The Name of God

Sermon5 January 2014

FXCC Deaf Ministry

YHWH

• The Hebrew spelling of God’s name• A word no religious Jew will pronounce• Appears over 6,000 times in the Old

Testament!– Considered too holy to be pronounced by humans

YHWH

• The prohibition seems to have begun around the 3rd century BC– After the return from Babylonian exile– After the 2nd temple is built

• No prohibition is known during the 1st temple period

History Lesson

• The prohibition goes back to Exodus 20:7– The 3rd commandment– “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God

in vain.”

• Original meaning was considered to be related to oath keeping when swearing by God’s name

• Evolved to not using the Lord’s name lightly or frivolously.

History Lesson

• That evolved even more to not speaking the name at all– The fence the Jews erected around the Law– Don’t even come close to the line!

• During Jesus’ time– The name could be spoken by the priests, but only

in the temple service on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, early fall)

History Lesson

• The rabbis declared– “he who pronounces the Divine Name as it is

spelled” were included among those who have no share in the world to come

• But the word/name shows up over 6000 times!– What do you do? What do you say?

Substitutes

• The work around was word substitution• Adonai (another Hebrew word) is used instead– Means “my Lords”

• However, Adonai then became somewhat sacred– Is only used in scripture reading and prayer

Substitutes

• Other work arounds developed for everyday use– Hashem (the Name)– Hamakom (the Place)– Hagavoah (the High)– Halashon (the Tongue)– Shamayim (Heaven)

Substitutes

• Jews even avoid saying Elohim (God)– They will intentionally mispronounce it as Elokim– Or write G_d in place of God

• Even many secular Jews will honor these conventions

Jehovah

• This is not a word– Ok, not a Hebrew word

• It was created due to a misunderstanding of how and why Jews used YHWH and Adonai

• Written Hebrew had no vowels until about the 6th century AD– Spoken Hebrew has always used vowels

Jehovah

• By the 6th century there were few Hebrew speakers in the world

• The Masoretes, Jewish scholars/rabbis, who maintained the copying of Jewish scripture developed a written vowel system

• The oral work around of speaking Adonai vice YHWH was used to remind the reader what to say

Jehovah

• The vowels for Adonai were inserted into the written text in the word YHWH

• Non Jews were unaware of the custom and thought those were the vowels for YHWH– They came up with the word Jehovah– Substituting the Latin “J” for the Hebrew “Y” – and substituting “v” for “w”

English

• Our translation conventions– Where the Jews speak Adonai, we most often

translate as LORD or LORD GOD

• In English translations, Jehovah is seldom used except in the ASV and Living Bibles

Pronunciation

• You often hear we don’t know how to pronounce YHWH

• Actually we probably do– Comparison with other Semitic languages– Other Hebrew words/names• Obadiah (ovadyah)• Elijah (eliyah)

Jesus

• Jesus honored the Jewish custom/prohibition of His day

• Especially in Matthew we see Jesus speaking of– The Kingdom of Heaven (i.e. God)

• Mark and Luke wrote for Gentile readers and tended to use Kingdom of God

Jesus

• Matthew 21:5 “Was the baptism of John from Heaven or from men?”

• Luke 15:21 the prodigal says “I have sinned against Heaven”

Jesus

• Matthew 26:64 – Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself. But I

tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

– Power was another euphemism for God– Also refers to Daniel 7:13 and Psalm 110:1

Jesus

• Psalm 110:1 “Here is the Lord’s proclamation to my lord: “Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool!””

• Daniel 7:13 “I was watching in the night visions, “And with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man was approaching. He went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him.”

Jesus

• With those two allusions, Jesus proclaimed Himself the Messiah, the Son of God

• AND those who heard Him, understood

Jesus as YHWH

• God revealed Himself to Moses as YHWH in Exodus 3

• Jesus also uses this name in reference to himself– John 8:24– John 8:58– John 18:5-8

Jesus as YHWH

Jesus as YHWH

God’s Name Today

• We don’t have special names, like YHWH, that we use in English today

• We simply refer to the Creator of the universe as God.

• To speak of God in some frivolous or demeaning way is still wrong– We can’t expect none Christians to revere God

God’s Name Today

• We CAN expect Christians to honor God in every way (action AND speech)

• That mean OMG is something that should never cross our lips, fingers or keyboards!

• So if you want a New Year’s resolution, make one to NEVER again dishonor God with that phrase