The Spanish Tetragrammaton

The Tetragrammaton ("four-letter word") is the proper name of the God of the Hebrews, spelt yod-he-waw-he, and supposed never to be pronounced. Observant Jews, when reading aloud from the Bible, replace the Tetragrammaton with "my Lord," "the Name," or some similar expression. In keeping with this custom, English Bibles generally replace it with "the Lord."

How might the Tetragrammaton be transliterated in the modern Roman alphabet? "YHWH," reflecting the hypothesized ancient Hebrew pronunciation of those letters, has become conventional, but here's another approach.

Yod, the first letter of the name, is genetically related to I and J. Because yod is the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, we prefer J, the 10th letter of the Roman alphabet, as the closest equivalent. He is genetically related to E, and each is the 5th letter of its respective alphabet. Waw is genetically related to five different Roman letters: F, U, V, W, and Y. But because waw is the 6th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, our preferred equivalent is F, the 6th letter of the Roman alphabet. Thus the Tetragrammaton is rendered JEFE.

Jefe, as it happens, is a word in Spanish, meaning "chief, head, leader, boss" -- astonishingly close in meaning to the conventional substitute "Lord." But, as in English, grammar demands the use of the definite article -- el Jefe, "the Chief" -- and El happens to be another of the Hebrew names for God!

In fact, Spanish Bibles generally use el Señor for the Tetragrammaton. It's a pity that such a perfect equivalent was passed up.