The Name God Chose to be Known by.

Jehovah is a name for God. It is derived from the name by which God introduced Himself to Moses at the burning bush. "Moses said to God, 'Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you," and they ask me, "What is His name?" Then what shall I tell them?' God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: "I AM has sent me to you."' …'This is My name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.'" (Exodus 3:13-15). The Hebrew for 'I am who I am' could equally be translated 'I will be who I will be'.

There are no vowels in early written Hebrew, and the name 'I AM' is found written in manuscripts as YHWH or YHVH. Therefore we do not know how God's name was spoken in earlier times, nor can we be sure of its meaning, or indeed whether this is the earliest form of God's name. When the Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament were translated into the Septuagint version, the Greek words Kyrios (Lord) or Theos (God) were substituted for YHWH, although it is believed that the Hebrew YHWH was retained in some of the earliest copies.

At some time, probably a little before the birth of Christ, the Jewish priests began a tradition of reluctance to speak the name of God. Several reasons have been advanced for this, the most likely being that they felt the name of God was too holy to be spoken by human tongues. Instead they would say the Aramaic word Shema meaning 'the Name'. In the Hebrew liturgical Bible, the vowel pointings of 'e' and 'a' from SHEMA were inserted over the consonants of YHWH to instruct the reader that he should say 'Shema'. when he came to the name YHWH. Later, they preferred to say 'Adonai', meaning 'Lord', and the 'o' from Adonai was added between the 'e' and the 'a' from Shema. For those non-Jewish readers, who had no scruples about reading the name of God out aloud, this gave 'YeHoVaH', which led from there to the anglicised form 'Jehovah'.

If we understand it correctly, the name Yahweh or Jehovah expresses God's glorious purpose, to save His people in the fullest sense, a purpose which involves the manifestation of the love and purpose of God, first in Jesus Christ, and then in those he has come to save. This purpose has yet to be consummated through the return of Christ to the earth, and the re-population of the earth with those God has chosen and brought back from the grave. The understanding of the purpose of God has been obscured by European translations, who ignore the name that God has given to Himself, and which he explained to Moses. They substitute 'the Lord' throughout the Old Testament, a name which has no significance other than to indicate authority.

It has been contended that 'YHWH' as the name for God was originally used in some early New Testament manuscripts; but either deliberately, in the same way as with the Septuagint Greek Old Testament, or through ignorance, was changed to Kyrios and Theos, as explained above; although there is no evidence for this. However, if it is true this change may have been influenced by the reluctance of the Jews to use the name of God, which they regarded as too holy to be spoken of by human tongues, as explained above.

Jehovah
Jerusalem
  New Jerusalem
Jesus
Jews
Joy, Joyful, Rejoicing
Judge
Justification