Tetragrammaton love

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The four Hebrew letters usually transliterated as YHWH or JHVH, used as a biblical proper name for God.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A complex of four letters: applied to the mystic name Jehovah (see Jehovah) as written with four Hebrew letters, and sometimes transferred to other similar combinations.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The mystic number four, which was often symbolized to represent the Deity, whose name was expressed by four letters among some ancient nations

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The four Hebrew letters יהוה (in transliteration, YHWH or JHVH) used as the ineffable name of God in the Hebrew Bible, variously transliterated as Yahweh or Jehovah.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun four Hebrew letters usually transliterated as YHWH (Yahweh) or JHVH (Jehovah) signifying the Hebrew name for God which the Jews regarded as too holy to pronounce

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English Tetragramaton, from Greek tetragrammaton, four-letter word, from neuter of tetragrammatos, four-lettered : tetra-, tetra- + gramma, grammat-, letter; see gerbh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek τετραγράμματον ("four-letter word"), neuter gender of τετραγράμματος ("having four letters").

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Examples

  • The Tetragrammaton is called ‘ineffable’ not because it cannot be spoken, but because in no way can it be bounded by human sense and intellect; therefore because nothing can be said worthy of it, it is ineffable.

    Archive 2007-02-01 Mary Kate Hurley 2007

  • Microprosopos is the second garment or interposed medium, with respect to the Elder Most Holy, who is the name Tetragrammaton; and he is called

    Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Albert Pike 1850

  • VII. i.16: Ninth, the Tetragrammaton, that is, the ‘four letters’ that in Hebrew are properly applied to God — iod, he, iod, he — that is ‘Ia’ twice, which when doubled forms the ineffable and glorious name God.

    Archive 2007-02-01 Mary Kate Hurley 2007

  • The Name of God revealed to Moses in the burning bush, known as the Tetragrammaton Hebrew: אהיה אשר אהיה, pronounced Ehyeh asher ehyeh, is an explosively economical expression of both who God is in himself and his grace toward his people.

    "This is my name forever..." Mike L 2007

  • The Name of God revealed to Moses in the burning bush, known as the Tetragrammaton Hebrew: אהיה אשר אהיה, pronounced Ehyeh asher ehyeh, is an explosively economical expression of both who God is in himself and his grace toward his people.

    Archive 2007-03-01 Mike L 2007

  • "Tetragrammaton," the Word or name of God (Jehovah), which, throughout the Jewish race for thousands of years, was held to be so sacred that they did not dare to utter it aloud.

    Science and the Infinite or Through a Window in the Blank Wall Sydney T. Klein 1893

  • Rabbinic exegetes derive the prohibition also from Ex., iii, 15; but this argument cannot stand the test of the laws of sober hermeneutics (cf. Drusius, "Tetragrammaton", 8-10, in "Critici

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent 1840-1916 1913

  • It was sort of like the Tetragrammaton of literature.

    Great Books wendigomountain 2009

  • As her reward, her daughters married kohanim, the sons born to them served at the altar, and they entered the Temple and blessed Israel with the Tetragrammaton.

    Rahab: Midrash and Aggadah. 2009

  • The midrash says that by this act Judah publicly sanctified the Name of God and therefore merited having the Tetragrammaton included within his name (BT Sotah 10b).

    Tamar: Midrash and Aggadah. 2009

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