Tetragrammaton
Jehovah
Yehovah / Iehouah
יְהֹוָה
- Meaning
- Same referent as YHWH; the form is a Latinized hybrid vocalization.
- Occurrences
- 4 times in the KJV; 7,000+ in the ASV and NWT
- First occurrence
- Exodus 6:3 (KJV)
Pronunciation
juh-HOH-vuh in English; the J reflects Latin/German consonantal I.
Origin
Produced when medieval and Renaissance Christian readers combined the consonants YHWH with the Masoretic vowel points of Adonai (e-o-a). Raymond Martini used it c. 1270; Petrus Galatinus popularized it in 1518; Tyndale carried it into English in 1530.
Usage & scribal practice
Retained in the KJV at four verses and in place names (Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Nissi). Used throughout the 1901 American Standard Version, in hymnody ('Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah'), and as the defining term of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Cross-references
Exodus 6:3 (KJV)
'…but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.'
Genesis 22:14
Jehovah-Jireh — 'the LORD will provide'.
Psalm 83:18 (KJV)
'…whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.'
How translations render it
Theories, myths & conspiracy claims
Each claim is stated as its proponents state it, then assessed against the manuscript and linguistic evidence.
'Jehovah' was invented to hide the real name
The claim: Translators deliberately suppressed the true name by substituting a fabricated one.
Assessment: The hybrid form arose from a reading error, not a plot — and the substitution it reflects (Adonai for YHWH) is a Jewish reverence practice predating Christianity by centuries. There is no evidence of coordinated suppression.
'Jehovah' means 'a mischievous one' or hides a curse
The claim: Circulated Sacred Name tract claim that the vowels encode a Hebrew word for destruction or mischief (hovah).
Assessment: Folk etymology. Hovah (הֹוָה, 'disaster') is unrelated morphologically to the qere vowels of Adonai; the argument requires ignoring how the pointing works.
The NT insertion problem
The claim: The New World Translation inserts 'Jehovah' 237 times into the New Testament.
Assessment: Documented fact. No extant Greek New Testament manuscript contains the Tetragrammaton; the insertions are editorial reconstructions based on OT quotation contexts, and they change the referent of several passages that apply Kyrios to Jesus.