Introduction to the Yahveh Covenant
Introduction to
THE YAHVEH COVENANT
Virgil Warren, PhD
The Yahveh Covenant presents a modified form of the Old Testament portion of The Conversational Version. Besides the features of that translation, the following points come up in this variant of it.
The Yahveh Covenant uses the personal name of the God of Moses in places where it appears in the Hebrew text. The intent is to highlight the personal character of Old Testament revelation by using God’s personal name instead of substituting a descriptor—Lord, Master, God, Almighty, and the like. There is a difference in feel between listening to a brother talk and listening to John.
Where standard versions may use all caps for LORD (or GOD) when covering the personal name for the Hebrew God (יהוה, Yahveh), this rendering puts the (presumed modern spelling of the) actual name in the text. Sometime before Jewish scholars created the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament (LXX) in Alexandria, Egypt (285 B. C.? or 150 B. C.?), Jewish people had adopted the custom of not saying God’s personal name at all. The respected name became the ineffable name replaced by אדוני, “my Lord,” and covered in the LXX by the Greek word κύριος, Lord. New Testament writers did not challenge that tradition; so only in the Old Testament does the matter come up—and, of course, in New Testament quotations of Old Testament texts that contain the name. In the latter instances, New Testament writers quote the LXX anyway; so κύριος appears even in New Testament quotations of the Old Testament with Yahveh originally in the Hebrew text. Restoring the personal name of God in CV is meant to have a personalizing effect on the God of the Old Testament.
After making a point of preserving God’s personal name, in many texts we have nevertheless omitted the Tetragrammaton as instances of anaphoric nouns and so on, which English tends to avoid as unnecessarily replete. Wherever possible, a superscript Y replaces the omitted Yahveh: Genesis 2:5, 9, 16; 3:22, 8, 9, 23; 4:13, 15; 6:6, 7; 8:21; 11:6; 11:9; 12:4, 8; 13:3; 15:8; 16:9, 10, 11; 18:14, 182, 20, 33; 19:13b, 24; 22:15; 24:48; 26:9; 39:5;
Exodus 4:1, 10a; 5:6, 8, 22; 8:29; 9:3, 4; 10:11; 13:12; 14:8, 30; 15:16; 16:23, 30; 18:11; 19:21; 20:8, 10, 11; 22:21; 24:1, 5; 29:42; 30:8, 10, 15; 31:15, 17; 32: 6; 34:10; 35:2, 5, 10; 36:1;
Leviticus 1:3; 4:2; 15:26; 16:1; 17:5; 19:8, 11, 16, 18, 30, 32; 22:21; 23:6;
Numbers 8:11, 12; 10:29; 11:29b; 12:8; 14:11, 35, 41; 16:7, 20, 23; 17:12; 18:13, 28, 29; 20:4; 22:22, 24, 31; 23:26; 25:4; 31:31; 32:27;
Deuteronomy 2:31; 3:22; 5:9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; 6:21; 7:15; 9:4, 26a; 10:17; 12:21, 26, 31; 14:23; 15:15; 18:5, 16b; 23:23; 28:47; 29:20; 30:7, 20; 31:3;
Joshua 1:9; 6:11, 17; 7:13; 14:10;
Judges 2:15, 22; 6:12, 13, 24; 10:11; 11:12; 20:23, 27, 28; 22:19, 21, 23, 28;
1 Samuel 1:9, 10, 11, 12, 21, 28; 2:20; 3:15; 6:3, 15, 20; 12:10, 142, 17, 18; 13:14; 15:19, 20, 26; 16:7; 17:46, 47; 20:42; 25:26, 28, 30;
2 Samuel 5:19, 24, 25; 6:15, 16, 17; 7:8, 192, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29; 8:6; 12:9, 14; 19:22; 22:16; 24:1, 10, 12, 23;
1 Kings 7:51; 8:12, 64; 9:9b, 25; 12:11; 13:26; 14:5, 11, 28; 17:11, 14, 15, 21; 18:37; 19:10, 112, 14; 21:19, 28; 22:19, 20; 27:14;
2 Kings 4:44; 5:18; 6:18; 11:10, 15, 18, 19; 17:39; 18:15, 25; 20:3, 4, 5; 21:12; 23:2; 24:3;
1 Chronicles 15:29; 17:7, 10, 23; 18:6; 21:12, 17, 18, 22;
2 Chronicles 2:19; 4:10; 6:1, 10, 16; 8:12; 11:5; 14:11; 15:13, 23; 16:9; 19:17; 20:17, 19, 22, 28; 21:1, 14, 18; 23:12, 14, 182, 19, 20; 24:8, 12, 142, 21, 24; 26:17, 18, 21; 28:11, 21, 24; 29:30, 31, 35; 30:15, 18, 19, 22; 31:11; 33:4, 15; 34:15, 17, 24; 33:23; 34:8; 35:2; 36:7, 10, 12, 21;
Ezra 1:1; 2:68; 3:11;
Nehemiah 1:11; 8:6;
Job 1:12;
Psalm 3:4, 8; 4:3, 8; 5:3, 6, 12; 7:17; 9:20; 11:5, 7, 16; 14:6; 16:2, 8; 18:2, 3, 15; 22:30; 24:3; 25:10; 28:5, 8; 29:22, 42, 9, 10; 30:2; 32:11; 33:20; 34:6, 9, 16, 22; 40:3; 41:2, 3; 84:2; 89:6; 93:3; 94:5; 96:2, 7; 97:12; 99:8, 9; 102:22; 106:2, 25; 107:2, 22; 109:15, 5; 111:2, 4; 113:2; 115:8, 12; 116:4, 5, 6, 7, 82, 9, 17; 117:2; 118:6, 18, 20, 26; 119:126; 125:5; 135:20;
Proverbs 3:12, 33; 15:9;
Isaiah 3:16; 5:25; 6:12; 7:11; 8:7; 9:11, 14; 10:24; 13:13; 19:19, 20, 22; 22:17; 23:18; 24:3; 26:13, 14; 29:15; 30:30, 31; 31:5; 33:6; 34:62; 36:18; 37:1, 22; 38:5, 7, 20; 40:10, 25; 41:20; 42:13; 43:15, 16; 44:6a, 24; 45:19; 48:14; 49:7; 50:5, 7, 9; 52:7; 54:17; 56:3; 58:14; 59:19; 62:4, 9; 64:9, 12;
Jeremiah 1:38; 3:21; 5:10; 7:20; 8:7; 11:22; 14:10, 14; 20:5, 8, 11, 19, 42; 22:3, 9; 23:31, 33; 25:17, 37; 26:10, 13, 15; 27:16; 28:16; 29:16, 32; 30:8; 33:2, 4, 11, 12; 34:17; 35:13; 36:6, 82, 102, 29; 42:4, 7, 20; 43:1; 51:45;
Lamentations 2:22;
Ezekiel 5:17; 8:14, 16; 10:19; 11:1, 10, 17, 19; 12:25; 13:6, 8; 14:6, 16; 17:22; 18:30; 20:2; 21:17, 26, 32; 25:5; 26:5; 29:9; 34:8, 9; 36:36; 44:2, 3, 16; 45:9, 18;
Daniel 7:13; Hosea 1:2; 11:10; Amos 5:6; 7:16; 9:8; Obadiah 1; Jonah 1:3; 2:2, 9; 4:3; Micah 4:4, 7, 10, 12, 13; Nahum 1:3;
Zephaniah 1:8; 2:32, 11; 3:9, 12, 15; Haggai 1:13, 14; 2:233;
Zechariah 1:2, 17; 3:2; 4:6; 6:17; 7:3; 8:9, 22; 9:14; 10:3, 12; 14:3, 20, 21;
Malachi 1:8, 13, 14; 2:4, 12, 17; 3:3, 4, 6; 4:5.
In some verses, Yahveh has been added in italics to clarify pronoun antecedents, as in Leviticus 22:19, 21; Numbers 7:89; Deuteronomy 31:23; Joshua 7:16, 17, 18, 19; 2 Samuel 23:4; 2 Kings 11:18; 2 Chronicles 3:1; Isaiah 26:20; 27:7; 30:33; 49:15; 53:1; Hosea 12:14; Habakkuk 1:12.
Another feature of The Yahveh Covenant is a judgment call about “son-of” expressions. It takes “x son-of y” more as a designation than a description—like Barjonah (John 1:42, “son-of John”), Ben Gurion airport in Israel, and Ben-Hur, the movie (cp. Exodus 31:2). Ben- covers the “son-of” part of the designations. Examples, of course, are quite numerous: Genesis 23:8 (Ephron Ben-Zohar); 24:24; 28:5; 29:5; 34:2; 36:322, 35, 38; 50:23; etc. The Ben-x pattern stands even in longer genealogical strings: “Korah Ben-Izhar Ben-Kohath Ben-Levi” (Numbers 16:1); cp. Numbers 25:7; 27:1; 36:1; Joshua 7:1, 18; 17:3; Judges 10:1; 18:30; 20:28, etc. Ben is capitalized with hyphenation to the next name in capital form. If Ben-x is considered one name by English custom, it is capitalized without a hyphen to the next root, no blank involved and the next element not capitalized: Benjamin, Benhadad, and the like.
Less common than the “son-of” custom of identification is the “daughter-of” (Bat-) designation found some 48 times in the Hebrew Bible. It is a particularly noticeable feature of king descriptions at the time of their inaugurations. It may occur in those cases because the kings were typically polygamists. The instances of “x Bat-y” (x daughter of y) are Genesis 11:29; 26:342; 28:9; 36:22, 3, 18, 392; 41:45; 46:20; Exodus 6:23; Leviticus 24:11; Numbers 25:15; 26:59; Ruth 4:17; 1 Samuel 14:50; 2 Samuel 3:3, 7; 11:3; 17:25; 21:82; 1 Kings 15:2, 10; 16:32; 2 Kings 11:2; 15:33; 18:2; 21:19; 22:1; 23:31, 36; 24:8, 18; 1 Chronicles 1:34, 36, 502; 2:3, 5; 3:5; 7:14, 31; 8:7; 11:182, 20; 13:2; 20:31; 27:1; Jeremiah 52:1; Hosea 1:3.
A related feature considers the “father-of” designation as a kind of genealogy tracer “x Avi-y”: Genesis 4:18; 10:24; 11:27; Ruth 4:17-22; 1 Chronicles 1:1-4, 18, 24-26; 2:10-13, 20-21. 23-24, 30, 36-42, 49-52; 3:10-15; 4:2, 4, 11-12, 17-18, 21, 25; 6:4-14, 20-27, 29, 50-53; 7:16, 25; 8:29, 33-37; 9:33, 39-43; Nehemiah 12:10-11.
There is one case of “mother of” designation (x Em-y): 1 Chronicles 2:29.
A third feature of The Yahveh Covenant is the retention of deferential language in superscript after some replacement wording more natural to modern English. The phenomenon occurs especially in conversations during the kingdom period.
For other principles applied in The Yahveh Covenant, readers can consult the translation notes that accompany the Old Testament portion of The Conversational Version.
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