Tetragrammaton

For other uses, see Tetragrammaton (disambiguation).

The Tetragrammaton in Paleo-Hebrew (10th century BC to 135 AD), Aramaic (10th century BC to 4th century AD) and modern Hebrew scripts.

Tetragrammaton (from the Greek τετραγράμματον, meaning '[word of] four letters' (tetra "four" + gramma (gen. grammatos) "letter"), refers to יהוה, the name of the God of Israel, written with four letters, as preserved in the Hebrew Masoretic Text where it appears over 6,800 times.

These four letters are usually transliterated JHWH in German, French and Dutch, and YHWH in English. In English translations, it is often rendered in all capital letters as "LORD," following Jewish tradition (see "Historical overview" at Yahweh).

Tetragrammaton in popular culture

• In the movie Equilibrium, the Tetragrammaton is a law enforcement organization, whose members are called clerics.
• The word is used in Philip K. Dick's novel about religious themes, The Divine Invasion and Eye in the Sky.
• Progressive rock band The Mars Volta has a song titled Tetragrammaton on their Amputechture album.
• The word is used in H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Horror at Red Hook".
• The character Diotallevi (a kaballist) refers to the tetragrammaton in Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum".
• In Zombie Loan Yomi refers to Tetragrammation while channeling the words of a victim to a zombie. This is later explained by Reiichirō Shiba.

See also

• Jehovah
• Yahweh
• Tetragrammaton in the New Testament