Assemblies of Yahweh Ministries Newsletter

Issue No. 21                                               India                                                        Dec. 2003

What is His Name and what is His Son's Name?  (Proverbs 30:4)

Compiled by Tony B. Suckla

In Proverbs 30:4 King Solomon asks,

Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is His Name, and what is His Son’s Name, if thou canst tell? King James Version

The Name of the Heavenly Father is used about 7000 times in the Holy Scriptures yet many do not know what the Name of their Creator is.  How is it that the most used Name in the Scriptures is unknown to most people?  To answer this question we will have to look at a bit of history on how the Bible came to be translated into the many languages of the world. 

Until about 1500B.C. there were no written Scriptures as we have today, the truths of the Almighty's ways were handed down from father to son by word of mouth.  All people of the earth spoke one language until about 2200B.C., at this time YHWH changed the languages of the people of the world and thus we have the many languages that we have today.  The Hebrew speaking people were chosen by YHWH to be His special people to make known His ways in the world, and the man Moses was chosen by YHWH to write the first part of the Old Testament Scriptures, later other men were called of YHWH to write what He had showed them.  Thus the O.T. Scriptures were completed about 400B.C.   About 250BC the Hebrew Scriptures began to be translated into the Greek language, this Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures became known as the Septuagint.  Parts of the Old Testament were also translated into Aramaic about this same time.

The New Testament portion of the Bible was written between approximately 45-95AD, and we have copies of the New Testament today in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek;  these three languages are what history and scholarly reseach shows that the NT was originally written in.  Around 400AD the Bible, Old and New Testaments, were translated into Latin by a man named Jerome.  There were also translations of the Bible made in some Egyptian languages around 200-400AD.  In 1382AD the first translation of the Bible was put into English by a man named John Wycliff, and now the English speaking people can know the truth of God's word.  I did not give references for all the above, because most of the information is well known, and this is not the principle aim of this study.  From the time of 1382AD till now, the Bible has been translated into over 200 languages.  Being that most of the translators have come from English speaking background, most of the translations in other languages are influenced by the English translations.

The Hebrew Scriptures contain the Name of the Heavenly Creator and it was written and spoken by all the prophets and children of Israel up until about 300BC as the following quote shows:  

Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 7, pg.680- "YHWH.  The personal name of the God of Israel is written in the Hebrew Bible with the four consonants YHWH and is referred to as the "Tetragrammaton."  At least until the destruction of the First Temple in 586B.C.E. this name was regularly pronounced with its proper vowels, as is clear from the Lachish Letters, written shortly before that date.  But at least by the third century B.C.E. the pronunciation of the name YHWH was avoided, and Adonai, "the Lord," was substituted for it, as evidenced by the use of the Greek word Kyrios, "Lord," for YHWH in the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was begun by Greek-speaking Jews in that century."

Now we see the reason why many people do not know the Name of the Heavenly Creator.  It goes back to about 300BC when the Hebrew speaking people began to say Adonai instead of the Creators Name whenever it appeared in the Scriptures.  Adonai means "Lord" in English.  In the first English translation of the Bible, made by John Wycliff, he followed the Jewish custom of avoiding the Name of the Creator and used the phrase, "the Lord", wherever the Name of YHWH appeared in the Hebrew text.  This practice of substituting the title, "the Lord", for the Name of the Creator, was followed by most all other English versions of the Bible and translations into various other languages.

Now let us turn to the question of "what is the Creators's true Name?"  In Ps. 68:4 we read,

Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him.  1655 King James Version

On this point the Seventh Day Adventist Bible Commentary says, "Jah. Heb. Yah a short form for Yahweh (see Ex. 6:3; Vol. I, pp. 171-173; see on Ex. 15:2). This is the only occurrence of the English short form “Jah” in the KJV."

If this verse is read in the New King James Version it says, "...extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name YAH ..."  This short form of the Heavenly Fathers Name, is used about fifty times in the Bible, usually the KJV will translate it as "LORD or "the LORD".  Whenever someone says the word Halleluyah they are actually saying a Hebrew word of praise that means, "Praise ye Yah".  Many Hebrew Names contain the short form of the Creator's Name in them, for example, Elijah is actually Eliyah in Hebrew and means "my God is Yah";  Jeremiah is Yermeyah in Hebrew and means "elevated of Yah";  Zephaniah is Tsefanyah in Hebrew and means "hidden of Yah". 

So Yah is the short form of the Creator's Name, but what is the full form?  In order to know how to pronounce a certain word or name in any language it is best to talk to someone that speaks that language.  If I want to know how to pronounce a Telugu word, it is wise to ask a Telugu man.  Being that the Scriptures are written in Hebrew we should ask the Hebrew speaking Jews, in order for us to get the correct pronunciation of a certain word or name.  Most all reference sources give the pronunciation Yahweh for the heavenly Father's Name.

Jewish Encyclopedia vol.12, p. 119 says, "This passage (Ex. 3:14) is decisive for the pronunciation "Yahweh";  for the etymology was undoubtedly based on the known word."

Encyclopedia Judaica Vol.7 p.680 says, "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'."

Anson Rainey, who is a Professor of  Semitic Linguistics at the Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel, writes in Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August, 1985, p. 78, "It should be noted that there are many strong linguistic and epigraghic arguments in favor of Yahweh as the correct form. ... The Anglicized form, Jehovah is a 'ghost word' based on the four consonants, YHWH, with the vowels of another word, adonai, meaning, 'my Lord.' The Hebrew scribes of the Middle ages put those vowels in to remind the reader to say adonai rather than pronounce the sacred Name.  But in the first syllable, they nevertheless put in an e rather than an a so as not to cause anyone to see the syllable ya- and inadvertently blurt out the sacred Name!  This is just further proof of the correct first syllable, which in any case is confirmed by Greek spellings and the evidence of Hebrew linguistics.  So Yahweh is not just some sort of 'scholarly convention.'" 

(see further reference in footnote 1)

In the introduction to the New Revised Standard Version, a Dr. Bruce M. Metzger gives the NRSV Committees reason for not using the name "Jehovah".  Dr. Metzger says on page XII, "The word 'Jehovah' does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew."

In the Jewish Encyclopedia under the heading "Jehovah", it says, "A mispronunciation (introduced by Christian theologians, but almost entirely disregarded by the Jews)... This pronunciation is grammatically impossible;".

The above quotes shows the full form of the Name of the Creator to be "Yahweh" and that the name "Jehovah" is a corruption of the Creator's Name.  The Name Yahweh means, self-existent, or eternal according to Strongs Hebrew Dictionary #3068.  There are many words in Hebrew that start with the sylable Yah, for example, Yadown, Yahhalom, Yahtsah, Yavan, etc... These Hebrew words can be seen in the Strongs Hebrew Dictionary, numbers 3036, 3095, 3096, and 3120 respectively.  But whenever most Hebrew Dictionaries give the first sylable for a name that begins with the short form of the Name of the Creator, it will usually be spelled as "Ye" rather than "Ya", as in (J)Yehovah#3068, (J)Yehoshua#3091, (J)Yehowshaphat#3092.  The e was inserted at the beginning of these names to keep anyone from pronouncing the short form of the Creator's Name, Yah,(see footnote 2) as the quote above from Professor Rainey shows.1  (The J and Y have the same phonetic pronunciation in the above names.)  

The New Concise Bible Dictionary, p.197 says, "YHWH, Yahweh or Jehovah as it is often wrongly written, is usually translated 'the LORD'.  The Jews considered this name too sacred to pronounce, so Adonai (my Lord) was substituted in public reading.  Strictly speaking, this is the only 'name' of God, the name by which the Patriarchs especially knew him, (Gn.12:8; Ex.3:15).  It represents God as a person, bringing God near to mankind;  in Hebrew a name is not a label but signifies the real personality of its owner."

So we see that a name signifies the personality of a being.  The Name Yahweh means self-existence or eternal, but what does the name (J)Yehovah mean in Hebrew?  In the Strongs Hebrew Dictionary the word hovah is listed in #1943 and the definition given is, "ruin-mischief."

The third of the Ten Commandments says,

Thou shalt not take the Name of Yahweh thy God in vain;  for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain.  Ex.20:7

The Hebrew word for "take" in the verse above is "nasa"#5375 and it is translated about forty different ways in the English KJV Bible, some of the ways that it is translated are- "take, accept, exalt, regard, obtain, advance, extol, lift up, magnify, receive, wear, etc..."  The third commandment is basically telling us not to have anything to do with the Name of YHWH in a light, vain, trifling, desolating way.

Does man have moral right to change, or make up a name, to call His Creator by?  Does man have a moral right to cover up the Name of His Creator in the holy Scriptures, with a title such as "the LORD"?  For someone to do either of the above, would be one way of  transgressing the third of the Ten Commandments.  Also, Dt. 4:2 says,

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.  Compare Rev. 22:18.  So we see that man does not have the right to diminish from Yahweh's Word by removing His Name and adding a title.

Isa. 42:8 says, "I am Yahweh: that is my Name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."  A graven image is something that men make with their hands and then worship.  Jehovah is a name that men have made up, and now they are worshipping the Creator with this name.  Yahweh cannot give His glory or praise to a man made name or pronunciation such as Jehovah.

Ex. 3:15 says, "And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Yahweh, God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my Name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." Would Yahweh declare that His Name is a memorial to all generations and then allow His Name to be lost?  The pronunciation of the Name of Yahweh has never really been lost, it is still a memorial for us today.

In Ps. 96:10 we are commanded, "Say among the heathen, Yahweh reigneth:" All religions have names of dieties that they call upon and serve and they are very zealous to promote the names of these false gods.  How much more zealous should we who know the one true God be to promote His Name in all the earth.  How would the Christian God be viewed if it were to be said that, His Names pronunciation has been lost and He has not revealed it?  All Names in Hebrew are pronounced, even the devils name Satan.  So whenever you are reading the KJV Bible or most other English Bibles and you see the capitalized words "the LORD", "JEHOVAH", or "GOD", if you will simply enunciate "Yahweh", you will have the correct reading of the text, and you will be restoring your heavenly Creator's Name back to its rightful place in the Scriptures, or better yet, buy one of the many English versions of the Bible that use the Name of Yahweh rather than the substituted titles.

Moses said, " I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!"

Dt.32:3 New International Version (with Yahweh rather than the title "the LORD")

Several other Bible verses show the importance of the Name of Yahweh, see Joel 2:32;   Jere. 16:19-21; 10:25;  Ex. 9:16;  Ps. 113:1-3;  105:1;  Zeph. 3:9;  Isa. 52:6;  56:6,7;  Zech. 14:9;  Mal. 1:11;  2;1,2;  etc...  In the above Scriptures it is certainly true that the word "name" includes more than pronunciation.  But the Biblical definition of name does include pronunciation as many Bible verses show, see Ex. 15:3; Ps.83:18;  Gen.2:11,13,14,18;  4:19 etc...  The definition of the word name in the Scriptures includes authority, person, power, pronunciation, and spelling.

Mal. 4:4-6 says, "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Yahweh:  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."  The name Eliyah means, "my God is Yahweh" in Hebrew; thus we have a prophecy of a people who will arise in the last days and proclaim to the world that their God is Yahweh, and they will call upon the world to remember the forgotten law of Mosheh, with the statutes and the judgements.  This is Yahweh's last message of mercy to a lost world.  Compare also Rev. 14:6-12

Now let us look at the second part of the question that was asked in Prov. 30:4, "what is His Son's Name?"  This verse was written about 1000B.C., and it does not say, "what will be His Sons Name?", but "what is His Son's Name?"  This shows us that the Creator had a Son prior to Messiah being born as a man into this world, (compare Gen. 1:26).  But let us look at what Name the Son of Yahweh had when He was living as a man in this world.

In Acts 26:12-14 the Apostle Paul (formerly Saul), is recounting his conversion experience to King Agrippa, and he says, (Revised King James Version)

^"Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.  And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.' And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, 'I am Yahshua whom thou persecutest.'"  By Paul recounting that he heard the voice in Hebrew, it would keep on record for all times the true pronunciation of the Saviors Name.3  The Name that the apostle Paul proclaimed that there was salvation in, was the Hebrew Name Yahshua that the Savior Himself revealed to him.

In Luke 1:26-31 an angel named Gabriel was sent to a young virgin named Mary and he told her, "behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His Name Yahshua."  Later an angel told her betrothed husband Joseph the same thing.  Mt. 1:21 says, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His Name Yahshua: for he shall save his people from their sins." RKJV.  There is a play on words in the verse in Matt. that is possible only in Hebrew.4  Many early church fathers testify that the books of Matthew and Hebrews were originally written in Hebrew.5

We see from the above that the Name was spoken in Hebrew to various individuals.  I have quoted from the Revised King James Version of the Bible which uses the Hebrew Name Yahshua for the Son of Yahweh.  But is it possible that the original pronunciation of our Messiah's Name was Jesus, Yeshua or maybe some other Name?  Consider the reference sources below.

Jesus. Gr. Iesous, equivalent to the Heb.Yehoshua, “Joshua”...  SDA Bible Commentary on Matt. 1:21

This quote above is typical of most scholarly reference sources which will list the Name of the Savior in Greek as Iesous and in Hebrew as Yehoshua.  However other sources show the Name of the Savior spelled in Greek and Hebrew with the Yah sylable at the beginning.  For example:

The Anchor Bible Vol.26 p.2 says, "Jesus.  The word is the Greek rendering of a well-known Hebrew name.  It was Yahoshu first, then by inner Hebrew phonetic change it became Yoshua, and by a still later northern dialectal shift, Yeshua."

In the Emphatic Diaglott by Ben Wilson (1863) on page 897 under the name Jesus, he spells the Name of the Savior in Greek as "Iasoue". 

I list the above to show that the Name of the Savior can be and has been spelled in Greek and Hebrew with the Yah sylable at the beginning.  The name of the Old Testament man, Joshua son of Nun, has the same Name as the Messiah of the New Testament, as is evidenced by the fact that both names are spelled the same in Greek writings.  In the 1655 KJV in Acts 7:45 and Hebrew 4:8 we see the name of the OT man Joshua spelled as Jesus.  The reason for this is that the translators were reading from a Greek manuscript that had spelled the name of the son of Nun, as Iesous, and being that this is the same way the Messiah's Name is spelled, (in most Greek manuscripts), they wrote it as Jesus in the English translations.  So this shows that both men had the same name.

In Num. 13:8,16 we see that the original name of the son of Nun was Hoshea(Strongs#1954), which means "deliverer" in Hebrew, Moses changed Hoshea's name by adding a yod to the beginning of his name, thereby making it Yahoshua#3091.  The letter yod at the beginning of the name is an abbreviation for Yahweh, thus the Name Yahoshua means, "Yahweh's deliverer".  The name Yahoshua was shortened to Yahshua in time, as is evidenced by Neh. 8:17(Heb).  Consider also the quote below.

A Dictionary of the Bible by James Hastings, vol. 2 p. 779. "Joshua- The Name.- 1. The English form Joshua is a abbreviation of the Heb. yod, hey, waw, shin, waw, ayin (only in Dt.3:21, Jg.2:7) or yod, hey, waw, shin, ayin ( the usual form, e.g. Ex. 17:9, Dt. 1:38 etc.,1Ki.16:34), later abbreviated to yod, shin, waw, ayin (of Joshua himself, Neh. 8:17) in order to avoid, it is said, the sequence of the vowels o,u."
This quote shows Yahshua to be an "abbreviation" of Yahoshua.

ibid p.289 says, "The yod thus indicates the tetragrammaton (or its abbreviation yod, hey)."

The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary on the Name Joshua says, "...1. A son of Nun of the tribe of Ephraim (Num 13:8, 16). Except for Jochebed, Moses’ mother, Joshua was the first OT person to bear a name compounded with the divine name Yahweh."

The Hodder and Stoughton Illustrated Bible Dictionary p. 596 shows the English name JOSHUA pronounced as (JAH shoo uh)...  

The Jews have a taboo against saying the short form of the Name "Ya", so they usually will substitute "Ye", as is shown by the quote from Prof. Anson Rainey, earlier in this article.  Being that both the Names' of the Son of Nun and the Messiah mean, Yahweh's Salvation, their Names would be Yashua, and not Yeshua.  All native English speaking Hebrew scholars had to learn Hebrew from the Hebrew speaking Jews originally, and thus most Hebrew Scholars have unknowingly inherited the Jewish taboo against pronouncing the short form of the Saviors Name "Ya".

In approximately 150A.D., a man named Aquila translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek and His work was used in Origens Hexapla that was completed around the year 270A.D.  In Aquila's translation he spelled the Hebrew Name Yahoshua as Iesoua in Greek which would be Yeshua in English.  This can be seen in Dt. 1:38 of Origen's Hexapla.  Even though Aquila followed the Jewish practice of substituting an e in the first sylable rather than an a, his transliteration just shows that the second part of the son of Nun's name,  shua, can be written in the Greek as soua rather than the usual sous.

The above references show that it is possible to spell the Hebrew Name Yahshua, in Greek as, Iasoua, which would be Yahshua in English.

Having shown that the Messiah's Name was and still is Yahoshua or in the short form Yahshua,  I would like to look at whether it is important to use the correct form or not.  The Fathers Name is in the Sons Name, so according to the third commandment we should not corrupt the Son's Name, pronunciation or meaning in any way.  The Name Yahshua means, the self-existant One's salvation.  Because Yah means self-existance or eternal in Hebrew, Strong's #3050, 3068.

In the Scriptures we see over and over the importance of names, and even small changes in ones name, were significant, in that it changed the whole meaning of the name.  For example, in Gen. 17:5 Abram's name was changed to Abraham.  Abram means "high father" whereas Abraham means "father of many nations".  In Gen. 17:15 Sarai's name was changed to Sarah.  Sarai means "dominative", whereas Sarah means "a mistress, female noble".  There was an angel in heaven named Lucifer in Latin(Heylel,Heb.) which means "brightness" in English, but Yahweh called this angel Satan, in Zech. 3:2, which means, "opponent, adversary".  Many other places in the Scriptures show the importance of Names, as the name stands for someone's character.  If Yahweh was so particular about the names of mere men and angel's, how much more particular would He be about His Own Name and that of His Son?

The short form of the Father's Name "Yah" is in the Son's Name as is seen from the above.  If someone covers the short form of Yah with "Je" or "Ye" he has effectually covered up his Fathers Name, Yah.  According to the third commandment this should not be done. 

Most people have accepted the Name Jesus unknowingly and truly believe that this is the Saviors true Name and pronunciation.  And Yahweh "winks at ignorance" it says in Acts 17:30, but not at knowing disobedience. Our only course of safety is in obedience to the truth, 1Pet. 1:22.

The cover-up of the Father and Son's Names are errors that have been in the church for over 2000 years now, but time does not make error truth nor truth error.  Error is still error no matter how long it has been practiced, and truth is still truth no matter how long it has been ignored.  The church should strive to come out of all error and into Truth.  John 8:32

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Yahshua, giving thanks to God, even the Father by Him.  Col.3:17                                               

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: That at the Name of Yahshua every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Yahshua Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Phil.2:9-11.  Notice, every tongue will confess Yahshua Messiah is Lord.  It is the Person of the Savior that we are to worship but all persons have names and the pronunciation of the name identifies the person, and in many cases their character also.

The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Yahshua, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  Rom. 10:8-10

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Yahshua Messiah for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Acts 2:38

Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the Name of Yahshua Messiah of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole...  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.  Acts 4:10,12.  Jesus is a different name from that of Yahshua, they are spelled and pronounced differently.  Both Names might stand for the same person in many peoples minds, but one is the true Name and the other is a corruption of the true name.

When they heard this, they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Yahshua.  Acts 19:5

Dear friend, have you confessed that Yahshua Messiah is Lord?  Have you been baptized in His Name for the remission of your sins?  Remember there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," Eph. 4:5.  This study is intended to help you in your search for truth, if you are convinced that there is truth in the above information, I would recommend that you act upon your conviction and obtain one of the many English versions of the Bible that have the Names of Yahweh and Yahshua restored in them, and begin to let the world know that, "Yahweh reingeth", Ps.96:10.  If you have any further questions do feel free to contact the address below.

Peace and Blessings in Yahshua Messiah's Name,

For more information contact:

The Lankapalem Assembly of Yahweh

Attn:  Tony B. Suckla

W.G. Dt., A.P. 534266

S. India

91-8814-52402

yahweh@vsnl.com

www.sevendayweek.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes

1.  Theological Dict.of the Old Testament Vol. V p. 501.  “a. orthography.  In the Massoretic Text, YHWH is an example of a qere perpetuum:  the consonants are supplied with the vowels of the spoken form adonay, or, if adonay preceded, with the vowels of elohim, without indication of the appropriate consonants in the margin.  The impossible form yehowah (Eng."Jehovah") came into being when Renaissance Christians either failed to recognize or chose to ignore the Masoretic convention.  The Massoretes did not however, supply the precise vowel points required for their pronunciation, which would have yielded the form yahowah, this form would have violated the very taboo they sought to observe if the first syllable had contained an a vowel.  They therefore wrote yehowah with the most colorless vowel in their system.  The writing yehowih for elohim similarly does not violate the taboo.  These writings thus contain indirect evidence that the first syllable of the Tetragammaton did not contain e or a similar vowel.”

ibib. p.512 "Since the Hebrew verbal system dictates the ending e, we can conclude that the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton in the Biblical period was Yahweh."

Unger's Bible Dictionary p.1177.  "Yahweh (yawe).   The Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH) traditionally pronounced Jehovah is now known to be correctly vocalized yahwe.  new inscriptional evidence from the second and first millennia B.C. point toward this fact... The name Yahwe has been found to be unique to Israel and has not been verified as the name of any deity outside Israel."

2. The Strong's Enhanced Lexicon says, (on the title Yahh)

3050  { yaw}

AV - LORD 48, JAH 1; 49  GK - 3363 { 

1)   Jah (Jehovah in the shortened form)

1a)   the proper name of the one true God

1b)  used in many compounds

1b1)  names beginning with the letters ‘Je’

             1b2)   names ending with ‘iah’ or ‘jah’

The Strong's Enhanced Lexicon takes the above information from the Gesenius Lexicon and the Smith's Bible Dictionary.  The Strong's Enhanced Lexicon is used in various Bible CD's such as the Online Bible CD and the SDA Bible Commentary CD.

3.  (The information in note 3 and 5 is largely taken from the introduction to the Hebraic-Roots Version "New Testament" translated by James Trimm, and published by the Society for the Advancement of Nazarene Judaism, this version of the New Testament can be ordered online at: nazarene.net/hrv)

Some scholars have proposed that the Jews lost their Hebrew language, replacing it with Aramaic during the Babylonian captivity.  The error of this position becomes obvious.  The Jewish people had spent 400 years in captivity in Egypt (Ex. 12:40-41; Acts 7:6), yet they did not stop speaking Hebrew and begin speaking Egyptian, why should they exchange Hebrew for Aramaic after only seventy years (Jer. 29:10; Dan. 9:2) in Babylonian captivity?  Upon return from the Babylonian captivity it was realized that a small minority could not speak "the language of the Judah" (Neh. 13:23-31; 2Kn. 18:26), so drastic measures were taken to abolish these marriages to maintain the purity of he Jewish people and language (Ezra 10:3-19).  Also the post-captivity books (Zech., Hag., Mal., Neh., Ezra, and Esther) are written in Hebrew rather than Aramaic.

The first century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37C.E.-100C.E.) testifies to the fact that Hebrew was the language of first century Jews. Moreover, he testifies that Hebrew, and not Greek, was the language of his place and time. Josephus gives us the only first
hand account of the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. According to Josephus, the Romans had to have him translate the call to the Jews to surrender into "their own language" (Wars 5:9:2).  Josephus gives us a point-blank statement regarding the language of his people during his time:

I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks,
and understanding the elements of the Greek language although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own language, that I cannot pronounce Greek with
sufficient exactness: for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations.(Ant. 20:11:2)

Thus, Josephus makes it clear that first century Jews could not even speak or understand Greek, but spoke "their own language." Confirmation of Josephus's claims has been found by Archaeologists. The Bar Kokhba coins are one example. These coins were struck by Jews during the Bar Kokhba revolt (c. 132 C.E.). All of these coins bear only Hebrew inscriptions. Countless other inscriptions found at excavations of the Temple Mount, Masada and various Jewish tombs, have revealed first century Hebrew inscriptions. (taken from, Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus;  David Bivin and Roy Blizzard Jr.;  1984; pp.55-68)

Even more profound evidence that Hebrew was a living language during the first century may be found in ancient Documents from about that time, which have been discovered in Israel. These include the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Bar Kokhba letters.

The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of over 40,000 fragments of more than 500 scrolls dating from 250 B.C.E . to 70 C.E.. Theses Scrolls are primarily in Hebrew and Aramaic. A large number of the "secular scrolls" (those which are not Bible manuscripts) are in Hebrew.

The Bar Kokhba letters are letters between Simon Bar Kokhba and his army, written during the Jewish revolt of 132 C.E.. These letters were discovered by Yigdale Yadin in 1961 and are almost all written in Hebrew and Aramaic. Two of the letters are written in
Greek, both were written by men with Greek names to Bar Kokhba. One of the two Greek letters actually apologizes for writing to Bar Kokhba in Greek, saying "the letter is written in Greek, as we have no one who knows Hebrew here."

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kokhba letters not only include first and second century Hebrew documents, but give an even more significant evidence in the dialect of that Hebrew. The dialect of these documents was not the Biblical Hebrew of the Tenach (Old Testament), nor was it the Mishnaic Hebrew of the Mishna (c. 220C.E.). The Hebrew of these documents is colloquial, it is a fluid living language in a state of flux somewhere in the evolutionary process from Biblical to Mishnaic Hebrew. Moreover, the Hebrew of the Bar Kokhba letters represents Galilean Hebrew (Bar Kokhba was a
Galilean), while the Dead Sea Scrolls give us an example of Judean Hebrew. Comparing the documents shows a living distinction of geographic dialect as well, a sure sign that Hebrew was not a dead language. 

So it becomes evident that during the first century, Hebrew remained the language of the Jews living in Judah and to a lesser extent in Galilee.  Aramaic remained a secondary language of the Jews living in Judah and to a lesser extent in Galilee.  Aramaic remained the language of commerce.

4.  The Interpreter's Bible Vol. 7 p.255, says on Mt. 1:21, "21.  Jesus. for he shall save:  The play on words is possble in Hebrew but not in Aramaic."

5.  Papias (150-170C.E.)

Matthew composed the words in the Hebrew dialect, and each translated as he was able.

(quoted by Eusebius Eccl.Hist. 3:39)

Ireneus (170 C.E.)

Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect.

(Irenaeus; Against Heresies 3:1)

Origen (c. 210 C.E.)

The first [Gospel] is written according to Matthew, the same that was once a tax collector, but afterwards an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah, who having published it for the Jewish believers, wrote it in Hebrew.

(quoted by Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 6:25)

Eusebius (c. 315 C.E.)

Matthew also, having first proclaimed the Gospel in Hebrew, when on the point of going also to the other nations, committed it to writing in his native tongue, and thus supplied the want of his presence to them by his writings.

(Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 3:24)

Pantaenus... penetrated as far as India, where it is reported that he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had been delivered before his arrival to some who had the knowledge of  Messiah, to whom Bartholomew, one of the emissaries, as it is said, had proclaimed, and left them the writing of Matthew in Hebrew letters.

(Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 5:10)

Epiphanius (370 C.E.)

They [the Nazarenes] have the Gospel according to Matthew quite complete in Hebrew, for this Gospel is certainly still preserved among them as it was first written, in Hebrew
letters.
(Epiphanius; Panarion 29:9:4)

Jerome (382 C.E.)

"Matthew, who is also Levi, and from a tax collector came to be an emissary, first of all evangelists composed a Gospel of Messiah in Judea in the Hebrew language and letters, for the benefit of those of the circumcision who had believed, who translated it into Greek is not sufficiently ascertained.  Furthermore, the Hebrew itself is preserved to this day in the library at Caesarea, which the martyr Pamphilus so diligently collected. I also was allowed by the Nazarenes who use this volume in the Syrian city of Borea to copy it. In which is to be remarked that, wherever the evangelist... makes use of the testimonies of the Old Scripture, he does not follow the authority of the seventy translators [the Greek Septuagint], but that of the Hebrew."

(Lives of Illustrious Men )

"Pantaenus found that Bartholomew, one of the twelve emissaries, had there [India] preached the advent of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah according to the Gospel of Matthew, which was written in Hebrew letters, and which, on returning to Alexandria, he brought with him." (De Vir. 3:36)

Isho'dad (850 C.E.)

His [Matthew's] book was in existence in Caesarea of  Palestine, and everyone acknowledges that he wrote it with his hands in Hebrew...

(Isho'dad Commentary on the Gospels)

Other "church fathers" have testified to the Semitic origin of at least one of Paul's epistles. These "church fathers" claim that Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews was translated into Greek from a Hebrew original, as the following quotes demonstrate:

Clement of Alexandria (150 - 212 C.E.)

In the work called Hypotyposes, to sum up the matter briefly he [Clement of Alexandria] has given us abridged accounts of all the canonical Scriptures,... the Epistle to the Hebrews he asserts was written by Paul, to the Hebrews, in the Hebrew tongue; but that it was carefully translated by Luke, and published among the Greeks.

(Clement of Alexandria; Hypotyposes; referred to by Eusebius in Eccl. Hist. 6:14:2

Eusebius (315 C.E.)

For as Paul had addressed the Hebrews in the language of his country; some say that the evangelist Luke, others that Clement, translated the epistle.

(Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 3:38:2-3)
Jerome (382)

He (Paul) being a Hebrew wrote in Hebrew, that is, his own tongue and most fluently while things which were eloquently written in Hebrew were more eloquently turned into Greek
(Lives of Illustrious Men, Book 5)