Iaoue [i-a-u-ɛ'] or [ja-wɛ'] is the transliteration in Roman letters of koine Greek Ἰαουέ, which in turn is a transcription of the ancient Hebrew יהוה. Hebrew does not have vowel letters and vowel pointings were not added to Hebrew manuscripts until the Middle Ages, centuries after the Old Testament was first written. Moreover Jews were not permitted to utter the holy name of God, and so manuscripts were pointed with vowels of other words to remind the reader to read them, rather than the holy name. Greek however, did have vowel letters but Greeks were not prohibited from uttering the holy name. Greek manuscripts did spell out Jewish names for God; in Christian texts these spellings form into two classes corresponding to proper names ending in Ia (or Yah) and in the holy name Yavé (or Yahweh). Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. ... The Tetragrammaton (Greek: τετραγράμματον; word with four letters) is the usual reference to the Hebrew name for God, which is spelled (in the Hebrew alphabet): (yodh) (heh) (vav) (heh) or (YHWH). ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... NOTE: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh, but not Old Testament, because it does not recognize the New Testament as a continuation or completion of the Jewish bible. ...

In the Encyclopædia Britannica of 2006, in its article on Yahweh, the importance of Greek transcription is explained: Yahweh1 (ya·we) in the Bible, the God of Israel. ...

The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai or Elohim. Thus, the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) came into being. Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19th and 20th centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh. Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used a form like Yahweh, and this pronunciation of the tetragrammaton was never really lost. Other Greek transcriptions also indicated that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh.

The Masoretes (baalei masorah) were scribes based primarily in at least three places, Tiberias (the best known); Eretz Yisrael, or the land of Israel; and Babylonia. ...

Greek ecclesiastical writings

Those corresponding to Ia/Yah

The Semitic nominative ending was -u or -hu, also written -o or -ho. (In Greek ου = 'oo' and 'Ι = 'ee' or 'y'.)

• Diodorus Siculus writes Ἰαο, Ia-o (I, 94);
• Irenaeus ("Against Heresies.", II, xxxv, 3, in P. G., VII, col. 840), Ἰα-οθ, Ia-oth (the Gnostics formed a compound with the last syllable of Sabaoth);
• the Valentinian heretics ("Against Heresies", I, iv, 1, in P.G., VII, col. 481), Ἰαο, Ia-o;
• Clement of Alexandria ("Stromata", V, 6, in P.G., IX, col. 60), Ἰαου, Ia-u or Ἰαβέ, Yavé;
• Origen ("In John", II, 1, in P.G., XIV, col. 105), Ἰαο, Ia-o;
• Porphyry (Eus., "Praep. evang", I, ix, in P.G., XXI, col. 72), Ἰευο, Ie-uo;
• Pseudo-Jerome ("Breviarium in Psalms.", in P.L., XXVI, 828), Ἰαὅ, Ia-ho — this witness is particularly valuable in that it includes the rough-breathing mark, establishing it as the same as Biblical Hebrew Yaho/Yahu.^[1]

Diodorus Siculus (c. ... An engraving of Irenaeus ( 130–202), bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul (now Lyon, France). ... At the bottom of the hands, the two letters on each hand combine to form יהוה (YHWH), the name of God. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), was the first member of the Church of Alexandria to be more than a name, and one of its most distinguished teachers. ... Origen (Greek: , ca. ... Porphyry (Greek Πορφύριος purple-clad) may refer to: Porphyry of Tyros (c. ...

Those corresponding to Yavé/Yahweh

• Clement of Alexandria ("Stromata", V, 6, in P.G., IX, col. 60), Ἰαου, Ia-u or Ἰαβέ, Yavé;
• Epiphanius ("Against Heresies", I, iii, 40, in P.G., XLI, col. 685), Ἰα, Ia or Ἰαβέ, Yavé;
• the Samaritans (Theodoret, in "Ex. quaest.", xv, in P. G., LXXX, col. 244), Ἰαβέ, Yavé.^[2]

Epiphanius (clearly manifested) was the name of several early Christian scholars and ecclesiastics: Epiphanius of Salamis, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, died 410, author of Panarion Epiphanius of Constantinople, died 535, Patriarch of Constantinople 520—535 Epiphanius Scholasticus, known only as the assistant of Cassiodorus who compiled the Historiae... For other uses, see Samaritan (disambiguation). ...

Greek magical papyri

Besides the witness of the numerous Christian manuscripts, magical also papyri spell-out the tetragrammaton among other divine names. In its article Church Fathers and Magic Papyri, The Jewish Encyclopedia groups these transcriptions into four types of related words appearing in ancient papyri involving magical invocations: The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ...

It was in connection with magic that the Tetragrammaton was introduced into the magic papyri and, in all probability, into the writings of the Church Fathers, these two sources containing the following forms, written in Greek letters.^[3]

The Tetragrammaton (Greek: τετραγράμματον; word with four letters) is the usual reference to the Hebrew name for God, which is spelled (in the Hebrew alphabet): (yodh) (heh) (vav) (heh) or (YHWH). ... Blank papyrus. ... The (Early) Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. ...

Those corresponding to Ia/Yah

1. "Iao," "Iaho," "Iae" represent יהו
2. "Aia" represents אהיה
3. "Ia" represents יה^[4]

Those corresponding to Yavé/Yahweh

1. "Iaoue" and
2. "Iabe," both of which represent יהוה

The Jewish Encyclopedia asserts the convention that the "the two forms quoted (above) are merely two ways of writing the same word." Thus in the Jewish view, the Hebrew tetragrammaton in Greek was Ιαβε, pronounced "ya⋅VEH."^[5] The Tetragrammaton (Greek: τετραγράμματον; word with four letters) is the usual reference to the Hebrew name for God, which is spelled (in the Hebrew alphabet): (yodh) (heh) (vav) (heh) or (YHWH). ...

NOTE: β='v'.

Ia/Yah: short form of Yahweh or "King of Heaven?"

The short form

In addition to Yahweh (יהוה), the Divine name is also recorded in proper names as Yahu and Yeho represented as a suffix -ia, -iyah, or -yah. Among scholars, there are two interpretations of the variant forms Yahu and Yahweh found in the Hebrew Bible. The traditional and majority position is that Yahu is the short form of Yahweh. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, this is an "assumption"[1].

Even so, their morphological resemblance is unmistakable.

"King of Heaven"

The second view has been periodically asserted by different scholars for at least the past century and is currently maintained with new evidence from Assyriology. This interpretation holds that Yahu and Yahweh are in fact separate names for God, the former being the Semitic King of Heaven and the latter the Biblical Hebrew ineffable Name. Assyriology is the historical and archaeological study of ancient Mesopotamia. ...

The second view rests on three arguments:

1. In Greek, Yaho (Ἰαὅ) cannot be confused with Yavé (Ἰαβέ), and the latter appears only in later texts;
2. There is no reliable reason that the second syllable, -weh, should be dropped -- indeed Yahu is no shorter than Yahweh;
3. Yahu can now be identified with Ea as the Semitic King of Heaven.

If true, the last argument (as maintained by world-class Assyriologists such as Jean Bottéro and W.G. Lambert) would be the most compelling of the three. To summarize, the new scholarship concludes that West Semitic Yah corresponds to Babylonian Ea. Scholars agree that Ia, Iah, Yah, and Yahu are the same word with the same pronunciation. What Bottéro et al. add is their conclusions from their field, Assyriology, that the word is the equivalent of Ea.^[6][7][8][9] Enki was a deity in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology. ... Assyriology is the historical and archaeological study of ancient Mesopotamia. ...

Neither theory -- short form or "King of Heaven" -- presents much theological difficulty, since God in the Old Testament has many names praising his divine and holy nature. If Yahu means "King of Heaven," it adds nothing new to God's numerous divine aspects.

References

See also

• Yaw - this article discusses important theories involving the origin of the word Yahweh in the context of archaic, regional polytheism.

Yam, Yamm, or Yaw (jaÊŠ) is the name of the Levantine god of chaos and mass-destruction, and in some myths he is one of the ilhm (Els) or sons of El. ...

Technical note

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