Hebrew YHWH (Tetragrammaton, יהוה). Vocalization preserved by Masoretic consonants only; Jewish reading-tradition substitutes Adonai. Reconstructed "Yahweh" is scholarly inference (Gesenius, BDB 1906). "Jehovah" is a 16th-century Latin transliteration combining YHWH consonants with Adonai vowel-points — a hybrid, not a historical pronunciation. Ex 6:2–3 supplies the apparent tension with prior Genesis YHWH usage; classical resolution per Henry / Calvin reads "known by the name" as "experienced in covenant-faithfulness," not "unfamiliar as a term."
YHWH — I AM THAT I AM
Ex 3:14–15 — the covenant name revealed at the burning bush.
Primary passage:Exodus 3:14 →
Commentary
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John Calvin
Commentaries
1. Now Moses kept the flock. We have already said that he was occupied as a shepherd for a long time (viz., about forty years) before this vision appeared to him. The patience, then, of the holy man is commended by his continuance in this work; not that Moses had…
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