As an outreach ministry, our main focus has always been evangelism. One of our main sources of outreach is YouTube. Recently we hit a major milestone, surpassing 61,000 subscribers with over 9 million total views. YRM has also expanded to Roku, AppleTV, Android TV, and Amazon Fire. Since inception, we’ve garnered over 1.8 million views from these additional platforms, mostly from Roku. We thank Yahweh for his blessings and awesome provision in allowing us to reach so many with the truth.
Progress on Activities Building
We continue to make excellent progress on our activities building. With more than 25 volunteers this last week, we were able to paint nearly all the upstairs of our activities building. This includes 22 rooms and several hallways. In addition to adult volunteers many of our youth also helped in this endeavor. While we are ahead of schedule, there remains much work to be done. We are receiving bids to carpet the upstairs. Also, our team of brethren is working on the electrical and will be staining the concrete floors on the lower levels in the coming days. This will allow them to finish the communal bathrooms and kitchen. To learn how to help or to see recent photos, please visit our online building donation page.
Feast of Tabernacles Invitation
We warmly invite you to this year’s Feast of Tabernacles in Holts Summit, Missouri. Along with daily worship services and several Bible workshops, we have many activities planned for young and old, including: roller skating, volleyball, bingo, Hebrew dancing, puppet show, bounce house, and more. As for lodging, we have one remaining dorm room in our new activities building and several electric-only tent sites. If you are interested in a dorm room, we encourage you to register soon. Because these rooms are limited, they are available only to those who plan to observe all eight days of the Feast with YRM. There is also one hotel, America’s Best Value Inn, in Holts Summit, two miles from the Assembly. This Feast promises to be a blessing and a taste of the Kingdom. Don’t delay, register today. For more information, visit https://yrm.org/tabernacles-2018.
A. The belief that the Father and Son are one in essence.
B. The belief that the Son’s human form was only an illusion.
C. The belief that the Son came to impart secret knowledge.
D. The belief that the Father was a wicked and lesser G-d.
Docetism was a theological controversy in the early church. The word docetism comes from the Greek dokeĩn (to seem) and dókēsis (apparition, phantom). It’s a belief that Yahshua’s human form was only an illusion. Followers of docetism rejected Yahshua’s humanity and the notion that He suffered on the tree. This belief was rejected and deemed heretical at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE.
Q. In my study of the scriptures, I do not believe that the animal sacrifices will be practiced during the Millennium. Hebrews 9:12 says that the Messiah entered into the Holy place not with the blood of goats and bulls, but with His own blood, and did so for all time. If the blood of goats and bulls could not take away sins during the time of the Israelites, what makes you think that it would during the 1,000 year reign of the Messiah?
I am sorry, but I have to respectfully say that this simply is not true. There will not be animal sacrifices during the Millennium. I personally believe that this belief seriously devalues the Messiah’s own blood poured out for all of mankind.
A. Thank you for the correspondence. While we certainly understand your position and why you believe what you do, Ezekiel makes it clear that animal sacrifices will be restored in the millennial Kingdom. We see several examples of this in Ezekiel 44-46. Consider the below examples:
“And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, saith my Sovereign Yahweh. And it shall be unto them for an inheritance: I am their inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession. They shall eat the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs,” Ezek. 44:27-29.
“Thus saith my Sovereign Yahweh; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary: And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.” Ezek 45:18-19.
“Thus saith my Sovereign Yahweh; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened. And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.”
Some have claimed that Ezekiel’s prophecy is not pertaining to the Millennium, but was a conditional promise based on Judah’s repentance. However, several key passages in Ezekiel 44-48 suggest that this is future and could not be historic.
Between Ezekiel 44 and 46 a prince is motioned 16 times. While it doesn’t mention this prince by name, Ezekiel 37:25 identifies David as “…their prince.” It reads, “And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.” If David is the prince spoken of in Ezekiel 44-48, Ezekiel’s temple must be prophetic. David is also called “king” in Ezekiel 37:24.
Ezekiel 47:1-12 speaks of a river with trees for the healing of the nations. This language seems to be prophetic. We do not see promises of this magnitude until the Messiah returns.
Ezekiel 47:13 to 48:35 describe the boundaries of the 12 tribes. Based on prophecy, Israel being gathered and restored will not occur until Yahshua’s return, Jeremiah 23:5-8. See also Ezekiel 37:15-28.
Assuming that Ezekiel confirms sacrifices will be restored, do we know the reason why? Scripture indicates that the Messiah’s role will change in the Millennium. This is indicated by the fact that His name will change to “Yahweh our Righteousness,” as stated in Jeremiah 23:6. Based on this, we believe Yahshua’s role will change from “salvation” to “righteousness.” His role in the Millennium will be to restore righteousness to the earth in anticipation of His Father’s coming, 1Corinthians 15:28; Revelation 21:1-3.
Regarding this diminishing Yahshua’s sacrifice, while we understand and appreciate your concern, we do not agree. First, we do not believe that sacrifices will be required for the saints or those from the first resurrection. And second, only those who never accepted Yahshua prior to the Millennium will be required to participate in these sacrifices. Therefore, the inadequacy is not with Yahshua, but with the people.
Saying this, we do not believe this point is a salvational issue, but are convicted based on the evidence that sacrifices will be restored in the millennial Kingdom.
For more info on this topic and others like it, please visit our main articles page.
The May/June edition of the Restoration Times is now available to read online. The latest issue contains the following articles: The Inconvenient Truth, Gomorrah: A Legacy of Judgment, and Unmasking the Woman and the Beast of Revelation. In addition to these insightful articles, we have a special section remembering the recent Passover and Feast of Unleavened along with several eye-opening Q&A’s and inspiring letters. As a gift to our faithful financial partners, copies of the magazine have been mailed and should be received within 1-2 weeks.
Progress on Activities Building
We continue to make progress on our activities building. All drywall has been hung and is being finished. They hope to have the drywall finished and all 22 upstairs rooms ready for paint by the end of the month. In addition, Ryan Mansager, Lucas Cecil, and James Duenow have been working on the deck on the front of the gym. This was required to accommodate the top level emergency door. It will also provide a great location for fellowship. We are currently ahead of schedule to have the activities building completed by the Feast of Tabernacles. See recent photos >>
We warmly invite you to this year’s Feast of Tabernacles in Holts Summit, Missouri. Along with daily worship services and several Bible workshops, we have many activities planned for young and old, including: roller skating, volleyball, bingo, Hebrew dancing, puppet show, bounce house, and more. As for lodging, we have one remaining dorm room in our new activities building and several electric tent sites. If you are interested in a dorm room, we encourage you to register soon. Because these rooms are limited, they are only available to those who plan to observe all eight days of the Feast with YRM. There is also one hotel, America’s Best Value Inn, in Holts Summit, two miles from the Assembly. This Feast promises to be a blessing and a taste of the Kingdom. Don’t delay, register today. For more information, visit https://yrm.org/tabernacles-2018.
According to Peter in his first epistle, how should a minster lead?
A. By force, realizing the end results justify the abuse
B. Passively, allowing the congregation to do as the Spirit moves them
C. By love, being an example and showing admonition when required
D. Depending on the circumstance, all of the above
According to Peter, a minister or pastor (shepherd) is to lead by love and compassion and always serve as an example of what is right and good. “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Messiah, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of Elohim which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being masters over Yahweh’s heritage, but being examples to the flock,” 1Peter 5:1-3. While admonition or correction is sometimes required, this too should be done with patience. A minister should never lead through force or autocratically. As well, a shepherd should never be so passive that he allows sin and accept that which is unscriptural in the assembly.
Q. You’re being dishonest and twisting Acts 17, while avoiding passages which show a Sunday resurrection. In Acts 17, Paul went to the synagogue to preach Christ for salvation. You purposefully left out verses 3-4: “Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.”
You claim there is no evidence that the church met on Sunday in the Bible, that’s baloney.
Acts 20:7: “And upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.”
This passage verifies that church was held on the first day of the week. They broke bread (had the Lord’s Supper) and Paul preached.
1 Corinthians 16:2: “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.”
Collection was taken on the first day of the week, showing that the church met on Sunday.
Mark 16:9: “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.”
Firstfruits was not on the Sabbath but after the Sabbath. Lev 23:10 states, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.”
1 Corinthians15:23 also states, “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
The Bible confirms that it is the first day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead; it was the first day of the week the Lord’s Supper was to be taken; it was the first day of the week collection was taken; and the firstfruits was on the day after the Sabbath which is Sunday, and Jesus is the firstfruits
Also, in A.D. 140 Justin Martyr stated: “But Sunday is the day which we all hold our common assembly, because Jesus Christ, our Saviour, on the same day rose from the dead.” Apology, Chapter LXVII.
A. We respectfully disagree with your conclusions. While Paul certainly went to the synagogue to witness Yahshua the Messiah, it was also his custom or manner, Acts 17:2. The word “manner” comes from the Greek ethos and means, “…a usage (prescribed by habit or law),” Strong’s. Based on the Greek ethos, clearly it was Paul religious practice and conviction to worship on the Sabbath.
Regarding your other claims, below is a point-by-point reply:
Acts 20:7 is not referring to Sunday or to the “Lord’s Supper.” Instead, it refers to the first week to the count to Pentecost. The phrase “first day of the week” would be better read, “…the first of the Sabbaths” The word “day” is absent in the Greek and the word “week” derives from the Greek sabbaton and refers to the Sabbath. Strong’s defines sabbaton as, “…the Sabbath (i.e. Shabbath), or day of weekly repose from secular avocations (also the observance or institution itself); by extension, a se’nnight, i.e. the interval between two Sabbaths.” In addition, the word bread comes from the Greek klao and refers to bread in general. Interestingly, verse 6 references the Feast of Unleavened Bread and verse 20 references Pentecost. This further verifies that verse 7 refers to the count to Pentecost.
1 Corinthians 16:2 is not referring to Sunday as a day of worship. First, the word “day” is absent in the Greek. In the Greek it simply states, “Upon the first of the week.” There is no evidence that this was Sunday. It simply states that it was the first part of the week. In this passage Paul is instructing the brethren in Corinth to gather supplies for their brethren in Judea. Acts 11:27-30 confirms that Judea at this time was suffering from a severe famine.
While Mark 16:9 appears to state that Yahshua arose on the first day of the week, this passage can also be understood by readjusting the comma. The passage would be better read, “Now when Yahshua was risen, early the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he had cast seven devils.” By moving the comma after the phrase, “Now when Yahshua was risen,” this passage confirms that after Yahshua had risen the women had come to the tomb on the first day of the week. At this point, Yahshua had already risen from the grave. According to Matthew 12:40, He would be in the grave for three days and three nights, making the traditional time between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning impossible. The biblical record shows that He was in the grave from late Wednesday through late Saturday.
As a side note, even if Yahshua rose on Sunday, nowhere in the Bible does it state that the Messiah’s resurrection day is to be observed as a Sabbath. Some tie this phrase into the “Lord’s Day,” but this is not referring to Sunday, but to Yahshua’s return. Like so many of the teachings within Christianity, Sunday is built upon the precepts of man and solidified through 2,000 years of church tradition.
Regarding Yahshua fulfilling the firstfruits offering, we agree that this occurred on Sunday. However, it’s important to note that Yahshua fulfilled this after being resurrected. We believe this occurred when Mary saw Him in the garden perceiving Him at first to be the gardener, John 20:15: “Yahshua saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.”
Concerning your reference to Justin Martyr, Sunday worship, along with many other Church traditions, was already established by the second century CE.
For additional information, what our video: SABBATH – Sunday or Saturday?
A. The Tetragrammaton represents the four Hebrew letters of the Creator’s Name. The word itself is from the Greek tετραγράμματον, meaning “[consisting of] four letters,” which are yod-hey-waw-hey. These letters are unique in the Hebrew language, as they not only represent consonants, but also vowels. For this reason, they are called vowel-consonants.
According to most Hebrew scholars the Tetragrammaton is pronounced “Yahweh.” Consider the following scholarly sources:
A Book About the Bible, George Stimpson, pg. 247. “Jehovah in that form was unknown to the ancient Israelites. In fact, Hebrew scholars say that Jehovah would have been impossible according to the strict principles of Hebrew vocalization. The God of Israel was known by a name approximately rendered into English as Yahweh.”
Wycliff Bible Dictionary, Charles Pfeiffer, Ed., “God, Names and Titles of,” pg. 694. “Yahweh was doubtless the approximate pronunciation of the tetragrammaton, the four-letter word YHWH, since transliterations into Gr. in early Christian literature have been found in the form of iaoue (Clement of Alexander) and iahe (Theodoret) pronounced ‘iave.’ The name is a variant connected with the verb haya, ‘to be,’ from an earlier form, hawa.”
The Oxford Companion to the Bible, Bruce Metzger, Ed., “Names of God in the Hebrew Bible,” pg. 548. “The Bible often refers to God by his proper name, which was probably pronounced Yahweh …In the Hebrew Bible, the consonants yhwh are usually to be read as Adonai…’my Lord,’ for the sake of reverence, and English versions represent the word by ‘Lord’ or (less often) ‘God’ in capital letters.”
The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, Allen C. Myers, Ed., “Yahweh,” pg. 1075. “Although the meaning of the name remains subject to debate, Yahweh is most likely a verbal form of Heb. haya (perhaps originally hwy)…Because of the utmost sanctity ascribed to the name, Jews from postexilic times on have declined to pronounce it in public reading, and only the consonants were written (YHWH; the Dead Sea Scrolls use the archaic, ‘paleo-Hebrew’ script). Although the original pronunciation was thus eventually lost, inscriptional evidence favors yahwae or yahwe. The name is represented in the MT by the consonants with the vowel pointing for ‘adonay ‘Lord.’ From this derived ca, the sixteenth century the form ‘Jehovah’ (yehowah). In modern usage pious Jews often substitute the expression has-sem ‘the Name.’”
The Journey from Texts to Translations, Paul D. Wegner, pg, 172, 173. “The scribes reasoned that if they did not point the name Yahweh then it could never be treated lightly since his name would not really be known. Initially the real pointing was probably passed along by tradition, but in time it was lost. In Exodus 20:7 the name Lord is written in capital letters according to the convention of signifying the name Yahweh, but the name as it appears in the Hebrew text is hwhy (yehowa), in which appear the consonants from the name Yahweh (hwhy [yhwh]) and the vowels from the word Lord (ynda [‘idonay]). Proof for the fabricated nature of this word are the two vowels which appear on the waw, an impossibility in Hebrew. However, until the revival of the Hebrew language in western Europe scholars read the consonants YHWH (Germans would read them as JHVH) with the vowels of ‘adonay, thereby originating the incorrect form Jehovah. This word was then introduced into English by William Tyndale and was continued by the King James Version.”
Understanding the Old Testament, Bernhard Anderson, “Definition: ‘Jehovah,’ ‘The Lord,’” pg. 61. “The personal divine name YHWH…has had an interesting history. In the Old Testament period the Hebrew language was written only with consonants; vowels were not added until the Common Era, when Hebrew was no longer a living language. On the basis of Greek texts, which of course use both vowels and consonants, it is believed that the original pronunciation of the name was Yahweh. Notice the shortened form of the divine name in the exclamation, ‘Halleluyah’ — ‘Praise Yah.’
“However, because of its holy character, the name Yahweh was withdrawn from ordinary speech during the period of the Second Temple (c. 500 B.C.E. and later) and the substitute word — actually a title not a personal name — Adonai, or (The) Lord, was used, as is still the practice in synagogues. Scholars who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek (the Septuagint) in the third century B.C.E. adopted this synagogue convention and rendered YHWH as (ho) kurios, ‘(The) Lord.’ From this Greek translation the practice was carried over into the New Testament.
“The word Jehovah is an artificial form that arose from the erroneous combination of the consonants YHWH with the vowels of Adonai — written under or over the Hebrew consonants to indicate that the substitute is to be pronounced. This hybrid form is often held to be the invention of Pater Galatin…but in actuality it can be traced back to a work by a certain Raymond Martin in 1270.”
For additional information on the Tetragrammaton, read our booklet, Your Father’s Name.
Q. What is the Qere and Ketiv and how does it relate to the Masoretes?
A. Qere and Ketiv are orthographic devices that were used by the Masoretes, i.e., Jewish scribes from the 6-10th centuries. Qere means, “what is read,” and ketiv means, “what is written.” It is found in existing Masoretic manuscripts dating to the 9th and 10th centuries, CE. There are several forms of Qere / Ketiv, including: ordinary, vowel, omitted, added, euphemistic, split, and qere perpetuum.
The ketiv that is most relevant is the vowel qere. In this case, the consonants are unchanged, but different vowel signs are added and only the qere, i.e., what is read, is vocalized. The most notable example of this is with the Tetragrammaton or the four letters of the divine name. To ensure that the name was not pronounced, Masoretic Jewish scribes left the Hebrew consonants, but added the vowel points from Adonai, and on occasions Elohim. Following the Qere / Ketiv, the reader was to read Adonai or Elohim, depending on the vowel points used. It was never the intent of the scribes that the reader pronounce the vowel points with the consonants. Not realizing this, early translators of the Hebrew Bible transliterated the Tetragrammaton as “Jehovah.” Once scholarship realized that this was never the intent of the Hebrew text, scholarship noted the mistake. Today, there are some who either don’t understand the Qere / Ketiv system or who are actively trying to mislead people by insisting that the pronunciation is Yehovah. However, as nearly all Hebrew scholars acknowledge, this name arose through a deliberate modification in the Hebrew text following a tradition of not pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, beginning in the 3rd century BCE, as noted by the below reference.
“After the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE), and especially from the 3rd century bce on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal rather than merely local religion, the more common noun Elohim, meaning ‘God,’ tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai (‘My Lord’), which was translated as Kyrios (‘Lord’) in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures,” Encyclopedia Britannica.
Below are additional sources confirming the use of the vowel points from Adonai:
“In the early Middle Ages, when the consonantal text of the Bible was supplied with vowel points to facilitate its correct traditional reading, the vowel points for Adonai with one variation – a sheva (short ‘e’) with the first yod [Y] of YHWH instead of the hataf-patah (short ‘a’) under the aleph of Adonai – was used for YHWH, thus producing the form YeHoWaH. When Christian scholars of Europe first began to study Hebrew they did not understand what this really meant, and they introduced the hybrid name ‘Jehovah’” (Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 7, p. 680).
“Jehovah, modern form of the Hebrew sacred name of God, probably originally ‘Yahweh.’ From c.300 B.C. the Jews, from motives of piety, uttered the name of God very rarely and eventually not at all, but substituted the title ‘Adonai,’ meaning ‘Lord,’ the vowels of which were written under the consonants of ‘Yahweh.’ In the Middle Ages and later, the vowels of one word with the consonants of the other were misread as Jehovah” (The Collegiate Encyclopedia, vol. 9, p. 580).
“Jehovah….What has been said explains the so-called qeri perpetuum, according to which the consonants of Jehovah are always accompanied in the Hebrew text by the vowels of Adonai except in the cases in which Adonai stands in apposition to Jehovah: in these cases the vowels of Elohim are substituted. The use of a simple shewa in the first syllable of Jehovah, instead of the compound shewa in the corresponding syllable of Adonai and Elohim, is required by the rules of Hebrew grammar governing the use of Shewa” (The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. VIII, p. 329).
“Jehovah, an erroneous pronunciation of the name of the God of Israel in the Bible, due to pronouncing the vowels of the term ‘Adonay,’ the marginal Masoretic reading with the consonants of the text-reading ‘Yahweh,’ which was not uttered to avoid the profanation of the divine name of magical or other blasphemous purposes. Hence the substitution of ‘Adonay,’ the ‘Lord,’ or ‘Adonay Elohim,’ ‘Lord God.’ The oldest Greek versions use the term ‘Kurios,’ ‘Lord,’ the exact translation of the current Jewish substitute for the original Tetragrammaton Yahweh. The reading ‘Jehovah’ can be traced to the early Middle Ages and until lately was said to have been invented by Peter Gallatin (1518), confessor of Pope Leo X. Recent writers, however, trace it to an earlier date; it is found in Raymond Martin’s Pugeo Fidei (1270)” (Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 16, p. 8.).
“The personal name of the [El] of the Israelites …The Masoretes, Jewish biblical scholars of the Middle Ages, replaced the vowel signs that had appeared above or beneath the consonants of YHWH with the vowel signs of Adonai or of Elohim. Thus the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) came into being” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Yahweh, Micropedia, vol. 10).
“In the Hebrew Bible the Jews wrote the consonants of the Tetragrammaton as YHWH, but out of reverence for the sacred name of God (or out of fear of violating Exod. 20:7; Lev. 24:16), they vocalized and pronounced it as Adonai or occasionally as Elohim. It is unfortunate, then, that the name was transliterated into German and ultimately into English as Jehovah (which is the way the name is represented in the American Standard Version of 1901), for this conflate form represents the vowels of Adonai superimposed on the consonants of Yahweh, and it was never intended by the Jews to be read as Yehowah (or Jehovah)” (The Making of a Contemporary Translation, p. 107).
“Jehovah in that form was unknown to the ancient Israelites. In fact, Hebrew scholars say that Jehovah would have been impossible according to the strict principles of Hebrew vocalization. The God of Israel was known by a name approximately rendered into English as Yahweh,” (A Book About the Bible, George Stimpson, p. 247).
“Although the meaning of the name remains subject to debate, Yahweh is most likely a verbal form of Heb. haya (perhaps originally hwy)…Because of the utmost sanctity ascribed to the name, Jews from postexilic times on have declined to pronounce it in public reading, and only the consonants were written (YHWH; the Dead Sea Scrolls use the archaic, ‘paleo-Hebrew’ script). Although the original pronunciation was thus eventually lost, inscriptional evidence favors yahwae or yahwe. The name is represented in the MT by the consonants with the vowel pointing for ‘adonay ‘Lord.’ From this derived ca, the sixteenth century the form ‘Jehovah’ (yehowah). In modern usage pious Jews often substitute the expression has-sem ‘the Name,” (The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, Allen C. Myers, Ed., “Yahweh,” p. 1075).
Beginning tomorrow, we are migrating from Live Stream to YouTube for our live Sabbath broadcast. The main reason for the change is cost savings. We currently pay over $200 a month to broadcast through Live Stream, where YouTube is free. YouTube is also the main platform YRM leverages, as it has the largest audience. For those who connect on yrm.org/live, with the exception of a different player, there should be no significant change. The broadcast will still begin Saturday at 1:30 pm, Central, without need for a login or password. For those who have been logging on through Live Stream via Roku or other means, you will need to move to YouTube. For those using Roku, you will need to download the YouTube’s channel. For those who login via Live Stream’s website, you will need to login to our YouTube channel.
We warmly invite you to this year’s Feast of Tabernacles in Holts Summit, Missouri. Along with daily worship services and several Bible workshops, we have many activities planned for young and old, including: roller skating, volleyball, bingo, Hebrew dancing, puppet show, bounce house, and more. As for lodging, we have one remaining dorm room in our new activities building and several electric tent sites. If you are interested in a dorm room, we encourage you to register soon. Because these rooms are limited, they are only available to those who plan to observe all eight days of the Feast with YRM. There is also one hotel, America’s Best Value Inn, in Holts Summit, two miles from the Assembly. This Feast promises to be a blessing and a taste of the Kingdom. Don’t delay, register today. For more information, visit yrm.org/tabernacles-2018.
A. They are already sealed
B. At the beginning of the seven-year tribulation
C. Prior to the Great Tribulation
D. There is no sealing, this is symbolic
The 144,000 will be sealed prior to Yahweh pouring out His plagues upon man. This will occur right before the start of the Great Tribulation, as confirmed in Revelation 7:1-4, “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living Elohim: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our Elohim in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”
Q. I don’t understand why you would refer to Greek documents to prove Yahweh when the Hebrew manuscripts support Yehovah. The Greek language is pagan and unreliable in such matters. Can you explain your refusal to accept the Hebrew?
A. We are not opposed to any language if truth can be learned, especially the Hebrew language. Being that Hebrew is the original language of the Old Testament and possibly for the New Testament, there is something special about the Hebrew language.
The challenge with supporting the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton from the Hebrew is that the Jews stopped pronouncing the name around the 3rd century BCE. This is supported by the Britannica and Babylonian Talmud.
“After the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE), and especially from the 3rd century bce on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal rather than merely local religion, the more common noun Elohim, meaning ‘God,’ tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai (‘My Lord’), which was translated as Kyrios (‘Lord’) in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures,” Encyclopedia Britannica.
“Tosaf Sotah 38a suggests that the Ineffable Name could be pronounced only when there was some indication that the Shechinah rested on the Sanctuary. When Simeon the Righteous died, with many indications that such glory was no more enjoyed, his brethren no more dared utter the Ineffable Name,” Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 39b, footnote, p. 186.
Because of this reluctance to pronounce the name, it is now impossible to confirm it through the Old Testament Hebrew. Prior to the Masoretes, Hebrew had no spoken vowels, as confirmed in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Later, it was the practice of the Masoretes to conceal the pronunciation of the name through the vowel points of Adonai and Elohim. For this reason, the Hebrew is unreliable regarding the proper pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton. In fact, there are multiple pronunciations for YHWH within the Masoretic codices. Below are six different spellings as found within the Leningrad Codex.
However, unlike the Hebrew manuscripts, we find many Greek documents confirming the pronunciation. The two main sources are from early Church Fathers and Gnostic writings from as early as the 2nd century. Consider the following:
“The true pronunciation of the name YHWH was never lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian Church testify that the name was pronounced ‘Yahweh’” (Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 7, p. 680).
“Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used the form Yahweh, thus this pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was never really lost. Greek transcriptions also indicated that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed., vol. x, p. 786).
“The pronunciation Yahweh is indicated by transliteration of the name into Greek in early Christian literature, in the form iaoue (Clement of Alexandria) or iabe (Theodoret; by this time Gk. b had the pronunciation of v)…Strictly speaking, Yahweh is the only ‘name’ of God. In Genesis wherever the word sem (‘name’) is associated with the divine being that name is Yahweh” (Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary, 1979 p. 478).
“Such a conclusion, giving ‘Yahweh’ as the pronunciation of the name, is confirmed by the testimony of the Fathers and gentile writers, where the forms IAO, Yaho, Yaou, Yahouai, and Yahoue appear. Especially important is the statement of Theodoret in relation to Ex. lvi., when he says: ‘the Samaritans call it [the tetragrammaton] ‘Yabe,’ the Jews call it ‘Aia’…” (The New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia, “Yahweh,” p. 471).
In addition to early church writers, evidence for Yahweh is also found in The Nag Hammadi codices, dating from the 2nd to 4th century CE. This library of Gnostic writings was discovered in Upper Egypt, near Nag Hammadi, in 1945. In all, there are over 50 texts within this library. Since they are in Greek, as the church fathers, they preserve the pronunciation.
One such book is The Secret Book of John. Within this codex, it mentions the name Yahweh and notes, “Eloim and Yawe, two names of God in the Hebrew scriptures…. Yahweh is the name of God (based on the Tetragrammaton, the ineffable four-letter name)” (Dr. Marvin Meyer, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, p. 127).
The Secret Book of John dates to the second century, as it was known to the church father Irenaeus. This was the same timeframe as Clement of Alexandria, who also confirmed the name. Even though Gnosticism was rightly deemed heretical by the early church, it is another witness to the pronunciation of Yahweh. The fact that these groups were at odds, but agreed on “Yahweh,” is significant and adds credence to this pronunciation. It verifies that “Yahweh” was widely recognized as early as the second century, nearly 700 years before any Hebrew manuscripts containing Yehovah.
It’s important to realize that unlike the Jews who had a taboo on pronouncing the name, neither the church fathers nor Gnostics shared this belief. For this reason, they had no axe to grind and are reliable sources for the pronunciation of the name, which they confirm as “Yahweh.”
Q. I agree that His name is YHWH, but my question is, why does Strong’s transliterate it “yehôvâh”?
A. Great question. Strong’s renders the name based on the Masoretic vowel points. Since the vowel points are taken from Adonai, it transliterates to Yehovah. Not realizing this, early translators of the Bible rendered this name “Jehovah,” based on these added vowel points.
Historically, many Jews stopped pronouncing the name after the 3rd century, BCE. The Encyclopedia Britannica and Jewish Talmud testify to this fact:
“After the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE), and especially from the 3rd century bce on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal rather than merely local religion, the more common noun Elohim, meaning ‘God,’ tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai (‘My Lord’), which was translated as Kyrios (‘Lord’) in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures,” Encyclopedia Britannica.
“Tosaf Sotah 38a suggests that the Ineffable Name could be pronounced only when there was some indication that the Shechinah rested on the Sanctuary. When Simeon the Righteous died, with many indications that such glory was no more enjoyed, his brethren no more dared utter the Ineffable Name,” Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 39b, footnote, p. 186.
As explained above, the Jews avoided using the name Yahweh by employing the vowel points from Adonai. Interestingly, where Adonai and the Tetragrammaton appeared in close proximity, they would also often use the vowel points from Elohim. Strong’s makes note of this in OT:3069, where it renders YHWH as “Yehovih” and states, “a variation of OT:3068 [used after OT:136, and pronounced by Jews as OT:430, in order to prevent the repetition of the same sound, since they elsewhere pronounce OT:3068 as OT:136.”
This provides conclusive proof that the Jews tampered with the vowel points of the Tetragrammaton. This was due to their insistence that the actual pronunciation was too holy to pronounce. Therefore, to prevent this, they concealed the name by artificially adding the vowel points from Adonai and Elohim to YHWH. By doing this, the reader would know to read Adonai or Elohim instead of Yahweh. Only later did some begin incorrectly pronouncing the name with the added vowel points.
According to Professor Steven Fassberg, who received his PhD from Harvard and teaches Hebrew at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “The pronunciation you mentioned [i.e., Yehovah] is a mistake. The Hebrew consonantal text is YHWH and no one really knows how that was pronounced in Old Testament times. At a later date (the latter half of the 2nd millennium CE) Masoretes added vowel signs to the consonantal text. Whenever the Tetragrammaton was written, they added the vowel signs of the word ‘Adonay,’ which means ‘My Lord’ – there was a taboo on pronouncing the Divine name and one was supposed to read the word ‘Adonay – my Lord.’ Much later some started reading the vowel signs together with YHWH and came up with the nonsensical word Jehovah” (email correspondence between YRM and Professor Fassberg).
In addition to Strong’s and Professor Fassberg, nearly all other biblical scholars confirm that Yehovah, often spelled Jehovah, was derived from the vowel points from Adonai. Consider the following references:
“In the early Middle Ages, when the consonantal text of the Bible was supplied with vowel points to facilitate its correct traditional reading, the vowel points for Adonai with one variation – a sheva (short ‘e’) with the first yod [Y] of YHWH instead of the hataf-patah (short ‘a’) under the aleph of Adonai – was used for YHWH, thus producing the form YeHoWaH. When Christian scholars of Europe first began to study Hebrew they did not understand what this really meant, and they introduced the hybrid name ‘Jehovah’” (Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 7, p. 680).
“Jehovah, modern form of the Hebrew sacred name of God, probably originally ‘Yahweh.’ From c.300 B.C. the Jews, from motives of piety, uttered the name of God very rarely and eventually not at all, but substituted the title ‘Adonai,’ meaning ‘Lord,’ the vowels of which were written under the consonants of ‘Yahweh.’ In the Middle Ages and later, the vowels of one word with the consonants of the other were misread as Jehovah” (The Collegiate Encyclopedia, vol. 9, p. 580).
“Jehovah….What has been said explains the so-called qeri perpetuum, according to which the consonants of Jehovah are always accompanied in the Hebrew text by the vowels of Adonai except in the cases in which Adonai stands in apposition to Jehovah: in these cases the vowels of Elohim are substituted. The use of a simple shewa in the first syllable of Jehovah, instead of the compound shewa in the corresponding syllable of Adonai and Elohim, is required by the rules of Hebrew grammar governing the use of Shewa” (The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. VIII, p. 329).
“Jehovah, an erroneous pronunciation of the name of the God of Israel in the Bible, due to pronouncing the vowels of the term ‘Adonay,’ the marginal Masoretic reading with the consonants of the text-reading ‘Yahweh,’ which was not uttered to avoid the profanation of the divine name of magical or other blasphemous purposes. Hence the substitution of ‘Adonay,’ the ‘Lord,’ or ‘Adonay Elohim,’ ‘Lord God.’ The oldest Greek versions use the term ‘Kurios,’ ‘Lord,’ the exact translation of the current Jewish substitute for the original Tetragrammaton Yahweh. The reading ‘Jehovah’ can be traced to the early Middle Ages and until lately was said to have been invented by Peter Gallatin (1518), confessor of Pope Leo X. Recent writers, however, trace it to an earlier date; it is found in Raymond Martin’s Pugeo Fidei (1270)” (Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 16, p. 8.).
“The personal name of the [El] of the Israelites …The Masoretes, Jewish biblical scholars of the Middle Ages, replaced the vowel signs that had appeared above or beneath the consonants of YHWH with the vowel signs of Adonai or of Elohim. Thus the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) came into being” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Yahweh, Micropedia, vol. 10).
“In the Hebrew Bible the Jews wrote the consonants of the Tetragrammaton as YHWH, but out of reverence for the sacred name of God (or out of fear of violating Exod. 20:7; Lev. 24:16), they vocalized and pronounced it as Adonai or occasionally as Elohim. It is unfortunate, then, that the name was transliterated into German and ultimately into English as Jehovah (which is the way the name is represented in the American Standard Version of 1901), for this conflate form represents the vowels of Adonai superimposed on the consonants of Yahweh, and it was never intended by the Jews to be read as Yehowah (or Jehovah)” (The Making of a Contemporary Translation, p. 107).
“Jehovah in that form was unknown to the ancient Israelites. In fact, Hebrew scholars say that Jehovah would have been impossible according to the strict principles of Hebrew vocalization. The God of Israel was known by a name approximately rendered into English as Yahweh,” (A Book About the Bible, George Stimpson, p. 247).
“Although the meaning of the name remains subject to debate, Yahweh is most likely a verbal form of Heb. haya (perhaps originally hwy)…Because of the utmost sanctity ascribed to the name, Jews from postexilic times on have declined to pronounce it in public reading, and only the consonants were written (YHWH; the Dead Sea Scrolls use the archaic, ‘paleo-Hebrew’ script). Although the original pronunciation was thus eventually lost, inscriptional evidence favors yahwae or yahwe. The name is represented in the MT by the consonants with the vowel pointing for ‘adonay ‘Lord.’ From this derived ca, the sixteenth century the form ‘Jehovah’ (yehowah). In modern usage pious Jews often substitute the expression has-sem ‘the Name,” (The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, Allen C. Myers, Ed., “Yahweh,” p. 1075).
“The scribes reasoned that if they did not point the name Yahweh then it could never be treated lightly since his name would not really be known. Initially the real pointing was probably passed along by tradition, but in time it was lost. In Exodus 20:7 the name Lord is written in capital letters according to the convention of signifying the name Yahweh, but the name as it appears in the Hebrew text is hwhy (yehowa), in which appear the consonants from the name Yahweh (hwhy [yhwh]) and the vowels from the word Lord (ynda [‘idonay]). Proof for the fabricated nature of this word are the two vowels which appear on the waw, an impossibility in Hebrew. However, until the revival of the Hebrew language in western Europe scholars read the consonants YHWH (Germans would read them as JHVH) with the vowels of ‘adonay, thereby originating the incorrect form Jehovah. This word was then introduced into English by William Tyndale and was continued by the King James Version,” (The Journey from Texts to Translations, Paul D. Wegner, pp. 172-173).
Based on the above, scholarship verifies that Yehovah (Jehovah) was the result of combining the vowel points from Adonai with the four letters of yod-hey-waw-hey of the Tetragrammaton. Therefore, any attempt to justify Yehovah is to ignore the preponderance of evidence.
