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The importance of correctly enunciating with vocal sounds and correctly writing the Name of Yehowah should be so ingrained into our souls that there should be no question about the matter. We are told in Shemot 20:7 and Devarim 5:11, both portions of Yehowah’s Torah, that we are not to bring haShem Yehowah to naught or destruction.
The lack of understanding and/or the lack of performing ‘due diligence’ in the matter causes some people to avoid correctly pronouncing the Name as three syllables, as is intended in the Hebrew Grammar. Please see End Notes (1) (2) & (3). People pronounce the Name as Yahwaaay or Yahway when the correct pronunciation should be Yah-oo-eh according to the Hebrew transliteration. Saying the Name as Yahwaaay or Yahway is the articulation of only two syllables. The transliterated writing of the Name should be Yehowah, which is Yah-uu-eh, which is pronounced as Yah-oo-eh. (4) Yehowah, when transliterated into contemporary Hebrew in eretz Yisra’el, becomes Yah-uu-eh. To write the transliterated Name as Yahuwah is completely missing the correct Hebrew grammar.
Likewise, the transliterated Name of His Redeemer should be correctly written as Yehowah Tzva’ot-Yehowah of Hosts; please see Yeshayahu 44:6-8 and Romans 9:29. To shorten the Name of haMashiach into Yeshua is a violation of the three syllable rule and, as well, relegates the shortened transliteration to a defined meaning of future salvation. Look up the definition of the Hebrew verb ‘to be’. There are three tenses shown; past = hayah, present = heenlo/ah, future = yeeyeh. Even Yehshua as shown in Strong’s #3442 and BDB #445a carries a meaning of future salvation. (5) The Redeemer Yehowah Tzva’ot = haMashiach Yah-hu-shua is yet alive now and defined as the “I Am that I Am” as shown in Shemot 3:14-15. Yahushua translated from the Hebrew means “Yehowah He Is Salvation”. Here again, in the Name Yahushua, we see three syllables and not just two for pronunciation purposes.
A syllable is a single or articulated vocal sound; that which is uttered in a single vocal impulse; also the characters or letters that represent such a sound; a word or part of a word, that is capable of separate and complete enunciation by one voice impulse. Taken from Funk & Wagnalls Co. Standard Dictionary of the English Language – 1956.
In building Hebrew words we see the following:
1) Hebrew is read from right to left beginning with the first consonant followed by the first vowel.
2) A syllable consists of at least one consonant and one vowel.
3) An open syllable consists of a consonant and a vowel.
4) A closed syllable consists of a consonant, a vowel, and then another consonant.
5)
A
syllable cannot begin with a vowel, except when the
with a dagesh in the
center of it begins
a word.
We believe that the correct written transliteration is Yahushua. These are the reasons:
1) The translation of Yahushua is "Yehowah He Is Salvation". Yahshua translated means: "Yehowah Salvation" and is done as a shortening of the Hebrew language to a two syllable word.
2) The spoken transliteration should be Yah-hu-shua and not Yah-ho-shua. ‘Yah’ is the abbreviated poetic version of Yehowah, 'hu' in Hebrew means He is, and ‘shua’ means salvation. To write the Name as Yahhuushua would be redundant, so it can be written as Yahushua. The pronunciation would then be Yah-oo-shua for the 'U' in Hebrew is actually the 'OO' sound. A good Hebrew - English dictionary will show this transliteration information.
3) The transliteration of Yehowah or Yehowah would be Yah-oo-eh in both cases. The 'W' is a double 'UU' and the 'V' in Hebrew is a double 'UU'. However, the preferred writing around planet earth is Yehowah; Yehowah is correct also. Yehowah is used because it appears to be the best representation of the original Hebrew letters of The Name transliterated into English (6)
The use of three syllables in the Hebrew language is aided by the vowels of the language. Almost always the sounds of Hebrew vowels and the Character of the vowels helps the pronunciation of the syllables. Usually the harshness of pronunciation of Hebrew words is avoided by the use of a helping vowel. Taken from ‘Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar’ Edited and Enlarged by E. Kautzsch – Page 88, 26r - Published by the Oxford University Press, New York, N.Y., ISBN 0-19-815406-2.
In YirmeYahu 10:10 we see the following: “But Yehowah is truly ‘Elohim. He is the living ‘Elohim and the everlasting Sovereign. At His wrath the earth shakes, and nations are unable to stand His displeasure.” Yehowah has informed us through the prophet YirmeYahu that He, Yehowah is the only true Mighty One. No ‘elohim can give life as can Yehowah The ‘Elohim, whose very Name means to exist forever. When we study the Hebrew text of Scripture, we will find that the Name Yehowah is used more frequently than almost any other single word in the Scripture. We are especially called as Yehowah Tzva’ot Redeemed believers to call upon the Name. The Name Yehowah appears in the Hebrew Masoretic text 6,823 times. Why mangle or destroy the Name Yehowah, and bring it to naught, with the improper use of all of the enunciating syllables that should be present in the Name?
We must remember that Hebrew words are defined by the meanings that they carry; often several meanings are attached to a word. The general tenor of the meanings is very similar. Yeshua (future salvation) as a Hebrew word cannot carry the same meaning as Yehowah Tzva’ot, Immanu’el and haMashiach.
The manifestation of haMashiach on planet earth has already occurred! All of Yisra’el was party to a previous Covenant-Contract with Yehowah Tzva’ot.
[For those who believe that Y’hooshua is the prophesied Mashiach of Yehowah, there is a strong desire to follow the authentic halachah of Mount Synay, as he restored it, i.e. to follow him. Salvation through an anti-Torah ‘grace’ of Je-us is a contract with pagan Roman mythology centuries after Y’hooshua, not a covenant-contract with Yehowah.
Like our fellow Jews, we, too, await the coming of haMashiach as a conquering king, imposing halachah-compliant peace upon the entire world and forever reigning from Y’rushalayim.] Taken from ‘Who Are The N’tzarim?’ - Pages 44-46 - written by YirmiYahu Ben-David. (7)
We must take exception to the writing of YirmiYahu Ben David in the matter of who was standing at Mount Sinai and receiving the covenant-contract of Yehowah. It was all of Yisra’el and not just the Yahudim. If by using the term ‘Jews’ he is referring to all of Yisra’el then he must refer to all of Yisra’el as all the twelve tribes making up both the houses of ‘Ephraim and Yahudah coming from patriarch Ya’aqov as his seed.
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End Notes:
1. Although many use the form “Yehowah” (often incorrectly pronounced as Yahwaay, this form consists of only two syllables), which clashes with Hebrew grammar, according to which the Name has to have three syllables, not two – see the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. 1, p.211. Also it must be noted that the Masoretes were Hebrews, following the rules of their language, clearly showing us that the Name has three syllables. Taken from ‘THE SCRIPTURES’ – First Edition – page x – Institute For Scripture Research, PO Box 28201, 0132 Sunnyside, Republic of South Africa – ISBN 0-620-17989-9.
2. Word-stems are almost invariably triliteral, i.e.composed of three consonants; (f b.
page 3). The law of the triliteral stem is so strictly observed in the formation of verbs and nouns in Hebrew (and in Semitic languages generally), that the language has sometimes adopted artificial methods to preserve at least an appearance of triliteralism in monosyllabic stems (30 f – page 100). For information on the Parts of Speech in the Hebrew language, please see (Section 30 and 31-pages 99 thru 104). Stems and Roots: Biliteral, Triliteral, and Quadriliteral. Also see Grammatical Structure. Taken from ‘Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar’ Edited and Enlarged by E. Kautzsch – Published by the Oxford University Press, New York, N.Y. ISBN 0-19-815406-2.
3. Often in the Scriptures, we come across words that have only one or two syllables and they do not seem to adhere to the Hebrew rules relative to the composition of whole complete words. The abbreviated form ‘Yah’ is such a word that appears in poetic passages of Scripture a total of 49 times. Its use seems to defy the rules of syllable formations in the Hebrew language. In addition, the abbreviated form ‘Yah’ is also affixed to word stems as suffixes to form proper nouns throughout the Scriptures. Some examples are: AviYahu, YeshaYahu, YirmeYahu, NechemYah, TzephanYah and ZecharYah. When we add up all of the times that the Name Yehowah or the abbreviated form is used in any way in the Scriptures, we will see that the total approaches the number 7,000.
4. Bill Burton, in his writing ‘A Study Of The Separated (Holy) Name,’ points out the importance of the fact that the Hebrew letters {Yod-Hey-Waw-Hey} are the True Tetragrammaton for it is a Pronouncable Name, when used as all vowels, i.e. IAUE and pronounced as Iah-oo-eh = Yah-oo-eh. Long before the introduction of the Hebrew Masorete individual vowel signs it was determined that the main-vowel sounds should be indicated in writing, and so the three Hebrew Consonants {Yod-Waw and Hey} were used to represent long vowels. Please see pages 3 thru 12 of his study. His writings are available from Olive Tree Outreach, PO Box 1084, Murrieta, CA 92564.
In the Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ISBN 0-19-815406-2 the subject of Hebrew letters-consonants used as vowels is greatly examined in section 7 on pages 35 thru 39 under the title ‘Vowels in General, Vowel Letters and Vowel Signs.’ In 7b it is stated as follows: “The partial expression of vowels by certain consonants {Hey-Waw-Yod-Aleph}, which sufficed during the lifetime of the Hebrew language, and for a still longer period afterwards must have passed through several stages.”
If you wish further verification of the use of Hebrew consonants as vowels, please consult the following sources, A Beginner’s Handbook To Biblical Hebrew, Marks and Rogers, Abingdon Press, 1958, Page 7; How The Hebrew Language Grew, Horowitz, KTAV Publishing, 1960, pages 333-334.
5. Rabbi Moshe Koniuchowsky, Your Arms To Israel <ravmoshe@bellsouth.net>, discusses the use of Yeshua rather than Yahshua in his general e-mail of October 21, 2003 entitled “Yehowah Shuts Down Arutz 7 After McNulty Interview.” Here is what he said, “BREAKING NEWS… According to reports from the land of Yisra’el, as you can read below, the government of Ariel Sharon has shut down Arutz 7 radio from broadcasting in Yisra’el only 2 weeks after Wendy Sutherland lied to the people of Yisra’el and denied Messiah Yahshua in international air time. Yehowah’s judgment fell upon the radio for not only allowing Wendy Sutherland McNulty a forum to deny Yahshua, but also gave her a platform to belittle Yahshua as “yeshu”, the name pronounced by the program host. Yeshu is an acronym meaning ‘yomat shameo uzeechro’ may his name be made dead along with his memory. (The next time you use Yeshua instead of Yahshua or Yahoushua think about the fact they/you are using the same anti-missionary curse word yeshu with an ‘a’ added at the end!).”
6. One of the best explanations of the transliterated Name that we use is in the ‘Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible’- published by Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501; ISBN 0-8254-3601-X. Over seven pages have been devoted to discussion of ‘The Incommunicable Name.’
7. [The original followers of Y’hooshua of Nazareth were Torah-observant Jews called N’tzarim (Nazarenes; Matt. 2:23). Despite opposition from the Tz’dokim (Sadducean) majority, Rabbi Gamilyel prevailed in the Sanhedrin, setting halachah: the Jewish community would not oppose the N’tzarim.
The Romans, after destroying Jerusalem in 70 CE, built their own pagan city, Aeolia Capitolina, over its ruins. In 135 CE, they banished all Jews from the city – including the N’tzarim leader, who was still Torah observant and living harmoniously with the rabbinic community. With the legitimate N’tzarim leadership expelled, anti-Torah gentile Christians (Notzrim) stepped into the vacuum. They installed the first gentile, Rome-oriented bishop, and the church was born. Christians then fabricated their own perception of a gentile-savior. A hybrid of Roman paganism superimposed over Jewish messianism. J-e-s-u-s evolved as an anti-Torah and anti-Jewish man-g-d, the antithesis of Y’hooshua.
Dormant since 135 CE, the authentic, halachically Torah-observant N’tzarim have re-emerged in the Orthodox Community.
YirmiYahu Ben-David, the 16th pahkiyd (clerk) of the N’tzarim has spent much of his life distinguishing the N’tzarim sect within legitimate Judaism from Christianity.
Ben-David and his wife Karen, made aliyah to Israel in the early 1980’s. Ben-David,
a software developer, served reserve duty in the Israeli Defense Forces until his
retirement in 1992. He lives with his wife and Israeli born daughter in Ra’anana,
Israel, where the family attends an Orthodox congregation.] Taken from ‘Who Are
The N’tzarim?’ – written by YirmiYahu Ben-David.
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Tsleeleem Shofar Qeheelah
PO Box 1084
Murrieta, CA 92564
Names - Yehowah
