Why is English name not Jehovah?

Started by Private User on Wednesday, December 21, 2011
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Private User
12/21/2011 at 11:46 AM

Depending upon a person's religion, "God" refers to different entities. Using the modifier "Almighty", promotes one religion above others. Use of the name "Jehovah" would be a neutral way to refer to this entity.

"Jehovah" as such, is a meaningless relatively MODERN invention.
1) In the Hebrew language, vowels are NOT letters, therefore the "Tetragrammaton" YHWH ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton ), does NOT include any. The "vowels" are the dots/signs one can see under the letters in that link.
2) So adding the E O A, to it is transposing how people think it "should have been" pronounced.
3) The Jews would never have pronounced the name in this fashion.

"God Almighty" is not a relative term, so it says/implies nothing at all "about one religion above others". It literally means that G-d is all-mighty, i.e. omnipotent. In any case, WHICH one religion would that be? There are at least five that trace themselves to the Creator of Adam. You might have had a case if it said "The Father" or some such instead.

You could argue that the Hebrew should actually read YHWH or the Hebrew for Elohim, but a Jew would find it offensive to see that name written out, so instead we use the title of "Our father in Heaven".

There ARE quite a few other gods and entire pantheons in this tree. As such, we strive to keep things as neutral and respective as possible. You might find the following of interest: http://www.geni.com/projects/Biblical-Tree it deals with some of these points.

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