The Divine Name: How YHWH Was Written and Read

The personal name of God appears more than 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible, written with four consonants — YHWH — and, by long-standing Jewish practice, never pronounced aloud. Readers substituted Adonai, “the Lord,” a custom English translations still preserve in small capitals.

This article will explore the Tetragrammaton’s history, how the form “Jehovah” arose from a medieval misreading, and what scholars believe about the name’s original pronunciation. (Placeholder article — full research to come.)