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BIBLE MYSTERIES -
The
Secret Name
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When Israel built the Tabernacle in the Wilderness they
began to formalize their worship and their relationship with
G·d; they built the Ark of the Covenant and encapsulated the
tablets of the Ten Commandments, and eventually the Torah, the writings
of Moses, therein.
Exodus 20:7 and Lev 24:16 discourage misuse of the name of G·d,
requiring the most severe punishments for such error. Therefore at some
point the Israelites stopped using the name as given - which Moses
apparently wrote in four letters - and substituted another word meaning
'Lord'. The correct pronunciation of the four-lettered name was deemed
a 'secret', only to be used by the High Priest once a year on the Day
of Atonement.
We are told that eventually the secret pronunciation was lost due to
apostasy and misuse. While reading the Torah in Synagogue, when they
came to the four-lettered name - the Tetragrammaton - they
substituted the word Adonai
'Lord'. The four letters are generally transliterated into English as IHVH or JHVH. Tradition tells us that in the
Middle Ages scholars conveniently inserted the vowels from Adonai into JHVH, thus producing the name Jehovah - but it was not ever
considered a real word. Today many scholars believe the real
pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton is Yahweh,
placing the most convenient vowels between the four letters - but there
is no evidence that this was true historically.
To
the left is the textual representation of the four-lettered name;
reading from right to left, the four letters are named Yod, Heh, Vau,
Heh. Since there are no true vowels in Biblical Hebrew, the
pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton must be taught. Therefore it is
also called the Ineffable Name.
In the King James translation of Scripture, when the Tetragrammaton
appears in the text it is rendered all in capital leters: LORD.
When the Hebrew is Adonai
- 
- the King James renders it Lord, with small letters.
The Rabbinical scholars gave this four-lettered name a great deal of
attention. One theory stated that the IH
represents the upper Divine
world, and the VH represents
the lower material world. Another tale
states that the Yod represents the Fiat Lux - the first point of light
of creation, and its 'tail' indicates the primal outreach of G·d
towards His creation; the first Heh denotes the 'house' of G·d,
and the opening to the left is a 'window' looking out on the lesser
world; the Vau shows the further reach of G·d's Grace
downwards towards the whole of the creation, and the final Heh shows
the 'house' of the world below.
The Tetragrammaton is printed with 'vowel points', small marks pointing
at the vowel pronunciation preferred: 
; the two dots below the Yod are
called shevâh, but the
pronunciation indicated is not certain; it is considered a somewhat
silent 'e'
as in the English word 'mine'. The dot over the Vau is called a chôlem and always indicates a
pronunciation of a long 'o' as in English 'no'. The small 't' under the
Vau is called a qâmêts
and indicates a following 'â' as in English 'all'. This
representation would seem to reinforce a pronunciation similar to Jehovah; still, there is no
indication that such a verbal utterance was the secret pronunciation
spoken in the Holy of Holies by the High Priest.
Let
us consider the Hebrew letter shîn
[to the left]. Actually, when
printed this letter is pronounced shîn
when it appears as 
, and pronounced sîn when it appears as 
; in
other words, when the dot is affixed to the right the pronunciation is
'sh', and when the dot is on the left it is pronounced 's'.
However, for our discussion, let us simply consider the letter as 
. Note
the balance and symmetry of the letter. When printed it is necessary
that the three points rise to the same level and appear as equals. This
letter represents the three-in-one: three equal points, three equal stems, one letter. Its numerical
value is 300
[see the page
on Numbers].
We already mentioned above how the Tetragrammaton can be analyzed as
'divided' into IH [the world
above] and VH [the world
below]. If we insert the letter shîn
within the 'gap', this abyss
separating the two worlds, the name then appears as 
, which would be
pronounced Yeshuah [or Yeheshuah], and in Greek Jesus [
].
In fairness, this is an accommodation; the name is written in Scripture
,
and is pronounced Jehoshuah
or Joshua ['Jah saved']. Yet
this is also a bit of an accommodation, as the word for Salvation in
Hebrew is 
, pronounced yeshû'âh
[close to Yeshuah
above], and also means 'deliverance, victory'.
In whatever form one prefers, the secret
name that was lost
could surely
have been [in English]
Jesus
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