Pronouncing & Translating the Divine Name: History & Practice

by Andrew Case

Why and how did we lose God's personal name? Is it important? What does God think about us always calling him by a title or substitute like LORD? Can we accurately recover the exact pronunciation of the tetragrammaton in the way it sounded in the days of Moses? What are we to make of the Sacred Name Movement? Why did the New Testament authors use kurios (Lord) to refer to God? How seriously should we take Exodus 3:15 in this whole discussion? And how has God's personal name as revealed to Moses been rendered and perceived throughout history? Should we never pronounce God's name out of reverence, or is there biblical evidence to the contrary?

Andrew Case provides an exhaustive discussion of these issues and more, considering implications for Bible translation and beyond. Overall, he sets out to answer two primary questions throughout the 1) Would it be better for translations of the Hebrew Bible to use some approximation of Yahweh, or a title like "the Lord"? 2) When teaching and reading Hebrew today outside of Israel, would it be better to pronounce his name as some approximation like Yahweh, or say Adonai (Lord)?

468 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 16, 2022

Reviews

[Randy Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the strongest case for use of the divine name combined with a devastating critique over obsession in pronouncing it as Yahweh