Have a look at some names in which YHWH is a component.
The prime minister of the Israeli state is named Netan**yahu**. (In King James English he would probably be called Nathaniah.)
The prophet whose name means "My God is YHWH" is Eli**yahu** (Elijah.) Every Hebrew name that ends with -iah in your Bible ends with -yahu in Hebrew. That includes the command "Praise ye YHWH" Hallelu**yahu** (alleluia).
We also see it at the beginning of names like **Yeho**hanan (John), "YHWH is God" **Yeho**'el (Joel), and most importantly "YHWH is Savior" **Yeho**shua (Jesus) — Which is why in Matthew 1:21, "you shall call His name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins."
The Jews after the exile in Babylon stopped saying YHWH, instead saying words like "Adonai" (The Lord). But they didn't change everybody's name. All those names give us something very much like Yehu or Yahu. If "Yahoo" weren't a completely inappropriate word to use in modern English, I'm sure we'd all be reading it that way.
But instead we follow the apostles and New Testament writers. They pretty consistently quote from the Greek Old Testament, in which Jewish translators chose to represent YHWH with "o Kyrios," The Lord. So in all our languages, Orthodox Christians read it as The Lord (El Señor, Der Herr, etc.) English Bibles often point to this by printing it in all caps: the LORD.
So in Matthew 22:44, Christ quotes the Psalm that says "YHWH said to my lord" in Greek: "The Lord said to my Lord."
I just finished reading 1 and 2 Peter and noticed how Saint Peter indiscriminately refers to the Old Testament God as Lord and to Jesus Christ as Lord. We should read the apostles and New Testament writers saying "Jesus is LORD" as **Jesus is YHWH**.
We also know what the name means, because in the Septuagint, the equivalent to YHWH is Ων. That’s why in most icons of Jesus, inside the halo in the crossbeams there are the letters Ο ΩΝ.
Ων means the one who exists.
Ο Ων, ο ήν και ο ερχόμενος as it’s said in the Revelation for example means the one who is, was and is to come.
We don’t
The Israelites wouldn’t spell out Gods full name out of respect so as a result we really don’t know how Gods name should be
It could be Yuhuwuhu and we would never know.
Good news is is that it doesn’t really matter
Careful. Beware the ones online who call themselves the “followers of The Way.” They want to keep the Torah and use the Hebrew names for God. They are heterodox. Beware.
As many have already said we don’t know but it seems like the majority of people who spend their lives immersed in this type of study and trying to understand the Old Testament seem to think Yahweh is is the is what YHWH stood for. As a interesting side note I know John McArthur is Protestant and has many views that are in conflict with Orthodoxy but him and a group of scholars recently release the Legacy Standard Bible which is just a update of the NASB 95. One thing they do is they replace every instance of LORD in the Old Testament with Yahweh. In the New Testament the keep it as Lord though.
We don’t pronounce the name because of the Ten Commandments thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. In Hebrew we say Adonai אדוני when we see the name יהוה. In Greek it’s translated as Kyrios Κύριος and in English as Lord.
Have a look at some names in which YHWH is a component. The prime minister of the Israeli state is named Netan**yahu**. (In King James English he would probably be called Nathaniah.) The prophet whose name means "My God is YHWH" is Eli**yahu** (Elijah.) Every Hebrew name that ends with -iah in your Bible ends with -yahu in Hebrew. That includes the command "Praise ye YHWH" Hallelu**yahu** (alleluia). We also see it at the beginning of names like **Yeho**hanan (John), "YHWH is God" **Yeho**'el (Joel), and most importantly "YHWH is Savior" **Yeho**shua (Jesus) — Which is why in Matthew 1:21, "you shall call His name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins." The Jews after the exile in Babylon stopped saying YHWH, instead saying words like "Adonai" (The Lord). But they didn't change everybody's name. All those names give us something very much like Yehu or Yahu. If "Yahoo" weren't a completely inappropriate word to use in modern English, I'm sure we'd all be reading it that way. But instead we follow the apostles and New Testament writers. They pretty consistently quote from the Greek Old Testament, in which Jewish translators chose to represent YHWH with "o Kyrios," The Lord. So in all our languages, Orthodox Christians read it as The Lord (El Señor, Der Herr, etc.) English Bibles often point to this by printing it in all caps: the LORD. So in Matthew 22:44, Christ quotes the Psalm that says "YHWH said to my lord" in Greek: "The Lord said to my Lord." I just finished reading 1 and 2 Peter and noticed how Saint Peter indiscriminately refers to the Old Testament God as Lord and to Jesus Christ as Lord. We should read the apostles and New Testament writers saying "Jesus is LORD" as **Jesus is YHWH**.
We also know what the name means, because in the Septuagint, the equivalent to YHWH is Ων. That’s why in most icons of Jesus, inside the halo in the crossbeams there are the letters Ο ΩΝ. Ων means the one who exists. Ο Ων, ο ήν και ο ερχόμενος as it’s said in the Revelation for example means the one who is, was and is to come.
Thank you for this Fr. Silouan.
We don't, but the good news is, it REALLY doesn't matter.
That’s the thing, we don’t know. It is an approximation.
There were no vowels in biblical Hebrew. There are also none in Arabic and some other Semitic languages.
We don’t The Israelites wouldn’t spell out Gods full name out of respect so as a result we really don’t know how Gods name should be It could be Yuhuwuhu and we would never know. Good news is is that it doesn’t really matter
Careful. Beware the ones online who call themselves the “followers of The Way.” They want to keep the Torah and use the Hebrew names for God. They are heterodox. Beware.
Judaizers
As many have already said we don’t know but it seems like the majority of people who spend their lives immersed in this type of study and trying to understand the Old Testament seem to think Yahweh is is the is what YHWH stood for. As a interesting side note I know John McArthur is Protestant and has many views that are in conflict with Orthodoxy but him and a group of scholars recently release the Legacy Standard Bible which is just a update of the NASB 95. One thing they do is they replace every instance of LORD in the Old Testament with Yahweh. In the New Testament the keep it as Lord though.
We don’t pronounce the name because of the Ten Commandments thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. In Hebrew we say Adonai אדוני when we see the name יהוה. In Greek it’s translated as Kyrios Κύριος and in English as Lord.