An error of transcription made when translating a pointed (vowelled) Hebrew Bible into English (or perhaps Latin. I don't know if St.Jerome made this error).

In the Hebrew Bible YHWH (the tetragrammon, believed to be a noun derived from a verb 'to exist', hence, 'I Am that Exists', colloquially 'I Am What I Am') is traditionally unpointed. However, Hebraic tradition also forbits the pronunciation of this word with it's proper pointings (which are a long a (aah) and a flat a (ah)), resulting in Yahweh.

To compromise, Jewish teachers pronounce the word 'adonai', meaning Lord, instead of Yahweh. To reduce confusion, the tetragrammon was pointed with the vowel symbols for adonai, which in Hebrew results in an impossible word, Y^eho^wa (it is difficult to show with the Roman alphabet, but trust me, it's impossible to do in Hebrew). This is what was translated by misunderstanding scholars as Jehova, the Lord.

Je*ho"vah (?), n. [Heb. usually y&ecr;h&omac;vah (with the vowel points of &acr;d&omac;nai Lord), sometimes (to avoid repetition) y&ecr;h&omac;vih (with the vowel points of &ecr;l&omac;him God); but only the four Heb, consonants yhvh are conceded to be certainly known.]

A Scripture name of the Supreme Being, by which he was revealed to the Jews as their covenant God or Sovereign of the theocracy; the "ineffable name" of the Supreme Being, which was not pronounced by the Jews.

© Webster 1913.

E2 Ed. note: &ecr;, &omac;, and &acr; appear to be Hebrew HTML codes which E2 does not currently support.