More about Yahweh's name in Bible Translations

The following are some of my thoughts in reply to Dr. Claude Mariottini's new post about using the name of YHVH in Bible translations and elsewhere. It seemed too long to post on his page as a comment so I decided to put it here. I have a previous blog entry regarding this topic which can be found here.

I personally wouldn't have a problem seeing the Hebrew letters, but I've endeavored to learn what they are and how to prounounce them. I suspect that one argument for keeping the Hebrew rather than using transliterated letters is because of the controversy in tranliterating the 'vav.'

Just using the transliterated letters would also produce the same issue as Dr. Mariottini has raised about using the Hebrew letters. The pronounciation of YHVH or YHWH is not clear to someone who has no background knowledge of the name. Its not even totally clear to those who do. Because of the controversy of proper pronounciation, I tend to use YHVH to represent the hebrew letters which allows people to choose which pronounciation they prefer. But when I say the name, I tend to say 'Yahweh' because that is the pronounciation that seems to be most agreed on by scholars. The fundamental problem with using YHVH is that christiandom in general would not readily recognize it as God's name either.

My point however is that Christiandom can learn the name in all its possible forms, and writers, editors and church leaders can and should facilitate the dissemination of that very important information. If that effort is made, reading YHVH, YHWH, Yahweh, or even its Hebrew form will not be too difficult for anyone.