THE GOD CULTURE PHILIPPINES BLOG | OCTOBER 21, 2025

“Blessed is He who comes in the Name of YHWH.” – Psalm 118:26 (Hebrew)

1. The Great Disappearance

Open any modern Bible and you will find the divine Name — YHWH — missing from the pages of the New Testament.
It appears over 6,800 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, yet somehow not once in the Greek.
Are we to believe the Name that defined the covenant vanished when Messiah walked the earth?

The truth is simpler — and far more profound.
The Name was never absent.
It was absorbed into the language, veiled by translation, and carried forward through names and praise that still whisper Yahu to this day.

Some have asked however, where is YHWH in any form in the New Testament. It's there many times. 

Each of these names preserves the -Yah / -Yahu ending — re-cast as -ias to fit Greek masculine grammar.
This linguistic bridge proves the Father’s Name was present and pronounced, not erased.
The translators didn’t delete YHWH — they Hellenized it.

3. The Purest Survivor: Hallelu-Yah

There is one word that escaped alteration entirely: Ἁλληλουϊά (Hallelu-ia).
It appears four times in Revelation 19:1-6, meaning “Praise Yah.”
The New Testament ends with the same sacred cry that echoed in the Psalms — the Name on the lips of angels and men alike.
It is the clearest evidence that YH (Yah) remained understood, revered, and sung in the earliest assemblies. [Note: even in German "J" is a "Y" sound.]

4. What the Fathers and Translators Knew

Ancient witnesses confirm the Name’s survival even in Greek manuscripts:

• Origen (3rd cent.) wrote that some Greek scribes copied the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew letters, which later readers mistook for ΠΙΠΙ (PIPI) — Greek letters resembling יהוה.

• Jerome, translator of the Latin Vulgate, explained that he found the Name in older copies of the Greek Old Testament written as IAO or Iaho, a phonetic rendering of the sacred Name.

• Fragments such as Papyrus Fouad 266 (1st cent. BCE) preserve the Hebrew YHWH inside Greek text — proof that the Name was once written and later replaced by Κύριος (Kyrios), “Lord.”

Thus, when the New Testament writers quoted the Greek Septuagint, they inherited a text already undergoing transformation.
Kyrios became the stand-in for YHWH, yet it carried the authority and reverence of the original.

6. The Name in Disguise

Even as Kyrios became common, the apostles still spoke the Name’s authority.
When Paul wrote, “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13), he was quoting Joel 2:32, where the Hebrew says YHWH, not Adonai.
In context, Paul was affirming that salvation comes through the same Name — the covenantal Yahuah — revealed through Messiah.

So while later theology divided Lord God and Jesus Lord, the earliest believers saw one continuum:
the covenant Name embodied in Yahusha, not abolished.

7. Why This Matters Now

To restore the Name is not to invent novelty but to undo concealment.
The prophets bore it; Messiah proclaimed it; the disciples carried it in their very names.
YHWH did not vanish between Malachi and Matthew — He stepped onto the stage in flesh.

Recovering the pronunciation Yahuah simply reconnects us with that reality.
It honors the ancient record and strips away the layers of translation that made the Father anonymous.

8. A Call to Re-Examine

This study requires humility.
Language evolves; scribes made choices.
But when those choices obscure the covenant Name, we are compelled to test all things and hold fast to what is true.

The New Testament still carries the footprints of YHWH — in the names of His prophets, in the songs of praise, and in every citation that echoes the Hebrew Word.
It is not blasphemy to speak what Scripture preserved; it is restoration.

9. Looking Ahead

In Part 2 — From YHWH to Kyrios: How the Name Was Replaced, we will trace how the Septuagint translators began the substitution, how the church institutionalized it, and how “Lord” became a title divorced from the very identity of the Creator.

The goal is not to condemn history — but to reclaim the voice of Scripture itself.
The Name was never lost. It was hidden in plain sight.

Yah Bless. The God Culture Team.

🪶 Source Box — Documented Witnesses to the Substitution of the Name

Primary Manuscripts & Epigraphic Evidence

• Papyrus Fouad 266 (LXX Deuteronomy – 1st cent. B.C.) – Greek text retaining יהוה in paleo-Hebrew letters within the Septuagint. Demonstrates that the Name was originally written, not translated.

• Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1007 (LXX Job – 1st cent. B.C.) – Contains ΙΑΩ (IAO) where later copies read Kyrios; the Greek phonetic rendering of Yahu.

• 4Q120 (Leviticus – Dead Sea Scrolls) – Preserves the same form ΙΑΩ, confirming vocal usage of Yahu in the 1st century B.C.

• 1QIsaᵃ (Great Isaiah Scroll) – Shows consistency of the Tetragrammaton in ancient Hebrew orthography; the form YHWH never disappeared in pre-Christian texts.

Early Writers & Patristic Admissions

• Origen, Hexapla (3rd cent. A.D.) – Notes that the divine Name appeared in Hebrew characters which some Greek readers mistook for ΠΙΠΙ (PIPI), clarifying that these letters represented YHWH, not Greek text.

• Jerome, Prologus Galeatus and Letters to Marcellus (4th cent. A.D.) – States that in ancient Greek copies of Scripture the Name was written as IAO or Iaho, and that Jews later substituted Kyrios out of fear to pronounce it.

• Theodoret of Cyrrhus (5th cent. A.D.) – Records that Samaritans pronounced the Name as “Iabe,” showing continuing awareness of its vocal form long after translation began.

Translation Prefaces & Modern Admissions

• King James Version Preface (1611) – Acknowledges: “Wherever the Name of God, YHWH, occurs in the Hebrew, it is translated LORD.”

• Revised Standard Version Preface (1952) – Adds: “For two reasons the word ‘LORD’ has been substituted for the Name YHWH … the long tradition and reverence for the divine Name.”

• New Jerusalem Bible Preface (1985) – Restores “Yahweh” and confirms that the Tetragrammaton was replaced in earlier English editions.

From Fouad 266 to Jerome’s own hand, the record is undeniable: the Name was not lost by accident but replaced by policy. Its recovery is not innovation — it is repentance.

✒️ Author’s Reflection — Why We Restore What They Removed

History did not silence the Name by accident.
It was set aside through fear, tradition, and the slow erosion of courage to speak what was once holy on every tongue.
The same reverence that claimed to protect the divine identity eventually concealed it.

But restoration is not rebellion. It is obedience — a return to the covenant truth that the Almighty revealed His Name to be known, not hidden.
To say Yahuah is not presumption; it is participation in Scripture’s call: “Declare My Name among the nations.”

We are not rewriting history; we are removing the footnotes that replaced revelation.
The Name was not lost — it was covered by the dust of translation.
Now, that dust is being swept away.

When the veil of language lifts, the voice of the Father resounds once more.
And His people, from the Isles of the East to the ends of the earth, are remembering who He is — and who they are.