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

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His Name is Yahweh and Nehemia Gordon is Wrong

I learned a long time ago that the old saying “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” is correct.

When I wrote His Name is Yahweh, I was naïve.  I expected people to be as excited as I was about what I had discovered.  If you read the Bible and pay careful attention to the things that Yahweh said about His Name, you will discover that His Name is critically important.

If you doubt that, read the book.

I was in for a big surprise.  The preacher at a church where I had been a deacon refused to let me tell his congregation about it, because as he said, “I have other priorities.”

Another preacher allowed me to address his congregation but warned me that many of his congregates believed the King James Version is the only inspired and error free version of the Bible.  They didn’t like it very much when I told them that Yahweh’s Name has been edited out of the Scripture and that there are about 7000 errors in the Old Testament thanks to that misguided tradition.

A well-known Christian publishing house refused to publish my book, because as the person in charge of acquisitions told my literary agent at the time and I’m paraphrasing, “He’s right, but typical Christians will see this as heresy.”

Along Came Nehemia Gordon

When I wrote His Name is Yahweh, I didn’t realize that competing names would emerge and win over devotees, but that happened almost immediately.  Yehovah and Yahuah or Yahuwah are the two most prominent examples.

Nehemia Gordon claims to have discovered ancient manuscripts showing Yahweh’s Name in Hebrew with vowel markings that prove the correct pronunciation of the Name is Yehovah.  In His Name is Yahweh, I explained how the name Yehovah came about.

In about 165 BC following the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, leading rabbis forbade the use of Yahweh’s Name.  The prohibition was codified in the Oral Law, a.k.a., the traditions of the Jews and Halacha.  The rabbis declared that saying Yahweh’s Name was blasphemy, and the penalty for violating their edict was death.  See Sanhedrin 7: 5.

Somewhere between 500 AD and 1000 AD while the vowel marking process in Hebrew was being created, rabbis made up the name Yehovah and taught people that it was the correct pronunciation.  They did it so that if people did say the name, they would be using an incorrect name and would not be committing blasphemy. To get that pronunciation, they placed the vowel markings for Adonai on the Name Yahweh. It was linguistic sleight of hand.

A man that I know learned about Nehemia Gordon’s “discovery” (I laugh when I use that word in this context) and told me about it in a comment on a YouTube video that I posted explaining the correct pronunciation of Yahweh:

• Watch the YouTube video: The correct pronunciation of God’s Name.
• Read a SnyderTalk editorial I posted that includes my exchange with the man: Yahweh is Elohim’s Name, not Yehovah or Yahuah.

Look at the Timeline

• In about 165 BC, Yahweh’s Name was taken out of circulation by rabbis.
• In about 500 AD, the process of creating vowel markings began.
• In about 1000 AD, the vowel marking creation process ended.

As I said, the name Yehovah is obtained by placing the vowel markings for Adonai on the Name Yahweh. About 665 years passed between the time rabbis forbade the use of Yahweh’s Name and the time the vowel marking creation process began.  About 1,165 years passed before the vowel marking creation process ended.  That’s a long time.

Think about it this way.  In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  If the rabbis had taken Yahweh’s Name out of circulation in 1492, we would still be waiting for the vowel marking creation process to begin.  We would have to wait for more than 100 years, because that process wouldn’t get underway until about 2157.  It wouldn’t end until about 2657.

That’s more than enough time for the correct pronunciation of Yahweh’s Name to be lost for most people.  If people believe a lie long enough, the truth gets buried.

Thankfully, rabbis have known the correct pronunciation of Yahweh’s Name all along.  They reserved to themselves the “right” to say it, so they needed to know how to pronounce it.  That means the correct pronunciation was never lost.

Nehemia Gordon is Wrong

The ancient manuscripts that Nehemia Gordon “discovered” aren’t nearly ancient enough.  When the vowel marking process ended in about 1000 AD (1,165 years after rabbis took Yahweh’s Name out of circulation), the scribes preparing the manuscripts followed the Oral Law (a.k.a., the traditions of the Jews and Halacha) and disguised Yahweh’s Name as the ancient rabbis required.

What Nehemia Gordon “discovered” is evidence of probably the worst mistake anyone has ever made in the history of the world.  He’s contributing to the problem.

Even more, the letter “vav” in Hebrew used to be “waw”. The “vav” didn’t enter the Hebrew language until about 600 AD when Jews in Germany Germanized it, and their Germanized form stuck.

As I said, Nehemia Gordon is wrong, and a linguist he ain’t. These are some of the simplest facts imaginable. If Gordon presented his “discoveries” to a group of real linguists, they would burst out in laughter. The fact that some people take him seriously amazes me, I guess they like to have their ears tickled.

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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”.