# Zeus=Jove=Jupiter=Jehova? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 31, 2006, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841 "2006-05-31T07:10:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/1 "2006-05-31T07:10:23Z")
I was going to post this on the Jesus’ dad thread, but then I realized my mistake, it was going to mention God’s father: Kronos-Saturn! If the World Wide Words guy is correct: > **[By Jove: Etymology and History of a British Oath](https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-byj1.html)** > > How did 'By Jove,' an exclamation invoking the Roman sky god, become a quintessentially British oath—and why is it now mostly heard as a joke? > [@](#): > > Jove is the older name the Romans had for the god Jupiter (which derives from an alteration of Jovis pater, father Jove). Jupiter was the Roman god of the sky, the sovereign deity who had powers over both gods and men (he was later identified with the Greek Zeus). If you got on his wrong side, he started chucking thunderbolts at you. There was a temple to him on the Capitol in Rome. > > From medieval times, Jove has been used in English as a poetical way of referring to Jupiter. It has also been linked to Jehovah, a form of the Hebrew name of God used in some translations of the Bible. But, how it is linked? is Michael Quinion correct? Is Zeus-Jupiter = Yahweh-Jehova? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/2 "2006-05-31T11:03:46Z")
This is more of a GQ, I think. No, as far as I know there is no reason to think that ancient Latin “Iov-” or Jove, from Indo-European \*_deiw_, is etymologically related to the Semitic root _hwy_ from which it appears to be generally considered that YHWH is derived. The ultimate etymology of _hwy_ is apparently somewhat unclear, but agreed to be Semitic rather than Indo-European. The superficial similarity between the modern renderings of the names as Jehovah and Jove seems to be simply coincidence. You’d have to ask Michael Quinion what he means by saying that one of them “has also been linked to” the other, but I suspect he’s just repeating a vague folk etymology that he hasn’t bothered to investigate. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/3 "2006-05-31T12:11:08Z")
Jehovah is a misrendering of YHWH anyway, isn’t it? The vowels for _adonai_ were used in ancient Hebrew scriptural texts so that God’s name couldn’t be pronounced, so the rendering of “Jehovah” in English is a mistake. Which takes the similarity out of the realm of plausibility, I’d think. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/4 "2006-05-31T12:14:00Z")
Incidentally, as “Jupiter” is third declension, genitive “Jovis”, the expression “by Jove!” is a pleonasm, as “Jove” is already the ablative (by/with/from) case. Jupiter/Jupiter/Jovem/Jovis/Jovi/Jove. ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/5 "2006-05-31T14:06:38Z")
The big problem in comparing Jehovah/JWHW to Jupiter/Jove/Zeus is that the JWHW is cast as a solitary creation god who gets involved in the created universe, whilst the creation god(s) in Greek and Roman tradtions aren’t involved much beyond the creative act. The classical gods are basically creations of the creator, and are subject to displacement, see for example the undoing of Chronos by Jupiter/Zeus. Gods in the Greek/Roman tradition aare basically an amalgamation of super heroes and archetypes. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/6 "2006-05-31T14:08:45Z")
YHWH predates Jove, in any case. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/7 "2006-05-31T16:49:18Z")
[QUOTE=DrDeth] YHWH predates Jove, in any case. [/QUOTE] But not the Indo-European root from which Jove is derived. At any rate, I think other posters got it right in that the I-E root and the Semetic root for the respective word (or words) don’t have any demostrable link. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/8 "2006-06-01T03:37:22Z")
[QUOTE=cerberus] The big problem in comparing Jehovah/JWHW to Jupiter/Jove/Zeus is that the JWHW is cast as a solitary creation god who gets involved in the created universe, whilst the creation god(s) in Greek and Roman tradtions aren’t involved much beyond the creative act. The classical gods are basically creations of the creator, and are subject to displacement, see for example the undoing of Chronos by Jupiter/Zeus. Gods in the Greek/Roman tradition aare basically an amalgamation of super heroes and archetypes. [/QUOTE] Every time I read Job, I can not shake the feeling I’m reading a tale of the gods from Mount Olympus. But, I agree that indeed this item was best for GQ. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/9 "2006-06-02T20:23:55Z")
I think the link is sort of after the fact, in that rendering JHVH as “Jehovah” evokes “Jove.” Then people can say, “by Jove” as if it were a contraction of Jehovah (which may be what they really mean) instead of the short name for Jupiter. (Also, excuse my poor approximation of IPA, “by Jove” is |bai 'd3ov| in English. Latin “Jove” is |'jo ve| .) ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zeus-jove-jupiter-jehova/358841/10 "2006-06-02T21:23:16Z")
Yeah after the fact for sure – there was some confabulation – at least on the Christian side\*. God the Father as a man in a flowing beard is identical to most classic depictions of Jupiter/Zeus. Certainly the Christian concept of God the Father’s way was paved by Jove – but I’m not seeing a tie pre-Christianity. \*_I am not sure that a ultra-orthodox Jewish Rabbinical student, if he were somehow to get over his heart attack at Michelangelo et al drawing a picture of Yahweh, is going to say that Yahweh actually equals the Christian God the Father. That is why I qualified this like this – not for some exclusionary Christian reason._