Yahweh

Yahweh is a transliteration of the Hebrew "יַהְוֶה", which, in turn, is a vocalization of יהוה proposed by the Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius (1786–1842) in the 19th century. This is the name of God in the Bible, as preserved in the original consonantal Hebrew Bible text. The four Hebrew letters are often collectively called the Tetragrammaton (from the Greek τετραγράμματον These four letters are often transliterated as YHWH, JHWH, YHVH or JHVH.

In the 19th century, many Hebrew scholars did not believe that Jehovah, the traditional vocalisation of these letters, accurately represents the name of God and several of these scholars proposed vocalisations of יהוה that they believed might more accurately represent the true pronunciation of God's name as preserved in the original consonantal Hebrew Bible text. Toward the end of the 19th century, Gesenius's proposed vocalisation of יהוה was accepted by the majority of Hebrew scholars as a likely pronunciation of God's name, and, as a result of this scholarly acceptance, Gesenius's proposed vocalisation, "Yahweh", has been used in modern Bible translations and literature during the last two centuries.