The Name
From the capital N in the title, you know what name we’re talking about. There is only one “The Name”. From the account of Moses at the burning bush:
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. (Exodus 3:13-15)
And now we have an irony. In fear of accidentally breaking the third commandment (“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”, Exodus 20:7) the Jewish people do not permit The Name to be spoken. This has been the case for over two millennia, and the result is that no one now knows how to pronounce The Name. The tetragrammaton YHWH is known, but what the vowel sounds should be has been lost. God explicitly said, He wanted to be remembered by this Name—but no one remembers how to say it.
There are of course ideas about it. From what I’ve seen, the commonly seen and heard “Yahweh” is considered among the least likely. Probably “Yehovah” or “Yahvah” come closer. But we don’t know. And in almost all our English Bibles, YHWH itself is disguised as LORD (with all caps).
Is this something to grieve over? Should the irony provoke a bitter sense of loss? I don’t think so, and I base my thinking on the original declaration of The Name quoted above. The Name is not pronounced by God until after He gives its definition. The first answer to “what is his name?” is a declaration: “I AM WHO I AM.” And this is followed by, “I AM has sent me to you." Neither of these is YHWH – rather they are statements in Hebrew. Is The Name the sounds made in Hebrew? No. The Name is the meaning. In whatever language it is rendered. The Name is summarized as YHWH, but the actual Name is stated by God Himself to be His declaration of existence. “I AM WHO I AM” or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE”. He has been, He is, He will be. His sovereignty and His purpose are declared. This is His Name.
Further on in Exodus, Moses begs to see God’s glory. The way God chose to reveal His glory is this: “And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
(Exodus 33:19) He promises to declare His Name. And what then happens?
The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5-7)
What is the Name He declared? It was a statement of His character. This is His Name: His existence, His sovereignty, His purpose, His character.
By the time Jesus was born, Israelites were already not pronouncing The Name. Instead, they substituted euphemisms. The most common was “Heaven”. (Thus Matthew’s reading of “the kingdom of Heaven” instead of “the kingdom of God” as used by the other NT writers.) There are others, such as “The Power” (e.g. Matthew 26:64, Mark 14:62, and others). In such passages, we clearly see that Jesus was not troubled by not pronouncing The Name in Hebrew. He went along with the practice of the time because the sounds in Hebrew aren’t the point. The Name is its meaning, not certain sounds. And Jesus most emphatically did convey the existence, the sovereignty, the purpose, and the character of God. He spoke it, and he lived it.
As Paul says, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11) What is The Name above every name? There is only one. Jesus bears it—another way of saying what we read elsewhere, that Jesus has been exalted to sit down with God on His throne. Originally, in Isaiah 45:23, God says, “By myself, I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ “ God has shared with His Son the right to have every knee bow and every tongue swear allegiance.
What is our part? Well, there is no need to squabble about how to pronounce YHWH. Nor to try to impose the Hebrew onto the New Testament. Our part is threefold: to swear allegiance to the only God and His exalted Son, who bear The Name; to declare the existence, the sovereignty, the purpose and the character of God as embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ; and to be the children of our Father in heaven, to live The Name, looking to Jesus as our example. Because, “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.” (Revelation 3:12)
The Name was always meant to be shared! What a loving and generous God we have, what a compassionate and welcoming Lord we have, who reach out to us, inviting us to come near in The Name, to be exalted to actually share the family Name!
Love, Paul
If you have any feedback, please contact me at: paul.zilmer@gmail.com