The Lying Pen of the Scribes

As early as about 600 B.C.E., the prophet Jeremiah wrote concerning scribal tampering of Scriptures:

How do you (scribes) say, We are wise, and the laws of Yahweh are with us? Certainly, behold, the pen has practiced deceit, a lie of the scribes. The wise are put to shame; they are terrified and are captured. Behold, the word of Yahweh they have rejected and their wisdom is their own. (Jer. 8:8-9)

There are 134 times when Jewish copyists (Sopherim) of the Masoretic text, believing that certain passages were too often quoted that used the sacred name Yahweh, changed the primitive Hebrew text to read adonai or eloahim instead of Yahweh.

Also, when the Qumran documents and the LXX are compared with the Masoretic text, we have further evidence that the Jewish scribes altered a few names in the more primitive text to read adonai and eloahim instead of Yahweh.

Parallel passages in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles, relying on the same source documents and even using the same wording, also demonstrate that later scribes altered the original text, replacing Yahweh with eloahim.

Unfortunately, many have failed to realize the extent of the tampering of our present Hebrew Masoretic Text, especially regarding the sacred name Yahweh.

This tampering also extended to the name Yahu, the praenomen of the preexistent Yahushua the messiah. Before Yahushua became a human, his full name, as given by Scriptures was Yahu Yahweh.

The earthly name Yahu-shua means Yahu saves. The following passage begins to make more sense with this understanding:

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Yahu-shua, for he will save his people from their sins. (Matt. 1:21)

It is Yahu, the angel who came in his father’s name Yahweh, that appeared to the patriarchs of the Old Testament, who will save his people from their sins.

To illustrate the scribal tampering of Scriptures regarding the name Yahu, there is found 141 proper names in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, each of which ends with both theophoric elements “Yah” and “Yahu.” (Introduction to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible” by Christian D. Ginsburg, pp. 387-394)

One would have to question, How can the same person in Scriptures have their name spelled with both “yah” and “yahu” as an ending?

We must be aware of the fact that due to the ineffable name doctrine, which began in the 2^nd century B.C.E., the Jewish scribes eventually stripped the ו (waw) from Yahu, transforming it into the form Yah. This was acceptable for common use because it contained only two letters of the sacred name Yahweh.

What is the solution regarding the dilemma caused by the two different name endings of yah and yahu? Fortunately, we have a clue from the Talmud:

ואמר רבי ירמיה בן אלעזר מיום שחרב בית המקדש דיו לעולם שישתמש בשתי אותיות שנאמר כל הנשמה תהלל יה הללויה 

And Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar (further) said: From the day that the Temple was destroyed, it is enough for the world to use (in its praise of God, or in greeting one another with the name of God, only) two letters (of the Tetragrammaton, namely yod and heh), as it is stated: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord [Yah]. Halleluya” (Psalms 150:6), (without mentioning the full name of God, comprised of four letters.) (Bab. Talmud, Eruvin, 18b.17 translated by William Davidson)

Actually, by that time, the rabbis had lost the true meaning of the name Yahu and, after stripping off the ו (waw) from Yahu, had assumed that Yah was but an abbreviation for the full name, Yahweh.

Therefore, the rabbis reinterpreted hallelu-yah as “praise be to Yahweh.”

When the ו (waw) is restored back to its original form, it is hallelu-yahu, which is “praise be to Yahu.”

Yahu is the praenomen of the son of Yahweh, whose full name is Yahu Yahweh. The book of Isaiah provides more information concerning the son of Yahweh.

Behold, el is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for יה(ו) יהוה (Yahu Yahweh) is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2)

Does Isaiah somehow convey that “Yahweh Yahweh” is the personage referred to in this passage? This would have to be the case if Yah or Yahu were an abbreviation for Yahweh. But, of course, this makes no sense.

Who is the person that became our salvation? Is it not Yahu Yahweh (Yahu-shua the messiah), the son of father Yahweh?

In addition, we also have a fascinating witness from the Hebrew text of Psalm 148:1.

חללו יה הללו את יהוה

Reading the Hebrew from right to left with the ו (waw) restored, we have:

Halalu Yahu halalu ath Yahweh

A common translation reads:

Praise Yahweh, Praise Yahweh.

Let us now take a look at a transliteration of the Hebrew with the corresponding translation:

Halalu Yahu   halalu               ath                      Yahweh.
Praise Yahu,  praise    THIS PARTICULAR      Yahweh.

One cannot miss the clear and vital message conveyed, especially by the Hebrew word את (ath; this particular). (Click on the linked Hebrew word את for a detailed definition.)

 It was THIS PARTICULAR Yahweh, the preexistent messiah, Yahu Yahweh, who became the human with the earthly name Yahu-shua that is able to provide salvation to mankind through the eternal name that the father gave to him, the sacred name of the father, Yahweh.

When addressing the issue of whether the forms יהו (Yahu) and יה (Yah) could be abbreviations for יהוה (Yahweh), G. R. Driver gives the following response:

NO OTHER SEMITIC RACE ABBREVIATES THE NAMES OF ITS GODS, either when used independently or when compounded with other elements in proper names, although they not infrequently leave the name of the god to be supplied . . . IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT A NAME SO SACRED AS יהוה WOULD BE COMMONLY ABBREVIATED, and the reason indeed why the shorter forms were alone used in proper names may be that they, not having the theological import of יהוה, were held less sacred and so more suitable for profane use.
(Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 46 [1928], p. 23. Driver, G. R. “The Original Form of the Name ‘Yahweh’: evidence and conclusions.”)

This is but a sample of the scriptural evidence demonstrating that the original form of the praenomen of the preexistent messiah is “Yahu.” His full name, as given by Scriptures, is Yahu Yahweh.

We now can more fully understand the anger and jealousy directed toward Yahushua in the 1^st century C.E. In the book of John, Yahushua states:

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Yahushua said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS, I AM (I EXISTED). (John 8:56-58)

The Jews answered him (Pilate), We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, BECAUSE HE MADE HIMSELF THE SON OF ELOAHIM. (John 19:7)

The Jewish religious leaders knew full well whom Yahushua was proclaiming to be. Yahushua was telling them he was Yahu Yahweh, the deity who appeared to Abraham, Issak, and Jacob as found in the Torah.

What, then, is the conclusion regarding the use of the name Yah and its supposed meaning that it is but an acceptable short or abbreviated form of the sacred name Yahweh?

The evidence reveals that the term “Yah” is nothing but a fraud perpetrated by the Jewish scribes in an effort to conceal the identity and true name of father Yahweh’s son, “Yahu.”

We should admonish and dismiss the Jewish scribes who tampered with Yahushua the messiah’s heavenly name, Yahu Yahweh, to deceive those who are seeking Yahweh’s truth.

After giving all praise, glory, and honor to father Yahweh and using Psalm 148:1 as our guide, we can now surely say:

Hallelu Yahu, Hallelu ath Yahweh

Praise be to Yahu, Praise be to this particular Yahweh!