THE SACRED NAME BRITISH-ISRAEL PROOFS IN THE NAME OF ISRAEL’S GOD!
One of the most divisive issues facing churches and groups teaching the Gospel of the Kingdom is the issue of the Name of God. A number of ministries in America and elsewhere insist (often in the strongest terms) that the use of titles such as “Lord,” and “God,” are pagan and represent false worship. Well known Divine Names such as “Jesus,” “Christ,” and “Jehovah,” are similarly denounced as well.
In our  own  congregation, otherwise likeminded individuals have refused to worship and fellowship with us in the past over the Sacred  Name issue. Some years ago, one such individual would visit our church service about  once  each  year for the purpose  of making  his views on  this subject  known. During congregational singing, whenever  the  words “Jesus” or  ” Lord” appeared in a hymn, he would raise his voice and loudly shout, “Yahweh!”
Since this issue has been a continuing source  of division and hostility, I have spent a considerable number of hours researching it in leading libraries. There is much more in my compiled notebooks than can be presented here, but the information below is quite interesting and throws some  needed light on the tremendous amount of confusion  and  misinformation people  have on this subject.
The Sacred Name was not “Yahweh”
Many Sacred  Name  groups  use  “Yahweh” as  the Hebraic Divine Name,  and  there  is no question  that beginning with the early Christian era this was the most used form. However, Hebraic language  scholars  point out that the names of Hebrew kings and prophets in the pre-exilic era formed a composite including the Sacred Name, and it was not “Yahweh.”  For example, the Hebrew form of the names of Judahite  prophets  such as Isaiah (Yeshayahu), Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu), Zedekiah (Sidquiyyahu), and Zephaniah (Tzfanyahu) had “Yahu” or “Yahua” appended to them.  Elijah’s name  was Eli Yahu, ‘my God is Yahu’.
King Hezekiah’s name in Hebrew was “Khizakiyyahu”
Additionally, as we will discuss shortly, the kings of the ten-tribe  House of Israel usually used a slightly different Divine Name than did Judah: Yo, Yeho, or Yao, compared to Yahu in Judah.  Neither of the two houses of Israel used “Yahweh” until well after the exilic period ended.
Dr.  F.C .  Norton,  in  ‘A Popular  Handbook of Information  for Beginners in the Study of Assyriology, tells us that the famous “Black Obelisk of [Assyrian king ] Shalmaneser II has five tiers of bas-reliefs and 190 lines of inscription. Among the Tributes of the Nations is Jehu (Ya-u-a) ‘son’ of Omri. It was found at Birs Nimroud by Sir Henry Layard and is now in the British Museum.” (p31) Israelite King “Jehu” (2 Kings 9) was named after his God, which was not “Yahweh.”
Dr. WF. Albright has been widely acclaimed as the leading  Mideast scholar  of the twentieth  century, and he presented further evidence that the sacred  forms “Yahu” and “Yahueh” were used as the Divine Name in early Israel. “The ostraca  from Samaria and the earlier seals from the 9th and 8th centuries write consistently YAU (for the older YAHU)… There was a religious revival of Yahwism in the period of Hezekiah and Josiah, which insisted on the use of the full form of the name YAHUEH
… To strict Yahwists, the pronunciations YAHU, YAU and YO were associated with religious laxity and worship of the  God  of Israel  under  heathen forms.”  (“Further Observations On The Name Yahweh,”Journal of Biblical Literature, 44:159)
Dr. James A. Montgomery of the  University  of Pennsylvania also wrote on ‘The Hebrew Divine Name” in the Journal  of Biblical Literature.  He stated,  “The earliest form of the [Divine] Name was doubtless Yahu.” (63:162)
This is verified again in an article titled, “The Name Of God” in the Jewish Quarterly Review. It states, “Except for appearances in the proper  names of people,  the name Yahu all but  disappeared from  Israelite consciousness; replaced by a never-pronounced YHVH…” (90 1:212)
Another leading Hebrew language scholar was Dr. Daniel Luckenbill, who said, “The writing YHWH found in the Moabite stone, so far from favoring a pronunciation ‘YAHWEH’, seems definitely to preclude it.” (Quoted by Dr. WF. Albright, “Further Observations On The Name Yahweh,” Journal of Biblical Literature, 44:161)
“Jehovah”
Is it probable that the Almighty would allow the truth of His Name to be entirely  lost and  forgotten  by His covenant  people? Interestingly enough,  Hebrew language  scholars  have commented on the fact that the word, “Jehovah” used in the King James Bible for centuries is close to the true Hebrew  pronunciation of the Sacred Name. The famous Biblical scholar, William Tyndale, spelled the Divine Name, “IEHOUAH,” which could be pronounced, “Yehuah.” The Hebrew language did  not have  the  letter  “J” and  its sound, but early German scholars  wrote the Sacred  Name as Jehovah because in German  the letter “J” is pronounced as a “Y.” (This is similar to some other European languages as  well,  although not  true  of English.)  Therefore , language  scholars  of the past were  pronouncing the Sacred  Name as “Yehovah” or “Yehuah,” since at one time the letters “V” and “U” were used interchangeably. If you want to use an English equivalent of the Sacred Name, “Jehovah”  is surprisingly close  to the original Hebrew pronunciation.
Dr. Raymond Abba of University College of Swansea (U.K.), in an article titled, “The Divine Name,” in the Journal of Biblical  Literature, says, “The original pronunciation is uncertain.lf however-as seems probable-Huwa is the  original  Semitic form….the original cry would be YA-HUVA, which, ironically enough bears a close resemblance to the hybrid form Jehovah. This, Mowinkel argues, could have developed  into both Yahu and Yahveh.” (80:320 -321) So popular  modern terms such as  “Yahveh” and  “Yahweh ” are  later developments and not the correct original form of the Divine Name that was used throughout Israel’s Biblical pre-exilic period.
Alteration  of the Divine Name
If the Divine Name was indeed originally pronounced something like “Yehuah” or “Yehovah,” how did it change into “Yahwah” and “Yahweh?” In the early pre Christian centuries, a Jewish belief arose that this Name was  too  sacred to  be  spoken, so  a variation was substituted. The Jewish Sanhedrin (VII:5 Mishna) stated, “The  blasphemer is not  guilty until  he  reproduces exactly the Name, that is, until he make use of the exact Name.”
…….“The word, Jehovah” used  in the KING JAMES BIBLE for centuries is close  to the Hebrew pronunciation
Commenting on this, Dr. William R. Arnold of Andover Theological Seminary stated “[This is] confirmation of the proposition….that the  name was  sometimes purposely  mispronounced.. .the alteration was not accidental, but due to the purpose to prevent  the utterance of the ineffable name…..the alteration  took place,  accordingly,  sometime during the 4th century, B.C…..to avoid its actual  pronunciation….The altered word is ‘entirely devoid of meaning’  [a non-word] …..In the 4th century, B.C., YHWH was pronounced YAH-WA.” (“The Divine Name In Exdus 3:14,” Journal of Biblical Literature,  24:159-162) The form, “Yahwa,” then  over time became pronounced “Yahway,” so neither of those pronunciations is original.
British-Israel Connection
Professor Avraham Biran of Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, tells of an amphora jar discovered in the area of the northern House of Israel. Its handle was stamped “immadiyo” meaning “God [i.e., ‘Yo’] is with me.”
Dr. Biran adds,  “The  theophoric ending  Yo is the same as Yahu in Judah.” (“Biblical Dan,” p.199) This was dated to the eighth century, B.C., during the time of King Jeroboam II of the ten-tribe House of Israel. Note again that  the  House  of Israel,  the  northern kingdom  that broke  away from Judah  after the death  of Solomon used a slightly different Divine Name (Yo or Yaho), than did Judah  ‘(Yahu). For instance, the Hebrew  name  of Jonathan, son  of Saul,  was  Yahonathan, ‘Yaho  has given’.
In his essay on “The Pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton,” Dr. George Wesley Buchanan wrote, “Clement of Alexandria….spelled the Tetragrammaton ‘Iaoue,  ‘Iaouai,  and  ‘Iao. In early Aramaic papyri, the divine Name was  spelled  Yao… which  might also be pointed Yaho. Later Magical papyri found in Egypt, often spelled the name Iao … In a Leviticus LXX fragment from cave 4, the Tetragrammaton was used and spelled IAO, with majuscule letters…”  (“The Consequences of the Covenant,” Supplement  to Novum Testamentum, 20:316-317)
The Biblical tribes of Dan and Asher dwelt  on the Mediterranean Sea and according to both Scripture and historians were involved in sea trade. In addition,  King Solomon’s ships traveled to Western lands (1 Kings 9). Read  my research on  this at – http://www.israelite.info/thebiblestoryfiles/sea-migrations.html
Did in fact Israelite ships trade and colonize the British Isles in early times?
Celtic scholar, John Daniel, wrote, “So to the Druids there was  a secret name for  the  Deity, which  was unutterable to all  but  the  most  privileged of their order, and  was  symbolized by  the  three Bardic characters representing the vowels IAO.“ ( “The Druidic Idea of God,” p.11) Celtic scholarship has made a hugely significant revelation that the British Druids worshipped God as “IAO,” most probably identical  to the Northern Israelite  Divine Name ‘Yao’ and  strong evidence of Hebrew settlement in early Britain.
As British-lsraelites, the Sacred  Name really should not be a divisive issue since it constitutes another very solid historical linguistic proof for our belief. Let us not focus on our differences, for this is tangible evidence that we can agree on!                                      END
