I do realize and take into consideration how vetted information is damaging to churches and camps who have unknowingly committed themselves to ignorance and uneducated error.
My job is to correct that error. The only reason we know what ancient Egyptian texts say today is because the Greeks left behind transliterations. These are Greek words written in the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Once this was realized by Champollion the code was cracked and the Egyptian texts could be deciphered.
If you look at the name of the first Greek Ptolemaic king of Egypt, whose name was Ptolemy I (305-282 BC), you can see the vowels in his name are written in Egyptian with the lasso glyph (V4) and the double reed glyph (M17). Whenever these glyphs are not being used as the first letter of a word they are the vowels O and A, as in the vowels of the English words for “boat” and “mate”.
Also notice that the quail chick glyph (G43) and the falcon glyph (G1) can be used for the O vowel sound. Ptolemy’s name is written in Egyptian three different ways, as you can see, but the pronunciation of his name remains the same.
Going further back in time to the 10th century BC, we find that the Egyptians WROTE the name “Judah” in hieroglyphs. Whenever the double reed glyph (M17) is the first letter of a word it is either the consonant glide /y/, or it is the syllable Ya. The quail chick glyph (G43) is the O vowel, just like it is in the writing of Ptolemy’s name. The open hand glyph (D46) is the consonant D. The reed shelter glyph (O4) is the consonant H.
Hence the name “Judah” is really pronounced YA’O-DaH.
This is NOT an Egyptian word. It is an ancient Hebrew word transliterated into the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and that allows us to recover the original pronunciation of the Hebrew word.
It is a theophoric name that combines YA’OH with the passive of the causative form of the verb for praise (ydh). It is a sentence that means “YA’OH is praised”.
His name is YA’OH
Always has been. It always will be.