What’s In A Name?, Part 1: YHWH
Genesis 2:4 Here is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created. On the day when ADONAI, God, made earth and heaven,… (CJB)
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. (NIV)
Exodus 3:14-15 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘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, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.”
The English letters YHWH are the translation of the original Hebrew letters. Individually, the Hebrew letters are pronounced “yud-hey-vav-hey”, but as a complete word the correct pronunciation is unknown. Over the centuries many attempts have been made to discover the proper pronunciation, and mistakes and errors have crept in. Because of the uncertainties there even was a new word coined “tetragrammaton” which is a 50-cent word meaning “4 lettered word”. The common pronunciations today are Yahweh, Jehovah, and Yahuey (pronounced Yah-hoo-eh). I have a friend who, in an attempt to be as correct as possible, just pronounces the letters “yud-hey-vav-hey” when speaking the word. Because of the uncertainty, my church types the word YHWH and pronounces it Yahweh and we will continue to do so here.
The situation is further complicated by the holiness with which the Hebrews regarded YHWH. They considered the name too holy to be pronounced and substituted other words which were understood to really refer to YHWH. That is why the Complete Jewish Bible uses the word Adonai. Almost universally the English Bible translations use LORD (all caps) to translate YHWH and Lord (first letter cap) to translate Adonai. When scribes copied Scripture or otherwise encountered the name YHWH they would stop, cleanse themselves by taking a bath, write the name, then destroy the pen because the pen could not be used to write anything profane or ordinary after writing such a holy and sacred name.
But pronunciation is less important than meaning. Words have meaning in every language and names are no different. Names are often given to celebrate the circumstances of one’s birth, or to honor an ancestor, or as expression by the parent of a hopeful character trait for the child. Adam means “formed from the earth”, Moses “drawn from water”, Esther “star”. My first name, Robert, has the spiritual connotation of “abiding in God”, middle name Steven, “blessed”, and last Haines refers to locations in England and Scotland.
The name YHWH carries meaning also. The Hebrew root of YHWH has the concrete meaning of “breath” and by extension “exist” since if one breathes one exists. It is this meaning being expressed in the Exodus verse.
Part of our problem today is that we are too casual with God’s name. We have a sort of superior attitude when we think of the Hebrews’ respect for the name. We think, “How quaint!” and we’ve gone to absurd extremes and use His name more as slang or swear words. We have forgotten the Third Commandment,
“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (Exodus 20:7, NIV)
In Hebrew, the Third Commandment literally translates as: “You shall not attach the LORD’s name to emptiness.”.
Here’s the really cool thing about YHWH. The one thing about ordinary names is that they are all nouns. But YHWH is different. You’ll notice that vowels have been inserted to help make it pronounceable. In this case “a” and “e”. But those were rather arbitrary attempts to pronounce the name. Other combinations exist, but in all cases the word comes out as a verb. “I AM WHO I AM” … “I SHALL BE WHAT I SHALL BE” or “I WILL BECOME WHAT I CHOOSE.” Other possibilities are “I EXIST BECAUSE I EXIST” … “I SHALL BE WHAT I SHALL BE BECAUSE I EXIST” … “I WILL BECOME WHAT I CHOOSE BECAUSE I EXIST.” All of these are legitimate understandings of the various spelling possibilities of YHWH. God, in just the spelling of His name, is telling us he has always existed, is now existing, and will continue to exist. In the simplest of ways God’s name is intentionally ambiguous to reassure us that he will always be there when we need him.
And because God is a verb, he is never stagnant, he is constantly changing, shaping us and our world. Have you ever found yourself marveling at some new insight which you gained from a passage you’ve read dozens of times previously? God is like that don’t you think? The second you think you’ve figured God out something new, or amazing, or divergent emerges. This is part of the ambiguity of his name. Our understanding of him is constantly changing and growing and this is as it should be. In our human fragility and frailty we cannot ever completely know God. He is too vast for us to comprehend. I was thinking about that encounter between God and Moses. Why is it we can sit around a campfire and just watch the flame? It’s just fire isn’t it? Well, yes and no. There’s something mysterious about flames: They are never the same. I don’t suppose it was coincidental that God revealed himself to Moses through fire. God reveals himself in constantly changing ways. Maybe through reading the Word. Or speaking with a mentor. Or being a mentor. Or just holding someone’s hand.
The point in all of this is that there is nothing in all of time and creation that God can’t handle. The name says it all: “I Am”. So if you are struggling with some burden or problem you can rest in the knowledge that God is with you in real time. It’s not as if God is occupied elsewhere and will get to you as soon as he can. No, God is infinite and infinitely loving. Psalm 139:7-12 says,
7Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me,” 12even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
All of this from just 4 letters! Wow!
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Astoria, Dorothy. The Name Book: Over 10,000 Names--Their Meanings, Origins, and Spiritual Significance (p. 268). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Pike, Jordon. (2020). YHWH. Retrieved from Yhwh Sermon by Gordon Pike, Exodus 3:1-15, John 8:58 - SermonCentral.com