S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

The ancient Hebrew language that the Old Testament was written in did not have vowels in its alphabet. In written form, ancient Hebrew was a consonant-only language. In the original Hebrew, God's n...

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July 01 2013 • 4 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Lawrence wong Supporter Disciple of iEsou ("Yeh-sou") christou

Michael has given a succinct and accurate reply to the name YHVH. 
The name of the Creator is ALHYM pronounced “Al-o-heem” (Ge 1:1) which scholars have translated 
as God, but the Creator who is the author of his own book says that his name is ALHYM. YHVH is added later (Ge 2:4) The 2 names are interchangeable, and unique to Hebrew. 

ALHYM is a plural proper noun of male gender (e.g. word “sheep”). The letter A in Hebrew is called ALEF which is the picture of an oxhead with the meaning of strength, power, Almighty, Father.
So right in verse one of Genesis we learn that the Creator is also an Almighty Father. Who is He father of? To answer this question we need to look at the first word which is transliterated as BRASHYT, which means “In Beginning” and to make it meaningful in English we have to add the definitive article “the” to give a translation “In the beginning” or the word Genesis.

Each of the 22 letters in Hebrew have a corresponding picture which describes the rune. It is possible then to literally read the pictures represented by the individual letters to get the full picture of the word.

The letter “B” - Bet, is the picture of a tent. “R”-s Resh the head of a man. Combined, “BR” is a picture of a Son. The letter “A” – Alef is an oxhead, “SH” – Shin is two front teeth representing destruction, tearing, “Y” - Yod the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet is an arm with a clenched hand or fist and “T”- Tav is a mark, a cross, or covenant.
Here then is a summary of the pictures BR = Son, Head of a tent/house, A= the Father, who has a son, SH = destroy, Y= arm and hand/fist, T= cross, covenant.
The word for household and covenant in Hebrew is taken from BRASHYT. Household is BRT, and Covenant is BRYT! 

The picture story reads, The Son who is head of the house, has a Father whose name is ALHYM, who allows His son to sacrifice himself on a cross for a covenant. 
The Father is the third letter signifying His humbleness as He puts His son first even though He is Almighty. While the Son is the Head, the power, authority comes from his Father. It is the Father who offers his son to sacrifice himself on a cross for a covenant. 

The Holy Spirit is mentioned in verse 2 as the “ruach”. This completes the Trinity, the triune nature of ALHYM. 

ALHYM is the Father of all fathers. He is the example for all who are married and have children. ALHYM is also the Creator for the whole verse one says “In the beginning ALHYM created the heavens and the earth.” 
This is a complete verse in itself. It happened in the dateless past. 
The name YHVH pops up in later (Ge 2:4) as ALHYM YHVH. The “I AM” is given in (Ex 3:14) when Moses tells Israel that “I AM has sent me (Moses) to you v14” v15 “Moreover, ALHYM said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israle: YHVH ALHYM of your fathers, the ALHYM of Abraham, the ALHYM of Jacob has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to al generations.” 

In answer to Pharaoh who started off the genocide of Israel by killing the every male baby, YHVH says “Israel is My son, My first born.” (Ex 4:22). 

Thus began the amazing “Father-Son” relationship between YHVH ALHYM and Israel recorded for our edification in the Old Covenant. All Israel had to do was to love and obey Father. Only a remnant in any age managed to be loyal and faithful to Him. 

Despite this, He continually showed his unfailing hesed love and mercy to them. 

His Son, revealed in (Mk 14:36) that He talked to the Father intimately as ABBA. On the eve of giving His life as a sacrifice on PESACH, Passover 30 AD. Because of this we too can call the Father of all Fathers, ABBA (Ro 8:15 and Gal 4:6) as His sons and daughters (2 Co 6:17) in His home (Ep 2:19, Ga 3:6). Special conditions apply, obviously (2 Co 6:11- 7:1 and 1 Jo 15-17). 
The New Covenant was created by The Messiah before PESACH (Mt 26:26-28). 

Lawrence NZ

October 18 2016 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jeffrey Johnson Supporter

What is YHWH? What is the Tetragrammaton?

The divine name, represented by the four Hebrew consonants יהוה, appears nearly 7,000 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

This translation renders those four letters, known as the Tetragrammaton, "Jehovah."

YHWH is the name God gives in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is the personal name He uses when speaking to Moses in Exodus, often connected to the phrase "I AM WHO I AM.” 

In simple terms, it points to God as the One who exists, acts, and remains constant. It is not a title like "Lord" or "God," but a name that carries identity and presence.

The Tetragrammaton is just a technical word for those four Hebrew letters: YHWH. "Tetra" means four, and "grammaton" refers to letters. 

Ancient Hebrew did not record vowels, so the name of God appears only as four consonants. Those letters carried a weight that was not treated casually. Over generations, Jewish communities developed a habit of avoiding the direct pronunciation of that name during reading or prayer. 

It was not fear; it was a way of showing reverence. Instead of speaking the name, they used another title that expressed respect, and that practice became part of their rhythm of worship.

As Scripture was copied, scribes followed the same pattern. 

They wrote the four letters but signalled that a different word should be spoken aloud. 

When Scripture was eventually translated into other languages, translators kept that tradition. They did not remove the name; they represented it in a way that matched how it had been treated for centuries. 

That is why English Bibles often use "LORD" in capital letters—it marks the places where the divine name stands in the original text, while still honouring the long‑held practice of not pronouncing it directly.

This approach shaped how people encountered God's name across cultures. Instead of hearing it spoken, they saw it represented in a way that pointed to its significance. 

The name remained present in the text, but wrapped in a layer of reverence that had grown naturally within the community that preserved those writings.

Summarising the whole subject:

God's name was not erased out of fear. It was handled with care. Jewish readers treated it as sacred, choosing titles in spoken reading to show respect. 

Scribes kept that habit, and translators carried it forward. 

The result is that many Bibles display a title where the four‑letter name stands in the original, reflecting a tradition of honour rather than removal.

YHWH is made up of four Hebrew consonants that form God's personal name in the Old Testament. 

Each letter comes from the Hebrew verb "to be," which points to God as the One who exists, acts, and remains constant.

Here is what the letters represent in simple terms:

• Yod
• He
• Waw
• He

Together, they express God's identity as the living, self‑existing God. It is not a title but a name that carries the idea of God being present, active, and faithful.

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Jack Gutknecht Supporter Arizona Bible College & Dallas Seminary graduate, Pentair

The tetragrammaton is a term meaning “four letters,” and it refers specifically to the four Hebrew consonants יהוה (read from right to left) that constitute the personal, covenant name of the one true and living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Yud (י): The first letter on the right.

He (ה): The second letter.

Vav (ו): The third letter.

He (ה): The final letter on the left.

Greek speakers, I'm pretty sure, call these four letters the Tetragrammaton, which means "four letters."

In English, these consonants are commonly transliterated as YHWH, and in most Bible translations this name is rendered as “LORD” (in small capitals) out of longstanding tradition. 

As for pronunciation, “Yahweh” is widely regarded by scholars as the most likely reconstruction of the ancient vocalization, but because the original Hebrew text did not preserve vowel markings for the name with absolute certainty, we cannot be entirely sure how it was pronounced in antiquity. The form “Jehovah,” by contrast, is not the original Hebrew pronunciation at all; it is a later English hybrid that arose when medieval scribes combined the consonants YHWH with the vowel markers from the Hebrew word Adonai (“Lord”), reflecting the Jewish reading practice of substituting “Lord” out of reverence rather than speaking the sacred name aloud. 

While that substitution became a common tradition, it is important to note that Scripture itself never commands that God’s revealed name be left unspoken; on the contrary, God gave His name to be known, remembered, and proclaimed (as seen in Exodus 3:15 and Exodus 6:2-8), though it was never to be treated casually or profaned (Exodus 20:7). 

So in summary, the tetragrammaton is the four-letter Hebrew name YHWH; it belongs to God, who revealed it to Israel, and while “Yahweh” is our best scholarly guess at the original sound, the name’s true significance lies not in perfect pronunciation but in the covenant relationship it signifies between God and His people.

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