What is Yhwh?
1.
YHWH represents the Hebrew letters "Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh." It was the name God gave for Himself when Moshe inquired of Him. In most modern translations it is usually written "LORD" (in capital letters) or "HaShem" (in the Hebrew Tanach, it means "The Name"). It has been improperly translated "Jehovah," based on a German bastardization of YHWH and "Adonai." The word "Jehovah" does not appear in the Hebrew language and is simply incorrect. YHWH is probably pronounced "Yahweh," and means "I Am That I Am." The implication is that God is completely self-sufficient.
Blessed are you, YHWH, our God, King of the Universe ...
See
2.
Called the Tetragrammaton (four letters), this is the personal name of the Biblical deity. In Hebrew, these four letters are Yod, He, Vav or Waw, and He (most Bibles show the Hebrew alphabet in Psalm 119). Most Hebrew scholars give YaHWeH as the correct pronunciation.
In the Masoretic Hebrew Text of the Old Testament, YHWH (properly YaHWeH) usually has the vowels for Adonai ("Lord") inserted, producing YeHoWaH. This codified form was not meant to be pronounced as is, rather it means "think Yahweh, say Adonai". This was done based on the idea of Rabbinic Judaism that it is better not to say "Yahweh" at all rather than to take a chance on saying it in vain.
Some Christians who were unaware of this, pronounced the codified form as is. YeHoWaH evolved over time into IeHoUaH and finally JeHoVaH.
See
3.
Gods name...simple no? Translated from hebrew its Jehovah.
me:The only people who bear gods name are Jehovah's Witnesses.So they are his people as proven in the bible.QED.
Random Jew walking around:Oh *then promptly dissapears in a puff of ligic and everyone reads "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the world rejoyces*
4.
The Levantines had a pantheon that included the Father God, El (who the Greeks associated with Cronus); the favored Son of the Father God, Ba’al (which means ‘lord’ and is a euphemism for his sacred name, Hadad, which only his priests were allowed to say—a tradition later taken up by the Jewish people concerning their deity); and the god of chaos, destruction, and the stormy sea, Yaw/Yam (YHW)(who was closest to the Devil in Christian Mythology and Thor in Norse Mythology). It is thought that the early Israelites were henotheistic and that Yaw was assigned as their protector God by El. Ba’al was resented by Ya(h)w(eh) because Ba’al was the favored son, and this rivalry lead to Ba’al becoming a god particularly opposed by Yahweh in Jewish mythology. Over time El and Yahweh (YHWH) seem to have been fused in the Jewish pantheon. In the first story of creation in Genesis, Elohim (the plural of El) is said to have created the world. In the second, Elohim Yahweh is said to have created the world. El’s consort was Athirat, a mother goddess who was also associated with the sea (interestingly enough, Athirat was also referred to as Elat, the feminine of El, and Elohim, being plural, is thought to refer to ‘El and Elat,’ who created humanity male and female in their own image—Genesis 1:26-27). Painted inscriptions from the 8th century BCE refer to “Yahweh of Samaria/ the guardian and his Asherah”—who is generally taken to be the same figure as Athirat—indicating that the figure once associated as El’s wife and Yaw’s mother had become Yahweh’s wife. Judaism did not establish itself as monotheistic and Yahweh did not become their sole God until King Josiah, who reigned as king of Judah from 640 BCE-609 BCE.
YHWH was once called simply YHW, but the adding of an "H" sound to the end of gods' names was common in the region.
See
