The Divine Name

Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bible in Pictures 1860 001

In the Bible, God is designated by three names:

• El which can take the form of Eloha or Elohîms. It is a word common to all Semitic peoples. Elohîms is the plural and the most commonly used form.

• Adonai, plural of Adon, means Master. It is translated as Kyrios in Greek, Dominus in Latin, and Lord in English.

• YHVH, (יהוה) or Tetragrammaton, is the proper name of God. It is composed, from right to left, of the following consonants: yōḏ (י), hē (ה), wāw (ו), and hē (ה). It appears in many names in the abbreviated form Yah or Yahou.

What Maria Valtorta says

The original pronunciation of the sacred Tetragrammaton is Jehovah, but it evolved into the Galilean or Judean pronunciations, which are reflected in current interpretations.

The Divine Name in the Work

In the work of Maria Valtorta, Jehovah, in its various forms, is used in 39 chapters. Maria Valtorta even notes the pronunciation of Jesus:

"Come now. The trumpets are announcing that the time has come. Let us go and praise Yahweh with veneration" (Jesus pronounces it this way, with the "g" becoming long: a very melodic Sgiéveee, with the final "e"s very open as if it were "a" while the one following the "g" is very closed).

It is a similar pronunciation used by an inhabitant of Ashkelon when talking about God: "I know that God exists and His name is Jehovah".

Judas, perjuring himself, also gives a clue:

"I swear it by Jehovah!» and he turns pale in pronouncing the Name of God thus. He trembles, stammers, he does not succeed in saying it as it is usually pronounced. It sounds as if he says a J, and H and a V, all drawled and with an aspiration at the end. Something like: Jeocveh. In short, his way of pronouncing it is very strange."

For his indications, it should be remembered that Maria Valtorta was Italian-speaking: some letters are not pronounced as in English.

The Divine Name in the dictations

The Holy Spirit, through Maria Valtorta in the commentaries on the Apocalypse, describes the genesis of the Divine Name and its meaning. He confirms, along with Tradition, the original pronunciation, Jehovah. He explains its deterioration due to the customs of the time:

""He who is" is the ancient Name of God, the one with which God named Himself for Moses on the mountain, the one taught by Moses to his People so that it could call upon God. All of God's eternity, power, and wisdom flashes forth in this name.

He who is: eternity. God has no past. He will have no future. He is. The eternal present. [...]

He who is: infinite power.

What thing or person could be through itself? None. [...]

He who is: most perfect wisdom, uncreated, which has not needed self‑training or training by teachers in order to be. [...]

"He who is," the ancient name of God (through excessive veneration, arising spontaneously in the selfhood of men aware of their condition as being fallen from Grace and deserving of God's severity‑that was the time when for men God was the terrible God of Sinai, the Judge prepared to avenge) was soon replaced by the other: Adonai. And this one‑both because of different pronunciations, as observed in every nation at all times, from one region to another, and because it was used too rarely for the command 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain' to be applied integrally‑provoked an alteration of the first pronunciation, "Yahweh." But in Galilee, in which Emmanuel would spent almost all his life as God among men, in keeping with his prophetic name of Emanuel, and from which He would move to spread the Good News‑He, who was the Word of God made Man‑and to begin his mission as Savior and Redeemer, which would end on Golgotha‑that name, taught by the Eternal to Moses, kept its initial sound: Yahweh.

And in the name of the Son of God made Man, in the name which God Himself imposed on his Incarnate Son and which the Angel of the glad tidings had communicated to the Immaculate Virgin, for those able to read and understand there is an echo of that name, and the Word who bore it taught his followers again the true word‑Yahweh‑to name God, to name his Most Holy Father, from whom the Son is begotten and from the two of whom the Holy Spirit proceeds. And He proceeded at the proper time to beget Christ the Savior in the womb of the Virgin."

The root of the name Jesus

In the Book of Azariah, the angel confirms "Jehovah" when explaining the Hebrew name of Jesus, "Yehoshua":

"[...] In being Jesus Christ, has He perhaps ceased to be God? No, He has not ceased to be God, but He has also taken on human nature, becoming a true man, in order to be the Savior that is, Yeshua. [...] The learned explain that this means 'Savior.' But, soul of mine, it also means something much more powerful! It contemplates and compares the Name of God, as the Hebrews said it, and the name of the Son of Mary. They have the same root, to signify the same origin and nature. Jesus, then, means God, remains God. And it means salvation, with the ending 'shua.' But descent‑indeed, his proceeding from God the Father‑is confirmed by the root of the name."

Yehoshua is the contraction of "Yeho" (יְהוֹ) which represents the name of God in its first two syllables (יהוח) and of "shua" (שוע) meaning "a cry for help!" that is a cry uttered by someone asking for rescue.

Notable points

The respect due to the Divine Name

It is impossible to know exactly how the Tetragrammaton was pronounced in biblical times because it was considered ineffable in reference to God's commandment:

"You shall not take the name of YHWH your God in vain".

It was never used in public readings. It was most often replaced by Adonai or HaShem (the Name). This respect due to the divine name is known to Maria Valtorta. James, Jesus' cousin, recalls:

"We are good Israelites and we fear God so much that we can hardly mention his Name. And it seems a blasphemous thought to us that while for a man of the chosen people, for a man son of God it is almost impossible to pro­nounce the blessed Name and he has to create substitutes to men­tion the name of his God, Satan may dare to harm God."

This veneration is known to us: swearing is banned and blasphemy was long punished. This did not prevent proclamations like "God wills it!" or "Thank God!". However, it does not appear that the prohibition always existed in Judaism, at least outside public liturgy. The Masoretes in the Middle Ages added vowels to the Tetragrammaton to facilitate its reading: "Jehovah". One does not facilitate the reading of an unpronounceable name. Moreover, the widespread use of "theophoric" names is incompatible with this prohibition. They include the ineffable name in its form Yah or Yahou. Didier Fontaine noted that the theophoric names beginning with the Divine Name were pronounced Yo (Yého) at the start and Ya at the ending:

Obadiah ('Obadyah), Adonias (Adonyahou), Amasias (Amaşyahou), Ananias (Hananyah), Athaliah ('Atalyah), Elijah (Élyahou), Hezekiah (Hizqyahou), Gedaliah (Guedalyahou), Isaiah (Iesha'yahou), Josiah (Ioshyahou), Jeremiah (Irmeyahou), Jehoiakim (Yekhonya), Matthew (Matyah) or Matthias (Matityah), Nehemiah (Nehèmyah), Ahaziah (Ahazyahou), Uzziah ('Ouzyahou), Zedekiah (Sidpyahou), Zephaniah (Şephanyah), Tobiah (Tobyah), Uriah (Ouryah), Zechariah (Zekharyah).

We can doubt that these names and their meanings were often mixed in altercations involving insults and threats.

The word "Alleluia", introduced after the exile, literally means "Praise Yah!" and names God either by his first and last letter or by his first syllable, supporting the hypotheses of pronunciation (Jehovah or Yahweh).

The very name of Jesus YEHOSHUAH (Yeho + Shua) includes almost entirely the Divine Name YEHO..AH as twice noted in the work of Maria Valtorta.

In the Catholic Church it is recommended not to pronounce "Yahweh" in biblical texts but to use instead the expression "the Lord" following the use of the Vulgate, in line with the Septuagint, where the Tetragrammaton is rendered by Κύριος (Kyrios, Lord). However, the Jerusalem Bible uses the name Yahweh no less than 5,796 times, but the Nova Vulgata has resumed the Jewish liturgical use by replacing it with "Dominus" (Lord). This practice is also followed in the Ecumenical Translation of the Bible (TOB). However, if it is highly inappropriate to pronounce it publicly, it would have been equally inappropriate to write it, which argues for a late and limited usage.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church similarly states that the Name of God (of Jesus, of the Virgin, of the saints) is holy and must be respected according to how it is used because it is powerful.

The term "the Eternal" is also quite commonly used in the Protestant tradition. It is also found in the Work of Maria Valtorta alongside the term "the Most High".

Points under debate

Jehovah or Yahweh

Until the 20th century, exegetes initially translated the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah reproducing the usage of the Masoretes (those who conduct a critical study of the Bible). It is now considered obsolete on the grounds that it would be formed by the juxtaposition of the Tetragrammaton and its reading substitute, Adonai. It appears precisely in an ideogram merging the two names in the Chouraqui Bible.

It is now replaced by Yahweh under the authority of Hebraists. However, the Bible of Canon Augustin Crampon (1894-1904), a renowned exegete and author of the first "scientific" Catholic Bible, retains the word "Jehovah".

In the work of Maria Valtorta, though contemporary to this new usage, the Tetragrammaton is translated, in the original Italian, as Geovè, Geovà, Geavè or Javé (Jehovèh, Jehovàh, Jehavèh or Yahvèh). Some transcriptions are closer to Jehovah and others to Yahweh. The two pronunciations therefore seem to coexist.

The work confirms several times that the proper Name of God is indeed Jehovah, but that its pronunciation varied according to regions. On the margin of an episode, Maria Valtorta notes:

Jehovèh: “The Galileans, whose dialect is softer, pronounce ‘Djéhovè’, with a very soft ‘dj’, almost a ‘sgi’. The Judeans: ‘Yavè’, hard, sharp”.

Accents have an influence. It is known that in the Bible, the term shibboleth (the ear of grain) served to differentiate the origins of fighters.

Everything depends on the open or closed vocalization of the vowels which can yield results ranging from o to a passing through all intermediaries, including è, as well as on the long or short pronunciation as found, for example, in the so-called "Marseille" or "pointu" accent.

In modern times, some readers of Maria Valtorta fearing that the use of the term Jehovah might harm the work through association with the "Jehovah's Witnesses," have preferred to use the term Yahweh, which is an interpretation, but not a misunderstanding.

Further reading

The Divine Name is cited in the following episodes of the Work:

• Volume 1, GRM 10 - GRM 16 - GRM 59 - GRM 73 - GRM 78
• Volume 2, GRM 132
• Volume 3, GRM 191 - GRM 194 - GRM 197 - GRM 202 - GRM 218
• Volume 4, GRM 248 - GRM 281
• Volume 5, GRM 320 - GRM 324 - GRM 349
• Volume 6, GRM 368 - GRM 388 - GRM 409 - GRM 410 - GRM 421 - GRM 422
• Volume 7, GRM 438 - GRM 464 - GRM 475 - GRM 476 – GRM 477 – GRM 483 - GRM 487
• Volume 8, GRM 507 - GRM 534 - GRM 535 - GRM 547 - GRM 549
• Volume 9, GRM 562 - GRM 598
• Volume 10, GRM 609 - GRM 615 - GRM 625 - GRM 631 - GRM 632 - GRM 645.
• Read the work online.
• Search in the Valtorta Index.
• Discuss on the Maria Valtorta Forum.

People who analyze the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

Person who analyzes the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

The Gospel as Revealed to Me (Maria Valtorta).