Some Sacred Name Bibles are available for download on the Web.[1] Very few of these Bibles have been noted or reviewed by scholars outside the Sacred Name Movement.[4]
Some Sacred Name Bibles, such as the Halleluyah Scriptures, are also considered Messianic Bibles due to their significant Hebrew style. Therefore they are used by some Messianic Jews as well.[citation needed]
Historical background
YHWH occurs in the Hebrew Bible, and also within the Greek text in a few manuscripts of the Greek translation found at Qumran among the Dead Sea Scrolls. It does not occur in early manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. Although the Greek forms Iao and Iave do occur in magical inscriptions in the Hellenistic Jewish texts of Philo, Josephus and the New Testament use the word Kyrios ("Lord") when citing verses where YHWH occurs in the Hebrew.[5]
For centuries, Bible translators around the world did not transliterate or copy the tetragrammaton in their translations. For example, English Bible translators (Christian and Jewish) used LORD to represent it. Modern authorities on Bible translation have called for translating it with a vernacular word or phrase that would be locally meaningful.[6][7][8] The Catholic Church has called for maintaining in the liturgy the tradition of using "the Lord" to represent the tetragrammaton,[9] but does not forbid its use outside the liturgy, as is shown by the existence of Catholic Bibles such as the Jerusalem Bible (1966) and the New Jerusalem Bible (1985), where it appears as "Yahweh", and place names that incorporate the tetragrammaton are not affected.[10]
A few Bible translators, with varying theological motivations, have taken a different approach to translating the tetragrammaton. In the 1800s–1900s at least three English translations contained a variation of YHWH.[11] Two of these translations comprised only a portion of the New Testament. They did not restore YHWH throughout the body of the New Testament.
In the twentieth century, Rotherham's Emphasized Bible was the first to employ full transliteration of the tetragrammaton where it appears in the Bible (i.e., in the Old Testament). Angelo Traina's translation, The New Testament of our Messiah and Saviour Yahshua in 1950 also used it throughout to translate Κύριος, and The Holy Name Bible containing the Holy Name Version of the Old and New Testaments in 1963 was the first to systematically use a Hebrew form for sacred names throughout the Old and New Testament, becoming the first complete Sacred Name Bible.
Some translators of Sacred Name Bibles hold to the view that the New Testament, or significant portions of it, were originally written in a Semitic language, Hebrew or Aramaic, from which the Greek text is a translation.[citation needed] This view is colloquially known as "Aramaic primacy", and is also taken by some academics, such as Matthew Black.[12][13] Therefore, translators of Sacred Name Bibles consider it appropriate to use Semitic names in their translations of the New Testament, which they regard as intended for use by all people, not just Jews.[14]
Although no early manuscripts of the New Testament contain these names, some rabbinical translations of Matthew did use the tetragrammaton in part of the Hebrew New Testament. Sidney Jellicoe in The Septuagint and Modern Study (Oxford, 1968) states that the name YHWH appeared in Greek Old Testament texts written for Jews by Jews, often in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet to indicate that it was not to be pronounced, or in Aramaic, or using the four Greek letters PIPI (ΠΙΠΙ) that physically imitate the appearance of Hebrew יהוה, YHWH), and that Kyrios was a Christian introduction.[15] Bible scholars and translators such as Eusebius and Jerome (translator of the Latin Vulgate) consulted the Hexapla, but did not attempt to preserve sacred names in Semitic forms. Justin Martyr (second century) argued that YHWH is not a personal name, writing of the "namelessness of God".[16]
George Lamsa, the translator of The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts: Containing the Old and New Testaments (1957), believed the New Testament was originally written in a Semitic language, not clearly differentiating between Syriac and Aramaic. However, despite his adherence to a Semitic original of the New Testament, Lamsa translated using the English word "Lord" instead of a Hebraic form of the divine name.
Accuracy or popularity
Sacred Name Bibles are not used frequently within Christianity, or Judaism. Only a few translations replace Jesus with Semitic forms such as Yeshua or Yahshua. Most English Bible translations translate the tetragrammaton with LORD where it occurs in the Old Testament rather than use a transliteration into English. This pattern is followed in languages around the world, as translators have translated sacred names without preserving the Hebraic forms, often preferring local names for the creator or highest deity,[7][17] conceptualizing accuracy as semantic rather than phonetic.
The limited number and popularity of Sacred Name Bible translations suggests that phonetic accuracy is not considered to be of major importance by Bible translators or the public. The translator Joseph Bryant Rotherham lamented not making his work into a Sacred Name Bible by using the more accurate name Yahweh in his translation (pp.20 – 26), though he also said, "I trust that in a popular version like the present my choice will be understood even by those who may be slow to pardon it." (p. xxi).
One notable example of Sacred Name advocacy in South Africa is Hannes Redelinghuys, a self-proclaimed professor who republished a version of the Restoration of Original Sacred Name Bible incorporating Sacred Name elements like Yahvahshua. Redelinghuys attempted to reintroduce the name "Yahvah" in Hebrew on the cover of his translation but used a non-standard and erroneous spelling, including two alephs and a tav in place of the correct Hebrew characters. This reflects the broader trend among Sacred Name proponents to prioritize phonetic renderings of divine names, even when lacking linguistic accuracy or scholarly consensus.
Transliterated Sacred Name Bibles
These Bibles systematically transliterate the tetragrammaton (usually as Yahweh) in both the Old and New Testaments, as well as a Semitic form of the name of Jesus such as Yahshua or Yeshua. They consider the names of both God the Father, and God the Son, to be sacred.[18]
The New Testament of our Messiah and Saviour Yahshua (1950)
Holy Name Bible (1963)
Restoration of Original Sacred Name Bible (1970)[19]
These Sacred Name Bibles use the tetragrammaton without vowels. They follow this practice in both the Old and New Testaments (though some translations are not complete).
Some translations use a form of "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" only sporadically:
Inconsistent translation of tetragrammaton, both "Ever-living" for the tetragrammaton, as well as "Jehovah", Numbers 14, Ferrar Fenton Bible5 Sacred Name Bibles
The Complete Bible: An American Translation by John Merlin Powis Smith (1939), e.g. Exodus 3:15, 6:3, 17:15
Holman Christian Standard Bible (2004, 2010), the tetragrammaton is transliterated "Yahweh" in 495 places in its 2010 revision [654 times in the 2009 edition]. In Psalm 29:1, 2 Chron. 30:8, Isaiah 24:5, and Jeremiah 26:9 it translates the tetragrammaton once as "Yahweh" and once as LORD. In 2 Chronicles 14:11, it translates the tetragrammaton three times as LORD and once as "Yahweh". In Job 1:21, it translates the tetragrammaton twice as LORD and one as "Yahweh". In Psalm 135, it translates the tetragrammaton 14 times as Yahweh and twice as LORD.
The Emphatic Diaglott (1864), a translation of the New Testament by Benjamin Wilson, the name Jehovah appears eighteen times.
King James Version (1611), renders Jehovah in Exodus 6:3, Psalm 83:18, Isaiah 12:2, Isaiah 26:4, and three times in compound place names at Genesis 22:14, Exodus 17:15 and Judges 6:24.
Webster's Bible Translation (1833), by Noah Webster, a revision of the King James Bible, contains the form Jehovah in all cases where it appears in the original King James Version, as well as another seven times in Isaiah 51:21, Jeremiah 16:21; 23:6; 32:18; 33:16, Amos 5:8, and Micah 4:13.
The English Revised Version (1885), renders the tetragrammaton as Jehovah where it appears in the King James Version, and another eight times in Exodus 6:2,6–8, Psalm 68:20, Isaiah 49:14, Jeremiah 16:21, and Habakkuk 3:19.
The Ferrar Fenton Bible innovatively uses the phrase "Ever-living" for the tetragrammaton, as well as "Jehovah", even in the same paragraph, such as in Numbers 14:41-43.
Amplified Bible (1954, 1987), generally uses LORD, but translates Exodus 6:3 as: "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [El-Shaddai], but by My name the LORD [Yahweh—the redemptive name of God] I did not make Myself known to them [in acts and great miracles]."
New English Bible (NT 1961, OT 1970), published by Oxford University Press uses Jehovah in Exodus 3:15 and 6:3, and in four place names at Genesis 22:14, Exodus 17:15, Judges 6:24 and Ezekiel 48:35.
New Living Translation (1996, 2004), produced by Tyndale House Publishers as a successor to the Living Bible, generally uses LORD, but uses literal names whenever the text compares it to another divine name, such as its use of Yahweh in Exodus 3:15 and 6:3.[29]
The Literal Standard Version uses the unpointed tetragrammaton "YHWH" only where it occurs in the Hebrew text.
Non-English
The French Bible de Jérusalem uses the form Yahvé in place of the Tetragrammaton.
An Indonesian translation produced by the Sacred Name Movement, Kitab Suci, uses Hebraic forms of sacred names in the Old and New Testaments (Soesilo 2001:416), based on Shellabear's translation.
A French translation, by André Chouraqui, uses Hebraic forms in the Old and New Testaments.[30] Chourraqui's translation has also been translated into Portuguese.
The Spanish language Reina-Valera Bible and most of its subsequent revisions uses the Sacred Name in the Old Testament as "Jehová" starting in Genesis 2:4, with the notable exception of the Reina Valera Contemporánea, a 2011 revision which replaces "Jehová" (Spanish for Jehovah) with "El Señor" (Spanish for "The Lord").
↑ Unseth, Peter. 2019. "Sacred Name Bibles" p. 721, in Noss, Philip A., and Charles S. Houser, eds. A Guide to Bible Translation: People, Languages, and Topics. Maitland, FL: Xulon Press; and Swindon, UK: United Bible Societies
↑ Rhodes R. The Complete Guide to Bible Translations: How They Were Developed 2009 p206 "Unlike most other translations today, the New Jerusalem Bible renders the Old Testament name for God, YHWH, as "Yahweh," just as the Jerusalem Bible did. In place of "Lord of hosts" is "Yahweh Sabaoth"
↑ David Moomo. 2005. Translating YHWH into African languages. Scriptura 88: 151–60.
1 2 Ernst R. Wendland. 1992. yhwh- The Case For Chauta 'Great-[God]-of-the-Bow'. The Bible Translator. 43.4: 430–438.
↑ Helmut Rosin. 1956. The Lord Is God: The Translation of the Divine Names and the Missionary Calling of the Church. Amsterdam: Netherlands Bible Society.
↑ "In accordance with immemorial tradition which indeed is already evident in the above-mentioned 'Septuagint' version, the name of almighty God, expressed by the sacred Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH) and rendered in Latin by the word Dominus, is to be rendered in any vernacular by a word of equivalent meaning." Liturgiam authenticam, fifth instruction on vernacular translation of the Roman liturgy, Issue 5, section 41c. Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum. 2001. ISBN1-57455-428-X.
↑ Peter M. Head Christology and the Synoptic problem: an argument for Markan priority p161 "Jellicoe summarises: LXX texts, written by Jews for Jews, retained the Divine Name in Hebrew Letters (palaeo-Hebrew or "
↑ David Moomo. 2005. Translating YHWH into African languages. Scriptura 88:151–160.
↑ Sacred Scriptures Bethel Edition Bible. Preface, V. "No translation has accurately restored the Name Yahweh to the New Testament text where it undoubtedly appeared when the apostolic authors produced their works, nor is there a translation that has faithfully restored the Saviour's true Name, Yahshua the Messiah, to the text of the Bible", Jacob O. Meyer
↑ MCT Bible, a precise and unabridged translation (precisely and contextually denoting the Sacred Name as "Yahweh" in both the Old and New Testaments), with contextual dictionaries and concordances.
↑ Blog review by Richard Shields, The Names of God Bible (GW), accessed 12 December 2015, reports that this version has been praised for its "attention to detail", but the translation only presents "the most significant names and titles of God" in their original forms and therefore some 'names of God' are not treated in the same way: for example, “Mighty One” (Avir) which appears in Psalms 132:2 and 132:5 and a total of 23 times (most referring to God) in the Old Testament is not highlighted.
↑ Uses "Yahweh" explaining and defending this practice pp. 759-771. Source
↑ It is not clear if this is the same translation as "The Scriptures" by the Institute for Scripture Research
Pritz, Ray. 1991. The Divine Name in the Hebrew New Testament. Jerusalem Perspective, Vol. 4:2 10–12.
Rösel, Martin (2007). "The Reading and Translation of the Divine Name in the Masoretic Tradition and the Greek Pentateuch". Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. 31 (4): 411–428. doi:10.1177/0309089207080558. S2CID170886081.
Smith, Mark S. 2010. God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing.
Soesilo, Daud. 2001. Translating the Names of God: recent experience from Indonesia and Malaysia. The Bible Translator 52.4:414–423.
The Sacred Name YHWH: A Scriptural Study, (3rd ed). 2002. Garden Grove, CA: Qadesh La Yahweh Press. Open Access
The Scriptures 1993, 1998, 2009. Northriding, South Africa: Institute for Scripture Research.
Trimm, James (translator) 2005. The Hebraic-Roots Version Scriptures. Institute for Scripture Research (publisher).
Unseth, Peter. 2011. Sacred Name Bible translations in English: a fast-growing phenomenon. The Bible Translator 62.3: 185–194.
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