Crash Goes the Da Vinci Code/Part 10

by Dr. Ron Rhodes, Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries, P.O. Box 2526, Frisco, TX, 75034. 214-618-0912. www.ronrhodes.org (Used by permission.)

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Does God’s Name, YHWH, Derive from the Term “Jehovah”?

DAN BROWN’S POSITION:

“The Jewish tetragrammaton YHWH—the sacred name of God—in fact derived from Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Havah.” (Page 309)

THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER:

Dan Brown’s view is flatly false. The term “YHWH” was not derived from “Je­hovah”; rather, “Jehovah” was derived from “YHWH.” Brown gets it backward! The Old Testament contains the name YHWH (the original Hebrew had only consonants). However, the ancient Jews had a superstitious dread of pronounc­ing the name YHWH. They felt that if they uttered this name, they might violate the Third Commandment, which deals with taking God’s name in vain (Exodus 20:7). So, to avoid the possibility of breaking this commandment, the Jews for centuries substituted the name Adonai (Lord) or some other name in its place whenever they came across it in public readings of Scripture. Eventually, the fearful Hebrew scribes decided to form a new word (Jehovah) by inserting the vowels from Adonai (a-o- a) into the consonants, YHWH. The result was Yahowah, or Jehovah.

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