongo|'''Gaara'''|我愛羅}} is a [[fictional character]] in the [[anime]] and [[manga]] series ''[[Naruto]]'' created by [[Masashi Kishimoto]]. He is the youngest child of the [[Land of Wind#Fourth Kazekage|Fourth Kazekage]], making him the younger brother of [[Land of Wind#Kankuro|Kankuro]] and [[Temari (Naruto)|Temari]].

He is known as "Gaara of the Sand" in the Viz translation, "Gaara of the Desert" in the English anime, and {{nihongo|"Sabaku no Gaara"|砂瀑の我愛羅||Gaara of the Sand Waterfall}} in the original Japanese (''Sabaku'' 砂瀑 means "sand waterfall", but ''sabaku'' 砂漠 means "desert", thus the more common "Gaara of the Desert").

The four [[Hebrew]] consonants read '''JHWH''' (in German-originated transliteration) or '''YHWH'''. It is also common to use '''YHVH''' and '''JHVH'''.

In the annual Shonen Jump polls for the most popular character, Gaara consistently ranks in the top ten, usually between seventh and tenth spot.

==Historical overview==

[[Image:Zeus_Yahweh.jpg|thumb|220px|right|[[Phoenicia]]n silver [[Dram (unit)|drachm]] from ca. 350 BC possibly depicting Yahweh.[http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/godyz.html] ]]

== Background ==

During the [[Babylonian captivity]], the Hebrew language spoken by the [[Jews]] was replaced by the [[Aramaic language]] of their [[Babylonian]] captors, which was closely related to Hebrew and, while sharing many vocabulary words in common, contained some words that sounded the same or similar but had other meanings. In Aramaic, the Hebrew word for “blaspheme” used in [[Leviticus]] 24:16, “Anyone who '''blasphemes''' the name of YHWH must be put to death” carried the meaning of “pronounce” rather than “blaspheme”. When the Jews began speaking Aramaic, this verse was understood to mean, “Anyone who '''pronounces''' the name of YHWH must be put to death.” Since then, Jews have maintained the custom of not pronouncing the name, but use <i>Adonai</i> (“my Lord [plural of majesty]”) instead. During the first few centuries AD this may have resulted in loss of traditional memory of how to pronounce the Name (except among [[Samaritan]]s).

Prior to Gaara's birth, [[Land of Wind#Sunagakure|Sunagakure]] saw a series of budget cuts that made it difficult for the village to operate. As a result, Gaara's father ordered [[Land of Wind#Chiyo|Chiyo]] to seal the [[Tailed beasts#One-Tailed Shukaku|One-Tailed Shukaku]] within Gaara during his birth in the hopes that he would become the ultimate weapon for the village. Because a sacrifice was needed, Gaara's mother, [[Land of Wind#Karura|Karura]], was used. Before she died, Karura cursed Sunagakure, hoping Gaara would avenge her death. As the host of Shukaku, Gaara acquired the rings around his eyes.

Gaara was trained by his father, but raised mainly by his maternal uncle, [[Land of Wind#Yashamaru|Yashamaru]]. Because of the power of Shukaku, the villagers of Sunagakure hated and feared Gaara, seeing him only as the monster sealed within him. For a time, Yashamaru seemed to be the only person who cared about him; when he would mistakenly harm others due to the subconscious abilities granted to him by Shukaku, Yashamaru would be the only one who understood that Gaara hadn't intended to harm anyone. Gaara's father, however, did not see him in the same light, and viewed his frequent attacks upon villagers as a result of a failed experiment that was a threat to the village.

[[Image:Tetragrammaton-related-Masoretic-vowel-points.png|thumb|left|220px|The spelling of the Tetragrammaton and connected forms in the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Bible, with [[Niqqud|vowel points]] shown in red. (Click on image to enlarge.)]]

When Hebrew no longer was a living language, the [[Masoretes]] added vowel points to the consonant text to assist readers. To {{Hebrew|יהוה}} they usually added the vowels for "Adonai", the word to use when reading the Bible text.

Because of the danger Gaara represented, his father began sending assassins to kill him, though when all attempts met with failure, the Kazekage asked Yashamaru to kill Gaara. As a result, Yashamaru tried to assassinate Gaara, though Gaara's abilities defeated him with ease. Although Gaara tried to dismiss this attack as an order of the Kazekage, Yashamaru corrected him by saying that he had willingly accepted the mission. Having never truly loved Gaara, Yashamaru hoped that killing him would avenge the death of his sister, who had named Gaara after the phrase {{nihongo|"a self-loving carnage"|'''我'''を'''愛'''する修'''羅'''|Ware wo ai suru shura}}, a sign of her hate for Gaara. In a last effort to kill him, Yashamaru detonated a number of explosive tags covering his body, asking Gaara to "please die". Gaara survived the blast without injury and lost the only person he thought had cared for him.

Many Jews will not even use "Adonai" except when praying, and substitute other terms, ''e.g.'' HaShem ("The Name") or the nonsense word Ado-Shem, out of fear of the potential misuse of the divine name. In written [[English language|English]], "[[Names of God in Judaism#In English|G-d]]" is a common substitute.

== Personality ==

Parts of the [[Talmud]], particularly those dealing with [[Yom Kippur]], seem to imply that the Tetragrammaton should be pronounced in several ways, with only one (not explained in the text, and apparently kept by [[oral tradition]] by the [[Kohen Gadol]]) being the personal name of God.

While Gaara had initially tried to be friendly towards others despite their fear of him, Yashamaru's actions and words changed him. Realizing that nobody loved him, Gaara used his sand to create the [[kanji]] on his forehead (愛, "Love") as a symbol of a "demon loving only himself". He became emotionally withdrawn, all but silent, and consumed with a bitter loathing for everyone but himself. He learned to find pleasure and eventually a reason to live in annihilating the numerous assassins sent to kill him &ndash; and by extension, anyone who threatened his existence. Gaara's [[insomnia]], forced upon him by the fear that the demon inside him would eat away at his personality if he were to fall asleep, only furthered his instability and desire to kill. In time, Gaara's father came to appreciate Gaara and the uses he could serve, and canceled all assassination orders in the hopes that Gaara would become an effective tool for Sunagakure.

For his first assignment as the village's weapon, Gaara is entered into the Chunin Exams taking place in Konoha to play a key role in the village's eventual invasion. While he enjoys the opportunity to kill others for much of the exam's early stages, he is eventually pitted against [[Rock Lee]] during the preliminaries. With his strength and speed, Lee is able to overcome many of Gaara's defenses, becoming the first person to ever hit Gaara. While Lee is able to deliver a number of ordinarily debilitating blows, Gaara's sand allows him survive each attack and eventually gain the upperhand on Lee. While the match is stopped before further harm can come to Lee, their match allows Gaara a change in ideals; rather than determine his own existence by killing anyone he meets, Gaara finds a drive to kill those strong enough to defeat him, and begins to long to find a formidable opponent.

In late Kabbalistic works, the term HWYH - הוי' (pronounced Havayeh) is used.

Gaara's wishes are soon realized and he is matched against [[Sasuke Uchiha]] during the exam's finals. With his [[List of ninjutsu in Naruto (H-R)#Chidori|Chidori]] Sasuke is able to badly injure Gaara near his shoulder, so much so that Gaara is unable to participate in Konoha's invasion as planned. Despite this setback, Gaara's wound magnifies his desire to kill Sasuke and the two soon resume their battle. With Gaara's encouragement Sasuke is able to give additional injuries to Gaara, though his rapidly progressing Shukaku transformation leaves him unfazed by the attacks. When Sasuke is no longer able to battle and Gaara goes in for the kill, [[Naruto Uzumaki]] arrives to save him. With the desire to save his friends from Gaara, Naruto meets him in battle and is eventually able to defeat him despite being in full Shukaku form. Realizing that Naruto's strength stems from his desire to protect others, Gaara abandons his prior ideals and decides to acquire strength by caring for others.

Translators often render YHWH as a word meaning "Lord", e.g. Greek Κυριος, Latin ''Dominus'', and following that, English "the Lord", Polish ''Pan'', Welsh ''Arglwydd'', etc.

Gaara's new disposition is first seen when he comes to Rock Lee's aid during the Sasuke Retrieval arc. Upon seeing that the injuries Lee received during their last battle have yet to fully heal, Gaara repeatedly stops him from fighting, concerned that Lee will only harm himself further. These new ideals are seen again during the anime's filler arcs, where Gaara acquires a student named [[Land of Wind#Matsuri|Matsuri]]. As the two begin training, Gaara worries that all of the potential training weapons might cause Matsuri injury, so he has her train with the least harmful weapon present. When she is later kidnapped, Gaara and his siblings go out to rescue her, and with the help of the Konoha ninjas they succeed in their task.

Because the name was no longer pronounced and its own vowels were not written, its own pronunciation was forgotten. When Christians, unaware of the Jewish tradition, started to read the Hebrew Bible, they read {{hebrew|יְהֹוָה}} as written with YHWH's consonants with Adonai's vowels, and thus said or transcribed '''Iehovah'''. Today this transcription is generally recognized as mistaken. See the page [[Jehovah]] for more information.

[[Image:Sand Siblings.png|thumb|Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro in Part II]]

===The Sacred Name Movement===

Over the timeskip, Gaara's personality changes a great deal. While in the past he was fairly hostile to his siblings, he has since come to hold them in a higher regard, and talks to Kankuro about his problems and dreams. As a result of becoming the {{nihongo|Fifth Kazekage|五代目風影|Godaime Kazekage}}, Gaara now acts as the villager's source of protection and values their lives over his own. The villagers, in turn, have also begun to hold Gaara in a more admirable regard, especially amongst the younger females of the village.

A movement began growing in the sixties in modern theology to restore the Sacred Name to almost 7000 instances where it appears in the Bible<ref>"Restoration of the Sacred Name," http://www.geocities.com/cherryhillrose/WhoisGod.html, October 5, 2002.</ref>. This movement continues today and is known as the [[Sacred Name Movement]].

== Abilities ==

==Pronunciation of the Name==

As the host of Shukaku, Gaara posses the ability to manipulate sand at will, typically moving it through the air to serve various purposes. The amount of sand he can control at one time is hrrthhrthrtfsdzfa number of miscellaneous attacks that, while capable of being an attack or a shield, are not limited to such purposes. By making a {{nihongo|Sand Clone|砂分身|Suna Bunshin}} of himself, Gaara can have an ally to be used in battle or a mere distraction to be used to buy him time. Unlike most other clone-jutsu in the series, the Sand Clone can retain its shape after more than one attack, and can even reform itself or capture an opponent upon being dispersed. {{nihongo|Sand Drizzle|砂時雨|Suna Shigure}} allows him to collect sand in the air that rains down on the opponent at high speeds in potentially harmful shapes. With {{nihongo|Desert Suspension|砂漠浮遊|Sabaku Fuyū}} Gaara can use sand as a platform to allow himself and others to float in the air. His {{nihongo|Third Eye|第三の眼|Daisan no Me}} also allows him to create a floating eyeball of sand in any ___location that he can see through as a means of spying.

{{Judaism}}

BITCH!!

Various proposals exist for what the vowels of {{Hebrew|יהוה}} were. Current convention is {{Hebrew|יַהְוֶה}}, that is, "Yahweh" (IPA: /'jahwe/). Evidence is:

At some point in time Gaara begins to be able to form weapons in Shukaku's likeness. The first that is seen is {{nihongo|Last Absolute Defense: Shield of Shukaku|最硬絶対防御・守鶴の盾|Saikō Zettai Bōgyo: Shukaku no Tatte}}, which creates a toy-like replica of Shukaku that is roughly twice the size of Gaara. Because the replica is formed under extreme pressure and is built of the strongest minerals it is virtually indestructible, having yet to be penetrated by any force. The anime expands on the idea of having an "ultimate defense" by creating an "ultimate attack": {{nihongo|Ultimate Absolute Attack: Shukaku's Halberd||Saikō Zettai Hōgeki, Shukaku no Hōkō}}. The attack creates a spear under the same conditions as the replica, only the blade resembles one of Shukaku's claws. Like the shield, this attack has yet to meet a defense it can't break.

* Some Biblical [[theophoric name]]s end in ''-ia(h)'' or ''-yahu'' as shortened forms of YHWH: that points to the first vowel being "a".

[[Image:Gaarashukakureupload.jpg|thumb|Gaara in his half Shukaku form.]]

* Various Early Christian [[Greek transcriptions of the Hebrew Divine Name]] seem to point to "Yahwe^h" or similar.

In desperate situations, Gaara can take on the form of Shukaku by layering sand on his body, making him many times more powerful than he already is. Shukaku's personality grows more dominant during this transformation, increasing Gaara's homicidal tendencies. Once finished, Gaara assumes a human-sized version of Shukaku wherein he relies on his brute strength to destroy everything around him. While in this form Gaara can use {{nihongo|Sand Shuriken|砂手裏剣|Suna Shuriken}} or {{nihongo|Sand Halberd|砂戈|Suna Hōkō}} to hurl sand-based forms of the weapons at an opponent. Shukaku also gives him the ability to utilize wind-based attacks such as {{nihongo|Wind Release: Infinite Sand Cloud Great Breakthrough|風遁・無限砂塵 大突破|Fūton: Mugen Sajin Daitoppa|''English'' "Wind Style: Sandstorm Devastation"}}, which spews large amounts of sand from his mouth, devastating both the enemy and a large area around him.

* [[Samaritan]] priests have preserved a liturgical pronunciation "Yahwe" or "Yahwa" to the present day <ref>Footnote #11 from page 312 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica reads: "See Montgomery, ''Journal of Biblical Literature'', xxv. (1906), 49-51."</ref>.

If need be, Gaara can almost instantly create a life-sized version of Shukaku should the human-sized form fail. In this form, he remains deep within the Shukaku copy safe from harm though unable to move. Gaara can also unleash the spirit of Shukaku through his {{nihongo|Feigning Sleep Technique|狸寝入りの術|Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu|''English TV'' "Play Possum Jutsu"}}, which forces him to sleep to allow the Shukaku copy to operate at its full potential. To do so, however, Gaara must emerge from within the copy, leaving him open to attack for the duration of the jutsu. While Gaara is initially dependent on waking independently or through someone else's intervention to regain control of his body, he begins to be able to suppress Shukaku by himself towards the end of the anime's filler arcs. By the time Part II begins, Gaara is even capable of using numerous Shukaku arms for attack without losing control of himself.

Today many scholars accept this proposal<ref>Encycl. Britannica, 15th edition, 1994, passim.</ref>, based on the pronunciation conserved both by the Church Fathers (as noted above) and by the Samaritans<ref>Dio Uno E Trino, Piero Coda, Edizioni San Paolo s.r.l., 1993, pg 34.</ref>.

(Here 'accept' does not necessarily mean that they actually believe that it describes the truth, but rather that among the many vocalizations that have been proposed, none is clearly superior. That is, 'Yahweh' is the scholarly convention, rather than the scholarly consensus.)

In Part II, Gaara is captured by [[Akatsuki (Naruto)|Akatsuki]] and the Shukaku is extracted from his body, causing his death. Chiyo, regretting the life she gave Gaara when she sealed Shukaku in his body years earlier, gives up her life to revive him. While he no longer possesses the Shukaku, Gaara is still able to manipulate sand, though to what degree has yet to be seen.

==Evidence from theophoric names==

"Yahū" or "Y^ehū" is a common short form for "[[Yahweh]]" in Hebrew [[theophoric name]]s; as a prefix it sometimes appears as "Y^ehō-". This has caused two opinions:

#In former times (at least from c.1650 AD), that it was abbreviated from the supposed pronunciation "Yehowah", rather than "Yahweh" which contains no 'o'- or 'u'-type vowel sound in the middle.

#[http://members.fortunecity.com/yahuwthah/Resource-577/AnsonLetter.htm] Recently, that, as "Yahweh" is likely an [[imperfective]] verb form, "Yahu" is its corresponding [[preterite]] or [[jussive]] short form: compare ''yiŝt^ahawe^h'' (imperfective), ''yiŝtáhû'' (preterit or jussive short form) = "do obeisance".

== Other media ==

[[George Wesley Buchanan]] in ''[[Biblical Archaeology Review]]'' argues for (1), as the prefix "Yehu-" or "Yeho-" always keeps its second vowel. <ref> [[Biblical Archaeology Review] 21.2 (March-April 1995), 31 George W. Buchanan, ''How God’s Name Was Pronounced''</ref>

In the [[Naruto the Movie 2: Great Clash! The Illusionary Ruins at the Depths of the Earth|second ''Naruto'' movie]], Gaara helps defend Sunagakure from an onslaught of mysterious knights, killing many of them with his sand until a ship launches projectiles at the battlefield and forces them to retreat. Later, in one of the wrecks of the invading ships, he fights [[List of minor villains in Naruto#Ranke|Ranke]], one of Haido's henchmen that utilizes electricity to fight. Once she transforms into a Frankenstein's monster-like state, she gains the upperhand and becomes virtually immune to the crushing force of Gaara's sand. He eventually uses Thunder God of Sand to create multiple lightning rods out of sand to shoot her electricity back at her. Once she is paralyzed he kills her with Desert Imperial Funeral.

== Sources ==

[http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/Smithspage953Reland190pixels.JPG Smith’s 1863 ''A Dictionary of the Bible''] Section # 2.1 supports (1) for the same reason.

* {{Nihongo|First Official Data Book|秘伝・臨の書キャラクターオフィシャルデータBOOK|Hiden:Rin no Sho Character Official Data Book}}

* {{Nihongo|Second Official Data Book|秘伝・闘の書キャラクターオフィシャルデータBOOK|Hiden: Tō no Sho Character Official Data Book}}

* {{Nihongo|Jump's 2nd Great Hero Book's Mini Data Book|秘伝・翔の書オフィシャルキャラクターデータBOOK mini|Hiden: Shō no Sho Official Character Data Book mini}}

* {{Nihongo|Naruto anime and manga Guidebook|秘伝・翔の書オフィシャルキャラクターデータBOOK mini|Hiden: Shō no Sho Official Character Data Book mini}}

* Taken directly from the ''Naruto'' manga chapters and anime episodes.

{{Naruto characters}}

''The Analytical Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon'' (1848)<ref>The Analytical Hebrew & Chaldee Lexicon'' by [[Benjamin Davidson]] ISBN 0913573035</ref> in its article '''הוה''' supports (1) because of the "Yeho-" name prefixes and the vowel pointing difference described in [[#Details of vowel pointing]].

[[Category:Naruto characters]]

Smith’s 1863 ''A Dictionary of the Bible'' says that "Yahweh" is possible because shortening to "Yahw" would end up as "Yahu" or similar.

[[Category:Fictional orphans]]

[[Category:Fictional murderers]]

[[ar:جآرا]]

[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=52&letter=N&search=Theophoric%20Names The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 in the Article:Names Of God] has a very similar discussion, and also gives the form Jo or Yo ({{hebrew|יוֹ}}) contracted from Jeho or Yeho ({{hebrew|יְהוֹ}}).

[[da:Gaara]]

[[el:Sabaku no Gaara]]

The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition (New York: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1910-11, vol. 15, pp. 312, in its article "JEHOVAH", also says that "Jelo-" or "Jo" can be explained from "Yahweh", and that the suffix "-jah" can be explained fom "Yahweh" better than from "Yehowah".

[[es:Gaara]]

[[fr:Gaara]]

Chapter 1 of [http://www.tetragrammaton.org/tetra1.htm#chapter1 The Tetragrammaton and the Christian Greek Scriptures], under the heading: THE PRONUNCIATION OF GOD'S NAME quotes from [[Insight on the Scriptures]], Volume 2, page 7:

[[it:Gaara]]

:Hebrew Scholars generally favor "Yahweh" as the most likely pronunciation. They point out that the abbreviated form of the name is Yah (Jah in the Latinized form), as at Psalm 89:8 and in the expression Hallelu-Yah (meaning "Praise Yah, you people!") (Ps 104:35; 150:1,6). Also, the forms Yehoh', Yoh, Yah, and Ya'hu, found in the Hebrew spelling of the names of Jehoshaphat, Joshaphat, Shephatiah, and others, can all be derived from Yahweh. ... Still, there is by no means unanimity among scholars on the subject, some favoring yet other pronunciations, such as "Yahuwa", "Yahuah", or "Yehuah".

[[ms:Gaara]]

[[ja:我愛羅]]

[[Everett Fox]] in his introduction to his translation of The Five Books of Moses stated: "''Both old and new attempts to recover the ‘correct’ pronunciation of the Hebrew name [of God] have not succeeded; neither the sometimes-heard ‘Jehovah’ nor the standard scholarly ‘Yahweh’ can be conclusively proven.''"

[[no:Gaara]]

[[pl:Gaara]]

===Using consonants as semi-vowels===

[[pt:Sabaku no Gaara]]

In [[Biblical Hebrew language|ancient Hebrew]], the [[Hebrew alphabet#Numerical value and pronunciation|letter {{Hebrew|ו}}]], known to modern Hebrew speakers as ''vav'', [[Hebrew alphabet#Vowels and consonants in Ancient Hebrew|was]] a semivowel /w/ (as in English, not as in German) rather than a letter v<ref>(see any Hebrew grammar)</ref>. The letter is referred to as ''[[Waw (letter)|waw]]'' in the academic world. Because the ancient pronunciation differs from the modern pronunciation, it is common today to represent {{Hebrew|יהוה}} as YHWH rather than YHVH.

[[ru:Гаара]]

[[fi:Gaara]]

In Biblical Hebrew, most vowels are not written and the rest are written only ambiguously, as the vowel letters double as consonants (similar to the [[Latin]] use of V to indicate both U and V). See [[Matres lectionis]] for details. For similar reasons, an appearance of the Tetragrammaton in ancient [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] records of the [[13th century BC]] sheds no light on the original pronunciation. <ref>See pages 128 and 236 of the book "Who Were the Early Israelites?" by archeologist William G. Dever, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2003.</ref> Therefore it is, in general, difficult to deduce how a word is pronounced from its spelling only, and the Tetragrammaton is a particular example: two of its letters can serve as vowels, and two are vocalic place-holders, which are not pronounced.

[[sv:Gaara]]

[[tl:Gaara]]

This difficulty occurs somewhat also in Greek when transcribing Hebrew words, because of Greek's lack of a letter for consonant 'y' and (since loss of the [[digamma]]) of a letter for "w", forcing the Hebrew consonants yod and waw to be transcribed into Greek as vowels. Also, non-initial 'h' caused difficulty for Greeks and was liable to be omitted; х ([[chi (letter)|chi]]) was pronounced as 'k' + 'h' (as in modern [[Hindi]] "[[lakh]]") and could not be used to spell 'h' as in e.g. [[Modern Greek]] Χάρρι = "Harry".

[[th:กาอาระ]]

[[vi:Gaara]]

===J/Y===

[[tr:Gaara (Naruto)]]

The English practice of transcribing Biblical Hebrew [[yod]] as "j" and pronouncing it "dzh" (/{{IPA|dʒ}}/) started when in late Latin the pronunciation of consonantal "i" changed from "y" to "dzh" but continued to be spelled "i", bringing along with it Latin transcriptions and spoken renderings of Biblical and other foreign words and names. To avoid confusion it is easiest to transcribe Hebrew yod as "y" in English.

[[zh:我愛羅]]

===Kethib and Qere and Qere perpetuum===

The original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was provided with vowel marks by the [[Masoretes]] to assist reading. In places where the consonants of the text to be read (the [[Qere]]) differed from the consonants of the written text (the [[Kethib]]), they wrote the Qere in the margin as a note showing what was to be read. In such a case the vowels of the Qere were written on the Kethib. For a few very frequent words the marginal note was omitted: this is called [[Q're perpetuum]].

One of these frequent cases was God's name, that should not be pronounced, but read as "adonai" ("My Lord [plural of majesty]"), or, if the previous or next word already was "adonai", or "adoni" ("My Lord"), as "elohim" ("God"). This combination produces {{hebrew|יְהֹוָה}} and {{hebrew|יֱהֹוִה}} respectively, [[ghost word|non-words]] that would spell "yehovah" and "yehovih" respectively.

The oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, such as the [[Aleppo Codex]] and the [[Codex Leningradensis]] mostly write {{hebrew|יְהוָה}} (yehvah), with no pointing on the first H; this points to its Qere being 'Sh^ema', which is [[Aramaic]] for "the Name".

[[Gerard Gertoux]] wrote that in the Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010, the [[Masoretes]] used 7 different vowel pointings [i.e. 7 different [[Q're]]'s] for YHWH. <ref>refer to the table on page 144 of Gerard Gertoux's book: The Name of God Y.EH.OW.Ah which is pronounced as it is written I_EH_OU_AH.</ref>

===Jehovah===

Later, Christian Europeans who did not know about the [[Q're perpetuum]] custom took these spellings at face value, producing the form "[[Jehovah]]" and spelling variants of it. For more information, see the page [[Jehovah]].

===Counts===

According to [http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/BDBYahwehtrimmed.jpg the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon] p, {{hebrew|יְהֹוָה}} (Qr {{hebrew|אֲדֹנָי}}) occurs 6518 times, and {{hebrew|יֱהֹוִה}} (Qr {{hebrew|אֱלֹהִים}}) occurs 305 times in the Masoretic Text.

It appears 6,823 times in the Jewish Bible, according to the [[Jewish Encyclopedia]], and 6,828 times each in the ''[[Biblia Hebraica]]'' and ''[[Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia]]'' texts of the Hebrew Scriptures.

===The vocalizations of יְהֹוָה and אֲדֹנָי are not identical===

The "simple shewa" ([[schwa]] vowel, usually written as 'e') in Yehovah and the "hatef patah" (short a) in Adonay are not identical. Two reasons have been suggested for this:

* A spelling "Y^ahova^h" causes a risk that a reader might start reading "Yah", which is a form of the Name, and the first half of the full Name.

* The two are not really different: both short vowels, ''shva'' and ''hatef-patah'', were [[allophone]]s of the same [[phoneme]] used in different situations. [[Adonai]] uses the "hatef patah" because of the glottal nature of its first consonant [[aleph]] (the [[glottal stop]]), but the first consonant of YHWH is [[yod]], which is not glottal, and so uses the vowel [[shva]].

===Evidence from very old scrolls===

The discovery of the [[Qumran]] scrolls has added support to some parts of this position.

These scrolls are unvocalized, showing that the position of those who claim that the vowel marks were already written by the original authors of the text is untenable. Many of these scrolls write (only) the tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebrew script, showing that the Name was treated specially. See also [http://www.lectio.unibe.ch/05_2/troyer_names_of_god.htm this link].

As said above, the Aleppo and Leningrad codices do not use the holem (o) in their vocalization, or only in very few instances, so that the (systematic) spelling "Yehovah" is more recent than about 1000 A.D. or from a different tradition.

===Original pronunciation===

The main approaches in modern attempts to determine a pronunciation of YHWH have been study of the Hebrew Bible text, study of theophoric names, and study of early Christian Greek texts that contain reports about the pronunciation. Evidence from [[Semitic]] [[philology]] and [[archeology]] has been tried.

The result is a "scholarly convention to pronounce YHWH as Yahweh".<!-- note: convention, not consensus -->

Delitzsch prefers "{{Hebrew|יַהֲוָה}}" (yah^avah) since he considered the [[shwa quiescens]] below {{Hebrew|ה}} ungrammatical.

In his 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible", William Smith prefers the form "{{Hebrew|יַהֲוֶה}}" (yah^aveh). Many other variations have been proposed.

However, Gesenius' proposal gradually became accepted as the best scholarly reconstructed vocalized Hebrew spelling of the Tetragrammaton.

===Early Greek and Latin forms===

The writings of the [[Church Fathers]] contain several references to God's name in Greek or Latin.

According to [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08329a.htm the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907)] and <ref>B.D. Eerdmans, The Name Jahu, O.T.S. V (1948) 1-29.</ref>.

{| cellspacing="0" border="1" bgcolor="white"

|-

!author & work!!colspan="2"|Greek/Latin!!notes

|-

|colspan="4"|<center>apparently representing יהו Yahu or Y^eho-</center>

|-

|[[Diodorus Siculus]] (I, 94)||Ἰαῶ||ia-o||

|-

|[[Irenaeus]] ("[[On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis|Against Heresies]]", II, xxxv, 3, in P. G., VII, col. 840)||Ἰαωθ||iaoth

|the Gnostics formed a compound<br>with the last syllable of [[Sabaoth]]

|-

|[[Irenaeus]] ("[[On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis|Against Heresies]]", I, iv, 1, in P.G., VII, col. 481)

|Ἰαῶ||ia-o||[[Gnosticism|Valentinian heretics]]' form

|-

|[[Origen]] ("In Joh.", II, 1, in P.G., XIV, col. 105)||Ἰαο||ia-o||

|-

|[[Porphyry]] ([[Eusebius]], "Praep. evang", I, ix, 21, in P.G., XXI, col. 72)||Ἰευώ||ieuo||

|-

|[[Pseudo-Jerome]] ("Breviarium in Psalmos", in P.L., XXVI, 828)|| ||iaho||"tetragrammaton legi potest iaho"

|-

|[[Clement of Alexandria]] "Stromata", V, 6, [ Variants: Ἰὰοὐέ, Ἰαουαι; cod. L. Ἰαού ] [http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/IaouFootnote.jpg] ( Ἰαού is found in the 11th century Greek Codex L., ''which is the sole authority for the Stromateis.'')||Ἰαού||iaou||Scroll down to page 317 of [http://www.christianism.com/articles/13.html], or see [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-840X%28189406%291%3A8%3A6%3C233%3ACNOTFB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage] for additional information on the 11th century Greek Codex L. [e.g. Codex Laurentianus V 3]

|-

|[[Clement of Alexandria]] "Stromata", V, 6, [ Variants: Ἰὰοὐέ, Ἰαουαι; cod. L. Ἰαού ] [http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/IaouFootnote.jpg] ( Ἰαού is found in [[Migne]]'s 19th century ''[[Patrologia Graeca]]'', IX, col. 60. )||Ἰαού||iaou||

|-

|colspan="4"|<center>apparently representing יהוה Yahwe</center>

|-

||In 1863 Ἰὰοὐέ could be found in a catena to the Pentateuch in a MS. at Turin. ||Ἰὰ οὐέ||ia oue||Refer to Smith's 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible" [http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/1863Smithsoniaou.JPG]

|-

|[[Clement of Alexandria]] "Stromata", V, 6, [ Variants: Ἰὰοὐέ, Ἰαουαι; cod. L. Ἰαού ] [http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/IaouFootnote.jpg] (Editors of 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica say that Iaoue is found in writings of Clement of Alexandria) ( Ἰὰοὐέ is found in 1960 and 1981 critical editions of the writings of Clement of Alexandria)

||Ἰὰ οὐέ||ia oue||Clement wrote that it means "Who is, and who shall be". [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.v.vi.html] [http://members.fortunecity.com/yahuwthah/Resource-577/AnsonLetter.htm]

|-

|[[Clement of Alexandria]] "Stromata", V, 6, [Variants: Ἰὰοὐέ, Ἰαουαι; cod. L. Ἰαού ] [http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/IaouFootnote.jpg] ( Ἰαουαι is found in some MSS )||Ἰα ουαι||Ia ouai||The New Catholic Encyclopedia of 1967 lists Ἰαουαι as evidence that YHWH is pronounced "Yahweh"

|-

|[[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]] ("[[Panarion|Against Heresies]]", I, iii, 40, in P.G., XLI, col. 685)||Ἰαβέ||iabé||

|-

|[[Theodoret]], "Ex. quaest.", xv, in P. G., LXXX, col. 244

|Ἰαβέ,<br>Ἰαβαι||iabé,<br>iabai||"Samaritan form"

|-

|colspan="4"|<center>apparently representing אהיה Ehyeh = "I am"</center>

|-

|[[Theodoret]], "Ex. quaest.", xv, in P. G., LXXX, col. 244||Ἀϊά|||Aia||"Jewish form"

|-

|[[James of Edessa]] ref. [[Lamy]], "La science catholique", 1891, p. 196|| ||Jehjeh||

|-

|colspan="4"|<center>apparently representing יה Yah</center>

|-

|[[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]] ("[[Panarion|Against Heresies]]", I, iii, 40, in P.G., XLI, col. 685)||Ἰα||ia||

|-

|colspan="4"|<center>other forms</center>

|-

|[[Jerome]], "Ep. xxv ad Marcell.", in P. L., XXII, col. 429||colspan="3"|says some ignorant Greek writers copied יהוה as ΠΙΠΙ (= πιπι)

|}

====Josephus====

[[Josephus]] in ''[[Jewish Wars]]'', chapter V, verse 235, wrote "τὰ ἱερὰ γράμματα· ταῦτα δ' ἐστὶ φωνήεντα τέσσαρα" ("''...[engraved with] the holy letters; and they are four [[vowel]]s''"), presumably because Hebrew [[yod (letter)|yod]] and [[waw (letter)|waw]], even if consonantal, would have to be transcribed into the Greek of the time as vowels.

====Clement of Alexandria====

As noted above, the various manuscripts of Clement's ''Stromata'' are reported to have different forms in ''Stromata'' V,6:34-35. The text of the 11th century Greek Codex Laurentianus <ref>Clement, ''Stromata'', Migne's P.G., IX, col. 60.</ref> has "ιαου". A [[catena]] referred to by A. le Boulluec <ref>Clément d'Alexandrie. Stromate V. Tome I: Introduction, texte critique et index, par A. Le Boulluec, Traduction de † P. Voulet, s. j.; Tome II : Commentaire, bibliographie et index, par A. Le Boulluec, Sources chrétiennes n° 278 et 279, Editions du Cerf, Paris 1981. (Tome I, pp. 80,81) </ref> ("Coisl. 113 fol. 368v") and by [http://www.villagephotos.com/members/viewimage.asp?id_=14021882 Smith’s 1863 "A Dictionary of the Bible"] ("a catena to the [[Pentateuch]] in a MS. at [[Turin]]") is reported to have "ια ουε".

The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica <ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition (New York: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1910-11, vol. 15, pp. 312, in the Article "JEHOVAH")</ref> reports "Variants: Iα ουε, Iα ουαι; cod. L. Iαου". [http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/IaouFootnote.jpg]

<!--

* "''Clemens Alexandrinus, Werke, eds. Stählin. O. and Fruechtel. L. (Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller derersten drei Jahrhunderte, 15), Berlin, 1960.''" (a standard critical edition of Clement of Alexandria.) [http://www.therfcc.org/eupolemus-172426.html] has "Ιαουε".

-->

The translation of Clement's ''Stromata'' in Volume II of the classic Ante-Nicene Fathers series, says:

:"Further, the mystic name of four letters which was affixed to those alone to whom the [[adytum]] was accessible, is called ''Jave'', which is interpreted, 'Who is and shall be.' The name of God, too, among the Greeks contains four letters."<ref>{{cite book |editor= The Rev. Alexander Roberts, D.D, and James Donaldson, LL.D. |title= The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II: Fathers of the Second Century |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.i.html |accessdate= 2006-12-19 |edition=American reprint of the Edinburgh edition |pages=452 |chapter=VI. &mdash; The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture |chapterurl=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iv.v.vi.html}}</ref>

====Magic papyri====

Spellings of the Tetragrammaton occur among the many combinations and permutations of names of powerful agents that occur in Egyptian magical writings<ref>B. Alfrink, La prononciation 'Jehova' du tétragramme, O.T.S. V (1948) 43-62.</ref>. One of these forms is the heptagram ιαωουηε<ref>K. Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae, Leipzig-Berlin, I, 1928 and II, 1931</ref>. See also http://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/gar/gar43.htm .

In the magical texts, Iave (Jahveh Sebaoth), and Iαβα, occurs frequently. <ref>Footnote #9 from page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "See Deissmann, ''Bibelstudien'', 13 sqq."</ref> In an Ethiopic list of magical names of Jesus, purporting to have been taught by him to his disciples, ''Yawe''<ref>Footnote #10 from Page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "See Driver, ''Studia Biblica, I. 20."</ref> <ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition (New York: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1910-11), vol. 15, pp. 312, in the Article “JEHOVAH”</ref>

is found.

===Gesenius proposes that YHWH should be punctuated as {{hebrew|&#1497;&#1463;&#1492;&#1456;&#1493;&#1462;&#1492;}} = Yahweh===

In the early 19th century Hebrew scholars were still critiquing "Jehovah" [a.k.a. Iehovah and Iehouah] because they believed that the vowel points of {{hebrew|יְהֹוָה}} were not the actual vowel points of God's name. The Hebrew scholar [[Wilhelm Gesenius]] [1786-1842] had suggested that the Hebrew punctuation {{Hebrew|&#1497;&#1463;&#1492;&#1456;&#1493;&#1462;&#1492;}}, which is transliterated into English as "Yahweh", might more accurately represent the actual pronunciation of God's name than the Biblical Hebrew punctuation "{{hebrew|יְהֹוָה}}" [ from which the English name Jehovah has been derived ] does.

[[Image:YHWH.png|frame|right|150px|right|William Gesenius's Hebrew punctuation (i.e. Yahweh)]]

[[Wilhelm Gesenius]] is noted for being one of the greatest Hebrew and biblical scholars [http://www.bartleby.com/65/ge/Gesenius.html]. His proposal to read YHWH as "{{Hebrew|יַהְוֶה}}" (see image to the right) was based in large part on [[Yahweh#Early Greek and Latin forms|various Greek transcriptions]], such as [[iabe|ιαβε]], dating from the first centuries AD, but also on the forms of theophoric names.

:In his Hebrew Dictionary [[Gesenius]] ([[:Image:Gesenius-on-jhwh-german.jpg|see image of German text]]) supports the pronunciation "Yahweh" because of the Samaritan pronunciation Ιαβε reported by [[Theodoret]], and that the [[theophoric name]] prefixes YHW [Yeho] and YH [Yo] can be explained from the form "Yahweh".

::Today many scholars accept Gesenius's proposal to read YHWH as {{Hebrew|יַהְוֶה}}.

::(Here 'accept' does not necessarily mean that they actually believe that it describes the truth, but rather that among the many vocalizations that have been proposed, none is clearly superior. That is, 'Yahweh' is the scholarly convention, rather than the scholarly consensus.)

===Inferences===

Various people draw various conclusions from this Greek material.

William Smith writes in his 1863 [http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/264290/yahwehfromiabe660pixels.JPG "A Dictionary of the Bible"] about the different Hebrew forms supported by these Greek forms:

:... The votes of others are divided between {{Hebrew|יַהְוֶה}} (yahveh) or {{Hebrew|יַהֲוֶה}} (yah^aveh), supposed to be represented by the Ιαβέ of Epiphanius mentioned above, and {{Hebrew|יַהְוָה}} (yahvah) or {{Hebrew|יַהֲוָה}} (yah^avah), which Fürst holds to be the Ιευώ of Porphyry, or the Ιαού of Clemens Alexandrinus.

The editors of [http://www.users.qwest.net/~zadok1/faq4.htm The New Bible Dictionary (1962)] write:

:The pronunciation Yahweh is indicated by [[transliteration]]s of the name into Greek in early Christian literature, in the form '''Ιαουε''' ([[Clement of Alexandria]]) or '''Ιαβε''' (Theodoret; by this time β had the pronunciation of v).

As already mentioned, Gesenius arrived at his form using the evidence of proper names, and following the Samaritan pronunciation Ιαβε reported by Theodoret.

==Usage of YHWH==

===In ancient Judaism===

Several centuries before the Christian era the name YHWH had ceased to be commonly used by the Jews. Some of the later writers in the Old Testament employ the appellative [[Elohim]], God, prevailingly or exclusively: a collection of [[Psalms]] (Ps. xlii.-lxxxiii.) was revised by an editor who changed the Yhwh of the authors into Elohim (see e.g. xlv. 7; xlviii. 10; l. 7; li. 14); observe also the frequency of the Most High, the God of [[Heaven]], King of Heaven, in [[Daniel]], and of Heaven in First [[Maccabees]].

The oldest complete [[Septuagint]] ([[Greek language|Greek]] Old Testament) versions, from around the second century A.D., consistently use Κυριος (= "[[Lord]]"), where the Hebrew has YHWH, corresponding to substituting Adonay for YHWH in reading the original; in books written in Greek in this period (e.g. Wisdom, 2 and 3 Maccabees), as in the [[New Testament]], Κυριος takes the place of the name of God. However, older fragments contain the name YHWH. <ref>The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology Volume 2, page 512 </ref> In the P. Ryl. 458 (perhaps the oldest extant [[Septuagint]] manuscript) there are blank spaces ,leading some scholars to believe that the Tetragrammaton must have been written where these breaks or blank spaces are.<ref> Paul Kahle, The Cairo Geniza (Oxford:Basil Blackwell,1959) p. 222 </ref>

[[Josephus]], who as a priest knew the pronunciation of the name, declares that religion forbids him to divulge it.

[[Philo]] calls it [[ineffable]], and says that it is lawful for those only whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom to hear and utter it in a holy place (that is, for priests in the Temple); and in another passage, commenting on Lev. xxiv. 15 seq.: "If any one, I do not say should [[blaspheme]] against the Lord of men and gods, but should even dare to utter his name unseasonably, let him expect the penalty of death." <ref>Footnote #3 from page 311 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "See Josephus, ''Ant''. ii. 12, 4; Philo, ''Vita Mosis,'' iii. II (ii. 114, ed. Cohn and Wendland); ib. iii. 27 (ii. 206). The [[Palestinian]] authorities more correctly interpreted Lev. xxiv. 15 seq., not of the mere utterance of the name, but of the use of the name of God in blaspheming God." </ref>

Various motives may have concurred to bring about the suppression of the name:

# An instinctive feeling that a proper name for God implicitly recognizes the existence of other gods may have had some influence; reverence and the fear lest the holy name should be profaned among the heathen.

# Desire to prevent abuse of the name in [[Magic (paranormal)|magic]]. If so, the secrecy had the opposite effect; the name of the god of the Jews was one of the great names, in magic, heathen as well as Jewish, and miraculous efficacy was attributed to the mere utterance of it.

# Avoiding risk of the Name being used as an angry [[expletive]], as reported in [[Leviticus]] 24:11 in the [[Bible]].

In the [[liturgy]] of the [[Temple]] the name was pronounced in the [[priest]]ly [[benediction]] (Num. vi. 27) after the regular daily sacrifice (in the [[synagogue]]s a substitute&mdash; probably Adonai&mdash; was employed);<ref>Footnote #4 from page 311 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "''Siphre'', Num. f 39, 43; ''M. Sotak'', iii. 7; ''Sotah'', 38a. The tradition that the utterance of the name in the daily benedictions ceased with the death of Simeon the Just, two centuries or more before the Christian era, perhaps arose from a misunderstanding of Menahoth, 109b; in any case it cannot stand against the testimony of older and more authoritative texts.</ref> on the [[Day of Atonement]] the High Priest uttered the name ten times in his [[prayer]]s and benediction.

In the last generations before the fall of [[Jerusalem]], however, it was pronounced in a low tone so that the sounds were lost in the chant of the priests.<ref>Footnote #5 from page 311 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "''Yoma'', 39b; ''Jer. Yoma'', iii. 7; ''Kiddushin'', 71a."</ref>

===In later Judaism===

After the destruction of the Temple (A.D. [[70]]) the liturgical use of the name ceased, but the tradition was perpetuated in the schools of the [[rabbi]]s.<ref>Footnote #1 from page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads:"R. Johannan (second half of the 3rd century), ''Kiddushin'', 71a."</ref> It was certainly known in [[Babylonia]] in the latter part of the 4th century,<ref>Footnote #2 from page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads:"Kiddushin, ''l.c. = Pesahim'', 50a"</ref> and not improbably much later. Nor was the knowledge confined to these pious circles; the name continued to be employed by healers, [[exorcist]]s and magicians, and has been preserved in many places in magical papyri.

The vehemence with which the utterance of the name is denounced in the [[Mishna]]&mdash;''He who pronounces the Name with its own letters has no part in the world to come!''.<ref>Footnote #3 from page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "''M. Sanhedrin'', x.I; Abba Saul, end of 2nd century."</ref> &mdash;suggests that this misuse of the name was not uncommon among Jews.

===Among the Samaritans===

The [[Samaritan]]s, who otherwise shared the scruples of the Jews about the utterance of the name, seem to have used it in judicial oaths to the scandal of the rabbis. <ref>Footnote #4 from page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads:''Jer. Sanhedrin'', x.I; R. Mana, 4th century. </ref> (Their priests have preserved a liturgical pronunciation "Yahwe" or "Yahwa" to the present day <ref>Footnote #11 from page 312 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica reads: "See Montgomery, ''Journal of Biblical Literature'', xxv. (1906), 49-51."</ref>.)

===Modern===

The Jerusalem Bible (1966) uses "Yahweh" exclusively.

==Short forms==

"Yahū" or "Y^ehū" is a common short form for "Yahweh" in Hebrew [[theophoric name]]s; as a prefix it sometimes appears as "Y^ehō-". In former times that was thought to be abbreviated from the supposed pronunciation "Yehowah". There is nowadays an opinion [http://members.fortunecity.com/yahuwthah/Resource-577/AnsonLetter.htm] that, as "Yahweh" is likely an [[imperfective]] verb form, "Yahu" is its corresponding [[preterite]] or [[jussive]] short form: compare ''yiŝt^ahawe^h'' (imperfective), ''yiŝtáhû'' (preterit or jussive short form) = "do obeisance".

In some places, such Exodus 15:2, the name YHWH is shortened to {{hebrew|יָהּ}} (Yah).

This same syllable is found in Hallelu-yah. Here the ה has [[mappiq]], i.e., is consonantal, not a [[mater lectionis]].

It is often assumed that this is also the second element -ya of the Aramaic "Marya": the [[Peshitta]] Old Testament translates Adonai with "Mar" (Lord), and YHWH with "Marya".

==Derivation==

===Putative etymology===

[[Image:Tetragrammaton_Paris_StMichele.JPG|280px|left|thumb|The Tetragrammaton at the church of St. Marri at [[Paris]], near the [[Centre Pompidou]].]]

Jahveh or Yahweh is apparently an example of a common type of Hebrew proper names which have the form of the 3rd pers. sing. of the verb. e.g. Jabneh (name of a city), Jabin, Jamlek, Jiptal (Jephthah), &c. Most of these really are verbs, the suppressed or implicit subject being '''el'', "numen, god", or the name of a god; cf. Jabneh and Jabne-el, Jiptah and Jiptah-el.

The ancient explanations of the name proceed from Exod. iii. 14, 15, where "''Yahweh<ref>Footnote #13 from page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "''This transcription will be used henceforth.''"</ref> hath sent me''" in v 15 corresponds to "[[I am that I am|Ehyeh]] hath sent me" in v. 14, thus seeming to connect the name Yahweh with the Hebrew verb hayah, "to become, to be". The Jewish interpreters found in this the promise that God would be with his people (cf. v. 12) in future oppressions as he was in the present distress, or the assertion of his eternity, or eternal constancy; the [[Alexandrian]] translation 'Eγω ειμι ο ων'''. . .''' ' O ων απεσταλκεν με προς υμας understands it in the more metaphysical sense of God's absolute being. Both interpretations, "He (who) is (always the same);" and , "He (who) is (absolutely the truly existent);" import into the name all that they profess to find in it; the one, the religious faith in God's unchanging fidelity to his people, the other, a philosophical conception of absolute being which is foreign both to the meaning of the Hebrew verb and to the force of the tense employed.

Modern scholars have sometimes found in the name the expression of the [[aseity]]<ref>Footnote #14 from Page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "''A-se-itas'', a scholastic Latin expression for the quality of existing by oneself.</ref> of God; sometimes of his reality in contrast to the imaginary gods of the heathen.

Another explanation, which appears first in Jewish authors of the middle ages and has found wide acceptance in recent times, derives the name from the causative of the verb; He (who) causes things to be, gives them being; or calls events into existence, brings them to pass; with many individual modifications of interpretation&mdash;creator, life giver, fulfiller of promises. A serious objection to this theory in every form is that the verb ''hayah'', "to be" has no causative stem in Hebrew; to express the ideas which these scholars find in the name Yahweh the language employs altogether different verbs.

Another tradition regards the name as coming from three verb forms sharing the same [[root (linguistics)|root]] YWH, the words HYH ''haya'' {{Hebrew|היה}}: "He was"; HWH ''howê'' {{Hebrew|הוה}}: "He is"; and YHYH ''yihiyê'' {{Hebrew|יהיה}}: "He will be". This is supposed to show that God is [[eternity|timeless]], as some have translated the name as "The Eternal One". Other interpretations include the name as meaning "I am the One Who Is." This can be seen in the traditional Jewish account of the "burning bush" commanding [[Moses]] to tell the sons of Israel that "I AM ({{Hebrew|אהיה}}) has sent you." ([[Exodus]] 3:13-14) Some suggest: "I AM the One I AM" {{Hebrew|אהיה אשר אהיה}}, or "I AM whatever I need to become". This may also fit the interpretation as "He Causes to Become." Many scholars believe that the most proper meaning may be "He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists" or "He who causes to exist". Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible, which is based on the [[King James Version]], says that the term "Jehovah" means "The Existing One."

[[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]], in his Theologico-Political Treatise (Chap.2) asserts the derivation of "Jahweh" from "Being", writing that, "Moses conceived the Deity as a Being Who has always existed, does exist, and always will exist, and for this cause he calls Him by the name Jehovah, which in Hebrew signifies these three phases of existence." Following Spinoza, [[Constantin Brunner]] translates the [[Shema]] (Deut. 2-4) as, "Hear, O Israel, Being is our God, Being is One."

This assumption that Yahweh is derived from the verb "to be", as seems to be implied in Exod. iii. 14 seq., is not, however, free from difficulty. "To be" in the Hebrew of the Old Testament is not ''hawah'', as the derivation would require, but ''hayah''; and we are thus driven to the further assumption that ''hawah'' belongs to an earlier stage of the language, or to some older speech of the forefathers of the Israelites.

This hypothesis is not intrinsically improbable (and in Aramaic, a language closely related to Hebrew, "to be" is ''hawa''); in adopting it we admit that, using the name Hebrew in the historical sense, Yahweh is not a Hebrew name. And, inasmuch as nowhere in the Old Testament, outside of Exod. iii., is there the slightest indication that the Israelites connected the name of their God with the idea of "being" in any sense, it may fairly be questioned whether, if the author of Exod. 14 seq., intended to give an etymological interpretation of the name Yahweh,<ref>Footnote #15 from page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "The critical difficulties of these verses need not be discussed here. See W.R. Arnold, "The Divine Name in Exodus iii. 14," ''Journal of Biblical Literature'', XXIV. (1905), 107-165."</ref> his etymology is any better than many other paronomastic explanations of proper names in the Old Testament, or than, say, the connection of the name Aπολλων ([[Apollo]]) with απολουων, απολυων in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Cratylus]]'', or popular derivations from απολλυμι = "I lose (transitive)" or "I destroy".

===="I am"====

Mishearings and misunderstandings of this explanation has led to a popular idea that "Yahweh" means "I am", resulting in God, and by colloquial extension sometimes anything which is very dominant in its area [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936506,00.html], being called "the great I AM".

===From a verb meaning "destroy" or similar?===

A root ''hawah'' is represented in Hebrew by the nouns ''howah'' (Ezek., Isa. xlvii. II) and ''hawwah'' (Ps., Prov., Job) "disaster, calamity, ruin."<ref>Footnote #16 from page 312 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "''Cf. also ''hawwah'', "desire", Mic. vii. 3; Prov. x. 3.''"</ref> The primary meaning is probably "sink down, fall", in which sense (common in [[Arabic]]) the verb appears in [[Job]] xxxvii. 6 (of snow falling to earth).

A Catholic commentator of the 16th century, [[Hieronymus]] ab Oleastro, seems to have been the first to connect the name "Jehova" with "howah" interpreting it as "''contritio sive pernicies''" (destruction of the Egyptians and Canaanites); Daumer, adopting the same etymology, took it in a more general sense: Yahweh, as well as [[Shaddai]], meant "Destroyer", and fitly expressed the nature of the terrible god who he identified with [[Moloch]].

The derivation of Yahweh from ''hawah'' is formally unimpeachable, and is adopted by many recent scholars, who proceed, however, from the primary sense of the root rather than from the specific meaning of the nouns. The name is accordingly interpreted, He (who) falls (''[[Baetylus|baetyl]]'', βαιτυλος, meteorite); or causes (rain or lightning) to fall (storm god); or casts down (his foes, by his thunderbolts). It is obvious that if the derivation be correct, the significance of the name, which in itself denotes only "He falls" or "He fells", must be learned, if at all, from early Israelitish conceptions of the nature of Yahweh rather than from etymology.

===Cultus===

A more fundamental question is whether the name Yahweh originated among the Israelites or was adopted by them from some other people and speech.<ref>Footnote #1 from Page 313 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "See HEBREW RELIGION"</ref>

The biblical author of the history of the sacred institutions (P) expressly declares that the name Yahweh was unknown to the patriarchs (Exod. vi. 3), and the much older Israelite historian (E) records the first revelation of the name to [[Moses]] (Exod. iii. 13-15), apparently following a tradition according to which the Israelites had not been worshippers of Yahweh before the time of Moses, or, as he conceived it, had not worshipped the god of their fathers under that name.

The revelation of the name to Moses was made at a mountain sacred to Yahweh, (the mountain of God) far to the south of Canaan, in a region where the forefathers of the Israelites had never roamed, and in the territory of other tribes; and long after the settlement in [[Canaan]] this region continued to be regarded as the abode of Yahweh (Judg. v. 4; Deut. xxxiii. 2 sqq.; I Kings xix. 8 sqq. &c).

Moses is closely connected with the tribes in the vicinity of the holy mountain; according to one account, he married a daughter of the priest of [[Midian]] (Exod. ii. 16 sqq.; iii. 1); to this mountain he led the Israelites after their deliverance from [[Egypt]]; there his father-in-law met him, and extolling Yahweh as greater than all the gods, offered (in his capacity as priest of the place?) sacrifices, at which the chief men of the Israelites were his guests; there the religion of Yahweh was revealed through Moses, and the Israelites pledged themselves to serve God according to its prescriptions.

It appears, therefore, that in the tradition followed by the [[Israelite]] [[historian]] the tribes within whose pasture lands the mountain of God stood were worshippers of Yahweh before the time of Moses; and the surmise that the name Yahweh belongs to their speech, rather than to that of Israel, has considerable probability.

One of these tribes was Midian, in whose land the mountain of God lay. The Kenites also, with whom another tradition connects Moses, seem to have been worshippers of Yahweh.

It is probable that Yahweh was at one time worshipped by various tribes south of Palestine, and that several places in that wide territory ([[Horeb]], [[Sinai]], [[Kadesh]], &c.) were sacred to him; the oldest and most famous of these, the mountain of God, seems to have lain in [[Arabia]], east of the [[Red Sea]]. From some of these peoples and at one of these holy places, a group of Israelite tribes adopted the religion of Yahweh, the God who, by the hand of Moses, had delivered them from Egypt.<ref>Footnote #2 from Page 313 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "The divergent Judaean tradition, according to which the forefathers had worshipped Yahweh from time immemorial, may indicate that Judah and the kindred clans had in fact been worshippers of Yahweh before the time of Moses."</ref>

The tribes of this region probably belonged to some branch of the Arabian desert Semitic stock, and the name Yahweh has, accordingly, been connected with the Arabic ''hawa'', the void (between heaven and earth), "the atmosphere, or with the verb ''hawa'', cognate with Heb. ''hawah'', "sink, glide down (through space)"; ''hawwa'' "blow (wind)". "He rides through the air, He blows" (Wellhausen), would be a fit name for a god of wind and storm. There is, however, no certain evidence that the Israelites in historical times had any consciousness of the primitive significance of the name. (what is the source for this assertion?)

However, the 'h' in the root h-w-h, h-y-h = "be, become" and in "Yahweh" is the ordinary 'h' ([[He (letter)]]), and the 'h' in the roots ħ-y-w = "live" and ħ-w-[[glottalstop]] = "air, blow (of wind)" is the Semitic laryngeal 'h' ([[Heth (letter)]]) which is usually transcribed as 'h' with a dot under.

===Yahu===

According to one theory, Yahweh, or [[Yahu]], Yaho,<ref>Footnote #3 from Page 313 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "The form ''Yahu'', or ''Yaho'', occurs not only in composition, but by itself; see ''[[Aramaic]] [[Papyri]] discovered at Assaan,'' B 4,6,II; E 14; J 6. This doubtless is the original of 'Iαω, frequently found in Greek authors and in magical texts as the name of the God of the Jews."</ref> is the name of a god worshipped throughout the whole, or a great part, of the area occupied by the Western Semites.

In its earlier form this opinion rested chiefly on certain misinterpreted testimonies in [[Greek language|Greek]] authors about a god 'Iαω and was conclusively refuted by Baudissin; recent adherents of the theory build more largely on the occurrence in various parts of this territory of proper names of persons and places which they explain as compounds of Yahu or Yah.<ref>Footnote #4 from Page 313 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "See a collection and critical estimate of this evidence by Zimmern, ''Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament,'' 465 sqq."</ref>

The explanation is in most cases simply an assumption of the point at issue; some of the names have been misread; others are undoubtedly the names of Jews.

There remain, however, some cases in which it is highly probable that names of non-Israelites are really compounded with Yahweh. The most conspicuous of these is the king of Hamath who in the inscriptions of Sargon (722-705 B.C.) is called Yaubi'di and Ilubi'di (compare Jehoiakim-Eliakim). Azriyau of Jaudi, also, in inscriptions of [[Tiglath-Pileser]] (745-728 B.C.), who was formerly supposed to be [[Azariah]] (Uzziah) of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]], is probably a king of the country in northern [[Syria]] known to us from the Zenjirli inscriptions as Ja'di.

===Mesopotamian influence===

Friedrich Delitzsch brought into notice three tablets, of the age of the first dynasty of Babylon, in which he read the names of ''Ya- a'-ve-ilu, Ya-ve-ilu, and Ya-u-um-ilu'' ("Yahweh is God"), and which he regarded as conclusive proof that Yahweh was known in Babylonia before 2000 B.C.; he was a god of the [[Semitic]] invaders in the second wave of migration, who were, according to Winckler and Delitzsch, of North Semitic stock ([[Canaanite languages|Canaanite]]s, in the linguistic sense).<ref>Footnote #5 from Page 313 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "''Babel und Bibel,'' 1902. The enormous, and for the most part ephemeral, literature provoked by Delitzsch's lecture cannot be cited here.</ref>

We should thus have in the tablets evidence of the worship of Yahweh among the Western Semites at a time long before the rise of Israel. The reading of the names is, however, extremely uncertain, not to say improbable, and the far-reaching inferences drawn from them carry no conviction.

In a tablet attributed to the 14th century B.C. which Sellin found in the course of his excavations at Tell Ta'annuk (the city Taanach of the O.T.) a name occurs which may be read Ahi-Yawi (equivalent to Hebrew Ahijah);<ref>Footnote #6 from Page 313 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "''Denkschriften d. Wien. Akad''., L. iv. p. 115 seq. (1904)."

</ref> if the reading be correct, this would show that Yahweh was worshipped in Central Palestine before the Israelite conquest.

The reading is, however, only one of several possibilities. The fact that the full form Yahweh appears, whereas in Hebrew proper names only the shorter Yahu and [[Yah]] occur, weighs somewhat against the interpretation, as it does against Delitzsch's reading of his tablets.

It would not be at all surprising if, in the great movements of populations and shifting of ascendancy which lie beyond our historical horizon, the worship of Yahweh should have been established in regions remote from those which it occupied in historical times; but nothing which we now know warrants the opinion that his worship was ever general among the Western Semites.

Many attempts have been made to trace the [[West Semitic]] Yahu back to Babylonia. Thus Delitzsch formerly derived the name from an [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] god, I or [[Enki|Ia]]; or from the Semitic nominative ending, [[Yaw (god)|Yau]];<ref>Footnote #7 from Page 313 of the 1911 E.B. reads: "''Wo lag das Paradies?'' (1881), pp. 158-166."</ref> but this deity has since disappeared from the pantheon of [[Assyriologist]]s. Bottero speculates that the West Semitic Yah/Ia, in fact is a version of the Babylonian God [[Ea (Babylonian god)|Ea]], a view given support by the earliest finding of this name at [[Ebla]] during the reign of [[Ebrum]], at which time the city was under [[Mesopotamia]]n hegemony of [[Sargon of Akkad]].

==Attributes==

Assuming that Yahweh was primitively a nature god, scholars in the 19th century discussed the question over what sphere of nature he originally presided. According to some, he was the god of consuming fire; others saw in him the bright sky, or the heaven; still others recognized in him a storm god, a theory with which the derivation of the name from Hebrew ''hawah'' or [[Arabic]] ''hawa'' well accords (see also Job chapters 37-38). The association of Yahweh with storm and fire is frequent in the Old Testament. The thunder is the voice of Yahweh, the lightning his arrows, and the rainbow his bow. The revelation at [[Sinai]] is amid the awe-inspiring phenomena of [[Storm|tempest]]. Yahweh leads Israel through the desert in a pillar of cloud and fire. He kindles [[Elijah]]'s altar by lightning, and translates the [[prophet]] in a chariot of fire. See also Judg. v. 4 seq.. In this way, he seems to have usurped the attributes of the Canaanite god [[Baal]] [[Hadad]]. In [[Ugarit]], the struggle between Baal and [[Yam (god)|Yam]], suggests that Baal's brother Ya'a was a water divinity - the god of Rivers (Nahar) and of the Sea (Yam).

Many religions today do not use the name Jehovah as much as they used to use it. The original Hebrew name {{Hebrew|יהוה}} appeared almost 7,000 times in the Old Testament, but is often replaced with "LORD" or "GOD" in popular Bibles. The Christian denomination that most commonly uses the name "Jehovah" is that of the [[Jehovah's Witnesses]]. They believe that God's personal name should not be over-shadowed by the above titles and often refer to {{bibleverse||Psalms|83:18|KJV}} as a common place in most translations to find the name Jehovah still used in place of "LORD" and find justification for its use in {{bibleverse||Joel|2:32|KJV}}.

==References==

<div class="references-small"><references/></div>

{{JewishEncyclopedia}}

==See also==

{{commonscat|Tetragrammaton}}

{{wikisource1911EB|Jehovah}}

Other articles relating to the Tetragrammaton:

*[[Tetragrammaton in the New Testament]]

*[[Jehovah]]

*[[I am that I am]]

Other:

*[[Names of God in Judaism]]

*[[El (god)]]

*[[Elohim]]

*[[Jah]]

*[[Yam (god)]]

*[[-ihah]]

*[[INRI]]

*{{1911EB|Tetragrammaton}}

*[[Theophoric names]]

==External links==

*[http://www.sda-online.com/public/HolyNamePreface.htm#PREFACE Preface to the Holy Name Bible]

* [http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/YHWHgroup/ A Discussion of the pronunciation of YHWH, including a new theory that explains all theophoric elements]

* [http://personalpages.tds.net/~theseeker/Yahweh.htm The Historical Evolution of the Hebrew God]

* [http://westpresbyterian.org/pastor/newsletter%20messages/2006/November%202006.htm Tetragrammaton from Presbyterian perspective and with a Czech-Hebrew flavour.]

* [http://www.biblaridion-online.net/zine-online/zine05q4/bibzine05q4_p3.html Biblaridion magazine:] Phanerosis Theology: The Tetragrammaton and God's manifestation.

* [http://www.ccel.org/e/easton/ebd/ebd/T0002000.html#T0002017 ''Easton's Bible Dictionary'' (3rd ed.) 1887.] "Jehovah."

* [http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword.asp?kid=2277 HaVaYaH the Tetragrammation] in the Jewish Knowledge Base on [[Chabad.org]]

* [http://www.divinename.no/ The Divine Name in Norway]

* [http://www.eliyah.com/ Opinions about the Name]

* [http://www.findthelight.org/MediaItem-24-0.aspx Titles of Deity], a [[Christadelphian]] view

* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=52&letter=N Jewish Encyclopedia count of number of times the Tetragrammation is used]

* [http://www.menorah.org.za/sacred_name/sacred_name_yhwh_yhvh.htm Discovery and use of the Divine Name since the early 1960's in South Africa.]

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08329a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8. 1910.] "Jehovah (Yahweh)."

* [http://www.paleotimes.org/audio/sacredname.htm Pronunciation (Audio) of Yahweh]

* [http://www.pantheon.org/articles/y/yahweh.html ''Encyclopedia Mythica''. 2004.] Arbel, Ilil. "Yahweh."

* [http://www.princeton.edu/~aamihay/Divine_Names.html Bibliography on the Tetragrammaton in the Dead Sea Scrolls]

* [http://www.psyche.com/psyche/lex/sy/yhwh.html YHWH/YHVH -- Tetragrammaton]

* [http://www.seekgod.ca/htname.htm The Name]

* [http://www.sensortime.com/jhwh-e.html The Meaning of the Tetragrammaton in Epistemology and Propositional Calculus]

* [http://www.wlsessays.net/authors/S/SteinAspects/SteinAspects.PDF Theological and Practical Aspects of the Tetragrammaton by Stanley C. Stein]

* [http://yahweh.org/PDF_index1.html The Sacred Name Yahweh], a publication by Qadesh La Yahweh Press

* [http://www.oca.org/MDoutlines-content.asp?ID=38&SID=13 Allusions to YHWH in Christian scriptures, worship, and iconography]

[[Category:Names of God in Judaism]]

[[Category:Names of God]]

[[Category:West Semitic gods]]

[[Category:Ancient Semitic religions]]

[[Category:Christian and Jewish interfaith topics]]

[[Category:Yahwism]]

[[Category:Christian theology]]

[[Category:Greek loanwords]]

[[als:JHWH]]

[[ast:Xehová]]

[[bs:Jehova]]

[[ca:Jehovà]]

[[cs:JHVH]]

[[da:Tetragrammaton]]

[[de:JHWH]]

[[et:Jahve]]

[[el:Τετραγράμματο]]

[[es:Yahveh]]

[[eo:Jehovo]]

[[fr:YHWH]]

[[fur:Jeova]]

[[ko:야훼]]

[[id:Tetragrammaton]]

[[ia:Tetragrammaton]]

[[it:Tetragramma biblico]]

[[he:השם המפורש]]

[[kw:Yehovah]]

[[la:Iehovah]]

[[lt:Tetragramatonas]]

[[hu:Jahve]]

[[cdo:Ià-huò-huà]]

[[nl:JHWH]]

[[ja:ヤハウェ]]

[[no:JHVH]]

[[nn:JHVH]]

[[hz:Jehova]]

[[pl:Jahwe]]

[[pt:Tetragrama YHVH]]

[[ro:YHWH]]

[[ru:Тетраграмматон]]

[[sq:JHVH]]

[[ru-sib:Тетраграматон]]

[[sh:Jahve]]

[[fi:Jahve]]

[[sv:JHVH]]

[[ta:யாவே]]

[[vi:Giêhôva]]

[[tr:Yehova'nın Şahitleri]]

[[zh-yue:耶和華]]

[[zh:耶和華]]