Jehovah, Who Dat?
Da Bible tell
Jehovah iz da true God dat stay in da Bible, an he wen make erytin. (Wat Jesus Show John 4:11) Jesus an da guys dat wen talk fo God, like Abraham an Moses, dey all wen worship him. (Da Start 24:27; Outa Egypt 15:1, 2; John 20:17) He not da God of jus one kine peopo but he da God “ova da whole world.”—Songs Fo God 47:2.
Da Bible tell dat God’s name iz Jehovah an dat name iz one of a kine. (Exodus 3:15; Songs Fo God 83:18) Dat name come from one Hebrew action word dat mean “fo happen”. Some smart guys who study da Bible tell dat name mean “He Goin Make Happen Wat He Like”. Dat match up wit how Jehovah wen make erytin an he always do wat he tell. (Isaiah 55:10, 11) Da Bible help us get fo know da kine Person Jehovah stay an dat da numba one ting he get iz love.—Outa Egypt 34:5-7; Luke 6:35; 1 From John 4:8.
Da Hebrew name fo God iz four lettas, YHWH. Some guys know um az da Tetragrammaton. In English an Hawai’i Pidgin, you pronounce um “Jehovah”. Da exack way dey pronounce um in Bible times, nobody know. But dey been pronouncin um “Jehovah” fo long time in English awready, all da way back from 1530 in William Tyndale’s translation of da Bible. *
How come we donno how fo say God’s name da way dey wen say um in ol kine Hebrew?
In ol kine Hebrew, dey neva write wit vowels cuz whoeva wuz readin um knew wea da vowels stay an how fo pronounce um. But den wen dey wuz pau writin da Hebrew Scripchas, some of da Jews felt wuz no good fo use God’s name. So dass why, wen dey would read one scripcha out loud dey would swap out God’s name an put in “God” o “Lord.” Thru out da years, moa an moa peopo started fo do dis an cuz of dat, da ol way fo pronounce God’s name in Hebrew, nobody knew how fo do um awready. *
Some peopo tell you pronounce God’s name “Yahweh”. Odda peopo tell: “Get odda ways fo say um.” One part of da Dead Sea scroll dat wuz in Greek wen pronounce um Iao. Odda Greek writas wen pronounce um Iae, I·a·beʹ, an I·a·ou·eʹ. But still yet no can prove um dass how you pronounce um in ol kine Hebrew. *
Wrong tinkin about God’s name in da Bible
Wrong tinkin: Translations dat get Jehovah’s name in dea, dey jus wen throw um inside.
Trut: God’s name in Hebrew stay in da Bible 7,000 times. * Mos translations neva have respeck fo God’s name an dey wen take um out an dey wen put “Lord” instead.
Wrong tinkin: God no need one name.
Trut: God da one dat wen tell da guys who wen write da Bible fo put his name inside tousans of times an he da one who wen tell da guys who worship him fo use his name. (Isaiah 42:8; Joel 2:32; Malachi 3:16, NW; Romans 10:13) Had guys who wen try make peopo foget God’s name, an da Bible wen tell he wuz agains dem.—Jeremiah 23:27.
Wrong tinkin: Since da Jews hemo God’s name, all us should copy dem.
Trut: Dass true some Jews who wen copy da Bible, dey neva like say God’s name. But still yet, dey neva take um out of dea copies of da Bible. No matta wat odda peopo do, God no like us follow dem if go agains wat he tell.—Matthew 15:1-3.
Wrong tinkin: Cuz we donno how fo say God’s name in Hebrew, no use um in da Bible.
Trut: Fo say dat, iz like sayin dat God expeck all da guys in diffren languages fo say his name da same way. But da Bible wen tell dat guys who wen worship God in da pas who wen speak all diffren kine languages, dey wen say names all diffren kine ways.
Like in da Bible, Joshua, da guys who wen talk Hebrew wen say um Yehoh·shuʹaʽ. Da guys who wen talk Greek wen say um I·e·sousʹ. So make sense dat wateva da language of da translation, dey goin say da name how dey say um in dat language.—Jesus Guys Wat Dey Wen Do 7:45; Fo Da Hebrew Peopo 4:8.
Same ting wen come to God’s name. Da mos importan ting iz not how you pronounce God’s name, but dat da ting stay wea suppose to be in da Bible.
^ Wen Tyndale wen write da firs five books of da Bible, he wen write um “Iehouah”. In 1612, had one odda guy Henry Ainsworth, wen he wuz translatin da book of Psalms, he wen write um down “Iehovah”. Cuz da English language wen change ova da years, da way dey wen spell God’s name, dey wen update um. Even Ainsworth in 1639, he wen update his translation of da Bible, an he wen write um “Jehovah.” An den in 1901, da American Standard Version of da Bible, da translators wen use “Jehovah”, wat God’s name wuz in Hebrew.
^ Da Second Edition of The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 14, pages 883-884 tell: ‘Afta da exile wuz pau, da name Yahweh wuz real spesho so dey started fo swap um out wit ADONAI o ELOHIM.’
^ Fo moa info, look da appendix A4, “The Divine Name in the Hebrew Scriptures,” in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
^ Go look da Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, Volume 2, pages 523-524.
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