I AM

"I am the LORD; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

Isaiah 42:8

In the Bible there are many different names given to the One True God.  The four Hebrew consonants, YHWH, also referred to as the Tetragramaton or Tetragram, is God’s holy Covenant name.  It is used over 6500 times in the Bible, rendered in English as LORD (all capitals) to distinguish it from Adonai, “Lord,” and is used more than any other name of God.  YHWH comes from the Hebrew letters: Yud, Hay, Vav (v in Hebrew can also be rendered w in English), Hay.

There is a lot of controversy over the pronunciation of YHWH however – Yahweh vs. Jehovah.  The original pronunciation was restricted to worship by the priests and so with the destruction of the Temple, the covenant name was no longer spoken, but in Greek records vowels were included and indicate that in all likelihood the name should be pronounced "Yahweh.  “Jehovah” is the English equivalent of “Yehovah” – “Yahweh” with the vowel points removed, because by Jewish tradition, the name of God is too holy to voice.  Compound names of God in the early English translations of the Bible such as the King James Version use “Jehovah.”

The letters YHWH form a verb which means “to exist, be” and most scholars translate it as "I AM who I AM."  God revealed His names to His people rather than allowing them to choose their names for Him.  The names God chose for Himself declare much about His person and its usage shows that this name, YHWH, stresses God as the eternal, self-existent, and all-sufficient God of revelation and redemption.

                                            Joyce