General Discussion Translating the name of HASHEM into English

[searchinmyroots]

New video from Rabbi Skobac I thought might be of interest.

[James the Servant]

New video from Rabbi Skobac I thought might be of interest.

Watched it. It helped.

[Harachaman]

Well there are translations of the tetragramation (yud hey vav hey) in English, but there is no authoritative pronunciation, because there hasn't been a reason to pronounce it since the destruction of the first temple and so it has not been kept in Jewsh tradition. Because to render it in English you would need the actual vowels, English translations vary. The most popular Anglicized name is used by the -- Witnesses who consider it very important to use that name (despite it never occurring or being even implied in the Greek testament). But it is probably wrong so I've heard some Jews say it's OK to use that name because it's not possibly correct.

1) You can say "Jehovah". There is no reason not to. It is not a name of G-d.

2) Are you possibly confusing translation with transliteration?

3) Welcome to the forum.

4) In case you are wondering - some people do ask because of my screen name - yes, I am.

1. Well that's interesting. But here's a problem with point 1: if G-d listens to prayers in English as most Jews I've spoken to, including very Orthodox, seem to indicate, wouldn't an Anglicized version of the tetragrammation be stepping into some trouble.

2. Yes, I did. The noggin was not joggin that day, nor is it particularly today. But I think that if you can't transliterate it, you are going to have an extremely hard time translating it.

3. Thank you.

4. Well it's a pleasure to correspond rabbi

[nili]

... if G-d listens to prayers in English as most Jews I've spoken to, including very Orthodox, seem to indicate, wouldn't an Anglicized version of the tetragrammation be stepping into some trouble.

Why?

Parenthetically, the word is tetragrammaton.

[Jason]

Parenthetically, the word is tetragrammaton.

And the name of the final book in the Christian canon is Revelation (not Revelations, as many people say). There certainly isn't a -tion ending on Tetragrammaton.

Did you know that the -tion ending comes from Latin? The termination is -tio, and these words are generally feminine taking their genitive as -tiōnis. For example, "reason" is ratio and becomes ratiōnis (etc.).

[nili]

Did you know that the -tion ending comes from Latin? The termination is -tio, and these words are generally feminine taking their genitive as -tiōnis. For example, "reason" is ratio and becomes ratiōnis (etc.).

Thanks. Unfortunately, grammar is far, far from one of my strengths.

[Moriel Fall]

Well there are translations of the tetragramation (yud hey vav hey) in English, but there is no authoritative pronunciation, because there hasn't been a reason to pronounce it since the destruction of the first temple and so it has not been kept in Jewsh tradition. Because to render it in English you would need the actual vowels, English translations vary. The most popular Anglicized name is used by the -- Witnesses who consider it very important to use that name (despite it never occurring or being even implied in the Greek testament). But it is probably wrong so I've heard some Jews say it's OK to use that name because it's not possibly correct.

Some of this is on:
http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm

Thank you sir for your response. I am not interested in the pronunciation of HASHEM as I am not even qualified to mention His name.

What I am interested in is what does HASHEM mean in English?

For example, the name Jacob means, "Supplanter."

Wanted to chime in here, hoping not to step on toes, but as your local "Hashem's" Witness, I wanted to respond to both claims with Revelation 1:4 "John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne"

Hayah "he was", Hoveh "he is", and Yih'yeh "he is now and will continue to be in the future".  

As far as "what JWs refer to Hashem as" as "meaning the destroyer" ... that would be if it used "Hovah" as a root word.  But "Hoveh" is one of three root words.   

I definitely respect people's caution not to misuse the name... but I thought I could help clear a couple of those things up.