Q. Is Yahuah the true name of God? And is it true that this name was deliberately removed from the Bible?

A. No, it is not. And, no, 'Yahuah' was never 'deliberately removed from the Bible' because it was never there in the first place. Rather, 'Yahuah' is one of many creative 'reconstructions' of the Tetragrammaton, the four consonants of the Divine Name, YHWH, the most common (and erroneous) being either the King James Version's 'Jehovah' and it's modern 'messianised' variants, 'Yehovah', 'Yehowah' or 'Yahovah'. Even the sect that lays the greatest emphasis on the Divine Name, the 'Jehovah's Witnesses', for whom the 'Jehovah' reconstruction is very important indeed, defining their mission (much as 'baptism' defines Baptists, the Roman Saturday 'sabbath' defines Seventh-Day Adventists, bishops define 'Episcoplaians', elders or presbyters define 'Presbyterians', and the 'Book of Mormon' defines the Mormons)...they freely admit that the true divine name is YAHWEH and that the only reason they use 'Jehovah' is because it is the most commonly used name in the English-speaking world, as is true. Unfortunately, though, the English language inherited a peculiar hybrid species when it combined YHWH and the vowels of 'Adonai' (meaning 'Lord', 'Master', or Ba'al, which is the name most commonly known and which adorns classical hymns.

A misreading of mediaeval manuscripts led Renaissance (14th-17th centuries) scholars to assume that the divine name was pronounced 'Jehovah' (Yehowah, Yehovah) although we now know this variant goes back as early 895 AD but no further (see Gordon's 1,000: Is 'Yehovah' God's True Name?). This error arose because the Jews forgot the original intent of their rabbinical fathers which was that Jewish readers of the Torah, in seeing the pointed would, instead of repeating the divine name properly (out of imagined reverence), instead remember to say 'Adonai'. And that is how our English Bibles (and most other European Bibles) have substituted 'LORD' for 'Yahweh'.

So why the confusion in pronunciation? This is in part because the Hebrew language has evolved or changed over the centuries, like every other language. Hebrew is traditionally written without vowels, which is the biggest handicap to rendering the true name. This name is abbreviated to 'Yah', commonly (but wrongly) written 'Jah', the pronunciation of which almost everyone is unanimously agreed upon (e.g. Ps.68:4, KJV). It even appears in our vernacular, 'Hallelu-Yah'. Even Hebrew consonants have changed over the centuries, with modern Hebrew (which is not the same as classical or biblical Hebrew) shifting from 'W' to 'V' over time, a reason you will find many Messianic Jews referring to the Tetragrammaton as YHVH and not YHWH. An added problem is that some consonants came to double up as vowels (much as our English 'Y' does) so that 'W' can sometimes be pronounced as an 'o' or a 'u'.

This is the reason some very strange variants of the divine name like 'Yahuah' have appeared in recent times (and it is strictly a modern phenomenon) and why a proper linguistic discussion requires some pretty high-powered scholarship which is beyond my ken. Not only is nearly the whole scholastic establishment, across all denominations (minus the King James-only cult which is committed to 'Jehovah' for obvious reasons - see Ex.6:3; Ps.83:18; Is.12:2; 26:4, KJV), agreed that the divine name is Yahweh but thanks to the Greek Septuagint (LXX), the authorised Greek translation of the Tanakh or Old Testament, plus other historical sources, we know how the Greek-speaking Judahites (Jews) prounounced YHWH, as Greek does include vowels together with its consonants, as we do in English. How did they pronounce it? 'Eeaoué' or 'Yahweh'.

A short article like this cannot possibly do justice to a proper and thorough linguistic study so all I am doing here is summarising and pointing to more detailed studies. Moreover, the pseudo-scholarship of a few maverick dissenters needs to be treated with extreme caution, given how important the Name is and what we actually know about it. The corpus of knowledge on this subject is huge and cannot be ignored. Just because someone is fairly competent in Hebrew is not enough to warrant trusting them in so important a matter, remembering that the Pharisees and Torah-teachers (scribes) of the first century were fluent Hebrew and Aramaic speakers too and yet were fundamentally wrong on so many matters, just as fluent modern Hebrew-speaking Jews are and just as a handful of Messianic Jewish Bible translators are today who exploit the extreme reverence amongst 'gentiles' of anything 'Hebrew' or 'Jewish' to make authoritative statements they are not entitled to, and especially in their communities. This is highly misplaced trust given all the heresies that have come out of - and continue coming out of - both non-messianic and Messianic Jews - see Messianic Hersies Exposed.

The fact that there is a small linguistic element of doubt as to the placement of vowels in the Tetragrammaton means that we have to consider the historical evidence too. Brought together with the linguistic, there is not the slightest doubt that the divine name is pronounced, YAHWEH with a slight, almost imperceptible, aspiration between the two parts of the Name (because that's how Hebrew works), namely Yah^uweh (pronounced Yah'weh) but not 'Yahuweh' (pronounced Yahooway). Unfortunately, some groups pronounce it (wrongly) that way, not understanding how Hebrew works, and if one wants to be 100 per cent accurate, then the name would sound something like 'Yah'weh'. But as far as the English language is concerned, and the range of sounds and breathings available to us, the name is 'Yahweh'.

As explained elsewhere in other articles I have prepared, the confusion of the Yahuah-advocates comes from a misreading of the consonant waw as a vowel letter. As a consonant, it normally is a sound much like 'w' but said through pursed lips, almost like the German 'w' which sounds close to the English 'v' in various words. At the end or in the middle of a Hebrew name, however, it can be represented by the 'u' sound, if so marked, such as in the Hebrew name for Isaiah, Yeshayahu, in that particular spelling of the name (it can be spelled in more than one way, like one of my own names, Morris, which in the French version is rendered 'Maurice'). In that particular spelling of Isaiah, the consonant is marked as sounding like a long 'u', the last three letters sounding at the end of the name like 'yahoo'.

As should, I hope, be evident, there has to be a sound intellectual underpinning if we are going to do theology right. Over the last decade this is something I have looked into in some depth and have come to take a critical realism approach. This has revolutionised my studies of Paul in particular but also helped finally resolve the YHWH issue.

If you're serious about resolving the Divine Name issue, then I would like to recommend you do three things:

• 1. Take a look at one of the most thorough and comprehensive studies of the Divine Name that exists but you are going to have to invest some time and effort, as you must do anyway if you are serious about having a sound and firm foundation in truth. You can read online or download for free the third edition of R.Clover's 318-page book, The Sacred Name YHWH: A Scriptural Study.
  

  Many of the people I have shared this with initially came with assorted beliefs, including the 'Yahuah' one, and went away absolutely certain as to who YHWH was, and is, historically and scripturally. This study will also make your witness more robust if you are an apologist for the faith and less liable to be swayed by the many cranky doctrines out there;

• 2. Take a look at our Yahweh website where you'll find lots of study materials on this subject at various levels of understanding and especially, The Divine Name YHWH: How is It Properly Pronounced? which is a mid-level scholarly treatise; and

• 3. Take a look at our History website and incorporate a critical-realist approach into your studies. Everybody has an interpretative philosophy even if it's only subconscious, uncritically engrained through the teaching of others. What's yours? It's all too easy to let the imagination run riot and suppose or pretend it's the 'Spirit' talking to you. Above all, consult a number of scholars in the field before you take it finally to YHWH and so reach a judgment. Not all truth is revealed by direct revelation - sometimes you have to do a great deal of spadework and carefully weigh the evidence.

I hope this has been helpful.