Why ‘Jehovah’ Isn’t God’s Real Name (And How We Got It So Wrong)

The name “Jehovah” is everywhere.

It’s on church signs, hymnals, and lips around the world. But here’s something most people don’t know:

It’s not God’s real name.

“Jehovah” is the result of a medieval misunderstanding of a scribal tradition designed to protect — not replace — God’s name. Let me explain.

The Bible reveals the Creator’s personal name as YHWH — four sacred Hebrew letters (יהוה), known as the Tetragrammaton. In Exodus 3:15, God (YHWH) says:

Out of reverence, ancient Jewish readers eventually stopped pronouncing YHWH aloud. Instead, they substituted the word “Adonai” (Lord) when reading Scripture.

Between the 6th and 10th centuries, Jewish scribes called the Masoretes added vowel marks to preserve pronunciation. To remind readers to say “Adonai,” they combined its vowels with the consonants of YHWH — not to form a new word, but as a visual cue.

Later, Christian scholars unfamiliar with this tradition misunderstood it. They combined the consonants and vowels as if they belonged together — producing a hybrid: “Yehowah.”

Latinized and filtered through Germanic languages, this eventually became:

“Jehovah.”

But here’s the issue:

Ancient Hebrew had no letter “J.”

Neither did Greek. The English “J” didn’t even exist until the 1500s.

So while “Jehovah” may be familiar, it’s not authentic. It’s not how Moses, David, or even Yahshua (Jesus) would have referred to the Father.

The earliest appearance of the name “Jehovah” in Latin writings dates to around 1270 in Pugio Fidei. It gained traction in the 16th century through Petrus Galatinus, a Franciscan scholar and the confessor of — or more accurately, penitentiary under — Pope Leo X, and was later popularized in English by William Tyndale.

Today, nearly all scholars agree:

The original pronunciation was likely Yahweh — not Jehovah.

Why this matters to me

I wasn’t raised using “Jehovah” — and I never taught it. But we sometimes encountered Jehovah’s Witnesses who would visit at home to share the Bible with us. That’s when I did research on the name. When I discovered where it came from, something clicked. We’ve inherited layers of tradition that often obscure what Scripture plainly reveals.

And YHWH? Once I started calling on His Name as He revealed it — the way Moses heard it — my worship changed. It became more personal, more reverent, more real.

YHWH is not just a title. It’s a relationship.

In Summary

• “Jehovah” is not found in the Hebrew Bible

• It came from a misunderstanding of a Jewish scribal system

• The Hebrew text never intended that vowel combination to be spoken aloud

• YHWH, likely pronounced Yahweh, is the true Name

• Using “Jehovah” in ignorance may not be a sin — but it’s not God’s true Name

Coming tomorrow: What YHWH Really Means — And Why It Changes Everything