Jehovah

A name for God formed by adding the vowels of the Hebrew word, “Adonai,” to the consonants of the Hebrew divine name, “YHWH.” The Jews who returned from exile refused to pronounce the divine name when reading Scripture. This was out of their respect for God and their fear of dishonoring his name. Instead, they substituted “Adonai,” a word meaning “my Lord(s).”

Before to the sixth century AD, the Hebrew text had no vowels. They supplied the vowels during the reading of the Scripture by a person who was familiar with the language. They added vowel points to the text from AD 660–700. They placed the vowels of “Adonai” below the consonants of “YHWH” to indicate that they should read the word “Adonai.”

Around AD 1520, Petrus Galatinus is thought to have combined two forms of God's name. This created the new form YeHoWaH, from which the English term “Jehovah” comes. Although this spelling was not part of the Hebrew language, it became widely accepted. It was used for God's name in some verses of the King James Version (KJV) and the American Standard Version (ASV).

Today, most biblical scholars agree that the original pronunciation of God's personal name was likely “Yahweh” or “Jahveh.”

See also God, Names of.