Why Yehovah?

Why is the name Yehovah’ inserted in brackets in so many of the scriptures quoted?

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The answer is simple. In general I am reasonably content with the World English Bible WEB but there is one major exception that is repeated thousands of times—they use the name or title of the Samaritan god “Yahweh” in place of an acceptable alternative. The name Yahweh is the name that the Samaritans called God. Having similarities to YHVH does not make it God’s name any more than would “Allah”, for example. Allah literally means “the God” and is not a name. See .Is the Word Allah Similar to Elohim? (off site). Allah and Elohim are apparently derived from the same root word of an older language. (Later the Catholic Church adopted the Samaritan name Yahweh—believing that the Samaritans knew the name. Later still Jewish encyclopedias assumed that the Catholics were right and cite them as a source of truth on the subject! And I thought that the Jews were supposed to have preserved the oracles {writings} of God {Romans 3:1-2}).

So I just bracket God’s most commonly used name (with the proper vowels) and move on.

For a detailed explanation proving that God’s name, as revealed to Moses, is Yehovah (with the emphasis on the vah’, as indicated by the added mark) see Do You Know God’s Name?

In no way do I insist on using God’s Hebrew name. I believe that there are many things that will be of far more importance on Judgment Day than a phonics test.

Why quote from the World English Bible?

The WEB is the only modern English version of the entire Bible that can be legally quoted from without copyright restrictions (so far as I know). The New King James Version, for example, limits it’s usage to 1000 verses, among other things, which is quite insufficient for my book of Bible commentary.

There is a problem that new translators encounter which is unavoidable. That being that so many copyrighted versions are already available that they have to deliberately choose less desirable wording in many instances because the more preferable wording is legally in “occupied territory”!

Unfortunately, quoting from various other modern versions is not really a desirable option because virtually all modern versions are based upon corrupted third hand texts. The Majority Texts that make up the vast majority of the Greek texts are being set aside in favor of the tiny minority of older but poorer quality texts that were preserved only because they werent worn out by usage—because no one trusted them! Yet more importantly, there is a great deal of proof that the New Scriptures were written in Aramaic before being translated into Greek! Hebrew is a dialect of Aramaic. Claims that the New Scriptures were all written in Hebrew, then translated into Aramaic are of little practical use since we dont have any of these alleged copies to examine. Anyway, “translating” from Hebrew to Aramaic is little more than translating from British English to American English.

To consider the evidence see:

Was the New Testament Really Written in Greek?

When I read “Was the New Testament Really Written in Greek” and learned that the Scriptures were really translated from the Western Aramaic Peshitta into Greek and not the other way around. I also learned that no modern version was available for quotation without copyright restrictions. Since my book, Mysteries of the Everlasting Kingdom uses many hundreds of Bible quotations I immediately decided to update Murdock’s 1852 public domain translation. Here is my work in progress: The New Murdock Translation

The New Messianic Scriptures (NT) actually inserted the tetragrammaton in Paleo Hebrew rather than translate God’s name into Aramaic or Greek, but by the third century all versions were switched to “Lord” and “God” rather than use the Paleo YeHoVaH. For this reason I’ll be replacing those titles in the NMT whenever applicable.

If knowing God’s name is important to you—and it should be—and you want additional proof of what it actually is, then I urge you to read the following article. The True Pronunciation of the Sacred Name. (off site)

Interestingly, “God” in Aramaic is close to Allah. I’ve seen it “Englishified” as either “Alalah” and “Aloha”.