THE SHORTER FORM OF THE DIVINE NAME

The shorter form of the divine name occurs 50 times in the Masoretic text as Yah, rendered “Jah.” Following is a list of its occurrences: Ex 15:2; 17:16; Ps 68:4, 18; Ps 77:11; Ps 89:8; Ps 94:7, 12; Ps 102:18; Ps 104:35; Ps 105:45; Ps 106:1, 48; Ps 111:1; Ps 112:1; Ps 113:1, 9; Ps 115:17, 18, 18; Ps 116:19; Ps 117:2; Ps 118:5, 5, 14, 17, 18, 19; Ps 122:4; Ps 130:3; Ps 135:1, 3, 4, 21; Ps 146:1, 10; Ps 147:1, 20; Ps 148:1, 14; Ps 149:1, 9; Ps 150:1, 6, 6; Ca 8:6; Isa 12:2; 26:4; 38:11, 11.

For a consideration of the 237 occurrences of “Jehovah” in the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, see App 1D.

The 134 Changes

In 134 places the Jewish Sopherim (scribes) altered the original Hebrew text from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. Gins.^Mas, Vol. IV, p. 28, § 115, says: “We have seen that in many of these one hundred and thirty-four instances in which the present received text reads Adonaī in accordance with this Massorah, some of the best MSS. and early editions read the Tetragrammaton, and the question arises how did this variation obtain? The explanation is not far to seek. From time immemorial the Jewish canons decreed that the incommunicable name is to be pronounced Adonaī as if it were written אדני [ʼAdho·naiʹ] instead of יהוה [YHWH]. Nothing was, therefore, more natural for the copyists than to substitute the expression which exhibited the pronunciation for the Tetragrammaton which they were forbiden to pronounce.”

Following is a list of these 134 places, according to Gins.^Mas, Vol. I, pp. 25, 26, § 115:

Ge 18:3, 27, 30, 31, 32; Ge 19:18; Ge 20:4; Ex 4:10, 13; Ex 5:22; Ex 15:17; Ex 34:9, 9; Nu 14:17; Jos 7:8; Jg 6:15; Jg 13:8; 1Ki 3:10, 15; 1Ki 22:6; 2Ki 7:6; 2Ki 19:23; Ezr 10:3; Ne 1:11; Ne 4:14; Job 28:28; Ps 2:4; Ps 16:2; Ps 22:30; Ps 30:8; Ps 35:17, 22, 23; Ps 37:13; Ps 38:9, 15, 22; Ps 39:7; Ps 40:17; Ps 44:23; Ps 51:15; Ps 54:4; Ps 55:9; Ps 57:9; Ps 59:11; Ps 62:12; Ps 66:18; Ps 68:11, 17, 19, 22, 26, 32; Ps 73:20; Ps 77:2, 7; Ps 78:65; Ps 79:12; Ps 86:3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 15; Ps 89:49, 50; Ps 90:1, 17; Ps 110:5; Ps 130:2, 3, 6; Isa 3:17, 18; Isa 4:4; Isa 6:1, 8, 11; Isa 7:14, 20; Isa 8:7; Isa 9:8, 17; Isa 10:12; Isa 11:11; Isa 21:6, 8, 16; Isa 28:2; Isa 29:13; Isa 30:20; Isa 37:24; Isa 38:14, 16; Isa 49:14; La 1:14, 15, 15; La 2:1, 2, 5, 7, 18, 19, 20; La 3:31, 36, 37, 58; Eze 18:25, 29; Eze 21:9; Eze 33:17, 20; Da 1:2; Da 9:3, 4, 7, 9, 15, 16, 17, 19, 19, 19; Am 5:16; Am 7:7, 8; Am 9:1; Mic 1:2; Zec 9:4; Mal 1:12, 14.

We restored the original reading in 133 places and rendered it as “Jehovah.” The only exception is Ps 68:26, where BHK and BHS already have the Tetragrammaton.—See Ps 68:26 ftn, “Jehovah.”

Eight Other Changes

According to Gins.^Int, pp. 368, 369, in some instances the Jewish Sopherim substituted ʼElo·himʹ for the Tetragrammaton. We restored the original reading in eight places and rendered it as “Jehovah,” namely, in Ps 14:1, 2, 5; Ps 53:1, 2, 4, 5, 6.

Thus we restored the Tetragrammaton in the above 141 places and rendered it as “Jehovah.”

Over the past several decades many fragments of ancient Greek versions of the Hebrew Scriptures have been discovered wherein the divine name was found written, usually in Hebrew letters. This indicates that the divine name was used in Greek versions until well into the ninth century C.E. We are presenting ten manuscripts that contain the divine name, along with pertinent information.

(1) LXX^{P. Fouad Inv. 266} renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in square Hebrew characters in the following places: De 18:5, 5, 7, 15, 16; De 19:8, 14; De 20:4, 13, 18; De 21:1, 8; De 23:5; De 24:4, 9; De 25:15, 16; De 26:2, 7, 8, 14; De 27:2, 3, 7, 10, 15; De 28:1, 1, 7, 8, 9, 13, 61, 62, 64, 65; De 29:4, 10, 20, 29; De 30:9, 20; De 31:3, 26, 27, 29; De 32:3, 6, 19. Therefore, in this collection the Tetragrammaton occurs 49 times in identified places in Deuteronomy. In addition, in this collection the Tetragrammaton occurs three times in unidentified fragments, namely, in fragments 116, 117 and 123. This papyrus, found in Egypt, was dated to the first century B.C.E.

In 1944 a fragment of this papyrus was published by W. G. Waddell in JTS, Vol. 45, pp. 158-161. In 1948, in Cairo, Egypt, two Gilead-trained missionaries of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society obtained photographs of 18 fragments of this papyrus and permission to publish them. Subsequently, 12 of these fragments were published in the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, 1950, pp. 13, 14. Based on the photographs in this publication, the following three studies were produced: (1) A. Vaccari, “Papiro Fuad, Inv. 266. Analisi critica dei Frammenti pubblicati in: ‘New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures.’ Brooklyn (N. Y.) 1950 p. 13s.,” published in Studia Patristica, Vol. I, Part I, edited by Kurt Aland and F. L. Cross, Berlin, 1957, pp. 339-342; (2) W. Baars, “Papyrus Fouad Inv. No. 266,” published in the Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift, Vol. XIII, Wageningen, 1959, pp. 442-446; (3) George Howard, “The Oldest Greek Text of Deuteronomy,” published in the Hebrew Union College Annual, Vol. XLII, Cincinnati, 1971, pp. 125-131.

Commenting on this papyrus, Paul Kahle wrote in Studia Evangelica, edited by Kurt Aland, F. L. Cross, Jean Danielou, Harald Riesenfeld and W. C. van Unnik, Berlin, 1959, p. 614: “Further pieces of the same papyrus were reproduced from a photo of the papyrus by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in the introduction to an English translation of the New Testament, Brooklyn, New York, 1950. A characteristic of the papyrus is the fact that the name of God is rendered by the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew square letters. An examination of the published fragments of the papyrus undertaken at my request by Pater Vaccari resulted in his concluding that the papyrus, which must have been written about 400 years earlier than Codex B, contains perhaps the most perfect Septuagint text of Deuteronomy that has come down to us.”

A total of 117 fragments of LXX^{P. Fouad Inv. 266} were published in Études de Papyrologie, Vol. 9, Cairo, 1971, pp. 81-150, 227, 228. A photographic edition of all the fragments of this papyrus was published by Zaki Aly and Ludwig Koenen under the title Three Rolls of the Early Septuagint: Genesis and Deuteronomy, in the series “Papyrologische Texte und Abhandlungen,” Vol. 27, Bonn, 1980.

(2) LXX^{VTS 10a} renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters in the following places: Jon 4:2; Mic 1:1, 3; Mic 4:4, 5, 7; Mic 5:4, 4; Hab 2:14, 16, 20; Hab 3:9; Zep 1:3, 14; Zep 2:10; Zec 1:3, 3, 4; Zec 3:5, 6, 7. This leather scroll, found in the Judean desert in a cave in Naḥal Ḥever, was dated to the end of the first century C.E. The fragments of this scroll were published in Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Vol. X, Leiden, 1963, pp. 170-178.

(3) LXX^{IEJ 12} renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters in Jon 3:3. This shred of parchment, found in the Judean desert in a cave in Nahal Hever, was dated to the end of the first century C.E. It was published in Israel Exploration Journal, Vol. 12, 1962, p. 203.

(4) LXX^{VTS 10b} renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters in the following places: Zec 8:20; 9:1, 1, 4. This parchment scroll, found in the Judean desert in a cave in Naḥal Ḥever, was dated to the middle of the first century C.E. It was published in Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Vol. X, 1963, p. 178.

(5) 4Q LXX Lev^b renders the divine name in Greek letters (IAO) in Le 3:12; 4:27. This papyrus manuscript, found in Qumran Cave 4, was dated to the first century B.C.E. A preliminary report of this manuscript was presented in Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Vol. IV, 1957, p. 157.

(6) LXX^{P. Oxy. VII.1007} renders the divine name by abbreviating the Tetragrammaton in the form of a double Yohdh in Ge 2:8, 18. This vellum leaf, dated to the third century C.E., was published in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part VII, edited with translations and notes by Arthur S. Hunt, London, 1910, pp. 1, 2.

(7) Aq^Burkitt renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters in the following places: 1Ki 20:13, 13, 14; 2Ki 23:12, 16, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27. These fragments of the Greek text of the version of Aquila were published by F. Crawford Burkitt in his work Fragments of the Books of Kings According to the Translation of Aquila, Cambridge, 1898, pp. 3-8. These palimpsest fragments of the books of Kings were found in the synagogue genizah in Cairo, Egypt. They were dated to the end of the fifth century or the beginning of the sixth century C.E.

(8) Aq^Taylor renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters in the following places: Ps 91:2, 9; Ps 92:1, 4, 5, 8, 9; Ps 96:7, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13; Ps 97:1, 5, 9, 10, 12; Ps 102:15, 16, 19, 21; Ps 103:1, 2, 6, 8. These fragments of the Greek text of the version of Aquila were published by C. Taylor in his work Hebrew-Greek Cairo Genizah Palimpsests, Cambridge, 1900, pp. 54-65. These fragments were dated after the middle of the fifth century C.E., but not later than the beginning of the sixth century C.E.

(9) Sym^{P. Vindob. G. 39777} renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in archaic Hebrew characters in the following places: Ps 69:13, 30, 31. This fragment of a parchment roll with part of Ps 69 in Symmachus (68 in LXX), kept in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, was dated to the third or fourth century C.E. It was published by Dr. Carl Wessely in Studien zur Palaeographie und Papyruskunde, Vol. XI., Leipzig, 1911, p. 171.

Here we reproduce the fragment of this papyrus containing the divine name.