Jehovah | Meaning & Use (2024)

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Category: History & Society

Jehovah, artificial Latinized rendering of the name of the God of Israel. The name arose among Christians in the Middle Ages through the combination of the consonants YHWH (JHVH) with the vowels of Adonai (“My Lord”). Jews reading the Scriptures aloud substituted Adonai for the sacred name, commonly called the tetragrammaton.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray.