Why You Can't Say YHVH: SMT Lore

After playing shin megami tensei 4 and shin megami tensei 4 apocalyse, whenever you heard yhvh being pronounced it was always censored. Ever wonder why? Well this video goes over just that. Shin megami tensei 4 and apocalypse use the word YHVH on several occasions and never is it said without the censorship, and that is with good reason, the holy energy the word YHVH carries should not be taken lightly. Demons, angels, average people, even Stephen, are unable to say his name. shin megami tensei lore has always been well researched even the lore of shin megami tensei 4 apocalypse, despite how people like to rag on that game. I decided to make this video to show people how to pronounce YHVH properly as well as give a little explanation on behalf of the shin megami tensei lore.
This is not your average censorship, how to pronounce YHVH is to not pronounce it at all. Though I did a poor showing of that in the video, oh well it was for the sake of shin megami tensei lore explanation. Shin megami tensei 4 and shin megami tensei 4 apocalypse had fantastic voice overs in both japanese and english, and the amount of research they put into not only the demons design but the overall lore of the stories behind them. YHVH in shin megami tensei is amazing and I hope you could learn a little bit more about him. Smt and megaten in general are home to some of my favorite games ever and the smt lore is a major factor in why they are so great. Also I personally love shin megami tensei 4 and shin megami tensei 4 apocalypse. If you liked learning about the lore of smt and the lore of shin megami tensei 4 specifically like and subscribe.
Why is YHVH censored in the games? Well it’s a lot more in depth than you think. Yahweh, Adonai, Elohim, and Yehova are all names used for God in the Hebrew bible, but YHVH (Do the censor) is the most holy name of God. OK we can stop with the censor now, the pronunciation of YHVH is not known for certain as the modern Hebrew tongue is very different from ancient Hebrew, but I’ll go over some interpretations. This is the tetragrammaton 4 letter name of God found over 6,500 times in the Hebrew bible. Hebrew text is to be read right to left. The letter on the far right is “yud” believed to have a “Y” sound, the two repeating letters are “hey” believed to have an “H” sound, the final letter is “vov” which could be a consonant or a voul, as a consonant it would have a “W” or “V”sound, but as a voul it would have an “O” or an “U” sound. If we tie this back to SMT they clearly are interpreting it as a consonant, specifically the “V” sound. With all that the proper pronunciation of the lord’s name in SMT is… YOD HEY VAV HEY. Interesting huh? Well in the ancient Hebrew text there were no vowels so no one can say for sure, that is just his name spelled out. Modern interpretations are in agreement that he is currently pronounced Yahweh, Yaw-Way or Yahovah Yah-ho-vah depending on the manuscript you read. Well now that you know how to pronounce his name, make sure you never say it OR ELSE! I can hear the earth shaking outside my window as I’m recording this. YHWH is too holy to be spoken and even saying his name could cause miracles to happen.

[TonyYou]

Music used in order:
East Madness - SMTIV Apocalypse
Svadhisthana - SMT Digital Devil Saga
Short one this time. YHVH bless you, have a good day

[herculesbeetle]

my favorite thing when watching smt videos is just suddenly getting a bible lesson

[adrialopezalemany]

I think that the answer to "What happens when you say God's name?" is rather straightforward. What happens when someone says your name? You direct your attention towards them. To have the attention of such a powerful entity can be good or bad depending on various circumstances, but as can be seen in Lovecraft mythos, even the attention of an indifferent deity can cause major havoc, just from their sheer power. To also speak someone's name only when necessary makes it so that they don't ignore such calls.

[thehooded-guru]

"Even speaking his name can cause miracles to happen"
Me: *Constantly chanting Yod he vav he while doing gacha pulls*

[TonyRedgrave]

I used to think that it was censored because it was beyond mortal comprehension. For most of SMT 4 and Apocalypse, it's only demons and angels that say YHVH. It made sense that they could say and understand it due to their magical nature. And when humans referred to YHVH, it was always "God" or "The Lord", which makes sense because we were mortal and couldn't comprehend the actual name.

But then, near the end of Apocalypse, people started saying the censored YHVH name and my theory went out of the window.

This makes a lot more sense.

[ianleather]

I love how they depict YHVH in SMT, some demons in SMT can be spooky or gross, but the way that YHVH threatens to curse Aleph for hundreds of lifetimes, or how he even tries to give "mercy" to Nanashi makes him genuinely terrifying to me

[W-to]

Spoilers for SMT 2, but I fucking love how at the end of it once you beat YHVH he just goes "lol nope, you're cursed now buddy good job, I'll be back"

[Merik]

Today I learned that 99% of the time when someone chides you for "saying God's name in vain" they have no idea what they are talking about.

[gilded_lady]

I knew about the prohibition against saying YHVH's name so when I realized they didn't in this games, I was actually impressed. It shows they did their homework and helps establish the pecking order in these games by being like "yeah, we hate the guy but we aren't going there." Its a small, but great touch.

[charleschamp]

YHVH: *Cast every other deity, demon, etc into the Abyss and rules the Heavens for billions upon billions of years even before getting a power boost from worship*
Some High School Kid that likes making friends with 100-ish hours to kill: "Lmao"

[hellpwnage]

Would have been epic if in his final form, the name became uncensored as he became a demon after being rejected by the party

[Lord_Sunqu]

Something that always amazed me is the fact that even other cosmic Gods cannot say his name.
Demons fear it.
Humans cannot understand it.
Angels revere it.
But Gods? What’s their excuse?
Simply mind blowing.

[J.Applejuice]

Ah yes my favourite SMT content creator Tony is the true Messiah.

[Seydaschu]

Getting more Life of Brian flashbacks.

"Look, I don't think it ought to be blasphemy! I'm just saying Jehovah!"

[AlexBermann]

One interesting thing about the name YHVH:

In ancient Mesopotamian occultism, knowing and speaking a demons name was a magic spell of its own, an invocation. The whole "don't use HIS name in vain" commandment is likely to come from that belief.

[golfer]

I have never taken SMT games as being particularly anti-god or anti-religion, and the level of research that Atlus puts into them is a huge factor in that feeling.

[NamsCompendium]

You should make more lore videos! This was a very interesting watch

[matmil]

I am a Catholic and honestly, i love Bible Lessons and that SMT pushes me to learn more about my own religion.
Makes me, as someone who only ever played Persona 5 Royal, reach for SMTV-

[aerth]

Ah yeah, yet another Megaten channel that goes in depth in whatever it covers.
Count me in, fellow Samurai

[JanusHoW]

I found it hilarious about how even YHVH himself couldn't say his own name in-game.