Yahweh (יהוה)

Hebrew. ‘He who is’. A word consisting of the four Hebrew letters, Yodh (י) He (ה) Waw (ו) He (ה), i.e. YHWH, the four-letter personal name of God. Since Hebrew has no written vowels it can be vocalized in several different ways. In order to counter confusion, several vocalizations were proposed throughout history, often by adding vowel points to the Hebrew consonants. This however, led to even more possibilities and further confusion. After Israel's exile into the Babylonian Captivity, Hebrew had over time become a death language and from the sixth century BC onward most of the Near East spoke Aramaic, a branch of the Semitic family of languages, used as the lingua franca. When in the early Middle Ages, between the 7th and 11th centuries AD, a group of Hebrew scholars and scribes known as the Masoretes, wanted to resuscitate the spoken form of the Hebrew language,  they added vowels to the written consonants, in an attempt to fix the pronunciation and to allow the ancient texts to be read correctly. However, for the name of God, they faced a problem. Since the Jews deem the name of God too sacred to be uttered, they refer to it as Ha Shem (השם), i.e. ‘the Name’, and read YHWH as Adonai (אֲדֹנָי), a word meaning ‘My Lord’. Even today in English, many Jews spell the word God not in full, but as G-d. As a result, no one knew the exact pronunciation for the name YHWH and the Masoretes hence took vowel points similar -though not identical- to those of the word Adonai and added them to the name YHWH, which gave it the pronunciation Yehowah (יְהֹוָה). Yet, most scholars agree that this is not the way the name was originally pronounced. In line with other references to God and His name, such as El (אל), Elah (אֵלָה) and Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (אהיה אשר אהיה), it is now generally accepted that YHWH is be pronounced as Yahweh. The Hebrew name for Jesus, i.e. Yeshua (ישוע) or Yehosha (יהושע), means ‘Yahweh rescues’. The name is a compound of Yeho (יהו) and shua (שוע) or sha (שע), the first element standing for Yahweh and the latter coming from the root yesha (ישע), which means ‘rescue’ and ‘salvation’. The word shua (שוע) itself also means ‘lord’ and ‘to cry out [for help]’. Furthermore, the inscription that was written on the order of Pilate in three languages, i.e. in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek, and put on the cross of Jesus during the crucifixion, bore the Latin text: Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum (Iesvs Nazarenvs, Rex Iudæorvm), which in English translates as ‘Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews’ and often seen in Christian art represented by the acronym INRI. In Greek, the inscription would have read: Iesus ho Nazoraeos ho basileus ton Iudaeon (Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων), whilst in one of the principal Hebrew translations of the New Testatment the inscription reads: Yeshua Hanatzari, Melekh Hayehudim (ישוע הנצרי, מלך היהודים), i.e. ‘Jesus the Nazarean, King of the Jews’, it should however be noted that neither the Latin, Koine Greek nor Hebrew-Aramaic of the time knew the use of punctuation marks, such as commas and points. Therefore, at least theoretically, the Hebrew line might have included a conjunction word, phrasing the text as: Yeshua Hanatzari Wemelekh Hayehudim (ישוע הנצרי ומלך היהודים), i.e. ‘Jesus the Nazarene and King of the Jews’. If so, the Latin acronym INRI would then in Hebrew become YHWH (יהוה), i.e. the name of God. This could perhaps explain why the chief priests of the Jews so anxiously wanted the inscription removed or changed, as described in John 19:21, though most theologians and linguists agree that there is in fact no proof of the claim of the added conjunction in any of the Hebrew and Aramaic versions of these passages and that the protesters just took issue directly with the recognition of the alleged kingship of Jesus in the text, rather than recognizing a supposed acronym forming the tetragrammaton YHWH.

Yom Kippur (‏יוֹם כִּפּוּר‎)

Hebrew. ‘Day of Atonement’. A Jewish holiday of complete fasting and penitence, on which no food or water is taken for the entire day. It is said that one’s name is written in the Book of Life on this day. It is the climax of the ten day period of repentance (Ten Days of Awe), that begins with Rosh Hashannah and ends with the Day of Judgment, the day on which Moses came down from Sinai bearing the second set of tablets, after God had forgiven Israel for worshipping the Golden Calf. It is the holiest day of the Jewish year, and provides prophetic insight regarding the Second Coming of Messiah, the restoration of national Israel, and the final judgment of the world.