God’s Holy Name Is A Constant Reminder Of His Faithfulness To His Promises
It was further discussed that the significance of God’s holy name is a constant reminder of his faithfulness to his promises. It is God’s will to save, help, deliver, redeem, bless, and keep a covenant with his people. We can see that the Hebrew name Joshua and Greek name Jesus both preserve the abbreviated form of Yahweh, meaning The Lord Saves.
Here’s the complete article:
The Name Of Yahweh Means Impassioned
This means that we are forbidden to worship any other gods outside of Yahweh, as the name of Yahweh means Impassioned. It reflects Yahwehs passionate love for his worshipers and his anger towards them if they worship other gods.
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The Old Testament Uses Yahweh And His Angel Interchangeably
Other passages confirm that this reading is correct. This angel is Yahweh. Perhaps the easiest way to demonstrate this is to compare Old Testament passages about who it was that brought Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land.
I am Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be for you as God.Leviticus 11:45
You yourselves were shown this wonder in order for you to acknowledge that Yahweh is the God there is no other God besides him. From heaven he made you hear his voice to teach you, and on the earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from the midst of the fire. And because he loved your ancestors he chose their descendants after them. And he brought you forth from Egypt with his own presence,Deuteronomy 4:3538
Yahweh our God brought us and our ancestors from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and did these great signs before our eyes. He protected us along the entire way that we went, and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. And Yahweh drove out all the people before us.Joshua 24:1718a
And the angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, I brought you up from Egypt, and I brought you to the land that I had promised to your ancestors.Judges 2:1
If Deuteronomy 4:37 is read in light of Exodus 23:2023, then the presence and the Angel are co-identified. This makes good sense in view of the meaning of the Name which was in the Angel.
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Yahweh Is Not Jehovah
During the intertestamental period of Israel, around 500 BC, the Jews became very concerned with not blaspheming the name of the Lord. So rather than saying the name Yahweh, they would say Elohim instead, which is the Hebrew word for god. However, this did not solve the problem of what to do when one came across the name Yahweh during the reading of the Scriptures.
The Jews decided that when they came to the name YHWH they would say the Hebrew word adonay, which means Lord. To remind the reader to say adonay, and to maintain the presence of the word YHWH, they assigned the vowels of adonay into the consonants of YHWH. However, it was never intended that this form be read aloud.
During the Middle Ages scholars began to read the consonants of YHWH with the vowels of adonay, which resulted in the word Jehovah, an artificial word bearing no relation to the name of the God of Israel in biblical times. Because the Germans were the first to make this transfer it was written Jehovah instead of Yehowah since js and ws are pronounced as ys and vs.
It is quite certain, however, that the ancient Israelites never used this term for their God formally it is like a genetic hybrid, as artificial as the words eledile and crocophant.
People With This Name
- Moses , saint, first Arab bishop of the Arab people
- Moses the Black , saint, ascetic monk and priest in Egypt, a Desert Father
- Moses of Chorene , Armenian historian, “father of Armenian history”
- Moses of Kalankatuyk , Armenian historian
- Moses the Calm , Twelver Shia imam
- Moses the Hungarian , Russian saint
- Moses ibn Ezra , Jewish, Spanish philosopher
- Moses Kimhi , medieval rabbi from Hachmei Provence, Occitania
- Moses Maimonides , Spanish rabbi, physician, and philosopher
- Moses de León , Spanish rabbi who is thought to have composed the Zohar
- Moses Shirvani, Jewish writer who authored a Hebrew/AramaicPersian dictionary in 1459
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Yahweh Means I Am Who I Am
Gods Name Is Almost Always Translated Lord In The English Bible. But the Hebrew would be pronounced something like Yahweh, and is built on the word for I am.
So every time we hear the word Yahweh, or every time you see LORD in the English Bible, you should think: this is a proper name built out of the word for I am and reminding us each time that God absolutely is.
Written by John Piper – the founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. Taking inspiration from “I AM WHO I AM”, he described the 10 things the name Yahweh, “I AM,” tells us about God. Here’s the complete article:
What Does Yahweh Mean
The word Yahweh appears for the first time in the Bible in Exodus 3:13-15, and we can see at the end of the verse it is the name God has chosen to be remembered by throughout all generations.
Because the English language lacks a perfect translation of the term Yahweh, it is printed in all capital letters in our Old Testament.
In Jewish tradition, Yahweh is too sacred a name to utter out loud. Over time Jews started to substitute in Adonai, or My Lord, especially when speaking. Another common replacement is the name Elohim, which simply means God. Interestingly, these two replacement names are both used for other things as well, not just God, whereas Yahweh is reserved exclusively as a name for God.
We see in Exodus 3:14 that God uses I AM and Yahweh interchangeably, which tells us that I am is one way for us to translate the name Yahweh.
But why is it so significant that Gods name is I AM?
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Which Bibles Use The Name Yahweh And How Often A Full Table
For centuries, Jewish people have read the title Adonai in the place of the proper name Yahweh when it appears in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. Most modern translations follow this pattern and use the word LORD in all caps to designate the Hebrew name of God. However, not all Bibles have remained faithful to this tradition, instead opting to use the name Yahweh or the consonants YHWH. In this post, well examine a few popular examples of Bible versions that use the sacred name in the place of the LORD. This is by no means an exhaustive list but will help us explore the question of whether or not we should use Yahweh in our Bible translations.
Version5,787Table of the Use of the Divine Name in Most English Bibles*
*Keep in mind this is not a comprehensive list. This is a list of popular Bibles available for search on the website BibleGateway.com. The number of occurrences and percent alignment with the Hebrew Scriptures is based solely on the appearance of the word Yahweh or Jehovah. Instances where the name was shortened to Yah in the Hebrew Bible are not counted here.
Why It Matters That God Is I Am
In the Old Testament, a persons name often reflected his character.
Abraham means Father of a great multitude.
Eve means Living, which is fitting because she was the mother of all living people.
Jesus means Savior.
Names were very, very important at that time. It could point to a persons disposition, mission in life, and more. And Moses knew that.
When he asks God in Exodus 3:13 what he should tell the Israelites when they ask who sent him, hes essentially asking God to provide some credibility to the fantastic story hes about to tell his people. Hes asking God about his character and nature.
If we ask God, Who are you? and he replies, I AM WHO I AM, that is significant and we need to take time to dwell on his chosen name if we want to know him.
Image Credit: ©Thinkstock
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Too Sacred To Be Uttered
Yahweh, the god of the Israelites, whose name was revealed to Moses as four Hebrew consonants called the Tetragrammaton.
After the Babylonian Exile , and especially from the 3rd century BCE on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal rather than merely a local religion, the more common Hebrew noun Elohim , meaning God, tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israels God over all others.
At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai , which was translated as Kyrios in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Several changes to Gods name were explained in this article from The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. Here’s the complete article:
Late Bronze Age Origins
Scholars disagree as to the origins of the worship of the god Yahweh. The oldest plausible occurrence of his name is in the phrase “Shasu of Yhw” in an Egyptian inscription from the time of Amenhotep III , the Shasu being nomads from Midian and Edom in northern Arabia and Yhw being a place-name. The oldest traditions in the Hebrew bible also describe Yahweh’s “original habitat” as Edom or Seir. The current consensus is therefore that Yahweh was a “divine warrior from the southern region associated with Seir, Edom, Paran and Teman“. This raises the question of how Yahweh came to be worshipped further north. An answer many scholars consider plausible is the Kenite hypothesis, which holds that traders brought Yahweh to Israel along the caravan routes between Egypt and Canaan. This ties together various points of data, such as the absence of Yahweh from Canaan, his links with Edom and Midian in the biblical stories, and the Kenite or Midianite ties of Moses, but its major weaknesses are that the majority of Israelites were firmly rooted in Canaan, and doubts as to the historicity of Moses. If the Kenite hypothesis is to be maintained without accepting some form of the Moses tradition, then it must be assumed that the Israelites encountered Yahweh inside Israel.
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Why Is The Pronunciation Of Gods Name In Ancient Hebrew Unknown
Ancient Hebrew was written without vowels, using only consonants. The Hebrew-speaking reader could easily provide the appropriate vowels. However, after the Hebrew Scriptures were completed, some Jews adopted the superstitious belief that it was wrong to utter Gods personal name. When they read aloud a scripture that contained Gods name, they substituted expressions such as Lord or God. As centuries passed, this superstition spread and the ancient pronunciation was eventually lost. b
Some feel that the divine name was pronounced Yahweh, while others suggest different possibilities. A Dead Sea Scroll containing a portion of Leviticus in Greek transliterates the name Iao. Early Greek writers also suggest the pronunciations Iae, I·a·be, and I·a·ou·e, but none of these can be proved to be the pronunciation used in ancient Hebrew. c
Dispersion Of People Across The Earth
Though Noah and his family had been told to spread out over all the earth, the growing family stayed together, settling in a region between two great rivers. Not wishing to trust God, they began to trust themselves, possibly using skills remembered from the days before the flood. At any rate, they began to build cities, with a capital city in the midst of them with a temple built to reach into the heavens.
The effect of this activity prompted God to force a separation of the different family groups by confusing their speech patterns. As new languages became gibberish to others, no work on the great tower could proceed. As a result, mankind finally spread out into the world.
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Yhwh Comes From The Edomite South
Biblical evidence suggests that YHWH comes from the southeast, either from the hills of Edom or even further south in Midian or beyond. This is particularly clear in three very ancient biblical poems:
Song of Moses
×Ö°Ö¾××Ö¸× ×ִסִּ×× Ö·× ×Ö¸Ö¼× ×Ö°×Ö¸×¨Ö·× ×ִשֵּ××¢Ö´×ר ×Ö¸××Ö¹ ××ֹפִ××¢Ö· ×Öµ×ַר פָּ××¨Ö¸× ×Ö°×Ö¸×ªÖ¸× ×ֵרִ×Ö°×ֹת קֹ×ֶש×
YHWH came from Sinai He shone upon them from Seir He appeared from Mount Paran, and approached from Ribeboth-kodesh
Song of Deborah
×Ö°Ö¾××Ö¸× ×ְּצֵ×תְ×Ö¸ ×ִשֵּ××¢Ö´×ר ×ְּצַעְ×Ö°Ö¼×Ö¸ ×ִשְּ××Öµ× ×Ö±××Ö¹× ×ֶרֶץ רָעָשָ××
YHWH, when You came forth from Seir, advanced from the country of Edom, the earth trembled
Song of Habakkuk
×Ö±××Ö¹×Ö· ×ִתֵּ××Ö¸× ×Ö¸××Ö¹× ×ְקָ××Ö¹×©× ×Öµ×ַר פָּ××¨Ö¸× ×¡Ö¶×Ö¸×
God is coming from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.
Each of these poems opens with the image of YHWH coming from his home in the south. In fact, Habakkuks song even goes on to describe how the tents of the Midianites shake as YHWH stomps on the ground near them on his way to his people.
Who Is Really Jehovah Yahve Or Allah
Yahweh and Jehovah are names by which God is designated in the Bible. Both are derivations of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton YHVH. Because it was forbidden to pronounce the divine name of God among the Jews, the actual pronunciation of YHVH, written with four consonants, but without vowels, was lost in time.
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The Meaning And Significance
In Ex. 3:13-14, Moses asks God, Whom should I say has sent me? and God responds by saying, I AM that I AM You must say this to the Israelites, I AM has sent me to you. However, it could be awkward for Moses to go to the Israelites and Pharaoh and say, I am has sent me. So, in Ex. 3:15 God revises this phrase and changes it to the third person by saying, Tell them that He is has sent you.
The word He is comes from the Hebrew root word haya, which means, to be. It is the third person form of this word, He is, that becomes the name Yahweh.
The significance of the name Yahweh is that it is confirming Gods existence but most importantly His presence. In the context of Ex. 3, God is talking about His presence with Moses and subsequently with Israel. For in Ex. 3:12 Moses says, Who am I, that I should go? to which God responds by saying, Surely I will be with you. The point is not that He eternally existed but that He is present with His people.
In light of the above, Ex. 3:14-15 could be paraphrased as, Call Me I am with you because I am indeed the ever present helper. And this is what you should say to the Israelites, He is the ever present helper the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.
This does not mean that every time this name appears in the First Testament that it carries all of this theology with it. Sometimes it is used as just His name and is used in a reverential way.
Yhwh: The Original Arabic Meaning Of The Name
God reveals his name to Moses as I am, from the Hebrew root ×.×.×, being. The name YHWH, however, originates in Midian, and derives from the Arabic term for love, desire, or passion.
Moses before the burning bush, Marc Chagall 1966, Museum Aan De Stroom
In Exodus chapter 6, after Moses complains about how Pharaoh has increased Israels workload and refused to set them free, God appears to Moses and reiterates his promise to take Israel out of Egypt and bring them to the Promised Land. As part of this message, God tells Moses that his name is YHWH, even though he never shared this name with the patriarchs, and only appeared to them as El Shaddai:
ש××ת ×:× ×Ö·×Ö°×Ö·×ֵּר ×Ö±×Ö¹×Ö´×× ×Ö¶× ×ֹשֶ×× ×Ö·×Ö¹Ö¼××ֶר ×Öµ×Ö¸×× ×Ö²× Ö´× ×Ö°Ö¾××Ö¸×. ×:× ×Ö¸×Öµ×¨Ö¸× ×Ö¶× ×Ö·×ְרָ×Ö¸× ×Ö¶× ×ִצְ×ָק ×Ö°×Ö¶× ×Ö·×¢Ö²×§Ö¹× ×Ö°Ö¼×Öµ× ×©Ö·××Ö¸Ö¼× ×ּשְ××Ö´× ×Ö°Ö¾××Ö¸× ×Ö¹× × ×Ö¹×Ö·×¢Ö°×ªÖ´Ö¼× ×Ö¸×Ö¶×.
Exod 6:2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am YHWH. 6:3 I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name YHWH.
The text makes it clear that the name YHWHknown in scholarship as the Tetragrammaton is of great significance, marking a new era in ancient Israelite history, but it offers no explanation for its meaning.
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The Angel Of Yahweh Departs From Israel
The angel of Exodus 23:2023 did indeed go with Moses and Joshua to claim the promised land. In the wake of Joshuas death, however, Israel failed to complete the task. The Angel of Yahweh appeared in Judges 2 bringing news no one wanted to hear:
And the angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, I brought you up from Egypt, and I brought you to the land that I had promised to your ancestors. I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And as for you, do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land break down their altars. But you did not listen to my voice. Why would you do such a thing? Now I say, I will not drive them out from before you they will become as thorns for you, and their gods will be a trap for you. And as the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people wept bitterly. Judges 2:14
The angel of Yahwehs departure signaled an end to the regular presence of Yahweh with Israel. But even in the dark period of the judges he wouldnt stay away completely.