Bible Question:

If we are truly Christians, then why don't we address our God by His proper name (Jehova)? It was the Sadducees and the Pharisees who removed God's personal name from the Bible. How would you feel if someone removed your name and replaced it with what really amounts to nothing more than a mere title (LORD)? We are duly warned in Revelation of the seriousness incurred if anyone adds to or removes words from the Bible. God intended that His name be known throughout the earth. Jesus would have pronounced and glorified His Father's name on numerous occasions. Therefore as Christians, don't you agree that we have a moral obligation to restore His divine name?

Bible Answer:

The Hebrew word for Jehovah occurs for the first time in Genesis 2:4.

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven. Genesis 2:4 (NASB)

The Hebrew word for LORD is YHWH, and the Hebrew word for God is Elohim. This is called the Tetragrammaton. There are no vowels in the word, and the Jews regarded the name as unspeakable. Consequently, the correct pronunciation of the word has been lost over time. Therefore, the vowels that have been added to  Yahweh are uncertain but they are the ones that have been adopted. In addition, it is incorrect to refer to our God as Jehovah. The correct spelling is Yahweh. Yahweh is the transliteration of the Hebrew word for YHWH.

YHWH

Therefore the Hebrew proper name of God is Yahweh. In another languages, His name will be translated differently, and will be spelled and pronounced differently. One wonders if Hebrew was the language of Adam and Eve? Is it possible that Adam and Eve called Him by a different name, since God changed everyone’s language after the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:9)? By what name did Adam call God?

The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon states that the word Jehovah is a different way to pronounce Yahweh. It is not a different name. They state,

The pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520, when it was introduced by Galatinus; but it was contested by Le Mercier, J. Drusius, and L. Capellus, as against grammatical and historical propriety (cf. Bö 88).[1]

That is, even though people pronounce YHWH as Jehovah, it is not correct.

It is important to notice that one of the most common phrases used for God is “the Lord, the God.” It occurs 166 times in the Old Testament. Exodus 5:1 says,

And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Exodus 5:1

The Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament explains that when Elohim is placed after Yahweh, it means Yahweh is Elohim.[2] So, when Genesis 2:7 says that Yahweh created man, notice that we are told the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground.

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 (NASB)

That is, our God called Yahweh, who created man, was and is Elohim, who created Adam. Yahweh was the Elohim who created the world (Genesis 1:1).

 

References:

1. Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), p. 218.
2. Keil & Delitzsch. Pentateuch. Commentary on the Old Testament. Hendrickson Publishers. 2006, vol. 1 p. 45.

Suggested Links:

What are the names of God?
Jesus Is the Great I Am
What does the name El Shaddai mean?
What does the name Yeshua mean in the Bible?