Question: Why does WLC add the vowel, "u" to the holy name? I have seen the name as YAHOVAH. Why do you use "u"?
Answer: WLC uses YAHUWAH as the correct pronunciation of the tetragrammaton (YHWH) because that is the closest it is possible to get to the original sound, using English letters and English grammatical rules of pronunciation.
When Moses received his commission at the burning bush, he resonded, "Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall tell them, 'the Elohim of your fathers has sent me unto you' they are going to ask me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" (See Exodus 3:13.)
The answer, as translated by the King James Version of the Bible, is: "I AM THAT I AM."
This phrase is translated from the word hȃyȃh (Strong's,#1961). The word is a powerful verb-of-being and means to be or to exist.
Different Bible translations render this verse in a variety of ways.
All of these, and more, are an attempt to make sense in English out of a verb-of-being used as a name. Names are always nouns, not verbs-of-being! Literally translated, Yahuwah answered Moses' question by saying, "BE! BE! Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, BE! hath sent me unto you."
Any of the above listed translations of the holy name are correct, because all of the verbs-of-being are equally applicable to He that inhabiteth eternity. Only Yahuwah can justly use verbs-of-being as a name because only He who is the "Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending," can truthfully say, "I AM He which is, which was, and which is to come." (See Revelation 1:8.) The name YAHUWAH perfectly encapsulates this meaning.
Hayah: (#1961) to be, to become or come to pass, to exist, was/were/shall be/being/shall have been, etc.
Huw: (#1931) he, which (is), who, this, that, are
Hayah: (#1961) to be, to become or come to pass, to exist, was/were/shall be/being/shall have been, etc.
In Hebrew, [w] and [y] can be used interchangeably. An example of this is found in II Chronicles 20:37: "Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat . . . ." The name Dodavah means "love of Yah" (#1735, Strong's New Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words). The part of the name that is "Yah" is the "vah" or, more accurately "wah" as the name more correctly reads Dodawah. Another such name given in Nehemiah 7:43, is Hodevah/Hodewah (Hôwdevȃh) which means "Majesty of Yah" (#1937, Strong's New Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words.) Again, the [w] of wah and the [y] of yah can be interchanged with no meaning changed or lost.
In the divine name, Yah and Wah both appear, both meaning I AM in keeping with the repetition of the word BE! in Exodus 3:14.
WLC uses the [u] in the holy name as it more closely aligns with the true meaning.
However, unlike the interchangeable [w] and [y], there is a difference in meaning between Yahowah/Yahovah and Yahuwah because [o] and [u] cannot be interchanged in Hebrew. If the name were Yahowah or Yahovah, the meaning would be "I AM OH I AM" or even "I AM ALAS I AM" because "the Hebrew word 'how' #1930 (pronounced ho) means Oh and/or alas." (B. Earl Allen, Publish the Name of Yahuwah, p. 47.)
Sometimes scholars get it right though they come at it from a different angle.
"Among etymologies proposed, S. Mowinckel and J. Montgomery contend that the name is a compound, yahu or yahuwah, 'O He!'." [See The New 20th-Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, second ed., p. 886.] (An Arabic angle). James Montgomery shows sort of a secondary translation in his study THE HEBREW DIVINE NAME AND THE PERSONAL PRONOUN HU, where he touches on the basic theme "I am YHWH" and its parallel, "I am He". [Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 1, xiii, 1944, p. 161) Tracing the Biblical references in Deuteronomy 32:39 for "I am He" to Isa. 41:4; 43:10, 13; 46:4; 48:12.
It is also interesting to note that when Judas and the band of officers came looking for YAHUSHUA in the garden of Gethsemane: "YAHUSHUA therefore knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth, and said unto them, 'Whom seek ye?' They answered Him and said, 'YAHUSHUA of Nazareth.' YAHUSHUA saith unto them, 'I am He....' As soon then as He said unto them 'I am He', they went backward, and fell to the ground." (John 18:5,6). The possibility does exist here that He spoke the sacred name. The Greek words are the same as used in John 8:58, "Before Abraham was, I am," which is the same Greek usage the Septuagint uses in Exodus 3:14, THE BEING. There is more from the book of John:
"If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins." John 8:24.
"When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then ye shall know that I am He." Jn 8:28. See also Jn 4:26; 9:9; 13:19.
The King James translators knew this, and thus italicized "He" to indicate this connection with Ex. 3:14.
The main thing this bares [sic.] out is that "He" in Hebrew is "Hu", thus verifying the element Hu instead of "Ho" in the sacred name. (Ibid., p. 49)
