Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, “To the Lord’s covenant people, names—particularly proper names—have always been very important. Adam and Eve themselves bore names that suggested their roles here in mortality (see Moses 1:34; 4:26) and, when important covenants were made, men like Abram and Jacob took on new names that signaled a new life as well as a new identity. (See Gen. 17:5; 32:28). Because of this reverence for titles and the meanings they conveyed, the name Jehovah, sometimes transliterated as Yahweh, was virtually unspoken among that people. This was the unutterable name of Deity, that power by which oaths were sealed, battles won, miracles witnessed. Traditionally, he was identified only through a tetragrammaton, four Hebrew letters variously represented in our alphabet as IHVH, JHVH, JHWH, YHVH, YHWH.” Whom Say Ye That I Am? Jeffrey R. Holland Ensign Sept. 1974.
The writing above represents the name “Jehovah”, or the tetragrammaton. This is the language written in Paleo-Hebrew and used from 1000 BC – 400 AD. All throughout the Old Testament, the word ‘LORD’ (all small caps), replaced the sacred name “Yahweh” as described above. “I Am” in Hebrew is “Yahweh” and “Adonai” is the Hebrew word for LORD.
What is the Tetragrammaton?
“Tetragrammaton” is a Greek word that literally means “four letters”, so “the Tetragrammaton” meaning “the four letters”.
The Tetragrammaton is “YHWH”, Yahweh, or Jehovah. Keep in mind that since “W” is interchangeable with “V” and that “Y” is interchangeable with “J”, this also includes any variations like Jahveh, Yehovah, Yehuwah and so forth.
The name of the Most High was FIRST given in Exodus 3:14.
- Exodus 3:13-15
(13) And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? (14) And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. (15) And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
I AM THAT I AM =
AHAYAH ASHAR AHAYAH
This is important to note because the Tetragrammaton can be found throughout Genesis and even in Exodus chapter 3 but BEFORE verse 14. So how did “YHWH” end up all throughout the Bible if AHAYAH is His name? Read more at link below. The Meaning of Yahweh, Jehovah, and the Tetragrammaton Made Free from Truth
The following is a Review by Professor Robert J. Mathews, former professor of Ancient Scripture and Dean of Religious Education, BYU
“A recent publication, The Name of God from the Sinai to the American Southwest, is a detailed comparison of language forms and religious concepts found in the ancient inscriptions of the people on two continents separated by great distance with an ocean in between. The title states the scope of the study; Inscriptions bearing the same name for God in ancient Hebrew or Semitic-type script in the widely distant lands of the Middle East and the American Southwest-two
different hemispheres. The similarity in language and deistic belief suggests that the ancient American culture has a close tie and origin to the older Hebrew culture.
The research of Harris and Hone is undergirded by hundreds of examples gathered on both sides of the ocean, and their conclusions that the ancient Americans had linguistic and religious ties with the Middle East, seems well founded.”
Foreward by Dr. Jon R. Polansky, Research Scientist, Associate Professor, University of California, San Francisco; Editor ESOP [Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications
“The proposal by Dr. Harris and Dann Hone of script-like elements in petroglyphs that appear related to Proto-Sinaitic both in form and content, if verified by the scholarly attention it deserves, represents a major new discovery with important implications for both ‘Old World’ and ‘New World’ cultures. The ideas presented are based on detailed comparisons and on an honest attempt to evaluate probable meanings, and should not be dismissed out-of-hand by archaeologist and linguists, because they disagree with `established’ opinion concerning an isolated development of pre-Columbian American cultures.
Dr. Harris has been studying southwestern petroglyphs for many years in relation to indigenous cultures, and his scholarship in this area received general acceptance. In the early years (of this project) he began to validate the concept of an Egyptian hieroglyphic content in certain petroglyph panels. Since the proposed hieroglyphics appeared to fit into the accompanying depiction’s on the panels of petroglyphs being examined, this find left the door open to a consideration of potential script-like elements.
The publication of, The Name of God From the Sinai to the American Southwest, presents essential aspects of the evidence and rationale developed by Harris and Hone concerning what they think should best be termed Proto-Canaanite from both American and Near Eastern sites.
This publication. was postponed until after several years of effort were expended to obtain critical appraisals of the basic data. This included evaluations of associated symbolism and quantitative assessments of the frequencies of letter forms at SW American sites and sites in the Negev of Israel.
While it is clear that a final understanding of these parallels will benefit from additional scholarly interchanges and a consideration of alternatives, as the authors readily admit, it is appropriate to have the benefit of their opinions (in this and other planned publications) prior to the lively exchanges this work should engender. Dr. Harris has put forward an initial corpus of material, from which the reader can make judgments about both the methods of inquiry and the author’s waking hypotheses. These of course can be tested, expanded, and corrected where necessary.
I have observed that both Jim Harris and Dann Hone. respond positively to a critical and scholarly scientific process. I hope that the potential contributions of this work are evaluated on such a basis, without suffering unduly from biases imposed by archaeological pre-conceptions or religious doctrines. If the validity of specific proposals are assessed in an unbiased way (for example, using what can be deduced from trans-cultural aspects of symbolism and rigorous linguistic approaches), then the value of this interesting work to the individual development of cultures as well as to understand the spread of information in the ancient world, can best be considered.”
The Name of God; From Sinai to the American Southwest by Dr. James R. Harris (Book)
$19.95
Professor James R. Harris, a foremost expert on ancient Near Eastern languages, shares the culmination of over three decades of work uncovering an ancient alphabetic script used by peoples of the Negev (Israel) and the ancients of America. He traced the name of God, or “Yah” (abbreviated from “Yahweh”) from Proto-Sinaitic (Proto-Canaanite) depictions to New World petroglyphs in America demonstrating Hebrew influence. 259 pgs hardcover.
