“I am Yahweh.  I do not change.  I am why Jacob’s descendants are not destroyed.” (Malachi 3: 6)

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Yahweh is Elohim’s Name, not Yehovah or Yahuah

When I started writing His Name is Yahweh, I understood that it would be an important book.  The pronunciation of Yahweh had to be right.  I prayed constantly that He would correct me if I made any errors concerning the pronunciation of His Name.

Several years later, I revised the book and gave it a new title, His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition.  The only significant difference between the two books is the use of the title “Elohim” for Yahweh in the second book instead of the title “God”.  That’s important, because God is the name of a pagan deity.

Yahweh doesn’t appreciate being called by the name of a false god.

I can’t explain why Yahweh didn’t show me that problem while I was writing the first book, but maybe He did.  Looking back on it, I think He did show me, but I was too fixated on the pronunciation of Yahweh to get it.  When I understood the gravity of my error, I revised the book.

Over the years, I’ve had many conversations with believers who think Yahweh’s Name is something besides Yahweh.  The two most prominent alternatives are Yehovah and Yahuah.  None of the people I’ve talked with who believe the other two names are correct have been linguists.  Even so, all of them have presented linguistic arguments as though they are experts.

Relying on their amateur linguistic analysis is like accepting legal advice from a security guard at the mall.

The real linguists that I know, real experts, told me that Yahweh is correct.  I spoke with several of them after I finished writing the first book.

Fast Forward

A few days ago, I received a comment from a person I know who had watched a video that I posted on YouTube in 2010.  The title of the video is The correct pronunciation of God’s Name.  I posted that video before I understood how offensive the title “God” is to Yahweh.

Below is our conversation.  You can see it on the YouTube video:

Richard:

On 9/11/2001 Nehemia Gordon discovered God’s Hebrew name written out complete with vowel markings. Since then God’s name with vowel markings has been found in over 1,000 Hebrew manuscripts. So, we now know with certainty that God’s Hebrew name is – Yehovah – YeHoVaH. Which means in Hebrew; the Eternal One, who was and is and is to come. Praise Yehovah! And thanks, Nehemia Gordon. PS: There’s no J in Hebrew.

Neil:

I thought you had read His Name is Yahweh. Those vowel markings are there for a reason, and it’s not to make sure that people know how to pronounce Yahweh’s Name. It’s to prevent people from saying Yahweh’s Name correctly. You need to re-read His Name is Yahweh.

See https://yrm.org/yehovah-deception/. Nehemia Gordon is wrong. He didn’t settle the matter. He confused people who should know better.

Richard:

I did read your book, His Name is Yahweh and it was an excellent book and taught me a great deal. On Shavuot in 2013 I got into a discussion about God’s name with a Hebrew student. During our discussion he told me about some resent discovery which occurred on 9/11/2001 by Nehemia. Gordon. After Shavuot I began to research the name Yehovah. I was amazed at how many Hebrew scholars are convinced the God’s Holy name is Yehovah. As I continued to study, I found out the name YeHoVaH means the eternal One; who was and is and is to come. I became so convinced that I edited all my 14 books and included the name Yehovah as the name of the Father and Yeshua the Messiah for Jesus Christ. Neil, You have done God’s work with your book. — But, I now know His Holy name is Yehovah.

Neil:

Yehovah was made up by rabbis in the mid-second century BC after Greek occupiers of Israel were overthrown. Antiochus Epiphanes did everything he could do to destroy Judaism and to profane anything associated with Yahweh. Regrettably, many Jewish people in Israel liked Hellenization and they went along without a fuss.

The rabbis were irate about it. Following Epiphanes’ death in 164 BC, the rabbis started to “build a wall around the Torah”. By that, I mean they fobade things that Yahweh didn’t prohibit to prevent Jewish people from getting close to violating Yahweh’s commands.

Despite Yahweh’s command to declare His Name boldly, the rabbis forbade the use of His Name by anyone except religious Jews and then only on special occasions. Ordinary Jews were never allowed to say the Name. It was an attempt to keep people from blaspheming or profaning the Name Yahweh.

At that time, the mid-second century BC, the definition of blasphemy in Halacha was changed so that it meant simply saying Yahweh’s Name. See Sanhedrin 7: 5.

The penalty for saying “Yahweh” was death. You’ll recall that the Messiah was convicted in Caiaphas’ court for committing blasphemy. According to Halacha, He did commit blasphemy, because He said Yahweh.

Jewish people were taught that Yahweh’s Name is Yehovah so that if they did say it, it would be incorrect. When they read Yahweh’s Name in the Tanach, they say Adonai most of the time. Some say Hashem.

After a few generations, Yahweh’s Name was lost to most Jewish people, but it was never actually lost. There have always been people who knew the correct pronunciation.

Vowel markings didn’t come along until much later. The process of creating and implementing vowel markings took about 500 years, from about 500 AD to 1000 AD.

That process didn’t begin until about 650 years after the rabbis forbade the use of Yahweh’s Name. By then most Jewish people accepted Yehovah and were unfamiliar with Yahweh.

Katie and I have an Israeli daughter. Her name is Noam. She’s not our biological daughter, but she lived with us in Virginia while she was in high school.

The first time I met Noam’s biological father, Ishai, he was curious about the book I was writing while his daughter lived with us in the U.S. The title of the book is His Name is Yahweh.

Ishai is a Sabra Jew. So is Noam. They were taught by their rabbis in Israel that Elohim’s Name is Yehovah, and I told him what I just told you.

Ishai was really curious after I gave him that explanation. We were in Tel Aviv at the time. The next morning before I got up, Ishai was off to see the rabbi.

I get up early. At about 7:00 AM, I thought no one was up but me, and I was reading a book. All of a sudden Ishai bounded through the front door with a huge smile on his face. He said, “Neil, you were right. God’s Name is Yahweh.” He confirmed everything I told him with his rabbi.

Bottom line: His Name is Yahweh. I’m not guessing.

Richard:

How do you explain the name with vowel markings being found in over a 1,000 ancient Hebrew manuscripts? That seems very convincing. Plus most Hebrew scholars are in agreement concerning His name being Yehovah. I know, scholars?

Neil:

Your research is unimpressive. Do your homework. I’ve given you all the information you need to advance. Use it.

I’ll give you my candid assessment. You are in a game that you want to play, but you were not called to it.

Be careful.

This will be my final response. Watch these two videos:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmsiYrlTnik
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=XwShptrTH8w

Behind the Scene

Moments before I read Richard’s first comment, I was working on SnyderTalk, and Yahweh told me to read Psalm 91.  It’s below in its entirety:

You who live in the shelter of Elyon will rest in the shadow of Shaddai, saying to Yahweh, “My refuge and my fortress, my Elohim, in whom I trust.”

Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.  You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.  A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.  You have only to keep your eyes open to see how the wicked are repaid, you who say, “Yahweh is my refuge!” and make Elyon your fortress.

No harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.  For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.  You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

“Since he clings to Me, I will rescue him.  I will set him securely on high since he acknowledges My Name.  He calls to Me, and I answer him: in distress I am at his side, I rescue him and bring him honor.  With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation.”

HalleluYah!

Switching Gears Ever So Slightly

Isaiah 9: 6-7 is a prophecy about the Messiah:

For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty Elohim, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.  There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.  The zeal of Yahweh Sabaoth will accomplish this.

Isaiah is talking about a Person, a Child who will be born.  Look at His Names:

• Wonderful Counselor
• Mighty Elohim (in Hebrew, it’s El Gibbor)
• Eternal Father (it should be translated “Father of Eternity”)
• Prince of Peace (in Hebrew, it’s Sar Shalom)

What Person did Yahweh ever refer to as El Gibbor or Father of Eternity?

Only One Person.  Himself.  It’s obvious that the Child to whom Isaiah is referring is Yahweh.

In Jeremiah 23: 5-6, Yahweh told us in no uncertain terms that the Messiah’s Name is Yahweh:

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a Righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His Name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’”

The Messiah is David’s Righteous Branch.  His Name is Yahweh our righteousness.  The Hebrew word for righteousness is “tsidkenu”.  The Messiah is Yahweh Tsidkenu.

In chapter 53, Isaiah told us that the Messiah would deliver Himself up as a sin offering on our behalf.  He is our Savior and Redeemer because the shedding of His innocent blood paid the price for our sins that Yahweh’s Law requires.

Isaiah 53 appears below in its entirety:

Who has believed our message?  And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?  For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground.  He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of Elohim, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.  By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of My people, to whom the stroke was due?  His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

But Yahweh was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in His hand.  As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.  Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

Yahweh is our Elohim.  He is our Savior.  He is our Redeemer.  He is our righteousness.  He is our everything.  Without Him, we are doomed.  That’s our message to the world.

The Messiah is Yahweh.  Please don’t take Him or His Name for granted.

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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)

See “His Name is Yahweh”.