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documented in this article. The House of Yahweh led by Yisrayl Hawkins is the
leading authority on the great Name of Yahweh our Heavenly Father, and has been
main organization responsible for restoring its use in these last days. To
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The Name
of Yahweh
Only The High Priest Spoke The Name Of Yahweh
Many teachers in Israyl came to believe that the Name Yahweh was too holy to be
pronounced, so they began teaching the nation that only the High Priest should
utter this Name, once a year on the Day of Atonement. The Century Bible, by Adeney and Bennett, Volume 1, pages 90-91, shows us this information.
Some time after the return from the Captivity, and before the beginning of the
Christian era, the Jews came to believe that the Name YHWH was too sacred to be
uttered on ordinary occasions. It was said to be pronounced by the High Priest
on the Day of Atonement.
Please note the time period in which the Name of our Heavenly Father was
suppressed, some time after the return from the captivity, and before the
beginning of the Christian Era (approximately 310-199 B.C.E.). This means that
up to this time, the prophets, and in fact all the people of Israyl, used the
great Name of Yahweh when they walked through the waters of the Red Sea; when
they ate manna which came directly from Yahweh; when they saw their enemies
expelled from in front of them; when they took the lands from their enemies; and
all the while, they were becoming a healthy nation. It was only in turning from
Yahweh to idolatry, as we are doing today, that caused Yahweh to hide His face
from Israyl and give their enemies advantage over them.
The Jewish Encyclopedia contains additional information about the pronunciation
of Yahweh's Name being confined to the temple and spoken only by the priests.
Volume 9, pages 162-163, states: The pronunciation of the written Name was used
only by the priests (Num. vi. 22-27); outside the Temple they used the title "Adonai"
(Sotah vii. 6; p. 38a)...
Volume 1, pages 201-202, shows us this:
...In the early period of the Second Temple the Name was still in common use, as
may be learned from such proper names as Jehohanan, or from liturgical formulas,
such as Halelu-Yah. At the beginning of the Hellenistic era, however, the use of
the Name was reserved for the Temple. From Sifre to Num. vi. 27, Mishnah Tamid,
vii. 2, and Sotah, vii. 6 it appears that the priests were allowed to pronounce
the Name at the benediction only in the Temple; elsewhere they were obligated to
use the appellative name (kinnuy) "Adonai"' ...
...Pronunciation of the Name by the Temple priests... also gradually fell into
disuse. Tosef., Sotah, xiii. 8 quoted Menahot, 109b, and Yoma 39b, relates that
"from the time Simon the Just died [this is the traditional expression for the
beginning of the Hellenistic period], the priests refrained from blessing the
people with the Name"__in other words, they pronounced it indistinctly, or they
mouthed or mumbled it. Thus says Tosef., Ber. vi. 23: Formerly they used to
greet each other with the Ineffable Name; when the time of the decline of the
study of the Law came, the elders mumbled the Name. Subsequently also the solemn
utterance of the Name by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, that ought to
have been heard by the priests and the people according to the Mishnah Yoma, vi.
2, became inaudible or indistinct.
R. Tarfon (or Tryphon) relates (Yer. Yoma, iii. 40d): "I was standing in the row
of young priests, and I heard the high priest mumbling the Name, while the rest
of the priests were chanting."
...But while even among these the right pronunciation was forgotten in the
course of time, and the hope was expressed by Phinehas b. Jair, "the Saint",
that the knowledge and the correct use of the Name, so wondrously efficacious in
the blessed days long gone by, would again be restored in the Messianic age (see Pes. 50a, Midr. Teh. to Ps. xxxvi. and to Ps. xci.)...
Volume 11, page 263, shows us more:
...the Mishnah (Sotah vii. 6; Tamid vii. 2) says, in conformity with this
interpretation: "In the Sanctuary the name of God [in the three blessings, Num.
vi. 24-26] is to be pronounced in the Priestly Benediction as it is written [
];
but outside the Sanctuary it must be given the paraphrastic pronunciation [
]."
The high priest spoke the name of God on the Day of Atonement in his recitation
of Lev. xvi. 30 during the confessions of sins; and when the priests and the
people in the great hall heard him utter the "Shem ha-Meforash", they prostrated
themselves and glorified God, saying: "Praised by the glorious name of His
kingdom for ever and ever" (Yoma vi. 2). When a very young priest, the
well-known tanna Tarfon witnessed this ceremony; and he declares that the high
priest uttered the holy name of God so that his voice was merged in the song of
priests (Yer. Yoma 40d, below; Kid. 71a; Eccl. R. iii. 11), although it was
believed that when, at this point in the ritual, the priest pronounced the name
of God he was heard as far as Jericho (Tamid iii. 7; comp. Yoma 39b). Tarfon's
account, that the voice of the high priest was drowned by the song of other
priests, also confirms the synchronous statement (Yer. Yoma 40b) that in former
times the high priest uttered the Name with a loud voice, but that subsequently,
when immorality had become more and more prevalent, he lowered his voice lest
the Name should be heard by those unworthy to hear it...
The Shem ha-Meforash as an object of the esoteric knowledge of scholars appears
in the statement of Johanan (Kid. 71a): "Once each week the sages give their
pupils the Four-Lettered Name." A tannaitic passage in Yer. Yoma 40d, however,
says: "In former times the Name was taught to all; but when immorality increased
it was reserved for the pious," although this statement refers, according to the baraita in Kid. 71a, to teaching the Name to the priests.
The Name of Yahweh Engraved on an Ivory Pomegranate Decoration
Biblical Archaeology Review. Jan.-Feb. 1990, page 49- "BAR recently
published a beautiful
carved ivory pomegranate with an important inscription on it. As partially
reconstructed, the engraved inscription around the neck of the pomegranate reads
as follows: "Belonging to the House of Yahweh Holy to the Priests." Based on
this reading, many scholars have concluded that the ivory pomegranate originally
came from the Jerusalem Temple constructed by King Solomon."
Immorality came among the people because Yahweh and His Laws were not being
taught or practiced. So without authority from the inspired words of the
prophets, our forefathers removed the name of Yahweh from the memory of our
people. Instead of teaching Yahweh's Laws, they turned to the traditions of the
Gods of earth and heaven!
Volume 9, page 163, further states:
It appears that a majority of the priests in the last days of the Temple were
unworthy to pronounce the Name, and a combination of the letters or of the
equivalents of the letters constituting the Name was employed by the priests in
the Temple. Thus the Twelve-Lettered Name was substituted, which, a baraita
says, was at first taught to every priest; but with the increase of the number
of licentious priests the Name was revealed only to the pious ones, who
"swallowed" its pronunciation while the other priests were chanting. Another
combination, the Forty-two-Lettered Name, Rab says, was taught only to whomever
was known to be of good character and disposition, temperate, and in the prime
of life (Kid. 71a; comp. Rashi to `Ab. Zarah 17b). Maimonides, in his "Moreh,''
thinks that these names were perhaps composed of several other divine names.
The Incommunicable Name was pronounced "Adonai", and where Adonai and yhwh occur
together the later was pronounced "Elohim".
Volume 12, page 119, states:
The avoidance of the original name of God both in speech and, to a certain
extent, in the Bible was due according to Geiger ("Urschrift," p. 262), to a
reverence which shrank from the utterance of the Sublime Name; and it may well
be that such a reluctance first arose in a foreign, and hence in an "unclean"
land, very possibly, therefore, in Babylonia. According to Dalman (l.c. pp. 66
et seq.), the Rabbis forbade the utterance of the Tetragrammaton, to guard
against desecration of the Sacred Name; but such an ordinance could not have
been effectual unless it had met with popular approval.
We have seen, from these well-known and accepted sources, the following facts:
a.Yahweh is the ancient, original, distinctive, personal, proper name of the
Creator;
b.The rabbis recognized yahweh as the proper Name for the Creator;
c. The rabbis considered names other than the true Name as names for the
Creator;
d.The pronunciation of Yahweh's Name began to be suppressed in the third century
B.C.E.; e.The Name of Yahweh was considered to be too holy to pronounce;
f.The pronunciation of the written Name was used only by the priests; and that,
g.Those who were not priests, and priests when outside the temple, used the
titles Adonai and Elohim when referring to the Creator.
The fact still remains that although the pronunciation of Yahweh's Name was
prohibited from being spoken (beginning around the third century b.c.e.), Yahweh
has not allowed the true pronunciation of His Name to be lost. And, the scholars
do admit this fact. Notice what The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901, Volume 12, page
119, states:
It thus becomes possible to determine with a fair degree of certainty the
historical pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, the results agreeing with the
statement of Ex. iii. 14, in which YHWH terms Himself . "I will be", a phrase
which is immediately preceeded by the fuller term "I will be that I will be,''
or, as in the English versions, "I am'' and "I am that I am.'' The name is
accordingly derived from the root (=), and is regarded as an imperfect. This
passage is decisive for the pronunciation "Yahweh"; for the etymology was
undoubtedly based on the known word.
The Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 7, page 680, further states this fact:
The true pronunciation of the name yhwh was never lost. Several early Greek
writers of the Christian Church testify that the name was pronounced "Yahweh."
This is confirmed, at least for the vowel of the first syllable of the name, by
the shorter form Yah, which is sometimes used in poetry (e.g., Ex. 15:2) and the
-yahu or -yah that serves as the final syllable in very many Hebrew names.
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