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:

"Behold, the trumpets announce that the hour has come. Let us go with reverence to praise Geové." (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 he exists and they call him Jeové." ().

Judas, perjuring himself, also gives a clue:

"I swear by Jehovah!" and he takes on an earthy complexion when pronouncing the name of God this way. He trembles, stammers, no longer knows how to say it as it is ordinarily pronounced. He seems to say a j, an h, a very dragged v, I would say ending in a breath. I would reconstruct it as: Jeocvèh. In short, his pronunciation is strange.".

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

The Divine Name in the dictations

The Holy Spirit, in his 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:

“‘I AM’ is the ancient Name of God, the one by which God designated himself to Moses on the mountain, the one Moses taught to his people so they could name God. All eternity, the power, and the wisdom of God shine forth in this name.

I AM: eternity: God had no past, He will have no future. He is eternal present. […]

I AM: infinite power. What thing or person could exist by itself, out of nothing? None. […]

I AM: the most perfect wisdom, uncreated, who neither needed self-formation nor the formation of masters to exist. […]

“I AM”, this ancient name of God was quickly replaced by another: Adonai, due to an excess of reverence spontaneously created in the spirit of men conscious of their fallen condition from Grace and deserving God’s severity; it was indeed the time when, for men, God was the terrible God of Sinai, the Judge ready to avenge. This name Adonai, both because of the observed pronunciation differences from region to region in all nations and at all times, and because it was used too rarely following the strict observance of the commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”, caused an alteration of the initial pronunciation: “Jehovah”. However, it preserved this original pronunciation in Galilee, where Emmanuel would spend almost all his life as God among men, known by his prophetic name Emmanuel, and from where he would travel to spread the Good News, he who was the Word of God made man, finally to undertake his Mission as Savior and Redeemer that would be fulfilled on Golgotha.

In the name of Son of God made man, in the name God himself imposed on his incarnate Son and that the angel of the joyful announcements communicated to the Immaculate Virgin, there is, for those who know how to read and understand, an echo of this name; the Word bearing it taught anew to his own the true word — Jehovah — to designate God, to designate the Father from whom the Son is begotten and from whom proceeds the Holy Spirit. It proceeds to engender, when the time comes, the saving Christ in the womb of the Virgin.

The root of the name Jesus

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

"Being Jesus Christ, did he cease to be God? No, he did not cease to be, but he came to assume human nature, truly becoming man to be the Savior, that is, Yehoshua. […] Scholars explain that this means Savior. But, my Soul, it also means something more powerful! Consider and compare the name of Mary's son with the name of God as the Hebrews pronounced it. They have the same root to signify the same origin and the same nature. Jesus therefore means God, still God. And it also means Savior by its second part: Oshua. However, his ancestry, more precisely his origin in 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" (Exodus 20:7).

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, almost to the point of not being able to say His Name. And to think that if the man of the chosen people, the son of God, can hardly pronounce the blessed Name and creates substitute terms to name his God, to think that Satan could dare to harm God, that seems to us a blasphemous thought."

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, EMV 10 - EMV 16 - EMV 59 - EMV 73 - EMV 78
• Volume 2, EMV 132
• Volume 3, EMV 191 - EMV 194 - EMV 197 - EMV 202 - EMV 218
• Volume 4, EMV 248 - EMV 281
• Volume 5, EMV 320 - EMV 324 - EMV 349
• Volume 6, EMV 368 - EMV 388 - EMV 409 - EMV 410 - EMV 421 - EMV 422
• Volume 7, EMV 438 - EMV 464 - EMV 475 - EMV 476 – EMV 477 – EMV 483 - EMV 487
• Volume 8, EMV 507 - EMV 534 - EMV 535 - EMV 547 - EMV 549
• Volume 9, EMV 562 - EMV 598
• Volume 10, EMV 609 - EMV 615 - EMV 625 - EMV 631 - EMV 632 - EMV 645.
• Read the work online in the 1985 translation.
• Read the work online in the 2016 translation
• 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 it was revealed to me (Maria Valtorta).