One and Only Name of God

In the Bible, Proverbs 30:3~4 ask;

“I neither learned wisdom, nor have knowledge of the Holy One.
Who has ascended into heaven, or descended?
Who has gathered the wind in His fists?
Who has bound the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know?“

The last sentence in Hebrew is;
מה שמו ומה שם בנו כי תדע

מה     what (is)
שמו    his name
ומה    and, what (is)
שם    name
בנו     his son
כי       if, for, because, when, certainly, surely, since
תדע    you know

Do we really know His name, and His Son’s name?

The answer is also found in the Bible. The name of God is clearly mentioned by God himself while talking to Moses in Exodus 3:15

וַיֹּאמֶר עוֹד אֱלֹהִים אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, כֹּה-תֹאמַר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵיכֶם אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם אֱלֹהֵי יִצְחָק וֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב, שְׁלָחַנִי אֲלֵיכֶם; זֶה-שְּׁמִי לְעֹלָם, וְזֶה זִכְרִי לְדֹר דֹּר

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yehovah, the God of your ancestors – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember from generation to generation.

זה שמי לעלם וזה זכרי לדר דר

זה       this
שמי     my name
לעלם  forever, eternal
וזה      and this
זכרי    memory, remembrance
לדר    to generation
דר      generation

God’s name  יהוה  is pronounced as “Yehovah”, which is the same as “Jehovah” (/dʒɪˈhoʊvə/) – a Latinization of the Hebrew יהוה‎. In Latin, “J” sounds the same as English “Y”.

His son’s name “Jesus” as known by many today came along only about four hundred years ago in the 17th century AD in English translation bibles. “Jesus” derived from Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς; Iesus in Classical Latin) the Ancient Greek form of the Hebrew name יהושע Yehoshua (meaning; Yehovah saves, Yehovah is my salvation), ישוה Yeshua is the shorter variant of Yehoshua.

Shorter variant is like; 
Ben is the shorter variant of Benjamin, Hebrew name Ben’yamin (בנימין).
Dan is the shorter variant of Daniel, Hebrew name Dani’el (דניאל).

The Hebrew name of another biblical character “Joshua” also is יהושע Yehoshua. It is interesting to take note that the same Hebrew name is called differently as Joshua and Jesus by bible translators of early days, and we just follow that inconsistency to this day. 

There are many names in the Bible that begin with the name of God.
Let’s look at those names, Hebrew is written from right to left, please pay attention to the first three letters ( יהו ) from right to left.

יהוה      Yehovah (name of God)
יהושע    Yehoshua (Yehovah saves, Yehovah is my salvation)

יהוחנן    Yehohanan (John; “Yehovah is Gracious”), 1 Chronicles 26:3
יהונתן    Yehonatan (Jonathan; Yehovah Has Given), 1 Samuel 13:2 
יהושפט  Yehoshaphat (Yehovah is Judge), 1 Kings 15:24
יהונדב   Yehonadab (Yehovah Is Willing, Noble, Generous), 2 Kings 10:15
יהועדין  Yehoaddan (Jehoaddan), 2 Kings 14:2
יהואחז   Yehoahaz (Jehoahaz), 2 Kings 10:35 
יהואש ‎    Yehoash (Joash, Jehoash), 2 Kings 12:4 
יהויכין    Yehoiachin (Jehoiachin), 2 Kings 24:8 
יהוידע   Yehoiada (Jehoiada), 2 Kings 11:4 
יהויקים  Yehoiakim (Jehoiakim), 2 Kings 24:1, 1 Chronicles 3:15  
יהויריב  Yehoiarib (Jehoiarib), 1 Chronicles 9:10 
יהונדב   Yehonadab (Jehonadab), 2 Kings 10:15 
יהורם    Yehoram (Jehoram), 2 Kings 11:2 
יהושפט  Yehoshaphat (Jehoshaphat), 1 Kings 15:24 
יהושבע  Yehosheba (Jehosheba), 2 Kings 11:2 
יהוזבד   Yehozabad (Jehozabad), 2 Kings 12:21 
יהוצדק  Yehozadak (Jehozadak), 1 Chronicles 6:14

When the Hebrew letter  ה (hey) is the last one in a name it acts like a vowel sounding “Ah”.
שרה     Sarah, Genesis 17:15 
קטורה  Keturah, Genesis 25:1 
יסכה    Iscah, Genesis 11:29 
מלכה   Milcah, Genesis 11:29 
יונה     Yonah (Jonah), Jonah 1:1 
לאה     Leah, Genesis 29:16 
רבקה   Rivqah (Rebekah), Genesis 24:15

These names serve as reference to ascertain that the name of God  יהוה Yehovah ends with “Vah” sound, not “Veh” or “Weh” as some might suggest.

In English translation bibles you won’t find the proper and sacred name of God  יהוה Yehovah, because it is replaced with “the Lord” or “the LORD”. Also, other common nouns like  אדני (Adonai; meaning lord, boss, master) and  השם (HaShem; meaning “The Name”) are used to refer to God in place of the real name of God in various talks and discussions. Those are NOT biblical, but man made substitute names given to God by man.

Imagine, you ask; “What is the name of God?”. 
Someone answers; “The name of God is The Name”, השם (HaShem).
Another one answers; “The name of God is Boss”, אדני (Adonai).

How about another name that we often see and hear; YHWH?
The Bible is given and written in Hebrew and in Greek, YHWH is in English, thus, whatever pronunciation comes out of it is obviously not biblical either. Besides, there is no “W” sound in the Hebrew alphabet.

Name of God  יהוה Yehovah appears in the original Hebrew scriptures nearly 7,000 times, starting in Genesis 2:4 until Malachi 4:5, but we find none in the bible translations that we read, because it is replaced with a common noun “the Lord”, “Lord” is an old English form of “boss” in modern day English.

While God himself said very clearly that His eternal name  יהוה Yehovah is to be remembered from generation to generation, man (mankind) hid it, concealed it, buried it for centuries, from generation to generation.

Why?  Disobedience of man as usual, or influenced by the devil?
I shall leave it to you to determine.

In summary;

God identified Himself as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”.
God said that His name is  יהוה Yehovah, His eternal name, the name to remember from generation to generation.
His son’s name is;  יהושע Yehoshua (OR)  ישוע Yeshua in shorter variant of Yehoshua. But, we call Him Jesus.

May Yehovah bless you, and Shalom (שלום).