“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55: 6-7

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Nehemia Gordon is Neither a Hebrew Linguist nor a Hebrew Scholar: Elohim’s Name is Not Yehovah

I have 2 things in common with Nehemia Gordon:

1. I’m not a Hebrew linguist. Neither is he.
2. I’m not a Hebrew scholar. Neither is he.

I know those things are true. Nehemia Gordon doesn’t.

His Name is Yahweh

I wrote the book His Name is Yahweh. I didn’t get up one morning and say to myself, “You need to write a book about Yahweh’s Name.” Yahweh told me to do it, and I did it.

I was a business professor at the University of Virginia when Yahweh told me to write the book, so I had to start from scratch. I had to study Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and I also had to jettison preconceived notions I had about the Bible, church, and Christians. I’ll leave the discussion of those things for another day.

While I was writing the book, I reminded Yahweh constantly that I had to get the pronunciation of His Name right. Never even once did He hint to me that the pronunciation I was using was wrong.

Since I’m not a Hebrew linguist, I got to know some real Hebrew linguists. They told me in no uncertain terms that the correct pronunciation of Elohim’s Name is Yahweh.

Since I’m not a Hebrew scholar, I got to know some of them, too. They also told me in no uncertain terms that the correct pronunciation of Elohim’s Name is Yahweh.

Almost immediately after I published the book, several people who claimed to be Hebrew linguists and Hebrew scholars came up with other pronunciations of Elohim’s Name. Yehovah is the name that got the most attention.

Then Came Nehemia Gordon

Gordon said that he found ancient Hebrew manuscripts that prove Elohim’s name is Yehovah, not Yahweh. The vowel markings in those manuscripts clinched it for him, or so he says. That’s the long and short of Gordon’s case, and it fails miserably.

Yehovah can’t be Elohim’s name, because it includes the Hebrew letter “vav”. In ancient times, the letter “vav” was “waw”. The letter “vav” didn’t enter the Hebrew language until somewhere between 600 AD and 1000 AD. To pronounce Yahweh’s Name correctly, you must use a “w” sound, not a “v” sound:

The historic pronunciation of this letter (a voiced bilabial) is /waw/, a pronunciation attested in various Semitic languages (ancient and modern).  Moreover, even the Masoretes (600 C.E.–1000 C.E.) arguably pronounced this letter as /waw/ (not /vav/).  The common pronunciation of this letter today as /vav/ (rather than /waw/) is a reflection of conventions in the modern period, primarily those hailing from Germanic language practices (notice, for example, that the German letter /w/ is pronounced as an English /v/, not as an English /w/; thus, the German word “Wasser” [water] is pronounced /vasser/ in German).  In sum, the tradition of pronouncing this letter as /waw/ is historically more accurate (and so it is found in many grammars of biblical Hebrew, including Thomas Lambdin’s).  The convention of pronouncing it as /vav/ is also acceptable, but this pronunciation does hail from the modern period.

According to real Hebrew linguists, “vav” is acceptable today, but it is not accurate. According to Yahweh, if it’s not accurate, it’s not acceptable.

No name with the “vav” sound in it can be Elohim’s Name. Any Hebrew linguist and Hebrew scholar would know that. As I said, Nehemia Gordon is neither a linguist nor a scholar, but he pretends to be both. That doesn’t mean he can’t persuade ignorant people to believe he is right about the pronunciation of Elohim’s Name. With the help of Michael Rood and others, he has turned his so-called “discovery” into a cottage industry.

P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” That was true when Barnum said it, and it’s still true today. People like Nehemia Gordon know that all too well.

Interestingly, Cuneiform tablets from the time of Hammurabi (1750 BC) were discovered. Unlike the Hebrew language, Cuneiform includes vowels. Hebrew uses only consonants. On the Cuneiform tablets, the Name of the “Hebrew Elohim” was mentioned several times, and it is pronounced “Yahweh”. Greek scholars from the 1st century AD confirm that “Yahweh” is the correct pronunciation of His Name.

Below, I have included 3 videos that rip Nehemia Gordon to shreds, but before I show them, I want to make one point. I didn’t write His Name is Yahweh to convince people that Yahweh is the correct pronunciation of Elohim’s Name. I wrote it to show what Yahweh said about His Name in the Bible and to convince people that not using His Name as He commanded is sinful. With that thought in mind, enjoy the videos.

Video 1

You’ll have to click here to watch the first video. Please watch it. It will give you a very good idea how unreliable Nehemia Gordon is.

Video 2

Video 3

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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”

John 10: 14-18

See “His Name is Yahweh”.