Working for the Word - a Bible translation podcast Part 2 - Pronouncing & Translating the Divine Name - The Beginning of the End for Saying God's Name
Jan 25, 2026
A deep dive into why the divine name became unpronounceable. Short segments trace vowel-less Hebrew, cultural trauma, and legal moments that pushed titles over names. Ancient translations, Jewish sects, and Hellenistic philosophy all get attention. The narrative follows how ritual, exile, and scribal practice gradually silenced the name.
30:24
Pronunciation Uncertain Due To Missing Vowels
- We cannot know with certainty how God's name was originally pronounced because ancient Hebrew lacked vowels and people avoided speaking the name early on.
- The common English "Yahweh" is an educated guess among several plausible reconstructions.
Trauma May Explain Silence About The Name
- Trauma from Yahweh's judged wrath may have led survivors to avoid mentioning his name to escape further calamity.
- That avoidance could evolve into using substitute titles and later be reinterpreted as reverence.
LXX Translates Blasphemy As Naming
- The Septuagint renders Hebrew verbs about blasphemy as simply "naming," showing a shift in meaning linked to the divine name's pronunciation.
- That translation choice likely influenced later attitudes against speaking the name.
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Intro
00:00 • 1min
Why We Can't Know God's Original Pronunciation
01:08 • 2min
Trauma, Avoidance, and the Shift to Titles
02:54 • 2min
Ad break
04:29 • 33sec
Leviticus 24.16: Naming Versus Blasphemy
05:02 • 3min
Philo and Alexandrian Influence Against Pronouncing the Name
08:24 • 59sec
Septuagint, Qumran, and the Growing Prohibition
09:23 • 53sec
Jeremiah and Historical Erasure of the Name
10:16 • 5min
Historical Periods When the Name Was Suppressed
15:08 • 2min
Seleucid Decrees, Maccabees, and Rabbinic Reaction
17:16 • 1min
Qumran's Strict Ban and Scribal Workarounds
18:36 • 2min
Rabbinic Silence and the End of Pronunciation
20:18 • 47sec
Philosophical Arguments That Undermined the Name
21:05 • 1min
Kurios in Christian Manuscripts and Nomina Sacra
22:22 • 4min
Pre-Christian Variants and the Question of Ya'o
26:20 • 2min
Gradual Distancing: The Elohistic Psalter Evidence
27:58 • 1min
Why the Name Was Silenced Over Centuries
29:24 • 49sec
Outro
30:13 • 10sec
#86463
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It’s important to recognize right up front that we simply do not know with absolute certainty how God’s name was originally pronounced. The common English pronunciation of Yahweh is an educated guess, and there are many other probable candidates such as Yahu, Yaho, and Yahuwah, but we’ll never know for sure how it sounded when God spoke it to Moses.
Two key things prevent us from knowing: (1) Hebrew was written without vowels for many centuries, so we’re left with only four consonants: YHWH, and (2) people started avoiding the pronunciation of God’s name long before Hebrew began to be written with vowels. And when the Hebrew Bible was finally written with vowels, artificial vowels were inserted into the spelling of God’s name in order to keep people from pronouncing it. So, in this chapter we’ll try to understand why—why did the Israelites go from swearing by Yahweh’s name, using it in prayer, song, and greetings to forbidding its use altogether?
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