Tetragrammaton
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Tetragrammaton (from the Greek τετραγράμματον, meaning '[word of] four letters' (tetra "four" + gramma (gen. grammatos) "letter"), [1] refers to יהוה, one of the names of the God of Israel. יהוה is composed of four Hebrew consonants and it occurs over 6000 times in the Hebrew Consonantal Text. יהוה is sometimes referred to as the unvocalized Tetragrammaton since it contains no vowel points.
The letters, properly read from right to left (in Biblical Hebrew), are:
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Hebrew Letter name Pronunciation י Yodh "Y" ה He (pronounced "hey") "H" ו Waw "W" or placeholder for "O"/"U" vowel (see mater lectionis) ה He "H" (or sometimes silent at the ends of words)
These four letters are usually transliterated from Hebrew as IHVH in Latin, JHWH in German, French and Dutch, and YHWH in English. This was variously rendered as "Yahweh" or "Jehovah", since in Latin there was no distinct lettering to distinguish 'Y' from 'J', or 'W' from 'V', and the Hebrew does not clearly indicate the omitted vowels. In English translations, it is often rendered in small capital letters as "the LORD", following Jewish tradition which reads the word as "Adonai" ("Lord") out of respect for the name of God and the commandment not to take the name of God in vain. The word "haŠem" 'the Name' is also used in Jewish contexts; in Samaritan, "Šemå" is the normal substitution.
See "Historical overview" at Yahweh and Jehovah.
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[edit] Occurrences and uses
The Tetragrammaton occurs 6,828 times in the Hebrew text of both the Biblia Hebraica and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.[2] It does not appear in the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, or Esther.
For views on the pronunciation of the name, see the main article, Yahweh.
[edit] The Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010 A.D.
Vowel points were added to the Tetragrammaton by the Masoretes, in the first millennium C.E.
Six different Hebrew spellings of the Tetragrammaton are found in:
The Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010 A.D. as shown below:
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This is the most common set of vowels, which are essentially the vowels from Adonai (with the hataf patah reverting to its natural state as a shwa). |
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This is the same as above, but with the dot over the holam/waw left out, because it is a little redundant. |
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When the Tetragrammaton is preceded by Adonai, it receives the vowels from the name Elohim instead. The hataf segol does not revert to a shwa because doing so could lead to confusion with the vowels in Adonai. |
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Just as above, this uses the vowels from Elohim, but like the second version, the dot over the holam/waw is omitted as redundant. |
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Here, the dot over the holam/waw is present, but the hataf segol does get reverted to a shwa. |
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Here, the dot over the holam/waw is omitted, and the hataf segol gets reverted to a shwa. |
The * indicates that the transliteration “e” indicates a Hatef Segol.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tetragrammaton |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ "Importance of the Name.". (1988) Insight on the Scriptures Vol. 2. ©Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. p. 8.
