Tetragrammaton
| Tetragrammaton | |
|---|---|
| Hebrew name | |
| Hebrew | יהוה |
| Romanization | YHVH |
| Strong number | H3068 (Yĕhovah) |
The tetragrammaton is a sequence of four Hebrew letters that represent the personal name of God. In English, it is usually given as YHWH. The Masoretic text, the standard modern Hebrew text of the Old Testament, adds vowels to the consonant-only ancient text. It gives the tetragrammaton as Yĕhovah. The King James Version transliterates this word as "Jehovah." The tetragrammaton appears 6,519 times in the Old Testament.
The Masoretic text was vowelized in the Middle Ages. Giving the original pronunciation was considered sacrilegious, so the Yĕhovah spelling intentionally misrepresents the pronunciation. Modern scholars have reconstructed the original pronunciation as "Yahweh." Jews believe that the Lord's true name is unspeakable until the arrival of the messiah and the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem.
In Hebrew, the four letters are yod י, he ה, vav ו, and he ה. They are read from right to left: יהוה .
The word "tetragrammaton" is from a Greek word meaning "consisting of four letters."
External link
Hebrew Alphabet (Just the letters), from Judaism 101 http://www.jewfaq.org (youtube.com) — audio instruction.