# Yahweh (on the cover of a book)



## bidoultche

Hi,
I am playing a sort of paper chase on the web and I have to find the meaning of an inscription on the cover of an old botanist book : here is the cover : raid28.lejeu.free.fr/2011/mapomme/7front/q7a-big.JPG

The detail I am looking at is at the top : here in bigger : raid28.lejeu.free.fr/2011/mapomme/7frontb/nom.html

Is that hebrew ? What does it mean ?
I am supposed to find a name with four letters.

Thank you for your help.

Bidoultche


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## origumi

Hebrew God's name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#The_Tetragrammaton


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## yuval9

It means "Yahweh" (God's name)


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## rlaszlo

As far as I know, "Yahwe" is a fake or wrong pronounciation. The consonants are mixed from  היה, הוה, יהיה , and added the vowels of Adonai. So It is a kind of symbol of "Eternal". It is pronounced Adonai. It is senseless to read out a mixture of elements of 4 words.


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## Zekharyah

Yod-Hey-Waw-Hey is the personal name of the G-d of Israel. It comes from the root hayah which means "to be". A connection to this name is found in Exodus 3:14 where it says, "I am that I am" (ehyeh asher ehyeh). Most today agree that the vowelization of the 1st half of the name is correct "YaaH", but there is opponents to this. You can find this shortened poetic form in Psalms 68:4 and 113:1. Many when they come upon YHWH in the Hebrew text they say Adonai but it is more proper especially among Orthodox Jews to say "Hashem" (haa-shem), which literally means "the name". It should be noted that this practice of *not* saying G-d's name aloud was not always prohibited. Apparently people used to greet each other with this name.  Then later on it was only allowed to be said by the Priests until the 1st century CE were they only muttered the name quietly. The Babylonian exile really brought on this tradition though.


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## vivnara

It should be noted that this practice of *not* saying G-d's name aloud was not always prohibited. 

To Zekharya: I thought this might interest you. I once heard a lecture by Prof. Moshe Idel who said that the founder of Hassidism, the Ba'al Shem Tov, was a healer, and apparently healed people by using the Yud Hey Vav Hey version of God's name; which is why he used to be referred to as the Ba'al Shem Tov.


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## rlaszlo

If so, is it known, how it sounds? Or only chosen ones know it?


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## vivnara

Before my son learnt that you're not supposed to say the word, he used to read it as "yehovah" (and he's certainly not a chosen one).


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## Aoyama

Zekharyah is very right in his comment. In short, G.od's name is generally Adonai (of Greek origin, cf. Adonis) or Hashem (the Name). Yehovah is unusual (to me)for Jews.
as to 





> It comes from the root hayah which means "to be".


, yes, hayah literally means "has been" (root of lihiyot, past tense), in fact, the name of G.od is _merely_ (so to speak) the root of the verb "to be" at three tenses, present, past, future (היה, הוה, יהיה ), hence the meaning : I am the One who Has been, Is, Will be = the Eternal, as rlaszlo points out.
The readings Yaweh/Yehovah (and other variants) are all arbitrary vocalizations.
This has been discussed here already, a few times (can't find the threads ).


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## origumi

Aoyama said:


> G.od's name is generally Adonai (of Greek origin, cf. Adonis)


How Greek comes into the picture? (1) Adonai is Hebrew for _My Lord(s)_, where the plural reminds the one of Elohim. (2) The word is attested hundreds of years before direct contact between Hebrews and Greeks.


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## Aoyama

Well, I read somewhere that Adon (as in Adoni = sir as in _Mon_ sieur / Monsieur) was akin to Greek. I should find the source.


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## Zekharyah

It would seem that it's the other way around. Adonis is possibly of Semitic origin, specifically from the Phoenecian language (i.e. adon). After all, Greeks certainly did come in contact with Phoenecia and adapted their "alphabet". Further proof that Adonis is a Semitic carry-over is the fact that it mirrors older cultic traditions and rituals of the Babylonian Tammuz. So Adonai has nothing to do with Adonis but no doubt comes from a similar proto-semitic root (A-D-N). Also Adonai is a plural of majesty (my Lords) as you said were as Adonis is not. Lastly, the cultic and religious tradition is totally different then the ancient Israelites. Adonis has more to do with Tammuz then Hashem. 



origumi said:


> How Greek comes into the picture? (1) Adonai is Hebrew for _My Lord(s)_, where the plural reminds the one of Elohim. (2) The word is attested hundreds of years before direct contact between Hebrews and Greeks.


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## Aoyama

> It would seem that it's the other way around. Adonis is possibly of Semitic origin(...)


yes, I concur with that.
Here : http://phoenicia.org/adonis.html and here http://lagrangeducherchant.over-blo...-seigneur-d-origine-phenicienne-49319310.html and many more if you Google "adonis/adonai" ...


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## Jazon

origumi said:


> How Greek comes into the picture? (1) Adonai is Hebrew for _My Lord(s)_, where the plural reminds the one of Elohim. (2) The word is attested hundreds of years before direct contact between Hebrews and Greeks.



Greek comes into the picture with the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, for the library in Alexandria, around 275 BC, wherein every occurrence of Yahweh was rendered Curios, Lord in Greek, out of respect or awe of the Name. The oldest Hebrew manuscripts have the tetragrammaton, YHVH. It is true that Greeks had contact with Phoneticians, and derived their alphabet from them. It's also true that the vocalization cannot be documented, as the old Hebrew manuscripts have no vowel points. But, in my opinion, so what? The English speakers of today don't sound like those of a mere century ago but what they meant to communicate is still very clear, at least to me. Since semantics can be documented, we know that the God of Abraham does not have a Greek name.


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## Zekharyah

Actually the Greek preserves the vowel sounds of Hebrew pretty well. Although not always perfectly. A lot of the vowel sounds of proper names in the Tanakh (Hebrew) is transliterated perfectly in the Septuagint (i.e. Edom which the vowels are correct and even match the niqqudot of the Masoretic text). Of course Greek has it's own quirks, like the rule where no name can end with a feminine letter (sound). That's how we get the "s" at the end of Moses that original was pronounced in Hebrew "Mosheh".



Jazon said:


> Greek comes into the picture with the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, for the library in Alexandria, around 275 BC, wherein every occurrence of Yahweh was rendered Curios, Lord in Greek, out of respect or awe of the Name. The oldest Hebrew manuscripts have the tetragrammaton, YHVH. It is true that Greeks had contact with Phoneticians, and derived their alphabet from them. It's also true that the vocalization cannot be documented, as the old Hebrew manuscripts have no vowel points. But, in my opinion, so what? The English speakers of today don't sound like those of a mere century ago but what they meant to communicate is still very clear, at least to me. Since semantics can be documented, we know that the God of Abraham does not have a Greek name.


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