Di Seputar Penerjemahan Nama Yahweh dalam Alkitab Bahasa Indonesia

Abstract

Several efforts have been done in order to translate the Hebrew word YHWH into Yahweh in Indonesian. The objective of this paper is to search the roots of the name YHWH anthropologically and historically from texts that appear in Hebrew Bible (Hebrew version) of Old Testament (Christian version). The Absolute One, the Divine, which is called Tuhan in Indonesian, is a mysterious reality. His/her existence remains puzzled. Each nation has its own way to reveal its presence culturally. The Jews call him/her YHWH while Arabians know him/her by the name Allah SWT. In Indonesia, we are informed that Torajan call the Absolute One as Puang Matua. Through our encounter with Hebrew Scripture we learnt that the names of the Absolute One are Yahweh and Elohim. Yahweh has been translated as Tuhan in Indonesian, while Elohim as Allah. Those two different names reflect two different groups of people in Biblical Israel. People in North called the Deity as Elohim as appeared in E source in Hebrew Bible, while in South, people called Him/her by the name Yahweh as shown in J source written in the same Scripture. Those two names refer to the same Deity but expressed differently based on the different background and culture. Therefore, an attempt to translate those two names in Indonesian will be done when we can find the proper words that agree with Indonesian vocabulary