[122] From the Greek τετρὰς, four, and γράμμα, letter, because it is composed of four Hebrew letters. Brande thus defines it: "Among several ancient nations, the name of the mystic number _four_, which was often symbolized to represent the Deity, whose name was expressed by four letters." But this definition is incorrect. The tetragrammaton is not the name of the number _four_, but the word which expresses the name of God in four letters, and is always applied to the Hebrew word only. [123] Exod. iii. 15. In our common version of the Bible, the word "Lord" is substituted for "Jehovah," whence the true import of the original is lost. [124] Exod. vi. 2. 3. [125] "The Jews have many superstitious stories and opinions relative to this name, which, because they were forbidden to mention _in vain_, they would not mention _at all_. They substituted _Adonai_, &c., in its room, whenever it occurred to them in reading or speaking, or else simply and emphatically styled it םשה _the Name_. Some of them attributed to a certain repetition of this name the virtue of a charm, and others have had the boldness to assert that our blessed Savior wrought all his miracles (for they do not deny them to be such) by that mystical use of this venerable name. See the _Toldoth Jeschu_, an infamously scurrilous life of Jesus, written by a Jew not later than the thirteenth century. On p. 7, edition of Wagenseilius, 1681, is a succinct detail of the manner in which our Savior is said to have entered the temple and obtained possession of the Holy Name. Leusden says that he had offered to give a sum of money to a very poor Jew at Amsterdam, if he would only once deliberately pronounce the name _Jehovah_; but he refused it by saying that he did not dare."--_Horae Solitariae_, vol. i. p. 3.--"A Brahmin will not pronounce the name of the Almighty, without drawing down his sleeve and placing it on his mouth with fear and trembling."--MURRAY, _Truth of Revelation_, p. 321. [126] The same scrupulous avoidance of a strict translation has been pursued in other versions. For Jehovah, the Septuagint substitutes "Κύριος," the Vulgate "Dominus," and the German "der Herr," all equivalent to "the Lord." The French version uses the title "l'Eternel." But, with a better comprehension of the value of the word, Lowth in his "Isaiah," the Swedenborgian version of the Psalms, and some other recent versions, have restored the original name.