Due to a concern of taking the name in vain (Exo. 20:7) or of blaspheming the name (Lev. 24:11; Isa. 52:5), Jewish readers of the Bible avoided speaking the name and substituted the Hebrew word for Lord, Adonay, whenever they saw the name. This practice continued in the Greek translation of the Old Testament with the Greek word for Lord (kurios) used to translate the name. Today readers of the Hebrew Bible still read God’s name as Adonay or read HaShem (the Hebrew expression for “the name”). Some versions of the Bible in English (such as the King James Version) also followed this practice of using “LORD” (all caps) to translate the name, in contrast to “Lord” as the translation of Adonay. Because of this longstanding practice of not pronouncing the name, it is not clear exactly how it should be pronounced, since only the four consonants YHWH of the name were preserved in Hebrew manuscripts. When vowels were later introduced into the Hebrew text, the scribes inserted the vowels for Adonay, following the reading convention of their forebears. This resulted in a word that was pronounced something like Yehovah, which became Jehovah in classic English literature, some Bible versions (e.g., Tyndale, ASV, Darby), and four places in the King James Version. The prefix Jeho- is also preserved in names, such as Jehoshaphat and Jehoiakim. Yahweh, following the shortened form of the name of Jehovah, Yah or Jah (as in hallelujah), occurs in a few translations (e.g., NJB), and either Yahweh, or the four letters, YHWH, are preferred by many Bible scholars. However, despite these religious and historical linguistic arguments against the use of Jehovah, this name has been used in our ministry publications from their beginning and in the Recovery Version.

Our earliest ministry publications (mostly published in Chinese) used the name Jehovah in the quotation of Old Testament verses, taken from the Chinese Union Version, which used Ye-he-hua as an approximation of Ye-ho-vah as a translation (or transliteration) of the name. In The Christian magazine, issue 4, “Meditations on Revelation,” published in 1926, Watchman Nee first expounded the meaning and significance of the name of Jehovah. In expounding Revelation 1:4, he states,

God’s name is “Him who is and who was and who is coming.” This is the “Jehovah” in the Old Testament—the “I am that I am.” “Him who is” is the name of Jehovah. Hence, it is spoken first. “Who was” declares how He dealt with the earth, with men, with Abraham, and with Moses. “Who is coming” indicates that He will still be administrating in the coming eternal age. He incorporates into His name the eternal past and the eternal future. (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee [CWWN], vol. 4, “The Christian (2): Meditations on Revelation,” p. 198)

Witness Lee developed this further by dividing the name Jehovah into three parts that correspond to the prefix, the root, and the suffix of the three tenses of the archaic Hebrew verb havah meaning ‘to be’ or ‘to become.’ Jehovah means literally, “He will be, He is, and He was.” He says,

The name of God that occurs most frequently in the Old Testament is Jehovah or Yehovah. In Hebrew this name is composed of portions of three words…Je indicates “will be,” ho indicates “is,” and vah indicates “was.” (The Collected Works of Witness Lee [CWWL], 1959, vol. 3, “Ten Lines in the Bible,” ch. 1, p. 406)

Two or three of the tenses of the verb ‘to be’ occur in the book of Revelation five times (although in a different temporal order than what was indicated above). Twice God is referred to as the One “who is and who was and who is coming” (1:8, 4), once as the One “who was and who is and who is coming” (4:8), and twice as the One “who is and who was” (11:17, 16:5).

In issue no. 21 of The Present Testimony entitled “Jehovah,” published in 1931, Watchman Nee writes about the significance of the first occurrences of the name Jehovah in Genesis 2 in contrast to God (Elohim), the meaning of the name Jehovah mentioned in Exodus 3, and the fact that Jesus is Jehovah.

In Genesis 1 He uses the name God. In Genesis 2 He uses a different name—not God but Jehovah God…The name God—Elohim—means “the strong and mighty One.” The name God has to do with the creatures; it refers to His relationship with the creation. But Jehovah is a name that is related to man. Genesis 2 speaks of the relationship between God and man…Jehovah is the name of intimacy. God refers to His power, while Jehovah refers to His love. (CWWN, vol. 9, “The Present Testimony (2),” pp. 263-265)

Regarding the meaning of Jehovah, Watchman Nee notes,

God did not tell man the meaning of the name Jehovah. Although Abraham knew the name (because God told him once that His name was Jehovah), he never knew the meaning of the name. Not until Exodus 3:14-15 did God begin to tell man the meaning of the name Jehovah…God told Moses that He is “I am that I am” (i.e., Jehovah), which means the self-existing and the ever-existing One….God does not say fully what He is. He merely says that He is…This allows those who believe in Him to add in other terms…If we have the need and faith, we can add whatever we need to the words God is and receive God’s answer to our need. If we need comfort, God is our comfort…if we need a way, God is our way (John 14:6). If we need light, God is our light. If we need the bread of life, God is our bread of life. (pp. 263, 266)

Watchman Nee also points out that the Lord Jesus is Jehovah.

The meaning of Jesus is “Jehovah our Savior.”…When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He admitted that He was the Jehovah in the Old Testament. He said, “Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). In this verse the Lord Jesus tells us that He is the “I am.”…A little later He said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am” (v. 28). “Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am” (v. 58). The Lord Jesus clearly said that He was Jehovah. The Jews understood what this meant; therefore, “they picked up stones to throw at Him” (v. 59).

We can rejoice because our Lord Jesus is the I am. He is! He is everything for our sake….He is the life, He is the resurrection, He is the light of the world, He is the bread of life, and He is the good shepherd. We can derive all kinds of supply from the Lord’s name. Once we have His name, we have everything. We thank the Lord that He has given this name to us. (p. 268)

In 1949 Witness Lee developed this understanding of Jehovah as “I am,” using the illustration of a blank check. “Jehovah…is like a blank check that can be filled in with whatever man needs.” (CWWL, 1932–1949, vol. 4 “Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Volume 4,” p. 22)

In 1954 Witness Lee applied the name of Jehovah to our experience, contrasting the meaning of the names of Jehovah and Enosh (meaning fragile, frail, and mortal) in the practice of calling on the name of Jehovah.

Enosh recognized that he was a frail, mortal man, and thus, he began to call upon the name of Jehovah (Gen. 4:26)…The name Jehovah is exactly the opposite of the name Enosh….Enosh was frail and was nothing; everything that is, is in this I AM.

To call upon Jehovah means to rely not on oneself but on Him and to not highly value oneself but to highly value Him; it is to turn from ourselves to Him and to acknowledge continually that we are frail and unable to do anything. Everything depends on Him. (CWWL, 1954, vol. 1, “A Record of a Bible Study on the Old Testament,” p. 325)

In 1994 Witness Lee also further developed the significance of the meaning of the name Jehovah by applying it to faith in Christ.

He who comes forward to God must believe that God is (Heb. 11:6b)….Our God’s name is the verb to be….Faith is to stop you from doing anything but to make God everything to you. This equals Paul’s word in Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Who lives? It is no longer I. I do not exist. I was terminated. I was crucified. I am finished. It is no more I, but it is Christ who lives in me. Christ lives. Christ is. Christ exists. I do not exist. This is the very essence of the short phrase believe that He is. To believe that God is implies that you are not. He must be the only One, the unique One, in everything, and we must be nothing in everything. (CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” pp. 276, 278)

By rejecting our natural life, living Christ, and being reconstituted with Christ, we grow and are built up in the Body of Christ as the one new man, where Christ is all the members and is in all the members (Col. 3:11; Gal. 3:28). Eventually our experience and enjoyment of Jehovah consummate in His ultimate dwelling place, the city New Jerusalem, one of the names of which is “Jehovah Is There” (Ezek. 48:35).

The use of Jehovah as the proper name for God throughout the ministry publications distinguishes this name from other designations for God and directs people toward a deeper and intrinsic understanding of the meaning of the name, both literally and experientially. Literally, Jehovah is the self-existing, ever-existing “I am,” who exists in the past, the present, and the future as the blank check—“I am whatever you need.” Experientially, this name directs people toward Jesus as the New Testament realization of Jehovah, especially in our experience of Him as the One who is, while we are not, and the One into whom we fragile human beings can believe and upon whom we can call during our temporary existence on this earth for the fulfilling of His eternal purpose.