Transliteration

In transliteration, a word is copied "letter-for-letter" from a foreign language into English. Because so many languages do not use the same characters as the English language, the transliterator has to make hard choices.

Allah

In Arabic, the prefix "al-" means "the."

"Illah" means divinity, deity, spirit.

"Al-" + "Illah" means "the GOD," the spirit from whom all other spirits come.

We don't like saying "Alillah," so the "i" drops out and the word for "the GOD" becomes "Allah."

It is not, strictly speaking, a name, but a theological description of the supreme being.

The word "illah" appears separately in the first phrase of the Shahada: "There is no illah but The Illah," or "There is no God but The God" or "There is no God but Allah."

In this final translation, the word for "The God" is not translated, but transliterated.

Vocalization

Ancient Hebrew had no vowels (a,e,i,o,u,y in English). To pronounce a word, one had to know which vowels to add to the consonants so that the word could be spoken. Unless one knew the vowels beforehand, one could not read Hebrew. The written word was deeply embedded in an oral tradition. Speech came first; without the spoken word, the consonants could not be interpreted properly.

The Divine Name

The Divine Name revealed to Moses at the burning bush is YHWH, in English transliteration. Because the Israelites stopped saying the Divine Name, the Masoretic scribes inserted the vowels for "Adonai" (a,o,a) in the sacred consonants, which ultimately led to the generation of the nonsense word, "Jehovah" in English.

Koresh / Cyrus

The consonants for the Persian word "Koresh" became transliterated as "Cyrus" in English. "King Cyrus the Great" of Persia is called "Messiah" or "Christ" in TNK. When Vernon Wayne Howell changed his name to "David Koresh," he was taking the name of the great Israelite Messiah-Christ-King, with whom God had a made a covenant that would last "forever" (Ps 89), and the name of the last Messiah-Christ-King named in the Old Testament. The implication, of course, is that Vernon thought he was the new Messiah-Christ-King through whom God would fulfill His covenant promises to David. "Those who have eyes to see will see" (Ez 12:2 and parallels).