Jehovah
From RationalWiki
Jehovah is a name sometimes used for the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God, usually by Christians, but also by some Jews. The name stems from a misunderstanding of the traditional Hebrew text of the Old Testament. In the Hebrew alphabet, all letters are consonants, and vowels, if written at all, are written as punctuation above and below the letter, essentially turning it into a syllabic form of writing. The name of God, traditionally written as יהוה YHWH (yod-he-waw-he), is generally believed to have been pronounced "Yahweh" or something fairly similar, but it was generally taboo to actually pronounce the full name. The common practice by the time of the creation of the Masoretic text, the now-official Hebrew text of the Old Testament, was to replace YHWH in any reading with the Hebrew for "Lord", "Adonay". In order to remind the reader to do the substitution, the word YHWH was therefore traditionally written with the Adonay vowels, yielding "YaHoWaH", later Romanized into "Jehovah" from being read as written instead of according to tradition. Though almost all Bible scholars agree that Jehovah is therefore incorrect, it remains a somewhat popular euphemism for the name of God.
In most English Bible translations (except for so-called "Sacred Name" editions, which use some form of the Hebrew for most or all names) these letters are translated as The LORD. Another common Jewish practice, especially among Orthodox Jews, is to write it as G-d instead of God or to refer to God as "Baruch ha-Shem" ("The Blessed Name" in Hebrew), feeling that even such first-order euphemisms are too sacred to be spoken or written.
At least one religious sect, the Jehovah's Witnesses, insist Jehovah is God's real name and insist on its use instead of God. There are also some sects, including many Christian Identity believers, who insist that Yahweh is the proper name. Comic writer Larry Gonick, in his Cartoon History of the Universe, poked fun at the controversy by suggesting the proper name of God was "Yahu-Wahu", then spelling it "Yahuwah" throughout the rest of the series.
It should be noted, however, that God did not originally claim to go by this name. It is a common misconception among modern practitioners. The actual origin of this is in the term Ehyeh asher ehyeh and is generally interpreted to mean I am that I am, though it more literally translates as "I-shall-be that I-shall-be." This was later shorthanded to the more commonly known "YHWH" meaning "to be" by humans. Ironically enough, since the Judeo-Christian God never actually tells us his name, a commandment telling one not to take his name in vain is a little confusing.
