I honestly believe that some of the most important issues that surround the bible are relatively unknown. I use to believe this was in part due the ignorance of the population, but being a filmmaker and being required to research and investigate these various issues I believe more that it is deliberately suppressed in order to advance certain mainstream theological doctrines. What is even more difficult is to illustrate this on screen because these slight mistranslations and misconceptions occurred over thousands of years.
Many people have heard of the names “Yahweh” and “Jehovah” but really have no idea about
Torah scroll, 16th century, detail.
one or the other and how they came about. So for the sake of time let me give a quick history lesson. As you may well know the bible was originally written in the language of Hebrew. It was written over thousands of years and in order to preserve the bible from one generation to the next it had to be copied from an old manuscript to a new manuscript. This was done by what they called “Copyists” or “Scribes”. These scribes/copyists would over time make changes as new theological doctrines would arise in their times periods. These changes were done according to the interpretations of their time. Hence from generation to the next generation the bible was changed slowly and gradually. Some of it was done on purpose and some of it was done in ignorance... but the result was the same....a changed bible.
Well weather or not you believe the title Lord and Adonai has its connections with Baal worship or not it is a fact that the name Yahweh was replaced with the title Lord and this very replacement is where the name “Jehovah” got its start. What took place is that when the copyist or scribe was copying a old manuscript to a new manuscript they would then implement their new religious belief and write the word “Adonai” over the name Yahweh. Well actually they would write the vowels for adonai over the name Yahweh. So what these copyist were essentially doing was giving the reader a reminder not to say the name Yahweh. The reader would look at the text, see the name “Yahweh” written with the vowels for “Adonai” above it and be reminded to say “Adonai” instead of Yahweh when reading outloud. This gradually caused the name Yahweh to fade away.
Now lets fast forward a few thousand years. German scholars found these old manuscripts and did not know what to make of the name of the creator. They saw the word “Yahweh” with the vowels for “Adonai” above the name Yahweh, so they rendered the word as “Yehovah”...combining the name Yahweh and Adonai into one new name! They did not realize this name Adonai was placed there as a completely separate name to remind the reader not to say the name Yahweh. Later when the letter “J” was added to the English letter the name made its final transition to “Jehovah”.
The Emphasized Bible; A new Translation said that “the pronunciation of the name Jehovah is as hybrid of a combination as it would be to spell Germany with the vowels of the name Portugal and render it Gormuna”!
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