THE TETRAGRAM—ITS HISTORY, ITS USE IN THE NEW

TESTAMENT, AND ITS PRONUNCIATION

(R.J. Furuli, Larvik: Awatu Publishers (awatu-publishers@sf-nett.no), 2018; 250 pages, price
350 Norwegian kroner)

PART ONE The Tetragram in Hebrew Sources in BCE and the First
Century CE

1) The divine name yhwh is freely used in the Hebrew Bible from
the oldest to the youngest books. The appellative ’adōnāi is used
in the Bible as a complement to yhwh and not as a substitute.
2) A detailed study is made of the Great Isaiah Scroll among the
DSS. The argument that the scribe wrote at dictation and that he
made some errors because yhwh was pronounced as ’adōnāi is
shown to be without basis.
3) All the divine designations in the DSS are listed: 73 examples of
’adōnāi, 352 examples of yhwh, 368 examples of ’ælōhiœm, and
648 examples of ’ēl. There were two views among the members
of the Qumran community regarding the use of yhwh. Some
members used ’ēl (god) as a substitute, while others continued to
use and pronounce yhwh as long as the community existed.
There is no evidence in the DSS that the Aramaic word mārē’
(lord) or the Hebrew word ’adōnāi (lord) was used as a substitute
for yhwh.
4) It is shown that the almost universal view that ’adōnāi was used
as a substitute for yhwh in BCE and in the 1st century CE has no
basis whatsoever. The first possible but not certain evidence
for’adōnāi being used as a substitute is seen in Ben Sira’s
Masada manuscripts—written before 73 CE. But the writings of
Josephus suggest that’adōnāi as a substitute was not in general
use among the Jewish population around 90 CE.

PART TWO The Tetragram in Greek Sources in the First Centuries

CE
 1) All the LXX manuscripts from BCE and until 50 CE contain the
divine name, either as yhwh in old Hebrew or square Aramaic
script, or as the Greek letters iaō —kyrios is not found.
2) Philo’s writings are considered, and it is shown that his treatise,
“On the Life of Moses” shows that God-fearing persons used
and pronounced the divine name around 40 CE.
3) The prohibition against the pronunciation of the divine name in
Leviticus 24:16 LXX is considered in detail. The evidence
shows that this prohibition did not occur in the LXX autograph
but is a later addition.
4) The Greek translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion
are discussed, as well as Origen’s Hexapla. All these use yhwh.
5) The Syro-Hexapla from the 7th century is also discussed. The
mentioned translations show that Greek manuscripts with yhwh
in old Hebrew and square Aramaic script existed in all these
centuries.

PART THREE Did the Tetragram Occur in the New Testament

Autographs?

The chapter begins with the following words:

“The argument is almost universal: ‘Any claim that the NT originally contained the
yhwh must be rejected, because no Greek manuscript contains that name.’ This
argument is strange, because we can also say: ‘Any claim that the NT originally
contained kyrios as a reference to God must be rejected, because no Greek manuscript
contains this word.’ This is true for the first five centuries CE.»

1) At the end of the 1st century or beginning of the 2nd century,

someone tampered with the text of the NT. Words that referred
to God were removed, and the nomen sacrum ks was written
instead.
2) The ks in LXX manuscripts from the end of the 2nd century goes
back to yhwh in earlier LXX manuscripts. Therefore, it is logical
that ks in NT manuscripts from the end of the 2nd century CE
goes back to yhwh as well. Thus, ks cannot be used as evidence
that the NT autographs contained kyrios.
 3) There is no evidence that ’adōnāi was used as substitute for
yhwh during the time NT was written. So, there was no Hebrew
antecedent for the use of kyrios for the NT writers.
4) Both the Hebrew text and LXX manuscripts that were quoted in
the NT included the divine name. Therefore, the writers
naturally included the name in their quotations as well.
5) The divine name should continue to be used for ever (Exodus
3:15). Not to include the name in the NT would be a violation of
God’s expressed will.
6) Most of part three is a detailed study of the internal evidence of
the NT regarding the use of divine designations. This study
presents strong evidence in favor of the view that the divine
name was used and pronounced by the general Jewish
population and by those who wrote the NT books when these
books were written; and that the name occurred in the NT
autographs.

PART FOUR The pronunciation of the Tetragram

1) In Hebrew words ending with the letter h, this h with few
exceptions is not a consonant, but it represents a long vowel.
2) It is argued that the Tetragram consists of the three
consonants yhw and one vowel, represented by the last letter
h.
3) Hebrew inscriptions and bulla have Jewish names that either
begins or ends with yhw—the full name of God.
4) On the basis of Origen’s Hexapla it can be argued that the
Greek iaō is a pseudo-transliteration of the three letters yhw
of the divine name. This means that iaō is not an
abbreviation, but represents the full form, yhw, of the divine
name.
5) In the beginning of theophoric names in the MT, yhw is
written as ye-ho. The long “o” represents the third letter “w”
of yhwh. The fourth letter “h” of yhwh represents a vowel,
and therefore, the divine name must have one syllable more
than ye-ho. The two-syllabic form Yahweh must be rejected
on the basis of the phonological rules of the Masoretes.
6) The first and last parts of theophoric names have the same
basic consonants—yhw. The reasons why the endings are ya
 and ya-hu are the rules of stress and abbreviations—an open
syllable with stress must have a long vowel and endings are
abbreviated.
7) The Hebrew theophoric names show that the two first
syllables of the divine name are ye-ho. But they do not show
what the third syllable is.
8) Akkadian cuneiform has both consonants and vowels. The
name of many Jewish exiles were written with cuneiform
script. Some names have ye-ho as the first two syllables, and
other names have ya-hu as the last syllables. Even the long
“o” and long “u” are marked in the cuneiform script.
9) Also, the full name of the God of the Jews are found at the
beginning or end of Jewish names as three syllables. Each
cuneiform sign can represent different sounds (syllables).
But three cuneiform signs that represent a name, must, when
they are read together, give a meaningful name Several
endings of Jewish theophoric names can be read as ie-’u-wa.
Thus, the third syllable of the divine name is wa.
10) The conclusion is that both the Masoretic text and
Akkadian cuneiform indicate that the divine name was
pronounced as
ye-hō-wā.