Pastors' Perspective: Why do Christians insist on believing in the name Jehovah, or Yehovah, proven to be false names? HaYAH Asher HaYAH is the proper translation. Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh is imperfect. The word אֶהְיֶה (’Ehyeh) is the imperfective form of הָיָה (hayah), 'to be', and owing to the peculiarities of Hebrew grammar means 'I AM' as in YAH (G. H. Parke-Taylor, YAHWEH the Divine Name in the Bible, 1975, Fortress Press, p. 51). The meaning of the longer phrase ’ehyeh ’ăšer ’ehyeh is debated, and Biblical Hebrew did not distinguish between grammatical tenses. Hayah, 'to be', which in Modern Hebrew indicates the future tense 'I will be' present. Accordingly, the whole phrase can be rendered in English not only as 'I AM Who I AM' as in Hebrew “HaYAH Asher HaYAH,” but the word "Ashar" can be equally 'Asher,' indicating "who," "What", or "That." Therefore, the word אֲשֶׁר (ăšer or Asher) is a relative pronoun whose meaning depends on the immediate context, therefore 'who', 'which', or 'where', or ‘that’ are all possible translations of Asher or Ashar. Ashar and Asher can be interchangeable having common consonants. "I AM" is also used without a predicate nominative, which is not very common in Koine Greek, thus it is generally interpreted as a self-declaration by YAHSHUA, identifying Himself as God, that is I AM [YAH]. In John 8:24 YAHSHUA states: "For unless you believe that I AM [YAH], you will die in your sins", and later the crowd attempts to stone Him in response to His statement in John 8:58: "Before Abraham was, I AM". “I AM” means YAH, which the Jews clearly identified that He was telling them that He is their God. Many other translations, including the American Standard Version, have rendered John 8:24 as something like "For unless you believe that I am [He], you will die in your sins", which does not identify Christ as the preexistent I AM [YAH], the very One Who revealed Himself to Moses. The former being ambiguous and the latter more specific to His divinity. Because of this seeming ambiguity, some consider the phrase in John 8:58 to be grammatically different from that in John 8:24, as the copulative verb can be used with any predicative expression and not only a predicate nominative. Unfortunately, explanations of John 8:58 generally depend on one’s theology and not the sentence structure anomaly according to Greek grammar. Therefore, the unique expression of the Tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH) is a verbal cognate noun derived from היה (hayah), the Hebrew copulative otherwise known as the verb 'to be'. (I AM=YAH=to be), and this has a wider meaning in Halleluyah, Praise YAH. The growing consensus among scholars is that the historical vocalization of the Tetragrammaton at the time of the redaction of the Torah (6th century BCE) is most likely YaHaWaH, which means, “I AM Ever-present.” This is why the name YAHSHUA is consistent with the name YAH, not Yeh, as in Yeshua. The erroneous name Jehovah, or Yehovah, is a hybrid name with the consonants of God’s actual name YHWH with the vowels of Eloah (e-o-a) added producing a concoction, or misnomer, YeHoWaH, or (Latinized to YHVH) Jehovah.
Pastors' Perspective: Why do Christians insist on believing in the name Jehovah, or Yehovah, proven to be false names?
HaYAH Asher HaYAH is the proper translation. Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh is imperfect. The word אֶהְיֶה (’Ehyeh) is the imperfective form of הָיָה (hayah), 'to be', and owing to the peculiarities of Hebrew grammar means 'I AM' as in YAH (G. H. Parke-Taylor, YAHWEH the Divine Name in the Bible, 1975, Fortress Press, p. 51). The meaning of the longer phrase ’ehyeh ’ăšer ’ehyeh is debated, and Biblical Hebrew did not distinguish between grammatical tenses. Hayah, 'to be', which in Modern Hebrew indicates the future tense 'I will be' present. Accordingly, the whole phrase can be rendered in English not only as 'I AM Who I AM' as in Hebrew “HaYAH Asher HaYAH,” but the word "Ashar" can be equally 'Asher,' indicating "who," "What", or "That." Therefore, the word אֲשֶׁר (ăšer or Asher) is a relative pronoun whose meaning depends on the immediate context, therefore 'who', 'which', or 'where', or ‘that’ are all possible translations of Asher or Ashar. Ashar and Asher can be interchangeable having common consonants. "I AM" is also used without a predicate nominative, which is not very common in Koine Greek, thus it is generally interpreted as a self-declaration by YAHSHUA, identifying Himself as God, that is I AM [YAH]. In John 8:24 YAHSHUA states: "For unless you believe that I AM [YAH], you will die in your sins", and later the crowd attempts to stone Him in response to His statement in John 8:58: "Before Abraham was, I AM". “I AM” means YAH, which the Jews clearly identified that He was telling them that He is their God. Many other translations, including the American Standard Version, have rendered John 8:24 as something like "For unless you believe that I am [He], you will die in your sins", which does not identify Christ as the preexistent I AM [YAH], the very One Who revealed Himself to Moses. The former being ambiguous and the latter more specific to His divinity. Because of this seeming ambiguity, some consider the phrase in John 8:58 to be grammatically different from that in John 8:24, as the copulative verb can be used with any predicative expression and not only a predicate nominative. Unfortunately, explanations of John 8:58 generally depend on one’s theology and not the sentence structure anomaly according to Greek grammar. Therefore, the unique expression of the Tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH) is a verbal cognate noun derived from היה (hayah), the Hebrew copulative otherwise known as the verb 'to be'. (I AM=YAH=to be), and this has a wider meaning in Halleluyah, Praise YAH. The growing consensus among scholars is that the historical vocalization of the Tetragrammaton at the time of the redaction of the Torah (6th century BCE) is most likely YaHaWaH, which means, “I AM Ever-present.” This is why the name YAHSHUA is consistent with the name YAH, not Yeh, as in Yeshua. The erroneous name Jehovah, or Yehovah, is a hybrid name with the consonants of God’s actual name YHWH with the vowels of Eloah (e-o-a) added producing a concoction, or misnomer, YeHoWaH, or (Latinized to YHVH) Jehovah.