NEW! NEW! Sunday Gospel Channel on You-Tube

Our SUNDAY GOSPEL CHANNEL is now officially launched.

Exciting News.  By the grace of God, we are launching a Sunday Gospel Channel on you-tube to proclaim the Name of Yahweh and to preach the Gospel by directing people to the one God Yahweh and Jesus Christ the Messiah.  Remember us in prayer that the Name of God be glorified and that you will also join us to share this channel with your friends, families, and colleagues.  Let us join hands together to make God's Name known to the world that they can come to have salvation through His Son, the Messiah Jesus. 

< Sunday Gospel频道 >  现已正式开通。

这是令人兴奋的消息。 承蒙神的恩典，我们在 YouTube 上推出周日福音频道(Sunday Gospel Channel)，宣扬雅伟的名字，并引导人们信奉唯一的神雅伟和他所膏立的弥赛亚耶稣基督，从而传播福音。 请在祷告中记念我们的事工，愿神之名得着荣耀，愿您也能关注我们，与您的朋友、家人和同事分享这个频道。 让我们一起携手让世界知道神的名字，使他们可以透过神的儿子弥赛亚耶稣领受救恩。

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圣经翻译的其中三个重要关键 (之 1.1) -- 3 Important Issues to Bible Translation

 关于圣经译本，我们至少需要了解三个重要话题。

第一个是关于神的名字YHWH。

这个"四字神字"应该怎么处理？

在翻译中，难道我们将这个词保留为希伯来字母？

犹太人在公元前2世纪将圣经翻译成希腊语时，大多使用“Adonai(主)”来取代YHWH。

这影响到二千多年来，大多数英文圣经遵循犹太人的先例，并用“the LORD(主)”代替了 YHWH。

钦定本 (KJV) 只有 7 节保留了这个词，翻译为“Jehovah(耶和华)”。

但还有几个例外，

• 杨氏直译本(Young's Literal Translation, YLT 1862)
• 美国标准(American Standard Version, ASV 1901)，

这些是在 和合本时代之前(1911)。

在 CUV 之后，还有其他以 Yahweh 为名出版的近代英文圣经。

1. 1966 年《耶路撒冷圣经》(Jerusalem Bible, JB)，它基于 1956 年的法语“La Bible de Jerusalem”（在 1999 年的法语版中，例如 Gen 2:4，YHWH 被翻译为“Yahvé”。）这本圣经由天主教会印刷。
   
   
   在《耶路撒冷圣经》中，“Yahweh”这个名字出现了 6823 次。耶路撒冷圣经很受欢迎，是天主教徒的标准圣经。它于 1985 年更新为《新耶路撒冷圣经》(New Jerusalem Bible, NJB)。尽管梵蒂冈重申了一项指令，即不得在天主教礼仪或音乐中发音读出上帝的名字，即四字神名 YHWH (不可读作Yahweh)，这是因为引用了犹太人和教会历来的权威。
   
   
   然而，在 2007 年，天主教的公教真理学会 (Catholic Truth Society, CTS) 发布了《新天主教圣经》(New Catholic Bible NCT)，它修订了 1966 年的《耶路撒冷圣经》。在整个旧约中，Yahweh这个名字被替换为“the LORD”。
   
   
   
   
   French “La Bible de Jerusalem” 1999
   
   
2. Holman Christian Standard Bible 2003, 2009, 在第二版中，在 656 处用Yahweh。正如 HCSB 的介绍中所说：“在HCSB 中的使用"Yahweh"比在大多数圣经翻译中更频繁，因为英文中的"the Lord(主)"这个词是神的头衔，并没有准确地向现代读者传达在原文(希伯来语)圣经中对神名字的强调。”
   
   
   然后在下一次修订中，它更名为Christian Standard Bible (CSB 2017)，神的名称"Yahweh"再次被“the LORD”所取代。
   
   
3. Lexham English Bible (LEB 2011) 是由 Logos Bible Software 发布的在线圣经。 Logos 是英语学者和平信徒中所用的最强大圣经软件之一。
   
   
   LEB 在 5776 节经文中使用了“Yahweh”这个名字。

这就是我们在网上同时提供 HCSB 和 LEB， 与原文进行比较的原因。

参考：

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Bible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holman_Christian_Standard_Bible

关于 ASV 的更多说明 More Notes about ASV

犹太人如何处理经文中的YHWH？

当用希伯来语写YHWH 时，一贯地，把Adonai 的元音写在单词中，以提醒读者大声读 YHWH 时说 "Adonai 主"而不是发声为 "Yahweh"。

当西方学者在中世纪研究希伯来语文本时，他们基本上没有意识到这些细微差别。所以他们错误地认为这个名字的音译是"Jehovah耶和华"。

在 19 世纪，一些德国学者认定“Jehovah”是名称的错误发音，并“Jahveh”是较正确的发音（在德语中，字母“J”的发音类似于英语中的“Y”）。希伯来语字母中没有 W，而是V。

德国学术界开始用 Jahveh 而不再是“der Herr主”。

到 1870 年，英国学者开始模仿这一做法，他们首先在为学者设计的作品中使用“Jahveh”（引德国为例），后来又使用“Yahweh”（1880 年后更频繁地使用）。但这些学者认为没有必要纠正常用的英文圣经中的LORD。

尽管这些学者知道“Jehovah”的发音不正确，但ASV编辑他们认为使用“Yahweh”是不明智的，因为对公众来说是陌生的，且个是全新的名字。

从修订版RV 1885   到美国标准版ASV1901  到新美国标准圣经NASB 1971

有关修订版RV和美国标准版ASV，以及新美国标准圣经NASB的这86年以来，我发现了更多有趣的信息，各据一词。我引申如下（粗体强调是我添加的）。

Revised Version 1885 年版 序言

对于“耶和华”一词，建议遵循钦定本的用法，而不是统一用这名字来代替“主”或“神／上帝”。当以大写字母LORD印刷时，代表由是遵犹太人对不可言喻的名字的习惯。因此，我们会发现钦定本仅在少数段落中引入用“耶和华”，其中似乎都是需要专有名称。

但是当美国人出版 ASV 时，他们实际上用“耶和华”全面代替了。 卻他们的前言如下。

美国版1901 前言

...

在英美审校共同工作的过程中，一致认为，在尊重所有最终分歧点的情况下，在审校工作中具有主动权的英国应拥有决定权。但作为对这一点的补偿，英国方面建议在 14 年的期限内，将美国人的偏好提议作为附录出版在每本修订版圣经中。美国委员会承诺，在相同的有限期限内，除英格兰大学出版社发行的版本外，不批准任何其他版本的修订版的出版。

...

本序言的其余部分特别提到了旧约。关于英文修订版附录中的各种特定建议无需多说。但是，对于其中规定的修改的一般类别，以及本版本中对附录中规定的那些修改的补充，可以做一些说明。

附录中首次建议的更改——用“耶和华”代替“LORD”和“GOD”——是许多人不欢迎的，因为这名字长期被替换的频率和熟悉程度。但是，美国的修订者经过仔细考虑后一致认为，犹太人的迷信认为神的名字YHWH太神圣而无法说出，但此想法不应该再在英文或旧约的任何其他外语版本中占主导地位，因为幸运的是，现代传教士制作的众多(外语)版本中没有用LORD。 “耶和华”这个值得纪念的名称，在 出3:14-15 节，并在旧约原文中一再强调，指明神是位格的神、立约的神、启示的神、拯救者、他子民的朋友； ——不仅是许多法语翻译中抽象的“永恒者The Eternal”，而且是那些处于困境中的人永远活着的帮助者。这是专有名字(personal name)，连同其丰富的神圣联想，现在恢复到它在神圣文本中拥有无可置疑的地位。

但在下一次修订中，NASB 1971再次将神的名字恢复为“LORD”。

YHWH（在 ASV中译为“耶和华”）在 NASB 中恢复用大写字母译为“LORD”或“GOD”。 NASB组委会说明原因：

猶太人因為敬畏神名的偉大神聖性，所以這個名字沒有被猶太人念出。因此，它一直被一致地譯為 "LORD"。唯一的例外是，當它與Lord這個詞相鄰時，也就是亞多奈（Adonai）。 在這種情況下，為了避免混淆，通常將其譯為 "GOD"。 眾所周知，多年來，YHWH一直被譯為Yahweh，然而，這種讀音並沒有完全確定的說法。

所以，这对普通的平信徒来说，这确实是非常令人困惑的事。

容我用以下 4 点评论作总结。

1. 神有一个名字，他向犹太人透露他的名字是YHWH。在希伯来旧约中重复了 6828 次。
2. 犹太人和后来的基督徒用LORD/GOD代替了 YHWH。 YHWH 的名字已被抹去。
3. "耶和华"是用词不当。这是YHWH + Adonai的捏造发音。
4. 虽然没有人能 100% 确定发音（因为 2000 多年来没有人发声读YHWH了，失传了），但 Yahweh 是个最好的选择，并且被现代学术界广泛接受，尽管大多数平信徒并不熟悉 Yahweh 这个名字。

參考:

https://www.ccel.org/ccel/bible/asv.ii.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_American_Standard_Bible  Section 1.1 YHWH

How did the Jews handle YHWH in the text?

It became very standard when YHWH was written in Hebrew, that the vowels for Adonai were written in the word, to remind anyone reading YHWH out loud to say Adonai and not vocalized as Yahweh. 

When Western scholars studied Hebrew texts in the Middle Ages, they were largely unaware of these nuances. So they mistakenly assumed that the transliteration of the name was "Jehovah".

In the 19th century, some German scholars identified "Jehovah" as a mispronunciation of the name and "JaHVeH" as the more correct pronunciation (in German, the letter "J" is pronounced like "Y" in English). There is no W in the Hebrew letter.

German academia began to use the word "Jahveh" instead of "der Herr ".

By 1870s British scholars began to imitate the practice, first using "Jahveh" (citing Germany as an example) in works designed for scholars, and later "Yahweh" (more frequently after 1880s). But these scholars see no need to correct the commonly used English Bible.

Although these scholars knew the pronunciation of "Yahweh" was incorrect, ASV editors felt that it was unwise to use "Yahweh" because it was unfamiliar to the public and was a brand new name.

From RV1885 to ASV 1901 to NASB 1971, Each has a Point

I found more interesting information on the Revised Version and the American Standard Version, as well as the New American Standard Bible.

Revised Version 1885 Preface

It has been thought advisable in regard to the word "JEHOVAH" to follow the usage of the Authorised Version, and not to insert it uniformly in place of "LORD" or "GOD," which when printed in small capitals represent the words substituted by Jewish custom for the ineffable Name according to the vowel points by which it is distinguished. It will be found, therefore, that in this respect the Authorised Version has been departed from only in a few passages, in which the introduction of a proper name seemed to be required.

But when the Americans published the ASV, they literally substituted every YHWH with "Jehovah". Their Preface is as followed.

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION

...

In the course of the joint labors of the English and American Revisers it was agreed that, respecting all points of ultimate difference, the English Companies, who had had the initiative in the work of revision, should have the decisive vote. But as an offset to this, it was proposed on the British side that the American preferences should be published as an Appendix in every copy of the Revised Bible during a term of fourteen years. The American Committee on their part pledged themselves to give, for the same limited period, no sanction to the publication of any other editions of the Revised Version than those issued by the University Presses of England.

...

The remainder of this Preface has especial reference to the Old Testament. Nothing needs to be said about the various particular proposals which are found in the Appendix of the English Revised Version. But some remarks may be made concerning the General Classes of changes therein specified, and also concerning those emendations in this edition which are additional to those prescribed in the Appendix.

The change first recommended in the Appendix - that which substitutes "Jehovah" for "LORD" and "GOD" - is one which will be unwelcome to many, because of the frequency and familiarity of the terms displaced. But the American Revisers, after a careful consideration were brought to the unanimous conviction that a Jewish superstition, which regarded the Divine Name as too sacred to be uttered, ought no longer to dominate in the English or any other version of the Old Testament, as it fortunately does not in the numerous versions made by modern missionaries. This Memorial Name, explained in Ex. iii. 14, 15, and emphasized as such over and over in the original text of the Old Testament, designates God as the personal God, as the covenant God, the God of revelation, the Deliverer, the Friend of his people; -- not merely the abstractly "Eternal One" of many French translations, but the ever living Helper of those who are in trouble. This personal name, with its wealth of sacred associations, is now restored to the place in the sacred text to which it has an unquestionable claim.

But in the next revision, the NASB reverted the issue again, YHWH is back to the "LORD" again.

The committee stated the reason as:

This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name. Therefore it has been consistently translated LORD. The only exception is when it occurs in immediate proximity to the word Lord, that is, Adonai. In that case it is regularly translated GOD in order to avoid confusion. It is known that for many years YHWH has been transliterated as Yahweh, however no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation.

So, this indeed is very confusing for the average church-goers.

If I may conclude with the following 4 remarks.

1. God has a name, and He revealed His name to the Jews as YHWH. It is repeated 6828 times in the Hebrew Old Testament.
2. The Jews and the subsequent Christians substituted YHWH with LORD/GOD. The name YHWH has been obliterated.
3. Jehovah is a misnomer. It is a fabricated pronunciation from YHWH + Adonai.
4. While no one can be 100% certain of the pronunciation (because it has not been vocalized for more than 2,000 years), Yahweh is the best choice and is widely accepted by academics, though most lay Christians are not familiar with this name Yahweh.

Reference:

https://www.ccel.org/ccel/bible/asv.ii.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_American_Standard_Bible  Section 1.1 YHWH

神的名字被隐藏了 The Name of God Has Been Obscured

 YHWH - 神 - 主

在旧约中，“神”的希伯来词是 Elohim。神也被称为“主”，是希伯来语 Adonai 的翻译。然而，出埃及记 3:14 -15 中神的独特专有名称是 YHWH，可以大至翻译为“我是”。

对古代犹太人来说，他们清楚知道神的名字，毫不混淆。

然而，由于他们几百年以来都不服从神，并崇拜其他假神，神一次又一次地派遣先知（他的代言人）警告和纠正他们，但无济于事。

然后神容许灾难发生了：犹太人王国的灭亡（北国以色列于公元前722年，南国犹大于公元前586年）。大部份人被掳出境并流放了70年。

当犹太人返回并重建他们的祖国后，他们的宗教习俗发生了重大变化。

他们认为他们的问题按照十诫来说，是妄称了神的名，所以他们极端化了，从第二圣殿时代开始，他们就养成了从不再说神名的习惯。 而是使用“Adonai 主” 来表达。

但这不是 יהוה 的翻译，而是一种替代，完全埋没了神的名字。

《塔木德》说，这个名字只有神殿的祭司才能说。

对当时以至现代的犹太人来说，神的名字是不可读出的。

对于英文圣经，自 钦定本(KJV) 以来，大多数翻译都同样使用普通名词“LORD”（用小写字母书写）来代替。同样，这不是 יהוה 的翻译，而是一种替代，完全隐藏了神的名字。

这一传统在 19 世纪前后被 2 部圣经暂时打破，即杨格（他是杨格氏汇编的作者）的直译本 (Young's Literal Translation, YLT 1862) 和美国标准版 (American Standard Version, ASV 1901)。

杨氏在第二版（1898 年）的直译中，将整本旧约中的希伯来四字神名译为“Jehovah耶和华”，而不是按传统的做法，用小写字母表示为“LORD”。

我们要更多地关注美国标准版 (ASV)。

ASV是美国人在修订版（Revised Version, or English Revised Version, RV/ERV，由英国人于 1885 年出版。它是对 钦定本(KJV 1611) 的完整和重大修订)。

RV/ERV 和 ASV 都是在 和合本CUV 翻译期間出版的。 和合本是基于 RV/ASV 的英文文本，这些是当代最新的英文圣经。

许多读者都知道 和合本與 欽定本 中间存在許多差異，但很少有人知道 CUV 是基于 RV 的。 我们这一代人对RV一点都不熟悉，这是基於另一个事实，RV很快又被改版了，1952年又出了一个更新的标准修订版Revised Standard Version, RSV。我是在RSV时代、使用RSV长大的。

RSV 后来成为另外两个修订版的基础——新修订标准版 (New Revised Standard Version, NRSV 1989) 和英文标准版 (English Standard Version, ESV 2001)。

ASV

ASV 在对 RV 进行了一些细微更改的同时，还有 2 个更重要的更改：

1. 全能者的神圣名称（四字神名）在 ASV 旧约圣经的 6,823 处始终使用Jehovah，而不是在钦定本 或 (英)修订版 中的LORD。
• 钦定本中只有七节经文出现了Jehovah：创世记 22:14、出埃及记 6:3、出埃及记 17:15、士师记 6:24、诗篇 83:18 和以赛亚书 12:2、26:4 以及它的缩写形式，Jah (诗篇 68:4 )。
• 英文修订版 (RV 1881–1885) 将 Tetragrammaton 翻译为Jehovah　15次，除了钦定本外，另加八次。 （出埃及记 6:2,6-8、诗篇 68:20、以赛亚书 49:14、耶利米书 16 中： 21 和哈巴谷书 3:19 ，加上其缩写形式 Jah，在诗篇 68:4 和诗篇 89:8 中出现两次。）
2. 用 “Holy Spirit圣灵” 取代 “Holy Ghost”。

所以，和合本把YHWH译为音译"耶和华" 而不是LORD（主），并非没有先例。

YHWH - God - LORD

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for “God” is Elohim.  God is also called “Lord,” which is a translation of the Hebrew Adonai.   However, the special proper name of God that is given in Exodus 3:14 -15 is YHWH, which could be roughly translated as "I AM”.

The ancient Jewish people knew the name of their God without any confusion. 

However, as they disobeyed YHWH and worshipped other false gods throughout the centuries, God, time and time again, sent prophets (His spokesmen) to warn and correct them, but to no avail.

Then God allowed catastrophes to happen:  the fall of the Jewish kingdoms (Nothern Kingdom Israel in 722BC and Southern Kindom Judah in 586BC). The majority of the population was deported and exiled for 70 years.

 After the Jews returned and rebuilt their fatherland, there was a substantial change in their religious practice.

They thought their problem was taking the name of God in vain, according to the Ten Commandments, so much so that they took the matter to the extremes, to the point that, since the Second Temple era, they made a habit of never saying Yahweh, instead typically using the expression "Adonai", which means Lord.

But this is not a translation of יהוה, it is a kind of substitution, which obscures the name of God altogether.

The Talmud said that the Name was spoken only by priests in the Temple.  

To the Jews, then and now,  the Name of God is unpronounceable. 

For English Bibles, since the KJV, most of the translations used the common noun “LORD” (written in small caps).  Again, this is not a translation of יהוה; it is a kind of substitution, which obscures the name of God altogether.

This tradition was temporarily broken in the 19th century, by 2 Bibles, the Young's Literal Translation (YLT 1862) and the American Standard Version (ASV 1901). 

Young's Literal Translation in the second edition (1898) consistently renders the Hebrew tetragrammaton (divine name) throughout the Old Testament as "Jehovah", instead of the traditional practice of representing the tetragrammaton in English as "LORD" in small capitals.

More attention should be paid to The American Standard Version. It was produced by Americans after the Revised Version (also known as the English Revised Version ERV, produced by the British in 1885. It was a complete and major revision of the KJV (first published in 1611).) 

Both the RV(ERV) and the ASV were published in the same era while the CUV translation was underway. The CUV was based on the English text of the RV/ASV, as these were the latest revision of the English Bible at that time. 

Many readers are aware of the difference between the CUV and the KJV, but few are aware that the CUV was based on RV. Our generation is not familiar with the RV at all as this is due to one fact, that the RV was revised again and a newer version Revised Standard Version came out in 1952. I was brought up in the era of RSV.

The RSV later served as the basis for two more revisions—the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV 1989), and the English Standard Version (ESV 2001).

The ASV

However, the ASV while making some minor changes from the RV, there were 2 more significant changes:

(1) The divine name of the Almighty (the Tetragrammaton) is consistently rendered Jehovah in 6,823 places of the ASV Old Testament, rather than LORD as it appears mostly in the King James Bible and Revised Version of 1881–85. 

• There are seven verses in the King James Bible where the divine name appears: Genesis 22:14, Exodus 6:3, Exodus 17:15, Judges 6:24, Psalm 83:18, and Isaiah 12:2, 26:4 plus its abbreviated form, Jah, in Psalms 68:4. 
• The English Revised Version (1881–1885) renders the Tetragrammaton as Jehovah where it appears in the King James Version, and another eight times in Exodus 6:2,6–8, Psalm 68:20, Isaiah 49:14, Jeremiah 16:21 and Habakkuk 3:19 plus as its abbreviated form, Jah, twice in Psalm 68:4 and Psalm 89:8. 

(2) using the words "Holy Spirit" instead of "Holy Ghost".

So CUV is not without precedent in rendering YHWH as phonetical transliteration instead of LORD.

👲

神的名字 The Name of God

四字神名

法老的名字是破译埃及象形文字的关键，同样神名字是圣经中最重要的课题。

在希伯来语圣经中，神有一个特定的个性化的专有名称，它以 4 个字母表示，יהוה（音译成拉丁字母为“JHVH”，英文是 YHWH）。这个词被圣经学者称为 Tetragrammaton（希腊语为“四个字母”，华人学术界称为"四字神名"）。

יהוה这个词在希伯来圣经中被使用了近七千次，（精确地说，根据BibleWorks的数据为 6,828次），覆盖从创世记到最后一本小先知书，包括那些被放逐后的先知，例如哈该、撒迦利亚和玛拉基。唯一的例外是以斯帖记、传道书和雅歌，没有提到这个名字。

显然，希伯来圣经作者并没有禁止使用“YHWH”。

很明显，神要我们称他的名。他说了6828次。这一定是他想要的。

希伯来语音译注意的事项：

因为希伯来字母只有辅音，没有元音。

יהוה 使用古典拉丁字母音译为 JHVH。

• 拉丁字母 [yod י ] - J 带有 Y 音。英语中的 Y 仅在 10 至 15 世纪的中后期才出现。
• 字母 [vav ו ] 通常音译为 V，但在发音中，它是 [w] 音。

因此， יהוה 在英文中的字母对译是 YHWH，而有些学者则写成 YHVH。

现代学者对YHWH大写为“Yahweh”是普遍接受的共识。我们采用普通话的音译为 "雅伟"。 （"耶和华"是上世纪的一个误译，容我下文以后交代。)

Tetragrammaton 

As the Royal name of the Pharoah was the key to deciphering the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, the name of God is the most significant issue in the Bible.

In the Hebrew language Bible, God has a specific personalized proper name, presented in 4 alphabets:  יהוה (transliterated into Latin alphabets as "YHWH"). This word is known by Biblical scholars as the Tetragrammaton (Greek for “four letters”). 

The word יהוה is used nearly seven thousand times in the Hebrew Bible, to be exact, (the count totals 6,828 by the Biblework software) throughout from the Book of Genesis to the last of the books, the Latter Prophets, including those post-exilic ones such as Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The only exceptions are the books of Esther, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, where there is no mention of the name at all. 

Clearly, there is no prohibition for the Hebrew Bible authors from using "YHWH".

Clearly, God wants us to call Him by His name Yahweh. He said so more than 6,800 times. It must be what He wants.

Notes on the transliteration of Hebrew:

As the Hebrew alphabet has only consonants, not vowels. 

יהוה is transliterated using classical Latin letters as JHVH.

• The letter [yod י ] - J in Latin carries a Y sound. Y in English is introduced only in the Late Middle age, 10th-15th centuries.
• The letter [vav ו ] is often transliterated as a V, but in pronunciation, it is a [w] sound.

Therefore, a reasonable transliteration (not “translation”) of יהוה in English is  YHWH, while some scholars write it as YHVH.

Modern scholars reach a virtual consensus of "Yahweh" as a generally accepted form.

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