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Tetragrammaton (from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 , meaning '[word of] four letters' (tetra "four" + gramma (gen. grammatos) "letter"), refers to , one of the names
Names of God in Judaism

In Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title. It represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature, and of the relation of God to the Jewish people....
 of the God of Israel. is composed of four Hebrew consonants and it occurs over 6000 times in the Hebrew
Hebrew alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. Five of these letters have a different form when appearing as the last letter in a word....
 Consonantal Text. is sometimes referred to as the unvocalized Tetragrammaton since it contains no vowel points.

The letters, properly read from right to left (in Biblical Hebrew), are:


These four letters are usually transliterated from Hebrew as IHVH in Latin, JHWH in German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
, French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 and Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
, and YHWH in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
.






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Tetragrammaton (from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 , meaning '[word of] four letters' (tetra "four" + gramma (gen. grammatos) "letter"), refers to , one of the names
Names of God in Judaism

In Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title. It represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature, and of the relation of God to the Jewish people....
 of the God of Israel. is composed of four Hebrew consonants and it occurs over 6000 times in the Hebrew
Hebrew alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. Five of these letters have a different form when appearing as the last letter in a word....
 Consonantal Text. is sometimes referred to as the unvocalized Tetragrammaton since it contains no vowel points.

The letters, properly read from right to left (in Biblical Hebrew), are:
Hebrew Letter name Pronunciation
? Yodh
Yodh

Yodh is the tenth letter of many Semitic History of the alphabet, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language Yud , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
 "Y"
? He
He (letter)

He is the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician alphabet , Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
 (pronounced "hey")		 "H"
? Waw "W" or placeholder for "O"/"U" vowel (see mater lectionis
Mater lectionis

In the spelling of Hebrew language and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel....
)
? He
He (letter)

He is the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician alphabet , Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
 "H" (or sometimes silent
Silent letter

In an alphabet, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation. Silent letters create problems for both native and non-native speakers of a language, as they make it more difficult to guess the spellings of spoken words or the pronunciations of written words....
 at the ends of words)


These four letters are usually transliterated from Hebrew as IHVH in Latin, JHWH in German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
, French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 and Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
, and YHWH in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
. This was variously rendered as "Yahweh
Yahweh

Image:Tetragrammaton scripts.svg[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] and Hebrew alphabet Yahweh is the English rendering of , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton that was proposed by the Hebrew scholar Gesenius in the 19th century....
" or "Jehovah
Jehovah

Jehovah, also Yehovah, is an English reading of , the most frequent form of the Tetragrammaton , the principal and personal name of God in the Hebrew Bible ....
", since in Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 there was no distinct lettering to distinguish 'Y' from 'J', or 'W' from 'V', and the Hebrew does not clearly indicate the omitted vowels. In English translations, it is often rendered in small capital letters
Small caps

In typography, small capitals are uppercase graphemes set at the same height as surrounding lowercase letters or text figures. They are used in running text to prevent capitalized words from appearing too large on the page, and as a method of emphasis or distinctiveness for text alongside or instead of italics, or when boldface is inappr...
 as "the ", following Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 tradition which reads the word as "Adonai" ("Lord") out of respect for the name of God
Names of God

The Name of God, or Holy Name is the name in Eastern traditions or Western spiritual traditions or religions that is used in practice or prayer....
 and the commandment
Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, are a list of religious and moral imperatives that, according to Judeo-Christian tradition, were authored by God and given to Moses on the mountain referred to as "Biblical Mount Sinai" or "Mount Horeb" in the form of two stone tablets....
 not to take the name of God in vain. The word "haŠem" 'the Name' is also used in Jewish contexts; in Samaritan, "Šemĺ" is the normal substitution.

See "Historical overview"
Yahweh

Image:Tetragrammaton scripts.svg[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] and Hebrew alphabet Yahweh is the English rendering of , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton that was proposed by the Hebrew scholar Gesenius in the 19th century....
 at Yahweh
Yahweh

Image:Tetragrammaton scripts.svg[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] and Hebrew alphabet Yahweh is the English rendering of , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton that was proposed by the Hebrew scholar Gesenius in the 19th century....
 and Jehovah
Jehovah

Jehovah, also Yehovah, is an English reading of , the most frequent form of the Tetragrammaton , the principal and personal name of God in the Hebrew Bible ....
.

Occurrences and uses

The Tetragrammaton occurs 6,828 times in the Hebrew text of both the Biblia Hebraica
Biblia Hebraica

Biblia Hebraica is a Latin phrase meaning Hebrew Bible. It is traditionally used as a title for printed editions of the Tanakh .In current scholarly usage, it refers almost exclusively to the three editions of the Hebrew Bible edited by Rudolf Kittel ....
 and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia

The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, or BHS, is an edition of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible as preserved in the Leningrad Codex, and supplemented by masoretic and text-critical notes....
. It does not appear in the Song of Songs
Song of songs

Song of Songs is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. It may also refer to:In music:*Song of songs , the debut album by David and the Giants...
, Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes is a book of the Hebrew Bible. The English name derives from the Greek language translation of the Hebrew #Title.The main speaker in the book, identified by the name or title Qohelet, introduces himself as "son of David, and king in Jerusalem." The work consists of personal or autobiographic matter, at times expressed in aph...
, or Esther
Esther

Esther , born Hadassah, is a queen of the Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus , and heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her....
. It first appears in the Hebrew text in Genesis 2:4.

For views on the pronunciation of the name, see the main article, Yahweh
Yahweh

Image:Tetragrammaton scripts.svg[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] and Hebrew alphabet Yahweh is the English rendering of , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton that was proposed by the Hebrew scholar Gesenius in the 19th century....
.

The Leningrad Codex of 1008-1010 A.D.

Vowel points were added to the Tetragrammaton by the Masoretes, in the first millennium C.E.

Six different Hebrew spellings of the Tetragrammaton are found in:
as shown below (note that the entries in the transliteration column are not intended to indicate how the name is pronounced, but only how the word would be pronounced if read like any other word):



















































Chapter & VerseHebrew SpellingTransliteration
Codex L. Link
Explanation
Genesis 3:14
יְהֹוָה
Yehovah
This is the most common set of vowels, which are essentially the vowels from Adonai (with the hataf patah reverting to its natural state as a shwa).
Judges 16:28
יְהוָה
Yehwah
This is the same as above, but with the dot over the holam/waw left out, because it is a little redundant.
Judges 16:28
יֱהֹוִה
Yehowih*
When the Tetragrammaton is preceded by Adonai, it receives the vowels from the name Elohim instead. The hataf segol does not revert to a shwa because doing so could lead to confusion with the vowels in Adonai.
Genesis 15:2
יֱהוִה
Yehwih*
Just as above, this uses the vowels from Elohim, but like the second version, the dot over the holam/waw is omitted as redundant.
1 Kings 2:26
יְהֹוִה
Yehowih
Here, the dot over the holam/waw is present, but the hataf segol does get reverted to a shwa.
Ezekiel 24:24
יְהוִה
Yehwih
Here, the dot over the holam/waw is omitted, and the hataf segol gets reverted to a shwa.
The * indicates that the transliteration “e” indicates a Hatef Segol.

See also

  • Tetragrammaton in the New Testament
    Tetragrammaton in the New Testament

    Archaeologists have discovered papyrus fragments of works which were later included in the Books of the Bible of the New Testament dating as far back as the middle of the second century....
  • Pronunciation of the Name
    Yahweh

    Image:Tetragrammaton scripts.svg[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] and Hebrew alphabet Yahweh is the English rendering of , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton that was proposed by the Hebrew scholar Gesenius in the 19th century....