When Yeshua was crucified, Pilate wrote an inscription also, and put it on the cross. And it was written, “Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews (Hebrew it would have said, “Yeshua HaNotzri v’melek Ha Yehudim.” If Pilate had written and arranged the letters a certain way, it would have had the letters for Yehovah in it, YHVH (yod, hay, vav, hay). The Hebrew Scriptures have many verses written in Acrostic form, and the Jewish people knew it. Ancient Hebrew had pictures for the letters. So the yod meant hand, the hay meant behold/eye, the vav meant nail, and the last hay meant behold/eye. Put together, the letters in the name Yehovah (YHVH) mean “behold the hand, behold the nail.” Strangely, Yeshua was rejected by the leaders of the nation as king, but he was proclaimed as a king by a Gentile ruler! However, Pilate was mocking the God of Israel and Yeshua as king, saying to the people he is crucifying your God and king, so just think “whatI can do to you!”
Therefore, this inscription many of the Jews read (the people of Israel), for the place where Yeshua was crucified was near the city (and the Temple), and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek, and many coming for Passover would be walking along that road and reading it.
And so the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’: but that he said, ‘I am King of the Jews (God’s name was above his head, YHVH, so they wanted what was written changed so that it did not have that possible acrostic. Also, they did not believe him to be their king).’”
Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” Pilate knew what he was doing, and he also wanted it known to the people that if I can do this to your God and king, what do you think I will do to anyone else if you step out of line.”
Heb 13.8 says that “Yeshua the Messiah is the same yesterday, and today, and forever”, and this is the meaning of the name “Yehovah” in Hebrew because it combines three Hebrew forms: “hiyah” meaning “he was”; “hoveh” meaning “he is” and “yiyeh” meaning “he will be.” This is another way of saying that Yeshua is Yehovah, and he is unchangeable, even into the Olam Haba.
How do we know that it was pronounced “Yehovah” some may ask. God said to Moses in Exo 3.15, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel: the Lord (Yehovah), the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever and this is my memorial name (how it should be remembered and spoken) to all generations.” As we have said before, the name Yehovah is made up of “hayah” meaning “he was”; “hoveh” meaning he is; and “yiyeh” meaning he will be. The consonants of God’s name in v 15 is Yod, Hay, Vav, Hay, and the vowels for Yehovah can be found in the word “olam” or “forever” in Exo 3.15 in case one forgets how to say it, with the vowels of “olam” (“forever” in English) in Hebrew, as sheva, cholam and kamatz. When you put the vowel markings with the YHVH it is pronounced “Yehovah.”
There is a good book about the name Yehovah and how it is to be pronounced by Nehemia Gordon called, “Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence.” On the back cover it says, “Centuries of religious agendas and tradition obscured its meaning.” The rabbis knew how to say it, but it was only passed down to selected students. The common person was told that they were not to ever pronounce the name and to replace it with “Adonai”or “Ha Shem”, and that tradition exists today. For anyone wanting to know more about this, we would recommend that you purchase the book. We also have a 9-part teaching series on the name of God based on Gordon’s videos, the above mentioned book, and another book called, “The Hebrew Yeshua Versus The Greek Jesus” called, “Tanak Foundations-Concepts on the Name of God” on this website. The name of Yehovah has been found written out fully with the above vowel markings in thousands of Hebrew manuscripts, and we have actually read the name for ourselves in the Aleppo Codex. No other name has ever been found.
The name of Yahweh or Yahuah is used by the Hebrew Roots Movement or the Sacred Name Movements today, but that is not what God’s name is, as you can see from the above information. Those names have never been found in any Hebrew Manuscript, but Yehovah has been found thousands of times. Yahweh is a modern linguistic reconstruction rather than a historically spoken Hebrew word.
On p. 69 of Gordon’s book named above, he says, “Yahweh is based on a second-hand Samaritan tradition reported by a 5th century Christian author named Theodoret of Cyrus who didn’t know Hebrew and was writing in Greek.” The name Yahweh should be totally ruled out as the pronunciation.
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