"The pronunciation of the Name was forbidden except to priests of the temple during the benediction of the people (Num. 6:22–7) and on the Day of Atonement, when the high priest spoke it ten times before the assembled worshippers (Lev. 16:30). Because unpointed Hebrew is composed entirely of consonants, it was possible to write the name in the books of the Torah and yet still conceal its pronunciation. It appears as , which is transliterated into the Latin characters IHVH (sometimes YHWH or JHWH). But the name could not be written in Greek without revealing the way of saying it. Josephus was a priest and knew the correct pronunciation of the Name, but states in his Antiquities (II, 12, 4) that religion forbids him to divulge it. Philo calls the Name ineffable and says that it is lawful only for those whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom to hear and utter it in a holy place—in other words, for priests in the temple."
Tetragrammaton

January 1, 1970