JEHOVAH (ante), the name given in the Old Testament to God as revealing himself to man from the beginning of history, and to become incarnate in the fullness of time. After the narrative in the first of Genesis, ascribing the creation of the heavens and earth to God, there is a repeated account of a part of the work, in its particular relations t.o men, which is ascribed to Jehovah God, who is said to have appeared to Adam, Eve, Abel, and Cain. Afterwards, generally named Jehovah, sometimes God and Jehovah God, he appeared to Noah, exercising sovereign control over men in sending the deluge, in delivering from it, and promisifig that there should be no repetition of it; and, when the number of mankind had again increased, in confounding their speech so that they were scattered abroad. At and after the calling of Abraham a more particular account of the divine manifestations is given, in whibh the name most frequently employed is Jeho vah; and with it are interchangeably used Lord Jehmvah,iJehovah‘God, Almighty God, and God. appearance .wiis in humhn jorm,-,reeeiving the names Jehovah, Angel Jehovah, and God; and administering providential government in bless ing Abraham, delivering Lot, and destroying the cities of the plain. These divine mani festations were repeated to Isaac and Jacob, the latter of whom, at the close of his life, thus summed up the account of them: "God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who fed me all my life long, the Angel who redeemed me from all evil." In the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt great advance was made in the manifestation of Jehovah. The Angel Jehovah, called also Jehovah and God, appeared to Moses at Horeb, sent him to Pharaoh, performed the mighty works which resulted in the release of Israel, divided the Red sea, gave the law at Sinai, administered in •the wilderness the divine government of mercy and judgment down to the death and burial of Moses; brought the people into Canaan under Joshua; and governed them during the times of the judges, kings, and prophets.
The name Jehovah, used thus in the Old Testament, was translated in the Greek version by o xvpzo5 (Lord), which by that fact became familiar to the Jews and was adopted in the New Testament as a title of the divine Redeemer incarnate among men. In this way it came. about that in the English version of the Bible the Hebrew name Jehovah was translated the Lord. Concerning the signification of the Hebrew name, derived as it evidently is from the verb denoting being or existence, two opinions are held: first, that it represents the eternal existence of God; and second, that in the Old Testament it pointed forward to his existence as it would be manifested in his coming to be the Redeemer. All admit that its form.in the Hebrew Bible—Jehovah—is a modi fication of the original, resulting from the practice of the later Jews in pronouncing Adonai instead of it, whenever they came to it in the text, and in transferring to it the vowels of the substituted word in order to mark the change. Its proper form is the future of the verb from which it is derived; and its meaning seems to be pointed out by God's own answer to the question of Moses concerning the name by which God should be spoken of to Israel: " Say, 'I bath sent me unto you; and say, moreover, Jehovah, God of your fathers, bath sent me unto you; this is my name forever, and this my memorial unto all generations." This being the meaning of the name, some go fur
ther and say that, probably, it was first used by Eve at the birth of her first-born son when she named him Cain, meaning acquisition, and said "I have acquired a man, even him who will be," that is the coming One, the promised deliverer. Such being the ori gin of the word it was adopted, as those who hold this theory think, by the Lord as a name by which he would be known among men as the Redeemer Through all genera tions. An argument against this view is that the particle prefixed to Jehovah in this text, translated in the English version "from," often has the force of a preposition, and from the beginning of Genesis to the cessation of the deluge is certainly so used ten times. It is therefore possible that Eve may have meant, I have acquired a man with the Lord, that is by his help. The argument for the view is that the prefixed particle often has only a demonstrative force, giving emphasis to the word before which it is placed; and that in the part of Genesis just specified it is so used without question 108 times (49 prior to the particular instance referred to and 59 after it) to give emphasis to each thing brought forward in succession as created or divinely ordered. The proba bility, therefore, so far as the use of the word is concerned, is, it is said, more than ten to one in favor of the view. That Eve supposed her first-born son was the promised deliverer seems to be indicated by her disappointment when, a second having been born, she named him vanity. And if she supposed so, why should it not be thought that the particle prefixed to the " coming One" was intended by her to point him out ervhati cally, as in the more than one hundred instances which it so much resembles? If the of Jehovah be the coming One, the deliverer, it explains the declara tion of God to Moses that he had been known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but not by his name Jehovah. That they were•acquainted with the name as ascribed to God is manifest; but it is also certain that while the Lord had exhibited his great power in providing for and protecting them he had not by any signal interposi tion made himself known as the deliverer. This he was now about to do, in stretching out for the deliverance of Israel a, mighty hand, such as the world had never seen, but which has been held in remembrance ever since. As the fullness of time drew nearer, the prophets gave increased prominence to Jehovah as the coming One: from the com forting words of Isaiah, "Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, behold Jehovah God will come with strong hand ;" to the closing words of Malachi, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the Angel of the covenant whom ye delight in." When the time had arrived, John the Baptist announced the Lord as the coming ')ne after him; and from the prison sent the inquiry to him, Art thou the coming One? And a-s, at the beginning, Jehovah himself had promised his coming, so, at the end, he opens the apocalypse with the declaration, " I am he who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty;" and closes it with the promise, " Surely I come quickly."