V or W in His Name
His Name
Letters in His Holy Name,
The V W Conundrum
by Dan L Baxley
V W, not the German car, but letters used to transliterate His Holy Name. However, there is a German Connection. A lot of confusion is raised over these two letters and how they are, or should be, pronounced. Cutting right to the answer is easy -- like this -- Once upon a time, the V and the W were pronounced the same, the Latin V was pronounced as the Hebrew W (all letters transliterations from the Hebrew to the English), as in the letter Waw, or Wall -- thus, in the beginning, Vall and Wall were pronounced the same. Later the V changed in its pronunciation, as in words like Victory, or Vicar, which in earlier times would have been pronounced as Wictory and Wicar. Today, we find the confusion supported in the Hebrew Alphabet by listing the single letters, in the Hebrew, as three different letters, whe transliterating into the English or other languages -- take your pick. But, know this, the W precedes the modern pronunciation of the V. Notice this letter called the Vav, emphasizing its pronunciation? That should be the Waw, if we revert back to the earlier W. And on top of all of this, there is the wonder of pronunciation -- why is the W called a Double U? Not a double V, but a double U, as UU. Now, with a little common sense, we can see how letter can and are, at times, changed in their pronunciation. The W, or double U, predates both the W and the V.
Looking down the Hebrew chart (see below) under the column NAME, to the Waw and then sliding your eyes to the right, under the three columns titles, Modern Hebrew, and what do you see? You see this letter called Vav. Remember, the W, is called a double U, not a double V. Tricky, right? This does not remove the fact that the V was late comer to this game of letters. EXCEPT in Germany, where the Double U is pronounced as the more modern V -- while their pronunciation is of the modern variety, they are consistent but in reverse, and go to pronouncing the Double U, or W, as V. Of course they are practically the only language that does this along with many in the Jewish realms of biblical educations. Why? Because, many in the Jewish faith are of German descent.
Notice the following two Hebrew language charts -- the W called the Waw, is the older pronunciation while the modern V should be the same but has changed to V as in Vav. So, then, which is correct? This is where many go wrong and continue to changing original pronunciations to something else, like in the name of our Lord and Savior, YaHshua, which has been changed to Jesus, a name not even close to His Birth Name -- YaHshua, the name He was given at birth -- actually, before He was born.
V and W and U and O
The Germans say, VW or their car the Volks Wagon – VW, but how do they say these words? Volks Vagan. The Folks Wagon. Notice, however that they pronounce the V and the W the same, when speaking in English. No wonder so many are confused over the V and the W, let alone the U and O, letters all used in saying or representing the Name of our God and Father in Heaven and His Son, under whose Name we are to come to confession in order to enter Eternity – For there is no other name, found among men (not in heaven) by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Let us not forget, this W is called a "double U", yet it appears as a double V in most lettering. Perhaps the Tetragrammaton of His Name, as it is in the Hebrew Scriptures, transliterated into the English, YHWH, should be, YHUUH, for pronunciation purposes? YaH U aH? Many pronounce His Name, from the Hebrew, as -- YaH W eH, and it comes out as YaHway -- however -- YaHuaH would be a better transliteration (in Hebrew of old the W or waw letter would be "uau" -- the uau letter. This "long U" or "double-u", would change how many pronounce the Name of the God of Israel, even our Messiah, but the one thing that does not and would not change is the YH, is it constant, the common denominator. We need to keep in mind that the firs part of both names, YH, pronounced, YaH, is consistent in both the Father's Name and the Son's Name, only the last part falls into question and even then, the means, while variable, are also consistent in multiple ways of saying, or telling us what YaH is doing or about to do -- the last part, ushua, or wshua , or uushua, express the terms meant for "deliverance", salvation, or savior, as in the Son's Name. In His Name as the God of Isarel, those last, transliterated letter, WH or UH, express a multiple meaning of eternity, of always being, as in the simple words, "is", "will be", and "causes to be", the perfect definitions for a Creator God, such as YHWH or YHUH -- He, YH, causes to be, and He is. This would make the name given to our Savior -- YaHushua, or YaHushuaH, connected to His Holy Name and by definitions, tells us that the Son is named after Him and what He is all about is defined as in multiple ways of saying He is our Savior, our Salvation, our only Hope in deliverance from death.
There are those in a popular move to transliterate His Name as, Yahusha. The objection to this particular view, for me and others, is that the USHA is actually a name for a goddess, worshipped in India. How much a letter makes a difference. I much prefer, YaHshua, or YaHushua, to avoid this criticism . If this bothers you, and maybe it should, then chose the English transliteration that suits you best, as they are all really close, and so long as the languages of the world are polluted it may be impossible to rid ourselves of every pagan letter and symbol until He does it for us in the Great Restoration -- one being the deliverance back to a pure language -- Zephaniah 3:9, Acts 3:21. Jer 31:31-33, Isa 1:24-28 -- and the coming Restitution of Everything.
Remember, the last part of His Name, those last two letters, tell us what He is doing, or has done, or is about to do. YaH Causes To Be. It is those first two letter, the YH that are indefinable, followed by WH, the Double U is part of what He is about -- "causes to be", or "is", etc. Another way of saying, YaH, is Creator. In this same manner we have YaH is Savior, or Salvation. Around and around we can go with this. The variations are many but the one constant is the YH, the YaH -- YaH causes to be (creator), YaH is, YaH salvation, YaH savior, and these are seen in several forms but the beginning is always the same. So, while others argue over which is correct, we can say all are correct in declaring what YH is doing, has done, or about to do -- YaH shua, or YaHushua, or Yehoshua, the Son's Identity, tied to the Cause of All Things, YaH. The U, the O, the W, or the V? All are transitions into what YaH is all about. One thing is sure, His Holy Name is NOT JESUS or IESVS, as seen in the Latin, pronounced by many as HeyZeus -- Not even close to the Son's Birth Name.
When you do your own research you will find what I have presented to be true, well, mostly true, you will find the reasoning behind all of this, the common sense along with the reasoning, that is, is sound and provable, and, hopefully, the Spirit will make this known to you, straightening our the twist and curves. Men and women, can say anything, just as the scholars, quoting each other around and around but in the end it is the Spirit of a thing, the knowing what is true by revelation, the spiritual mixed with common reasoning, that most mankind has been gifted with, that discerns one truth from another -- rightly dividing the Truth, remember?
More to Reason About
Back in the day, those days we call the Ancients, those before the Roman Empire, there was no such thing as the V as Vee. The V comes to us from the Latin and even then it was not the Vee sound. Like the Letter J went from one sound or phonetic value to another so it is with the Vee -- the letter remained, the pronunciation changed. In the ancient times the U was prominent and when a double U was used it was to indicated a longer sound as in OO and then followed the O being interchangeable with the U as these two letters had very similar sounds. We see this in the name of our Lord, Yehoshua -- this is the spelling of His Name, we are told, by those who teaching Biblical Hebrew. Yet, we see this name also presented as Yehushua or Yahushua. The "a" and the "e" are vowels, they are not technically part of His Name but added, as, technically are the interchangeable letters, O and U, however, this letter U is also a Consonant in the Hebrew, it can and is used as both. I know, it seems like I am off on a different track, but not really, for what has happened and still happening with the Birth Name of our Savior had been happening with the Name of the God of Israel too. These Tow Names, are together in this battle over how to say His Name -- the real aim of those who say that you cannot know, is to stop you and me from using our Savior's Birth Name -- it really is not about anything else -- YaHshua, our Savior, the First Fruit, the Son of the Living God, told us that this would happen. Another has come, has been presented to the world, and received -- He told us. He warned us.
John 5:43 I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.
If we accept that we cannot breath without saying, breathing, His Name or the Name of His Son, then we can see the simplest of simple revelations hidden from the eyes and ears of the world -- hidden, only by the spirit, as His Holy Name is present in nearly every thing that lives. Remember, we both agree that He said He came in His Father's Name, so, whether we say, YaHu or YaHo, or even YeHu or Yeho, we end up saying our Heavenly Father's Name -- what comes after that name, YH or YaH, is secondary and only explains His actions.
Like the Long U represented by the UU or double U we also have the Long E and a Long E is not a double e, but is the a. A long e makes an the letter "a" sound. I discovered a text in a book on ancient languages, from the British Museum that make known. Back in the Babylonian days the letter E was used in what is called the long E, still used today but as a short E as in eh, when it should be ah. You will notice in nearly all Hebrew words many end in ah, even our Savior's Name is seen with this spelling from time to time -- YaHushuah. The base proof for how to say His Holy Name is to say or pronounce YH as stand alone Letters representing the Name of the indefinable ONE. No one can tell you what that Name Means by itself, only that it pertains to our Creator, or YaH WH, WH means, Causes to be or Will Be Or I Am. When a person grasps all of this, it becomes too simple, way too simple for some and so obvious to others. So, what is the argument then? It is not really over how we say His Holy Name, because we can all say it, all creatures of the Earth can say it -- the argument is over what He is doing or has done and this takes away, or hides His Holy Name from the very people who should know it.
The popularity over the V letter comes to us from the Jehovah's witnesses, and no matter how much they hate the Roman Catholics, it is from the JW studies from the Hebrew to the Latin that the Jehovah's Witnesses founder or founders adopted this V letter from the German influence, ending up with the modern sound for the V, as opposed to the original pronunciation for this letter as we have seen with the Double U or W being the original. Much of the Biblical studies in languages, oddly enough, come from Germany. The Germans, to this very day, pronounce the Double UU as a Vee sound. For them, West becomes Vest. Why? For that I have no answer but they, along with the Latins are responsible for changing our Lord and Savior's Name to IESVS -- the original name for our Savior in the First English bibles -- Notice, it too has that V letter. The V letter was not pronounced as Vee, but as U and as the Latin began to change and their V began to change from a W sound to a Vee sound along with the Germans, the English then made the change, in keeping up with the changes in the language of their day, and altered the name found in the 1611 King James Bible, form the V to the U and the "I" letter too was changing and at that time in 15 and 16th centuries the "I" letter was losing its original sound but retain, briefly, by the "J" letter. The later KJV Bibles reflect this by altering the original Latin IESVS to JESUS, pronounced as Geezus, and by others as Heyzeus.
Noun:Yahweh 'yaa,wey
A name for the God of the Old Testament as transliterated from the Hebrew consonants YHVH
You will notice that the transliteration for how to pronounce this Name -- 'yaa,wey -- does not use the v letter at all. Yet, in the body of the definition the Name is YHVH, the V is in place, that is, replacing the Double U, or W. This further would suggest that we are supposed to pronounce this Name with the W not the V sound. It demonstrates that the V in this Holy Name would be the same as the much older Double U? Hardly, as the V and the modern W come with a lot of German pronunciation baggage -- Double U, or W is pronounce as the English pronounce the singular V. The W and the V, as understood in modern English and German language, are just that, modern, while the U and the O in the Hebrew, should be restored. A Double U, or Long U, is akin to the O sound, as used in some Hebrew Translations for the name Joshua, as corrected to YeHoshua. And then we see, even today, the u letter in Jewish names. Netanyahu, of Modern Isarel, one of the more familiar examples -- Netan yahu, not Netan yaho and certainly not, Netan yahw. This is to simplify, as opposed to complicate. Still, it will seem like gibberish to some. The main reveal is that the bogus name, JESUS, originally IESVS, is nowhere near our Lord's Holy Name, a Name by which we must be saved -- Acts 4:12 -- from the first sermon delivering the Gospel to people in the first year of our Lord's Crucifixion.
Conclusion? Well, yes -- the Common to all languages Name, is heard around the world -- for the whole world sings out in the single phrase -- HALLELUYAH, Halleluyah, halleluyah -- to breath out the breath of life is to say His Holy Name, even when you don't mean to, or are ignorant to it, people the world over repeat it and sing praises to His Holy Name all the time.
And in Heaven too, except when the Heavens sing in this Holy Name, they know what they are saying and to whom they speak --
Rejoicing in Heaven
Rev 19:1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,Rev 19:2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants."Rev 19:3 And again they shouted: "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever."Rev 19:4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!"Rev 19:5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying: "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great!" NIV (Remember, the J letter is making that Y sound, Hear it?)
Thayer's Greek -- KJV:
Strong's Definitions:Transliteration: Allelouia- Phonetic: al-lay-loo'-ee-ah- Definition:1. praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah
Of hebrew origin (imperative of [H1984] and [H3050]);praise ye Jah! an adoring exclamation: - alleluiah.
Corrected to, HalleluYaH, by most updated translations, like the CJB, HRB, YSRB