The Tetragrammaton in DNA?

Be cautious around sensational claims. One claim that surfaces from time to time is that the Hebrew spelling of Jehovah, the Tetragrammaton, is encoded in our DNA like a signature of the Creator. While this claim is endearing, is it also delusional? While many seem to accept this claim uncritically, I personally have always found it to be highly suspect, even wildly absurd. It turns out my skepticism was well-founded and immediately justified. This claim that the Tetragrammaton is encoded in our DNA is fake-news.

So here is the claim spelled out, and the problems with it:

It’s a code that’s written in acid. ATCG is the name of the acid, and these acids are held together by these sulfuric bridges like a chain, and these bridges appear in a sequence, and it’s every ten, every five, every six, and again, every five. In Hebrew gematria, that spells the Tetragrammaton YHWH 10, 5, 6, 5!

First, the scientific problems are that:

1. DNA is an acid (deoxyribonucleic acid) that contains four nucleotides, not acids, ATCG: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine.
2. There are no “sulfuric bridges,” thus also no sequence.
3. Instead, DNA is held together by hydrogen bonds between base pairs. Sulfur creates strong bonds that would interfere with DNA replication. Disulfide bonds are sulfur bonds that are found in proteins, not DNA. They form after protein synthesis.

Second, the linguistic problem is that it assumes that Hebrew predates its appearance in the archeological record and even the dawn of humanity—that the Tetragrammaton was predestined to be the spelling of His name with that specific sequence of letters.

Thus, I hope you are completely convinced that this claim is delusional propaganda best to be ignored and forgotten.

(Frankly, this is almost as bad as the claims regarding the cruciform protein laminin! See: What is laminin?.)

ANOTHER LINE OF REASONING!

I was exposed to another argument for the Tetragrammaton in DNA, and here is a screenshot of the presentation along with an acompanying graphic:

As you can see, the claim is:

“Each DNA base reflects a number of atoms that corresponds with a Hebrew letter and holds spiritual meaning”

However, five minutes of fact-checking on my phone produced this:

• Adenine contains a total of 15 atoms: 5 carbon atoms, 5 hydrogen atoms, and 5 nitrogen atoms.
• Thymine is composed of 22 atoms: 5 carbon atoms, 6 hydrogen atoms, 2 nitrogen atoms, and 9 oxygen atoms. Thymine is a nitrogenous base, a key component of DNA.
• Cytosine contains a total of 12 atoms: 4 carbon atoms, 5 hydrogen atoms, 3 nitrogen atoms, plus 1 oxygen atom.
• Guanine contains a total of 10 atoms: 5 carbon atoms, 5 nitrogen atoms, plus 1 oxygen atom.

Regarding what the Hebrew letters mean, I found this:

Yod:
Divine Spark: In Jewish mystical tradition, Yod is seen as a divine point of energy, a symbol of God's presence and the foundation of all creation.

He:
Divine Breath, Revelation, and Light: Jewish mystics associate Hey with God's breath, revelation, and light, referencing the five times the word "light" is mentioned on the first day of creation.

Vav:
In Kabbalistic (Jewish mysticism) thought, the Vav represents the connecting link between different aspects of creation and the Divine.

So I’m afraid whoever originally wrote this was wrong about the number of atoms in each of the nucleotides and employed Jewish mysticism to derive the meanings of the letters. The “spiritual meaning” is actually not spiritual, but comes from Jewish mysticism.

If I see any additional claims regarding this, I will add them to this blog post. (June 6, 2025)