Overview

The Name Used from the Garden of Eden (5th Millennium B.C.)

The Hebrew consonants YHVH mean “He WILL BE.” The first recorded use of the Name of YHVH was by Eve, HVH, which means “She WAS.” Adam named Eve “She WAS” because She WAS the “Mother of all the living.” So, Paul told us that God was the “Father of all.”  Many believe that God was named YHVH in Exodus 3. But in fact, God named His Messenger “He WILL BE ELOHIM” in Exodus 3:15. There are 12 recorded cases in the Bible where people either used or heard the Name YHVH before God named His Messenger YHVH.

Yod-He-Vav-He, the Consonants and Their Pronunciation

The Hebrew consonants Yod-He-Vav-He are pronounced “Yihvah,” according to the rules of Hebrew pronunciation and according to the Masoretic Text used to translate the Old Testament. All the names of God in the Masoretic Text, including Yaho יהו, Yihvah יהוה, and its substitute Yahu יהוא, were given a sheva vowel marking in their prefix to warn readers not to pronounce the Name of God. And so Yihvah, in the Masoretic Text, reads Yehvah.

YHV, Yaho (Ιaω) in the Hebrew Scriptures (14th Century B.C.)

God spoke of Joshua (Yahoshua), as His messenger when He said, “My Name is in Him.” Some Israelites concluded that Yahoshua יהושוע must mean Yaho יהו saves שוע because Hebrew names are normally made of three-character roots. The grandson of Moses, the priest of the tribe of Dan who set up an idol, was the first to have a Yaho prefix in his name. He was called Yahonathan. After King Saul was troubled by an evil spirit, the name of his son Jonathan changed to Yahonathan, and another son was called Ishbaal, “man of Baal.”

Humor from the Prophets (8th Century B.C.)

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “Their fathers forgot My Name for Baal.” Because of their idolatry, the Israelites became confused about the Name of God. In Hosea, God said, “I will no longer be their I WILL BE,” and “I will save them by He WILL BE, their ELOHIM.”

Pronunciation According to Its Letters (6th Century B.C.)

After the Israelites forgot God’s Name, they spoke it “according to its letters,” pronouncing YHVH as “Yahwah,” and pronouncing YHV (Yaho) as “Yahu.”

The Pronunciation Ban (4th Century B.C.)

Eventually, any kind of pronunciation of the Name of God was prohibited. In the Greek Septuagint, the Jews changed the text of Leviticus 24:16 to “he that names the Name of the Lord (ὀνομάζων δὲ τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου), let him die the death.”

Ιaω in Mystical Writings and Early Christianity (2nd Century A.D.)

The name of Yaho (Ιaω) continued quietly among the Jews and eventually found its way to the Gentiles. By the second century A.D., Christians were convinced that Ιaω was the Name of God. In the fourth century A.D., the great scholar Jerome declared that the pronunciation of YHVH, was “Yaho.”

Yahweh, Jupiter of the Hosts (18th Century A.D.)

The name of Yaho resulted in some pronunciations of YHVH as Yehovah. This was the Name of God used in the King James Bible, to the disagreement of many scholars. As a result, a new search for the Name of God was made. The name found in the Greek texts was Ιαβε. In the fourth century, Epiphanius explained that it was used by the cults. Ιαβε is the Greek transliteration of the Latin Jupiter, Jove, the chief deity of the Roman Empire. The Gnostics believed that Ιaω was above Jupiter. The Son of Ιaω was “Saboath (Hosts),” aka Ιαβεζεβυθ, “Jupiter of the Hosts.”

The Many Proofs of Yihvah, He WILL BE

The Name of Yihvah is the only possible interpretation of YHVH, both in terms of grammar and pronunciation. God left no doubt about the meaning of His Name, which He shared with Christ. God said, “This is My Name forever” because Christ would become “I AM.” But, God will always be “I WILL BE,” and as He said to Moses, “I WILL BE with you.” In Ecclesiastes 11:3, the common form of the phrase “He will be” was altered to “Yahu” to avoid pronouncing God’s Name.

We Know What We Worship

Jesus said, “We know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews.” The word Jew comes from the name of Judah, which means “praise Yah.” It was first used to describe Mordecai in the Book of Esther. He was a Benjamite but rejected idolatry. Just as the tribe of Dan set up an idol to worship and confused God’s Name as Yaho, Latin Christianity created a three-person god, an “image of the beast” and named it Yahweh, after the God of the Roman Empire. The people of both covenants forgot God’s Name for Baal. So, God told his prophet Hosea to “Go again!”

Name above All Names

God uses many names in the Bible, but there is only one Name shared with the Son, which Paul called “the Name above all Names.”

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