Hebrew Voices #74 – The Name of God in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew

December 30, 2020

In this episode of Hebrew Voices, The Name of God in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, Nehemia Gordon talks about how a Karaite Jew came to study the New Testament in Hebrew, what he discovered regarding God’s name in a … Continue reading →

In this episode of Hebrew Voices, The Name of God in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, Nehemia Gordon talks about how a Karaite Jew came to study the New Testament in Hebrew, what he discovered regarding God’s name in a Hebrew gospel preserved by Jewish rabbis, and how we know Matthew was originally written in Hebrew.

I look forward to reading your comments!


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Hebrew Voices #74 - The Name of God in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew

You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Nehemia: Here’s an image from Matthew chapter 1 verses 18-25, and if you can read mediaeval Hebrew, you can read this. It’s an unusual script if you’re not familiar with it. But right over here you have this symbol, which is the symbol Hey, and it appears twice. This Hey over here and over here, what this represents is the name “Hashem”.

Benjamin Netanyahu: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot. (For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest. Isaiah 62:1)

Michael: Shalom, Torah fans. Since January of 2017 I received several calls from Nehemia Gordon, who was breaking new ground in biblical research that I felt needed to get out to the world, and so before he left for Israel, he and I got together for Shabbat Night Live to pre-record a series which we released this last fall, The Gentiles Shall Know My Name. I didn’t get to watch this series until it actually aired on television, and at the end of this series, I was so moved by this, I wanted to call Nehemia immediately and say, “Nehemia, I need an update. When can you come and spend some time?” He said, “I’m busy. I’m on some projects right now that I can’t leave at this point.”

And just a couple of weeks ago he gave me a call which I will never forget, because what happened during this last year, and what he’d been working on for the last several months has really been an historic event in the history of Bible research, and things that have not been known for over 1,000 years have now come to light. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we have Nehemia Gordon back with us. Nehemia, good to have you here, finally.

Nehemia: It’s great to be here. Great to be back. What had happened is, we started about a year ago looking for more Bible manuscripts with the full vowels of the name Yehovah. We started out… in 2001 I had two Bible manuscripts, and then over the years I found a third, a fourth and a fifth. And in a period of about 15 years, I knew about five Bible manuscripts with the vowels “Yehovah”.

Michael: Okay. Now, there are a lot of people… I believe it’s hundreds of thousands, that have joined us since the episodes have aired. Let’s go back and capture some of these things, because there were things that you laid out in the last series that I think we need to revisit. But he significance of this as far as the vowels in the name - can you give us a little background on that?

Nehemia: In most of the Bible manuscripts… What we’ve been told for 200 years is that God’s name is Yahweh. The Jews forgot how to pronounce the name, and these Christians rediscovered this pronunciation Yahweh, or they invented this pronunciation, Yahweh, about 200 years ago. I looked up in the Anchor Bible Dictionary, which is really a respected source, and it said, “Yahweh is a scholarly guess.” I said, “Guess? Surely we should be able to do better than that.”

I started to pick apart… what are the sources? How do we really know it’s Yahweh? I saw there really was nothing in any Jewish or Hebrew source that supported that. So I started to look for sources that would be Jewish sources. I really didn’t even know where to go and stumbled upon some things while I was at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem working on my master’s degree. Shall I tell this story? It’s one I’ve shared before.

Comments

RobertApril 15, 2026 at 1:23 PM

Cepher publishing has a wonderful resources in this area have the full suffer that has the 66 books plus the Apocrypha all of which have the original names

Alan TattersallJanuary 19, 2026 at 3:34 AM

Replacing the “is not” with a blank, you end up with 2 syllables in the name instead of three pointing to a counterfeit name of 6 letters instead of 7.

“Was, and is not, and yet is” means it is an ancient name that has returned.

Jove “Yo-weh” fits the description.

Two of the same verb forms
haYAH “He was”
hoVEH “He is”
can be be used to create the counterfeit Yahweh.

OhioJuly 13, 2025 at 1:30 PM

He said “Bible”

Jeff BDecember 8, 2024 at 9:05 PM

New world translation by Jehovahs Witnesses. It’s provided no cost for those who are interested in reading the Bible. Just go to a Kingdom Hall or when they come to your door ask

LeticiaAugust 29, 2024 at 2:41 AM

Approximately, since 2008 I have been looking for the name of our God, and finally I can put this quest to rest. But even the website bible.com gives us different pronunciations in the Hebrew bible for the KJV transliteration, for example: Yehwah, Yehova, and others, but it is very consistent with Yehova, Jehovah, saying that this is the Jewish National Name of God.

WikifaJuly 3, 2024 at 2:55 PM

So how many times does the tretragrammaton kf yhwh occur in the hebrew gospel of Mathew?

Rebecca FreemanOctober 28, 2023 at 1:57 AM

Is there any Bible available to buy with the name of God as it is written throughout the whole of scripture?

Robert Conrick User_6267October 9, 2023 at 6:02 AM

Fantastic teaching amazing eye-opening discoveries!
Is there a copy of the book of Acts in Hebrew?

TONIMarch 21, 2022 at 7:48 AM

Fab fab fab mehtsuyan!

do you have anything on ECHAD!

Hsiu-o YuJanuary 9, 2022 at 8:18 PM

Relative to יְהֹוָה means “He was , He is and He will be”, Rev. 17:8 says “…the beast that was, and is not, and yet is”, could this , basing the same rules, be a Hebrew name ?

CaronDecember 26, 2021 at 2:29 PM

You mentioned the reason that instances of 7 in 1000 vowels were accidentally written. Is it possible some purposely inserted the vowels because they didn’t agree Gods name should be suppressed? Just wondering! Thank you for your research!
Psalm 83:18

Bible believerJanuary 1, 2021 at 7:19 PM

Exodus 34: 28
“So he (Moses) was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”

Adults are 75% water by weight. In the natural, without water, life ends in 3-8 days. In the Spirit, “all things are possible!”

Jose Cruz Marquez AguilarJuly 12, 2020 at 3:38 PM

Hello Nehemia!!

Once I did read about a theory about John 19:19 that says abut the title that was put in the cross (Jesus/Yeshua Of Nazareth The King Of The Jews) could actually be “Jesus/Yeshua of Nazareth AND King of the Jews”, because, according to this theory, in Hebrew, when taking the first letter of each word, we would have YHVH… I don’t speak Hebrew, and Google translator doesn’t seems to help. So, have you read anything about it? Is it possible?

Thank you, I’m learning a lot with your messages, and I’m very excited about your Hebrew Gospel Pearls PLUS project with Keith Johnson.

Yehovah bless you!

Jose.

jim galganoJune 13, 2020 at 4:48 PM

yes sir,ive just recently was introduced to your teachings.several years ago i realized that many things ive been taught was incorrect and my belief is that our translation may not be accurate,as i have always used kjv. i got a interliner hebrew ot greek nt,i have found it very difficult trying to learn the language on my own so using that particular bible and using strongs concordanance. then i purchased the complete jewish bible which also differsfrom the hebrew interliner, my question is what do you recommend as the most accurate tranlation in predominately english language

kategladstoneDecember 26, 2019 at 11:04 PM

The Zohar is written in Aramaic.

danielSeptember 30, 2019 at 8:03 PM

if you haven’t already, check out “The great I AM revealed”. Nehemia goes deep to show something simple regarding His Name.

WilliamAugust 15, 2019 at 2:16 AM

What prayer was John, Luke, teaching his disciples to pray, causing Jesus’ disciples to ask Him for a prayer, or are we seeing “ora traditions”?

WilliamAugust 15, 2019 at 2:13 AM

We, Christians have, no doubt, received the “Traditions of our fathers”
Praise YEHOVAH, for your diligence and may Arons bleszing be upon you and yours, SHAAAAALOM HAVAH NAGHILA!

auntgannyFebruary 26, 2019 at 9:05 PM

You know, Nehemia, my suspicion is that Moses didn’t make that decision to change Joshua’s name….but it was Yehovah who led Moses to do that. Yehovah often opens our understanding about Himself through the names his servants are called in the Hebrew scriptures. Just as Yehovah changed Abraham’s name…and Jacob’s name, I would not be one bit surprised that He did it with Joshua’s name, too. In fact, it seems to me that Yehovah was still changing some names in what we call the NT…even through Yehoshua Yeshua! Peter, for example….And then when we get to Revelation, again some are receiving new names! I just love how Yehovah is using you to open our eyes to the truth about Himself.

Russell BudlongNovember 16, 2018 at 2:05 AM

this name stirred my soul deeply also

Ann WatsonJuly 10, 2018 at 5:25 PM

Thank you for this most helpful information. As always you are a great gift to us who have been seaching the truth of the written word. It’s always best to search the earliest script. Since I am not a scholar but a student I am so grateful for the gift of You, Nehemiah.

SteveJuly 9, 2018 at 4:35 PM

I don’t believe it says that Yeshuah fasted from water. It does say this in luke however “For forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.” Meaning it was food.
It also states that food of the bread of life.

I cannot see the body lasting long without water being that it is made up of I think it’s 97% water (not sure if the exact amount) but it’s been proven to we can live many days without food, but not many days without water.

If someone has any quotes where it says specifically water as well as food, please post the info, as I have found nothing.

Ann WatsonJuly 9, 2018 at 11:02 AM

Nehemia, since you are reading and studying some of the new testament, I wonder if you would shead some light on fasting from a biblical perspective. How did they who fasted as did John and Yeshua survive 40 days without food or drink? What did fasting really mean? Or is the English translation missing the boat due to translation?

JoostJuly 9, 2018 at 7:05 AM

The ZOHAR is written in HEBREW but it is a heap of nonsense.

Closer to chaos than anything else. Both examples to hide a truth.

MarkJuly 8, 2018 at 6:00 PM

Great research!
שלום

Walter SchwenkJuly 5, 2018 at 11:07 AM

Totally grateful to Shem Tov for preserving this second or third witness to the accuracy of the NT. Between greek, aramaic, and hebrew sources, we can hope to understand what Yahshua REALLY taught and beware the traditions of men. Also majorly grateful to G Howard, and also to you Nehemia for popularizing this source of information.

SteveJuly 4, 2018 at 8:29 AM

Nehemiah,
Thank you for verifying once again what I have thought for many years now.
I don’t say this to brag, because everything I am blessed with comes from my Father in heaven, and all credit and praise goes to Him, always, but I have a what I will call (for lack of words) a 6th sense about things in this life, from just knowing things are correct, or not correct in my heart, not knowing why, or how I know, it’s simply unexplainable. I guess you could call it blind faith, (like Peter had walking in the water) and it is definitely a gift I do not take lightly or for granted.
I’ve been a believer both in worldly church and now just a believer, my entire life. I’ve been blessed many times over. For almost 40 years (I’m now 54) I have been given this gift and felt wrong some how when situations arise or people use wrong names for instance.
For awhile I used Jesus and god of course, then I came to groups now that are more Hebrew based and keep Torah and feasts and such. I recently within the last 6 years came to realise Yahweh as everyone seems to like to use, does not seem correct nor feel right using it.
I for a few years, used it, but rarely, because it just felt out of place. Once the word Yehovah came around, I instantly and immediatly felt in my being that this was the correct name, and have since used it regardless of what others may think or use. Again I cannot tell you why or how I know this, and I cannot explain it (aside from how I have already), it would be like our Father trying to explain something that only he could understand, but I feel it is the correct name, and until I am told differently by my Father, I won’t be using any other word, and will continue to call Him by what I believe to be His name, Yehovah.

Thank you for this, it re-confirms that my gift or feeling is spot on and again it is a blessing to have this gift of understanding(?), I’m not really sure how to explain it exactly. Thank you for your research and insight and in depth study on this.

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