The name of God in the Bible is known as the Hebrew alphabet YHWH (Tetragrammaton), which has been used primarily in the Masoretic text of the Jewish Bible and later in the standard Bibles of Christendom.
Therefore, many people around the world believe that the name of the God of the Bible is YHWH.
However, many archaeological finds have revealed that God's name is written in three letters, YHW in Hebrew and ΙΑΩ (Iota, Alpha, Omega) in Greek.
Archaeological excavations of God's name up until the most recent excavations in 2019 have shown us that ancient people knew and used God's name on a daily basis. So we, too, can know how to pronounce God's name.
Mount Ebal Lead Curse Tablet
In 2019, a Late Bronze Age lead curse tablet was discovered on Mount Ebal, the mountain of curse in the Bible.From December 2019 to January 2020, Scott Stripling's Mount Ebal Dump Salvage Team re-examined Adam Zertal’s 1980’s excavation dump piles at Joshua’s Altar on Mount Ebal and discovered the lead curse tablet in a wet sifter. Mount Ebal “Curse Tablet” Full Press Conference
This is one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the last 100 years because it is the oldest Hebrew document ever found and the oldest known reference to the proper name of God, dating to around 1300 BC.
In 2022, two epigraphers, Pieter Gert Van der Veen of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa, completed a tomographic scan of the Mount Ebal Curse Tablet, excavated in 2019, recovering the hidden inscriptions. All of the inscriptions inside were written on the same flat strip of lead, which was then folded into a square.
On it was written the three letters of God's name, "YHW," in Proto-Paleo-Hebrew script.
Cursed, cursed, cursed - cursed by the God YHW. You will die cursed.
Cursed you will surely die. |
The curse words are written in alphabetical Proto-Paleo-Hebrew script and date to the Late Bronze Age (1406-1100 BC).
There are four types of historical Hebrew script, and the lead curse tablet belongs to the oldest group, also known as Hieroglyphic-Hebrew or Proto-Paleo-Hebrew script.
- Four Types of Hebrew
- 19th century BC Hieroglyphic Hebrew invented by Joseph also known as Proto-Paleo-Hebrew.
- 12th century BC Paleo-Hebrew by Samuel
- 5th century BC Aramaic Hebrew by Ezra also known as Square Hebrew.
- 9th century AD Masoretic Hebrew (Hebrew with vowels) by Masoretes.
Daniel Vavrik of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and his colleagues acknowledge the accuracy of the raw data interpreted by Stripling's team.
- Joseph invented the first Hebrew alphabet, adopting Egyptian hieroglyphic symbols as the basis for the 22 hieroglyphic characters of the Hebrew alphabet. It has been proven that all of today's alphabets, including the English language, are directly derived from this original hieroglyphic Hebrew alphabet.
- The transition from hieroglyphic Hebrew to the Paleo-Hebrew script took place around 1050 BC at Naioth under the supervision and guidance of Samuel, and it was Samuel who standardized the Paleo-Hebrew script.
- The Paleo-Hebrew script was subsequently wiped out during the Babylonian Captivity, and was subsequently replaced by Aramaic Hebrew, also known as "square Hebrew", in 458 BC under the supervision and guidance of Ezra. Aramaic Hebrew is the script of the Dead Sea Scrolls and is the script used in modern Israel.
Archaeological Excavation of the Divine Name
The oldest known Hebrew document to date is a pottery shard (ostracon) from Khirbet Qeiyafa, dated to between 1010 and 923 BC.The Mount Ebal Curse Tablets are between 200 and 475 years older, dating to the period after the death of Moses and shortly after Joshua entered the land of Canaan. The curse tablet on Mount Ebal contained the name of God in three letters, "YHW," in Proto-Paleo-Hebrew script.
The name of God in the Hebrew Scriptures is known as the four letters Tetragrammaton, YHWH, although the earliest sources record God's name as three letters, YHW.
There are not many archaeological documents containing the four letters YHWH known as the Tetragrammaton, and the Tetragrammaton does not appear in Babylonian documents, either from the Neo-Babylonian period in the 7th century BC or the Old Babylonian period in the 20th century BC.
In contrast, many documents containing the three-letter name of God, YHW, have been excavated in Egypt and elsewhere. The oldest Hebrew document, the Mount Ebal Curse Tablet from the 14th century BC, excavated in 2019, also contains the three-letter name of the God YHW.
Egyptian Elephantine Papyrus
The Egyptian Elephantine Papyri and ostraca, dating to the 6th to 4th centuries BC, excavated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, consist of several thousand documents, including hundreds of papyri and pottery fragments written in hieratic and demotic Egyptian, Aramaic, Koine Greek, Latin, and Coptic.Important Aramaic papyri documents have been discovered at the fortified city on the island of Elephantine in the Nile River, which, among other things, describe the life of a group of Jewish mercenaries and their families who lived there in the 6th and 5th centuries BC.
The Elephantine community is thought to have been a group of Jew, Israelite, Samaritan and Aramaean refugees who fled to Egypt in the mid-7th or mid-6th century BC, probably at the time of the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions. In other words, they were a group of apostate Jews, Israelites, who were scattered from Judea and Samaria by God's judgment.
The Elephantine Papyri are older than all surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible and provide crucial insight into how Judaism was practiced in Egypt in the 5th century BC.
Around 411 BC, a small Jewish temple existed at Elephantine, which contained an altar for offering incense and animal sacrifices.
Additionally, the Papyri record that the Elephantine Jews had sent a letter to the high priest in Jerusalem asking for assistance in rebuilding the temple, and their petition expressed their pride in having a temple of YHW, that it demonstrates the temple is for the God of the Bible.
Although building a temple to YHW outside of Jerusalem as the center of the worship of the true God does not fit in with the requirements of the Law in Deuteronomy 12:13-14, ruins of smaller temples have been excavated in several Jewish-Israelite communities.
De 12:13-14
13 Watch out for yourself for fear you may offer up your burnt offerings in any other place you may see. 14 But in the place that YHW will choose in one of your tribes is where you should offer up your burnt offerings, and there you should do all that I am commanding you.
The Elephantine papyri also suggest that "the worship of the goddess continued during and after the Babylonian Captivity." The documents were written by a group of Jews living in Elephantine, near the Nubian border, whose religion is described as "similar to Iron Age II Judaism (950-586 BCE)."
The papyri indicate that the Jews worshiped Anat-Yahu, who is depicted as either the wife of YHW or a personified aspect of YHW.
Pronunciation of YHW
The Elephantine Papyri record the name of the Biblical God in three Aramaic letters, YHW, which can be pronounced Yaho, Yahu, Yeho, or Yehu.The pronunciation of Yaho changes to Yahu, Yeho, Yehu, Ya, Yo, etc. when it is incorporated into a person's name.
| YHW prefix | YHW Suffix |
| Jonathan Yaho nathan Yeho nathan Yo nathan | Jeremiah Yirme yahu Yirme ya |
| Joseph Yaho seph Yo seph | Isaiah Yesha yahu Yesha ya |
| Joshua （Jesus） Yaho shua Yeho shua Yo shua | Nethaniah Nethani yahu Nethani ya |
The consonants in the Hebrew YHW are semi-vowels and can be used as vowels.
| Hebrew YHWH⇒YHW Yaho, Yahu, Yeho, Yiho | |||||
| pronunciation | consonant | semi-vowel | |||
| Y | yad | y | i, e | ||
| H | hey | h | ah | ||
| W | waw | w | O, U | ||
| H | hey | h | A silent character placed at the end of a word | ||
| YHW in Proto-Paleo-Hebrew on the Leaden Curse Tablets of Mount Ebal | |
 | |
Greek spelling of God's name
The three-letter name of God, YHW, is also used in the Greek Septuagint. In Greek, the three Hebrew letters YHW is represented as ΙΑω (iota, alpha, omega) and is pronounced Yao.In Hebrew, it has an "h" sound and can be pronounced Yaho, Yahu, Yeho, etc.
| Greek Septuagint Leviticus 4:26-28, Dead Sea Scroll, 1st century BC | |
 |  |
Chronology of the Divine Name
Around 3000 BC, Early Bronze Age, from the time of Enoch to Noah, Abraham, and Moses, Hieroglyphic Hebrew, Proto-Paleo-Hebrew
Around 1500-1200 BC, Late Bronze Age, from Exodus to Joshua.
1300 BC, The name of God on the lead curse tablet from Mount Ebal is YHW in Proto-Paleo-Hebrew. This is the oldest known record of God's name. It is considered the original form of God's name.
1150-950 BC, Iron Age I, from the entry into the Promised Land to Samuel, David, Solomon, the subsequent division of the kingdom, Asa King of Judah, and Omri King of Israel, Paleo-Hebrew
1010 BC, Pottery fragments (ostracon) from Khirbet Qeiyafa, Ancient Hebrew text
840 BC, Mesha Stele, Moab, The name of the God of Israel in Paleo-Hebrew is YHWH.
950-586 BC, Iron Age II From the time of King Asa of Judah and King Omri of Israel to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
6th century BC, A community of Jewish mercenaries is formed on the island of Elephantine in Egypt.
587 BC, Lachish letters God's name is YHWH in Paleo-Hebrew.
537 BC, Decree of Cyrus the Great of Persia causes the Jews in Babylonian captivity to return to Jerusalem.
5th century BC, during the time of the scribe Ezra, Aramaic Hebrew, also known as Square Hebrew.
4th century BC Jerusalem is ruled by the Fifth World Power, Greece.
In the Elephantine Jewish community in Egypt, God's name was the three-letter YHW in Aramaic.
3rd century BC, The Greek Septuagint is produced. The Greek Septuagint is the Bible used by Jesus and Christians. This Bible helped Christianity spread throughout the world. In the oldest surviving Greek Bible manuscripts, God's name is written in Greek as ΙΑΩ (Yao). The Greek word ΙΑΩ corresponds to the Hebrew YHW (Yaho). Early Greek Septuagint versions contain the divine name ΙΑΩ, but from the 2nd century AD onwards this name was replaced with "Lord" (Κ[ύριο]ς, Kyrios). This apparent difference is due to Christian apostasy.
2nd century BC, Hebrew Dead Sea Scroll. It is harmonized with the Greek Septuagint.
120 BC, Roman scholar Varro records God's name in Greek ΙΑΩ (Yao). YHW in Hebrew.
60 BC, In the Histories of Diadorus, the name of the Israelite God is Greek ΙΑΩ. (YHW in Hebrew)
2nd century AD, Jewish law scholars (rabbis) begin translating the Rabbinic Scriptures into Greek to replace the Greek Septuagint, to more closely align with rabbinic views and interpretations of the Talmud. The Bible of Rabbinic Judaism, compiled by Jewish scholars, was more heavily influenced by the Talmud and developed into the Masoretic Text, written by Jewish scholars (rabbis) and scribes known as Masoretes. The Hebrew Masoretic text uses the divine name YHWH (tetragrammaton).
The early Christian Fathers use ΙΑΩ (YHW) for the name of God.
155 AD, Justin Martyr, ΙΑΩ (YHW)
200 AD, lemens Alexandrinus, ΙΑΩ (YHW)
200 AD, Tertulian, ΙΑΩ (YHW)
229 AD, Origen, ΙΑΩ (YHW)
400 AD, Jerome, ΙΑΩ (YHW)
9th century AD, The Masoretic text is created by the Masoretes. Masoretic Hebrew (Hebrew with vowels)
11th century AD, Leningrad Manuscript (the oldest surviving Hebrew Masoretic text, the standard translation of the Bible in Western Christianity) These Bibles record God's name as YHWH, known as the Tetragrammaton.
Until now, valuable archaeological excavations and their deciphering have not been made known to the general public, and people have sought God without knowing his name, but as prophesied of the restoration of knowledge in the end times, many are searching around and the facts and truth are becoming clear.
Da 12:4
4 . . . Many will rove about, and the [true] knowledge will become abundant.
- YouTube
- The Name of God Manuscript Spotlight
- *New* 13th Century BCE Find Shows God’s Name Pronounced as "Yaho(h)" - NOT “Yahweh” OR “Yeh/Jehovah”
- God's Name Proven As Ya'oh= 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄/ יהוה,Ιαω Through History And Archaeology.
The Bible's Account of the Curse of Mount Ebal
De chap 27-28
chap 27
1 And Moses together with the older men of Israel went on to command the people, saying: "There should be an observing of every commandment that I am commanding YOU today. 2 And it must occur that in the day when YOU will cross the Jordan into the land that YHW your God is giving you, you must also set up for yourself great stones and whitewash them with lime. 3 And you must write upon them all the words of this law when you have crossed, in order that you may enter into the land that YHW your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, according to what YHW the God of your forefathers has spoken to you.
4 And it must occur that when YOU have crossed the Jordan, YOU should set up these stones, just as I am commanding YOU today, in Mount E′bal, and you must whitewash them with lime. 5 You must also build an altar there to YHW your God, an altar of stones. You must not wield an iron tool upon them. 6 With whole stones you should build the altar of YHW your God, and you must offer burnt offerings to YHW your God on it. 7 And you must sacrifice communion sacrifices and eat them there, and you must rejoice before YHW your God. 8 And you must write on the stones all the words of this law, making them quite clear."
9 Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying: "Keep silent and listen, O Israel. This day you have become the people of YHW your God. 10 And you must listen to the voice of YHW your God and carry out his commandments and his regulations, which I am commanding you today."
11 And Moses went on to command the people on that day, saying: 12 "The following are the ones who will stand to bless the people on Mount Ger′i‧zim when YOU have crossed the Jordan: Sim′e‧on and Le′vi and Judah and Is′sa‧char and Joseph and Benjamin. 13 And the following are the ones who will stand for the malediction on Mount E′bal: Reu′ben, Gad and Ash′er and Zeb′u‧lun, Dan and Naph′ta‧li.
14 And the Levites must answer and say with raised voice to every man of Israel:
15 "'Cursed is the man who makes a carved image or a molten statue, a thing detestable to YHW, the manufacture of the hands of a wood-and-metal worker, and who has put it in a hiding place.' (And all the people must answer and say, 'Amen!')
16 "'Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
17 "'Cursed is the one who moves back the boundary mark of his fellowman.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
18 "'Cursed is the one who causes the blind to go astray in the way.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
19 "'Cursed is the one who perverts the judgment of an alien resident, a fatherless boy and a widow.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
20 "'Cursed is the one who lies down with his father's wife, because he has uncovered the skirt of his father.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
21 "'Cursed is the one who lies down with any beast.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
22 "'Cursed is the one who lies down with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
23 "'Cursed is the one who lies down with his mother-in-law.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
24 "'Cursed is the one who fatally strikes his fellowman from a hiding place.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
25 "'Cursed is the one who accepts a bribe to strike a soul fatally, when it is innocent blood.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
26 "'Cursed is the one who will not put the words of this law in force by doing them.' (And all the people must say, 'Amen!')
chap 28
1 "And it must occur that if you will without fail listen to the voice of YHW your God by being careful to do all his commandments that I am commanding you today, YHW your God also will certainly put you high above all other nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings must come upon you and overtake you, because you keep listening to the voice of YHW your God:
3 "Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be in the field.
4 "Blessed will be the fruit of your belly and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your domestic beast, the young of your cattle and the progeny of your flock.
5 "Blessed will be your basket and your kneading trough.
6 "Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.
7 "YHW will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. By one way they will come out against you, but by seven ways they will flee before you. 8 YHW will decree for you the blessing on your stores of supply and every undertaking of yours, and he will certainly bless you in the land that YHW your God is giving you. 9 YHW will establish you as a holy people to himself, just as he swore to you, because you continue to keep the commandments of YHW your God, and you have walked in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth will have to see that YHW's name has been called upon you, and they will indeed be afraid of you.
11 "YHW will also make you overflow indeed with prosperity in the fruit of your belly and the fruit of your domestic animals and the fruitage of your ground, on the ground that YHW swore to your forefathers to give you. 12 YHW will open up to you his good storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain on your land in its season and to bless every deed of your hand; and you will certainly lend to many nations, while you yourself will not borrow. 13 And YHW will indeed put you at the head and not at the tail; and you must come to be only on top, and you will not come to be on the bottom, because you keep obeying the commandments of YHW your God, which I am commanding you today to observe and to do.
14 And you must not turn aside from all the words that I am commanding YOU today, to the right or to the left, to walk after other gods to serve them.
15 "And it must occur that if you will not listen to the voice of YHW your God by taking care to do all his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today, all these maledictions must also come upon you and overtake you:
16 "Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the field.
17 "Cursed will be your basket and your kneading trough.
18 "Cursed will be the fruit of your belly and the fruitage of your ground, the young of your cattle and the progeny of your flock.
19 "Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.
20 "YHW will send upon you the curse, confusion and rebuke in every undertaking of yours that you try to carry out, until you have been annihilated and have perished in a hurry, because of the badness of your practices in that you have forsaken me.
21 YHW will cause the pestilence to cling to you until he has exterminated you from off the ground to which you are going to take possession of it. 22 YHW will strike you with tuberculosis and burning fever and inflammation and feverish heat and the sword and scorching and mildew, and they will certainly pursue you until you have perished. 23 Your skies that are over your head must also become copper, and the earth that is beneath you iron. 24 YHW will give powder and dust as the rain of your land. From the heavens it will come down upon you until you have been annihilated.
25 YHW will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. By one way you will go out against them, but by seven ways you will flee before them; and you must become a frightful object to all the earth's kingdoms. 26 And your dead body must become food for every flying creature of the heavens and to the beast of the field, with no one to make [them] tremble.
27 "YHW will strike you with the boil of Egypt and piles and eczema and skin eruption, from which you will not be able to be healed. 28 YHW will strike you with madness and loss of sight and bewilderment of heart. 29 And you will indeed become one who gropes about at midday, just as a blind man gropes about in the gloom, and you will not make your ways successful; and you must become only one who is always defrauded and robbed, with no one to save you.
30 You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house, but you will not dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not begin to use it. 31 Your bull slaughtered there before your eyes-but you will not eat any of it. Your ass taken in robbery from before your face-but it will not return to you. Your sheep given to your enemies-but you will have no savior. 32 Your sons and your daughters given to another people and your eyes looking on and yearning for them always-but your hands will be without power.
33 The fruitage of your ground and all your production a people will eat whom you have not known; and you must become one who is only defrauded and crushed always. 34 And you will certainly become maddened at the sight of your eyes that you will see. 35 "YHW will strike you with a malignant boil upon both knees and both legs, from which you will not be able to be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36 YHW will march you and your king whom you will set up over you to a nation whom you have not known, neither you nor your forefathers; and there you will have to serve other gods, of wood and of stone. 37 And you must become an object of astonishment, a proverbial saying and a taunt among all the peoples to whom YHW will lead you away.
38 "A lot of seed you will take out to the field, but little will you gather, because the locust will devour it. 39 Vineyards you will plant and certainly cultivate, but you will drink no wine and gather nothing in, because the worm will eat it up. 40 You will come to have olive trees in all your territory, but you will rub yourself with no oil, because your olives will drop off.
41 Sons and daughters you will bring forth, but they will not continue yours, because they will go off into captivity. 42 All your trees and the fruitage of your ground whirring insects will take in possession. 43 The alien resident who is in your midst will keep ascending higher and higher above you, while you-you will keep descending lower and lower. 44 He will be the one to lend to you, while you-you will not lend to him. He will become the head, while you-you will become the tail.
45 "And all these maledictions will certainly come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you have been annihilated, because you did not listen to the voice of YHW your God by keeping his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.
46 And they must continue on you and your offspring as a sign and a portent to time indefinite, 47 due to the fact that you did not serve YHW your God with rejoicing and joy of heart for the abundance of everything. 48 And you will have to serve your enemies whom YHW will send against you with hunger and thirst and nakedness and the want of everything; and he will certainly put an iron yoke upon your neck until he has annihilated you.
49 "YHW will raise up against you a nation far away, from the end of the earth, just as an eagle pounces, a nation whose tongue you will not understand, 50 a nation fierce in countenance, who will not be partial to an old man or show favor to a young man. 51 And they will certainly eat the fruit of your domestic animals and the fruitage of your ground until you have been annihilated, and they will let no grain, new wine or oil, no young of your cattle or progeny of your flock, remain for you until they have destroyed you.
52 And they will indeed besiege you within all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you are trusting fall in all your land, yes, they will certainly besiege you within all your gates in all your land, which YHW your God has given you. 53 Then you will have to eat the fruit of your belly, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom YHW your God has given you, because of the tightness and stress with which your enemy will hem you in.
54 "As for the very delicate and dainty man among you, his eye will be evil-inclined toward his brother and his cherished wife and the remainder of his sons whom he has remaining, 55 so as not to give one of them any of the flesh of his sons that he will eat, because he has nothing at all remaining to him because of the tightness and stress with which your enemy will hem you in within all your gates.
56 As for the delicate and dainty woman among you who never attempted to set the sole of her foot upon the earth for being of dainty habit and for delicateness, her eye will be evil-inclined toward her cherished husband and her son and her daughter, 57 even toward her afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and toward her sons whom she proceeded to bear, because she will eat them in secrecy for the want of everything because of the tightness and stress with which your enemy will hem you in within your gates.
58 "If you will not take care to carry out all the words of this law that are written in this book so as to fear this glorious and fear-inspiring name, even YHW, your God, 59 YHW also will certainly make your plagues and the plagues of your offspring especially severe, great and long-lasting plagues, and malignant and long-lasting sicknesses. 60 And he will indeed bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt before which you got scared, and they will certainly hang onto you. 61 Also, any sickness and any plague that is not written in the book of this law, YHW will bring them upon you until you have been annihilated. 62 And YOU will indeed be left with very few in number, although YOU have become like the stars of the heavens for multitude, because you did not listen to the voice of YHW your God.
63 "And it must occur that just as YHW exulted over YOU to do YOU good and to multiply YOU, so YHW will exult over YOU to destroy YOU and to annihilate YOU; and YOU will simply be torn away from off the soil to which you are going to take possession of it.
64 "And YHW will certainly scatter you among all the peoples from the one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, and there you will have to serve other gods whom you have not known, neither you nor your forefathers, wood and stone. 65 And among those nations you will have no ease, nor will there prove to be any resting-place for the sole of your foot; and YHW will indeed give you there a trembling heart and a failing of the eyes and despair of soul. 66 And you will certainly be in the greatest peril for your life and be in dread night and day, and you will not be sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, 'If it only were evening!' and in the evening you will say, 'If it only were morning!' because of the dread of your heart with which you will be in dread and because of the sight of your eyes that you will see.
68 And YHW will certainly bring you back to Egypt by ships by the way about which I have said to you, 'You will never see it again,' and YOU will have to sell yourselves there to your enemies as slave men and maidservants, but there will be no buyer."
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