Pastor's Blog

Pastor's Note - February 11

Believe it or not, there are some thoughts or tidbits that I am not able to fit into the Sunday morning sermon. Last week, we talked about the personal name of God – YHWH. Whenever you see LORD fully capitalized in Scripture, know that it is a translation of YHWH. It is used because we lost the correct pronunciation of YHWH. Another name of God that came into usage was the term “Jehovah.” We are all familiar with that name, but many may not know where it came from. Jehovah is actually a hybrid name. It is derived from YHWH, and the Hebrew word “adonai,” which means “Lord.” Somewhere along the line, the Hebrew consonants were taken from YHWH, and combined with the Hebrew vowel sounds from “adonai.” These were combined to make “YaHoWaH,” or as we pronounce it, Jehovah (the “w” and “v” sounds are very similar in some languages). I don’t think this means it is entirely inappropriate to use Jehovah, as another way of referring to the Lord. But we can at least know that Jehovah is not an explicitly biblical term. Beyond that, this may not be much more than interesting trivia, with relatively little practical application. But now you know!

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