V or W in His Name - Removing The Fog of Religion

Go to content

V or W in His Name

His Name
Letters in His Holy Name,
The V  W Conundrum
by Dan L Baxley


V W, not the German car, but letters used to transliterate His Holy Name.  However, there is a German Connection.  A lot of confusion is raised over these two letters and how they are, or should be, pronounced.  Cutting right to the answer is easy -- like this -- Once upon a time, the V and the W were pronounced the same, the Latin V was pronounced as the Hebrew W (all letters transliterations from the Hebrew to the English), as in the letter Waw, or Wall -- thus, in the beginning, Vall and Wall were pronounced the same.  Later the V changed in its pronunciation, as in words like Victory, or Vicar, which in earlier times would have been pronounced as Wictory and Wicar.  Today, we find the confusion supported in the Hebrew Alphabet by its listing the single letter, in the Hebrew, as three different letters in the English or other languages -- take you pick.  But, know this, the W precedes the modern pronunciation of the V.  Notice the letter called the Vav?  That should be the Waw. Looking down the Hebrew chart under the column NAME, to the Waw and then sliding your eyes to the right, under the three columns titles, Modern Hebrews and what do you see?  You see this letter called Vav.  Remember, the W, is called a double U, not a double V.  Tricky, right?  This does not remove the fact that the V was originally pronounced as we pronounce the W, having its origin in the Wow sound not the MODERN Vav sound -- EXCEPT in Germany, where the Double U is pronounced as a modern V -- while their pronunciation is of the modern variety, they are consistent but in reverse, and go to pronouncing the Double U, or W, as V.  Of course they are practically the only language that does this along with many in the Jewish realms of biblical educations.  Why?  Because, many in the Jewish faith are of German descent.  

Notice the following two Hebrew language charts -- the W called the Waw, is the older pronunciation while the modern V should be the same but has changed to V as in Vav.  So, then, which is correct?  This is where many go wrong and continue to changing original pronunciations to something else, like in the name of our Lord and Savior, YaHshua, which has been changed to Jesus, a name not even close to His Birth Name -- YaHshua, the name He was given at birth -- actually, before He was born.

            

V and W and U and O
 
The Germans say, VW or their car the Volks Wagon – VW, but how do they say these words?  Volks Vagan.  The Folks Wagon.  Notice, however that they pronounce the V and the W the same.  No wonder so many are confused over the V and the W, let alone the U and O, letters all used in saying or representing the Name of our God and Father in Heaven and His Son, under whose Name we are to come to confession in order to enter Eternity – For there is no other name, found among men (not in heaven) by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12)
 
When you do your own research you will find what I have presented to be true, well, mostly true, you will find the reasoning behind all of this, the common sense along with the reasoning, that is,  is sound and provable.  Men and women, can say anything and quote each other around and around but in the end it is the Spirit of a thing the knowing what is true, the spiritual and the common reasoning that discerns one truth from another -- rightly dividing the Truth, remember?  So, off I go, again.
 
Back in the day, those days we call the Ancient days, which would be before the Roman Empire, there was no such thing as the V as Vee.  The V comes to us from the Latin and even then it was not the Vee sound.  Like the Letter J went from one sound or phonetic value to another so it is with the Vee.  In the ancient times the U was prominent and when a double U was used it was to indicated a longer sound as in ooo and then followed the O being interchangeable with the U.  We see this in the name of our Lord, Yehoshua -- this is the spelling of His Name as those who teach Biblical Hebrew say it is to be seen and said.  Yet, we see this name also as Yehushua and Yahushua.  Why the A and the E changing, or not?  The A and the E are vowels, they are not technically part of His Name but added, as, technically are the interchangeable letters, O and U.  I know, it seems like I am off on a different track, but not really, for what has happened and still happening with the Birth Name of our Savior had been happening with the Name of the God of Israel too.  They actually are together in this battle over how to say His Name -- the real aim of those who say that you cannot know is to stop you and me from using our Savior's Birth Name -- it really is not about anything else.  If we accept that we cannot breath, the we can accept that we cannot say or breath His Name or the Name of His Son.  Remember, we both agree that He said He came in His Father's Name, so, whether we say, YaHu or YaHo, or even YeHu or Yeho, we end up saying our Heavenly Father's Name -- what comes after that name, YH or YaH, is secondary and only explains His actions.
 
Like the Long U represented by the UU or double U we also have the Long E and a Long E is not a double e, but is the a.  A long e makes an the letter "a" sound.  I discovered a text in a book on ancient languages, from the British Museum that make known.  Back in the Babylonian days the letter E was used in what is called the long E, still used today but as a short E as in eh, when it should be ah.  You will notice in nearly all Hebrew words many end in ah, even our Savior's Name is seen with this spelling from time to time -- YaHushuah.  The base proof for how to say His Holy Name is to say or pronounce YH as stand alone Letters representing the Name of the indefinable ONE.  No one can tell you what that Name Means by itself, only that it pertains to our Creator, or YaH WH, WH means, Causes to be or Will Be Or I Am.  When a person grasps all of this, it becomes too simple, way too simple for some and so obvious to others.  So, what is the argument then?  It is not really over how we say His Holy Name, because we can all say it, all creatures of the Earth can say it -- the argument is over what He is doing or has done and this takes away, or hides His Holy Name from the very people who should know it.  
 
The popularity over the V letter comes to us from the Jehovah's witnesses, and no matter how much they hate the Roman Catholics, it is from the JW studies from the Hebrew to the Latin that the Jehovah's Witnesses founder or founders adopted this V letter from the German influence, ending up with the modern sound for the V, as opposed to the original pronunciation for this letter as we have seen with the Double U or W being the original.  Much of the Biblical studies in languages, oddly enough, come from Germany.  The Germans, to this very day, pronounce the Double UU as a Vee sound.  For them, West becomes Vest.  Why?  For that I have no answer but they, along with the Latins are responsible for changing our Lord and Savior's Name to IESVS -- the original name for our Savior in the First English bibles -- Notice, it too has that V letter.  The V letter was not pronounced as Vee, but as U and as the Latin began to change and their V began to change from a W sound to a Vee sound along with the Germans, the English then made the change, in keeping up with the changes in the language of their day, and altered the name found in the 1611 King James Bible, form the V to the U and the "I" letter too was changing and at that time in 15 and 16th centuries the "I" letter was losing its original sound but retain, briefly, by the "J" letter.  The later KJV Bibles reflect this by altering the original Latin IESVS to JESUS, pronounced as Geezus, and by others as Heyzeus.  

 Where the V letter had been used in the past, it was not supposed to be pronounced as we pronounce this V letter today.  Here is an example from the World Dictionary:

Noun:Yahweh 'yaa,wey
A name for the God of the Old Testament as transliterated from the Hebrew consonants YHVH

You will notice that the transliteration for how to pronounce this Name -- 'yaa,wey -- does not use the v letter at all.  Yet, in the body of the definition the Name is YWVH.  This would suggest that we are supposed to pronounce this Name with the W not the V sound.  It demonstrates that the V in this Name would be the same as the much older W.

Send Comments and Questions to -- servant@servantsofyahshua.com
 
Back to content