Short answer:
God
revealed His Name to Moses from a burning bush at Horeb, the “mountain of God”
in the wilderness of Midian. “And God
said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the
children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:14). (“I AM THAT I AM” is not the Name of
God; it is the “interpretation, definition, explanation, translation, or meaning”
of His sacred Name.) “I AM” is an abbreviation
The
actual Name of God is written in Hebrew with four consonants (Y-H-W-H) called the
“Tetragrammaton’” (“Four-Lettered
Name”). Spelled with only two Hebrew letters (Y-H), the abbreviation is God’s Two-Lettered
Name.
However,
we read in the Bible that Eve, other men during Adam’s lifetime, and Abraham, who
all lived hundreds and thousands of years before the birth of Moses, called upon
the Name of God. Apparently, they knew a different, earlier Name of God.
Recently,
Bible scholars have found another Name of God, spelled with only three letters
(“Y-H-W”). This third form of God’s Name, which is proven in the Bible, was discovered in the papyri of a 5th
century B.C. Jewish colony from the Elephantine Island in Egypt.
Detailed explanation:
God’s
Name
God wants His people to know His
personal Name. “Therefore my people shall
know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth
speak: behold, it is I” (Isaiah 52:6).
God’s
Name is in Hebrew, and for that reason He will ultimately restore the original
language. “For then will I turn to the
people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to
serve him with one consent” (Zephaniah 3:9).
“And the LORD shall
be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name
one” (Zechariah
14:9).
No need to know
God’s Name? Many
people say it is not necessary to learn and call on the name of God, because,
whatever term we use, God will know that it is He to whom we are addressing our
prayers. Nothing can be farther from the truth.
Names have meanings.
In
Biblical times, the name given to a newborn child, or even a new one to an
adult, was usually about the conditions surrounding the child’s birth or a
prophecy that foretold the mission, destiny, character, or events that would
mark the life of that person.
Adam. The first man was called Adam,
because he was formed from the ground (adamah),
which has a generally ruddy or reddish color (adam). “And the LORD God
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).
Abraham. God changed the name of Abram
(“exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of a multitude”) after God promised he
would be the “father of many nations.” “Neither
shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a
father of many nations have I made thee (Genesis 17:5).
Isaac. God told Abraham to name his son
Isaac, because he and his wife Sarah laughed when the LORD told them they were going to have a child in their old
age. “Then Abraham fell upon his face,
and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an
hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?” (Genesis
17:17). “And Abraham was an hundred years
old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made me to
laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:5-6). Isaac
means “laughter” in Hebrew.
Israel. Isaac’s son, Jacob
(“supplanter”/“following in the heels of another”), was renamed Israel by the
angel he wrestled with all night. “And he
said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast
thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Genesis 32:28). In
Hebrew, Israel means “having power with God”.
Needless
to say, if the names of these Biblical characters are significant, the
significance of the Creator’s Name is inestimably far greater. A very important
reason why God wants us to call on His personal Name is for us not to confuse
Him with false gods. “I am the LORD: that
is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to
graven images” (Isaiah 42:8).
Sound waves and frequencies.
Jewish
sages taught that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet all have their individual sounds,
numerical values, and symbolisms. Letters are sounded through vibrations made
with the vocal chords, lips, tongue, teeth, throat, nasal cavity, lungs. Sound
travels in waves, with varying wavelengths and frequencies. Thus, every letter
and every word made up of a certain combination of letters have their own unique
vibrations. So, too, names, which are also words.
Every
name therefore is one of a kind. The Name of God, with its own unique set of
wavelengths and frequencies, is the one that resonates in perfect harmony with
His Being. When He revealed His Name, He gave men, as it were, His direct line.
He taught men how to precisely tune in to His personal frequency – much like
how we communicate with someone on the phone or social media. When we use a
common word or a different name to call on God, we are tuning in to a different
frequency and, thus, could be communicating with an entity that is entirely
different from the one true God.
“Book of Life”.
If
you do not value the Name of God, He may not value yours, either. God has a
special book wherein your very own name may be written. “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the
LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him
for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name” (Malachi
3:16).
That
“book of remembrance” is called the
“Book of Life” in the New Testament. “And
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened:
and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their
works” (Revelation 20:12). If your name is written in the Book of Life, a
place is reserved for you for an endless holiday in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The
bookings, though, are not confirmed; they can be canceled by the Resort Owner. “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed
in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but
I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels” (Revelation
3:5).
If
your name is erased from the Book of Life, you can look forward to a sure
future of nothing but fries and toast. “And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of
fire” (Revelation 20:15). See how important names can be?
Christ taught God’s Name.
"I
have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:
thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word… And I
have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith
thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:6,26). Thus Christ taught God’s sacred
Name, but only to His disciples. It must be revered: “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name..." (Matthew 6:9).
Blessings of God’s Name
God
promises to come to the aid those who
will know and call on His Name. “Our help
is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8). He
will not ignore faithful believers who come to Him for help. “And they that know thy name will put their
trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee” (Psalm
9:10).
Calling
on God’s true Name is comparable to being enclosed by the thick walls of an
impregnable fortress. “The name of the
LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverb
18:10).
Honor, long life,
salvation. God
promises to answer and grant protection, honor, long life, and salvation to
those who will call on His true Name. “Because
he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on
high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer
him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With
long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation” (Psalm 91:14-16).
His
Name can save the faithful, even from the brink of death. “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon
me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O
LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
yea, our God is merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low,
and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt
bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes
from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land
of the living” (Psalm 116:3-9).
End-time survival. Come the end-time wars and
disasters prophesied in the Bible, God’s Name will save the faithful from
destruction. “And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in
mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in
the remnant whom the LORD shall call” (Joel 2:32).
Even if mankind is decimated, those who will call on His Name will
survive. “And it shall come to pass, that
in all the land, saith the Lord,
two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left
therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them
as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my
name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and
they shall say, The LORD is my God” (Zechariah 13:8-9).
Sadly,
not included are the multitudes who do not know or neglect to call on God’s
Name. “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen
that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they
have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his
habitation desolate” (Jeremiah 10:25).
“The LORD” is His Name?
Several
passages in Scripture appear to proclaim the Name of God. “Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause
them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The
LORD” (Jeremiah 16:21; cf. Isaiah
42:8).
The
prophet declared: “Seek him that maketh
the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning,
and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and
poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name” (Amos
5:8).
The
Israelites invoked God’s Name in praise and worship: “Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD – that you alone are
the Most High over all the earth” (Psalm 83:18, NIV). However, “the LORD”, like “God”, is obviously not
a name, it is a title.
Revealed
to Moses. God
spoke to Moses from a burning bush at Horeb, the “mountain of God” in the
wilderness of Midian in the Sinai about 1492 B.C., 39 years after he escaped
from Egypt. God commanded him to bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
Moses was at first hesitant, unsure of who was speaking to him. "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when
I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your
fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what
shall I say unto them?
“And God said unto Moses,
I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I
AM hath sent me unto you.
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations” (Exodus
3:13-15).
Meaning of the Name.
However, “I AM
THAT I AM” (Eheyeh Asher Eheyeh in
the Hebrew original) is not God’s
actual Name, but as Sacred Name advocate B. Earl Allen clarifies: “It is the
interpretation, definition, explanation, translation, or meaning of the sacred
name.” To this, Smith’s Bible
Dictionary agrees: “This passage is intended to indicate the etymology of
(God’s Name), as understood by the Hebrews…” The real Name of God has its own
unique, distinct spelling and pronunciation in Hebrew.
The
Tetragrammaton. Three
verses later, “God also said to Moses,
"I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God
Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them” (Exodus
6:2-3, NIV).
In
this verse, the sacred Name of God is expressed as “the LORD”, substituted for the actual Name in the original Hebrew
text. However, The Encyclopaedia Judaica
(Vol. 7, p. 680) helpfully informs us that “The personal name of the God of
Israel is written in the Hebrew Bible with the four consonants YHWH and is
referred to as the ‘Tetragrammaton’…”
The
Greek word Tetragrammaton means four
(tetra) lettered (grammaton), referring to God’s Name spelled
yod (Y / J), hey (H / E), waw (W / F), hey (H / E) –
all consonants, because in ancient times the Hebrew alphabet did not have a
system to indicate vowels. The reader had to mentally supply the missing vowels
as he read, much as today when we see “Mr” we pronounce it as “Mister,” “Bldg”
as “building,” “Ltd” as “limited,”
etc. (Sacred Name advocate Brian E. Allen shows the presumed vowels of the
Tetragrammaton at his website “Indian Sabbath Trail.”)
Utterance forbidden.
Later, though, in
the 5th century B.C. Jewish priests prohibited the pronunciation of
God’s Name, citing a number of seemingly valid reasons for forbidding the
utterance of God’s Name by ordinary people.
Third commandment. The prohibition against saying
the Name of God carelessly is embodied in the third commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that
taketh his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).
The Jewish
Encyclopaedia
notes that “the Rabbis forbade the utterance of the Tetragrammaton to guard
against desecration of the Sacred Name.” Some passages in Scripture were
reinterpreted to ensure that the people would avoid uttering the sacred Name of
God.
“To be concealed.” Exodus 3:15a reads: “And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you:
this is my name for ever...” According to Mackey’s Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, “The word forever is represented in the original
by l’olam; but the Rabbis... by the
change of a single letter, made l’olam,
forever, read as if it had been written l’alam,
which means to be concealed, and hence
the passage was translated ‘this is my
name to be concealed,’ instead of ‘this
is my name forever’.”
“Death for uttering.” Leviticus 24:16 declares: “And whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD
shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him,
the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the
name of the Lord, he shall be put to death” (NKJV). In the original Hebrew text, “the word nokeb, here translated to blaspheme, also means to pronounce distinctly, to call by name.”
It could be and was thus retranslated as "'whosoever shall pronounce the
name (YHWH) shall suffer death” (Mackey’s
Revised Encylopedia of Freemasonry).
“The LORD” substituted. When the Jews stopped uttering
the sacred Name (YHWH), they started using the Hebrew term Adonai (“the LORD”) as a
substitute. From the 3rd century B.C. onward, when a Jewish reader
came across the sacred Name YHWH in the Scriptures, he pronounced it as Adonai. Then, from the Second Temple
period, according to researcher Choon-Leong Seow (“The Ineffable Name of
Israel’s God,” Glossary, Bible Review,
December 1991, p. 49), it became a custom among the Jews to say the Greek word Kyrios (which also means “Lord”)
whenever they encountered the Creator’s name (YHWH) in the Holy Writings.
“LORD”, “LORD”,
and “Lord”. English
translations of the Bible render YHWH as “LORD” (all big capitals) or “Lord” (small capitals), and Adonai as “Lord” (upper and lower case
letters). In cases where Adonai YHWH
(“Lord YHWH”) appears, the combination is written as “Lord God”
(Adonai Elohim), not as “Lord LORD” (Adonai Adonai).
Note
the distinctions in the following verses: “The
LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies
thy footstool” (Psalm 110:1). “Behold,
the Lord, the LORD of hosts…” (Isaiah 10:33). Hence, each time we see “Lord” and “God” spelled with capital letters in the Biblical text, it
means the original Name of God (YHWH) has been replaced.
Presumed names.
The
concealment of the true sound of the sacred Name of God has resulted in a great
cloud of doubt and uncertainty over its actual pronunciation. It has led
theologians to suggest various versions.
“Jehovah”? In the King James Version (KJV)
Bible of 1611, one presumed Name of God is spelled out clearly. “And God spake unto Moses, and said unto
him, I am the LORD: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by
the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them” (Exodus
6:2-3).
There
was opposition against this form of the Name from the very first time it was
used. Joseph Rotherham, editor of The
Emphasized Bible, said. “The pronunciation Jehovah was unknown until 1520, when it was introduced by
Galatinus; but it was contested by Le Mercier, J. Drusius, and L. Capellus, as
against grammatical and historical propriety.” Rotherham pointedly stated that
the presumed Name of God is “erroneously written and pronounced Jehovah…”
The Jewish
Encyclopedia
notes: “This name (of God) is commonly represented in modern translations by
the form ‘Jehovah,’ which, however, is a philological impossibility…”
The
Encyclopaedia Britannica sums it up:
“The pronunciation ‘Jehovah’ is an error resulting among Christians from
combining the consonants Yhwh (Jhvh) with the vowels of ‘adhonay,’ ‘Lord,’
which the Jews in reading the Scriptures substituted for the sacred name…”
“Yahweh”? Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, states:
“The name YHWH is often reconstructed as Yahweh,
based on a range of circumstantial historical and linguistic evidence. Most
scholars do not view it as an ‘accurate’ reconstruction in an absolute sense,
but as the best possible guess.” The Aid
to Bible Understanding explains that “there is by no means unanimity among
scholars on the subject (of the form ‘Yahweh’), some favoring yet other
pronunciations.”
An
early Church Father, Clement of Alexandria, taught Christians: ‘The mystic name
which is called the tetragrammaton… is pronounced Iaoue (Yahweh), which means, ‘Who is, and who shall be.’” However,
while the name “Yahweh” has the same spelling (Y-H-W-H), different meanings are
given. One often cited definition is “He who causes to become.”
The
correct rendering of the Name of God should have both the original textual
spelling and the original Scriptural meaning, “I AM THAT I AM”.
The
Encyclopaedia Britannica has it on
record: “Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation
periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19th and 20th
centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh…” Wikipedia notes, however, that “neither
‘Jehovah’ or ‘Yahweh’ is recognized in Judaism…”
God’s “Nickname.”
When God told Moses His Name, He
mentioned a short form. “And God said
unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children
of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:14).
“I
AM”, obviously, is an abbreviation of “I AM THAT I AM.” So, if “I AM THAT I AM”
stands for YHWH (the Tetragrammaton or Four-Lettered Name), “I AM” very
possibly stands for YH, the first two letters of God’s sacred Name.
Spelled out in a
psalm. In the
Psalms, we find the short form of God’s Name with a vowel. "Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth
upon the heavens by his name JAH,
and rejoice before him" (Psalm 68:4, KJV).
From
this one precious verse we learn that “JAH” is also a Name of God! But how is
“JAH” pronounced? Is it "Djah," as English-speakers would articulate
it? "Hah," as Spanish language users would enunciate it? Or
"Yah," as Germanic peoples would vocalize it?
Yah”. The New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance explains that
“’Jah,’ OT:3050 Yah, is a contraction of OT:3068 (YHWH)…” The Jewish Encyclopedia concurs: “The name
Yah (yod-hey / EJ) is composed of the first letters
of Yhwh.” The Encyclopedia Judaica says the pronunciation "is confirmed, at
least for the vowel of the first syllable of the name, by the shorter form Yah,
which is sometimes used in poetry...”
Hallelu-Jah! The Bible reference Insight on the Scriptures (1988, Vol. I,
p. 7) agrees and tells us that “Hebrew scholars… point out that the abbreviated
form of the name is Yah (Jah in the Latinized form), as at Psalm 89:8 and in
the expression Hallelu-Yah (meaning
‘Praise Jah, you people!’), (Psalm 104:35; 150:1, 6).” So “JAH” is sounded
“YAH” as in “Hallelujah” (Psalm 19:1,3,4,6, NIV; Greek “Alleluia” in NKJV). But how come “J” is used instead of “Y”?
“Y” sound. There was no letter “Y” in
medieval English. “I” was used as the substitute for yod (“Y”), the 10th letter in the Hebrew alphabet. “I”
had the same consonantal sound of “Y” (as in “year”). The 1560 Geneva Bible has
“Iah” in Psalm 68:4. Other examples
are “Iesus” (Jesus) and “iudge” (judge) in the 1611 King James Version.
Similarly spelled were “Ierusalem,” “Iudah,” “Ieremiah,” which should have been
“Yerusalem,” “Yudah,” “Yeremiah.”
Ornamental “tail.” In the late Middle Ages, when two
“I’s” were written together, scribes often added a tail to the second “I”. In
the 1600s, it was the “I” at the beginning of a word that was written with a
tail. The elongated form (“J”) was at first used simply as an ornamental
device.
Youngest letter. By 1632, the development of the dictionary by Dutch printers demanded
consistent spellings for listing entries alphabetically. “I” became a standard
vowel, while “J” was designated as a
consonant permanently. “J” was positioned after the older letter “I” in the
alphabet, with the lower case “j” retaining the dot over it, similar to the
older small letter “i”. Thus, “J” became the youngest letter of the alphabet.
Abbreviated Name
spoken? In the
Gospel of John, we read: “Then said the
Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Then took they up stones to cast at him…” (John 8:57-59b). The New
Testament text was written in Greek, but Christ must have uttered the short
form of the Name in Hebrew, Yah (“I
AM”), because the Jews perceived that He was claiming to be God Himself and
started picking up stones to stone Him to death – the scriptural punishment for
blasphemy (Leviticus 24:16).
Theoporic names. Many Hebrew names are “theoporic”
(bearing the Name of God), with the Two-Lettered Name (“YH”) as suffix (spelled
“-iah”). The better known examples are: Jeremiah (“exalted by Yah”), Zechariah
(“remembered by Yah”), Zephaniah (“hidden or treasured by Yah”), Nehemiah
(“consoled by Yah”), Zedekiah (“just or righteous is Yah). In cases where an
“i” comes before Yah, it is “-jah” – as in Elijah (“my God is Yah”), Adonijah
(“my Lord is Yah”), Ahijah (“my brother is Yah”). The suffix may have been in
use even before the time of Moses, as we see in Moriah (“seen of Yah”).
A pre-Mosaic Name.
When
Eve gave birth to Cain, she referred to God as “the LORD”. “And Adam knew Eve
his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from
the LORD” (Genesis 4:1). As we have seen, the term “the LORD” has been placed as a substitute in all Bible verses where
the Name of God had been written.
After
Adam’s grandson Enos by his son Seth was born, men began to invoke the Name of
God. “And to Seth, to him also there was
born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name
of the LORD” (Genesis 4:25-26).
Abraham,
who lived some 500 years before God revealed His Four-Lettered Name (YHWH) to
Moses, also called on the Name of God. “And
the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:
and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. And he
removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his
tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an
altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD” (Genesis
12:7-8).
A different, earlier
Name. Adam and
Eve, Seth, Enos, Abraham, and the other early men lived thousands, or at least hundreds,
of years before the birth of Moses, to whom God revealed the Tetragrammaton
(YHWH) for the first time. Apparently, they knew a different, earlier Name of
God. What could that Name be?
Alternative
theoporic suffix. We
have seen that many Hebrew theoporic names have the suffix -iah or –jah, which is the Two-Lettered Name of God (YH/”Yah”). The Encyclopaedia Judaica,
however, informs us that the suffix has two forms: “…the -yahu or -yah that
serves as the final syllable in many Hebrew names.” The alternative suffix is
“-yahu”. The Jewish Encyclopedia confirms this, stating that the suffix is “Yahu
(yod-hey-waw / FEJ) or Yah (yod-hey / EJ) in
the second part of such names” (Hebrew letters are written and read
right-to-left). Researcher Choon-Leong Seow illustrates: “In the final position
it appears as -yahu (-iahu) or -yah (-iah) as in the alternate spellings
for ‘Azariah,’ Azaryahu and Azaryah.” Along this line, in the Hebrew
Scriptures the name Elijah, except on four or five occasions, is always spelled
“Eliyahu”, with a waw (u / F) at the end.
Two kingdoms, two
suffixes. Shortly after King Solomon died
around 975 B.C., the monarchy under his son Rehoboam broke up into two – the
ten-tribe kingdom of Israel in the north and the two-tribe kingdom of Judah in
the south. The split led to a distinction between the suffix of theoporic names
in the north and that in the south. Biblical
Archaelogy Review editor Hershel Shanks stated in the magazine’s May-June
1994 issue: “-yahu (was) the common
suffix in Judah... (in the northern kingdom of Israel the suffix was yah).” Sacred Name researcher P. Kyle
McCarter in the May-June 1996 issue of the magazine (p. 26) added: “The
expected form of the divine name… when it appears as the final part of a
Judahite personal name in this period (late 7th to the early 6th
centuries B.C.), is yhw, pronounced yahu (long a and u)…”
Three-Lettered Name.
Bible
scholars have found that Yahu is more
than just a suffix; it is actually another Name of God, spelled with only three
letters (YHW) of the Tetragrammaton! This third form became known to “scholars
after the discovery of the independent form YHW
in the Egyptian papyri of the 5th century B.C. from the Elephantine
archives…” According to The New 20th
Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (2nd edition, p.
886); the form YHW was used by the Jews in the Elephantine Island in Egypt.
Last Day Ministries of Texas concludes: “There was evidently a Temple built to
YHW in Elephantine, Egypt. Many documents from this place show that the sacred
name was written YHW (Yahu)...”
(undated tract).
Both a suffix and a
prefix. Unlike
the Two-Lettered Name “Yah” (YH),
which was used mostly as a suffix, the Three-Lettered Name “Yahu” (YHW) was used both as a suffix
and a prefix.
Yahu- to Yeho-
(Jeho-). The Century Cyclopedia (p. 75) tells us that YHW (Yahu),
when used as a prefix, “…according to the Masoretes it must be read Yeho when
it forms part of a proper name.” For instance, Yahushua became Yehoshua
(Jehoshua). Yeho- to Yo- (Jo-). Yeho-,
though, through syncope or contraction was further shortened to Y’ho-, before
becoming Yo- (Jo-). Author Garrison (Strange
Facts About The Bible, p. 81) says that the short form of Yehoshua (Jehoshua), “in its original Hebrew
form it was Y’hoshua… frequently
abbreviated to Joshua.” Let us
illustrate this in the theoporic name Netanyahu, which means “given by (netan) Yahu” (Nethaniah -- 2 Chronicles
17:8, Jeremiah 36:14, etc.). When the sacred suffix is transposed to be the
prefix, the name becomes Yahu-netan (“Yahu gave”), but is spelled Yeho-natan. In the course of time Yehonatan was shortened to Y’honatan, then
Yonatan. And, when the new letter “J” became part of the English alphabet,
Yonatan became “Jonathan.” Below are some other examples of how Biblical names
were transformed.
How
“Yahu-” Became “Jo-” in Theoporic Names
|
Names
with Yahu last* |
Isaiah/
Yeshayahu |
Hananiah/
Chananyahu |
Elijah/ Eliyahu |
|
Meaning |
Salvation
(is) Yahu |
Gracious
(has been) Yahu |
My
God (is) Yahu |
|
Same
names, Yahu first |
Yahushua |
Yahuchanan |
Yahuel |
|
Meaning |
Yahu
(is) salvation |
Yahu
(has been) gracious |
Yahu
(is) God |
|
First
‘a’ to ‘e,’ ‘u’ to ‘o’ |
Yehoshua |
Yehochanan |
Yehoel |
|
‘e’
lost through syncope |
Y’hoshua |
Y’hochanan |
Y’hoel |
|
‘h’
dropped over time |
Yoshua |
Yohanan |
Yoel |
|
I
used for Y, Middle Ages |
Iosua |
Iohann, Iohn |
Ioel |
|
New
letter J replaced I |
Joshua |
John |
Joel |
* English Biblical
forms before Hebrew pronunciations
Old Testament proof
Proof
that Yahu was God's first and
original Name that ancient men knew in pre-Mosaic times can be found in the Old
Testament – in the name of Moses's own mother. “And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom
her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and
Miriam their sister (Numbers 26:59).
Moses’s
mother was Jochebed, a granddaughter of Jacob (Israel) by his son Levi. She
married her brother Kohath’s son Amram, who became Moses’s father (Exodus
6:16-18, 20). Jochebed lived around 3,600 years ago in Egypt during the period
of Israelite slavery. Jochebed means “YHW
is glory” – chebed coming from
the Hebrew root-word kabed, meaning
“splendor, glory, honor”. The initial letter “J” in her name was anciently a
“Y,” so Jochebed used to be Yochebed. Even earlier, it was Y’hochebed, from Yehochebed. And, long before
that, its original form was Yahuchebed. Since
Jochebed was born and given her particular theoporic name by her parents before the Creator revealed the
Tetragrammaton (YHWH) to Moses, her future son, that leaves us with but one
conclusion: The sacred Name of God that the ancient men knew before the time of
Moses was Yahu (YHW).
“According
to Albright (Assyrian Cuneiform scholar) and others the most ancient form of
the sacred name (outside of Scripture) is ‘Yahu’. YHW or YHU are indicated by
the same letters in Hebrew.” Researcher James Montgomery, in the Journal of Biblical Literature (1944),
put the matter to rest: “The earliest form of the Name was doubtless Yahu.”
The meaning of
“Yahu”. If the Four-Lettered Name YHWH
means “I AM THAT I AM” and the Two-Lettered Name YH stands for “I AM”, what
does the Three-Lettered Name YHW signify? There are several Biblical names that
similarly end in “-hu”, other than
those ending in –yahu. Let us examine
several examples:
1)
Abihu, a son of Aaron, Moses’s brother (Exodus 6:23, etc.). Abihu in Hebrew
means “My father (Abi) (is) He (huw).”
2)
Elihu, David’s eldest brother, et al.
(1 Chronicles 27:18, etc.). Elihu means “My God (Eli) (is) He (huw).”
3)
Jehu, a prophet of Israel, et al. (1
Kings 16:12, etc.). Jehu stands for “YaH (is) He (huw).”
(Note
that in all three names the last letter “w” was lost. Huw [“he”] is written hu
in modern Hebrew.)
Based
on the examples above, it follows that Yahu
means “I AM (Yah) HE (huw).” “Yahu” is a compound word made up
of “Yah” (I AM) and “huw” (he, that, who, etc.). The original
sacred Hebrew wording “Yah huw” is
never used in ordinary speech. In everyday conversations, “I am he” is spoken
as “Ani hu.”
“Yah huw” to “Yahu”. Gesenius
Hebrew Grammar
explains how Yah huw became Yahu: “Assimilation usually takes place
when one consonant which closes a syllable passes over into another beginning
the next syllable and forms with it a strengthened letter.” In other words, if
the last consonant of a preceding syllable is the same as the first consonant
of the next syllable, the two identical consonants are written as just one
letter.
Accordingly,
the two words Yah and huw together formed Yahhuw, which became Yahuw
as a result of assimilation and was further simplified to Yahu.
|
Yah |
huw |
= |
Yahhuw |
= |
Yahuw |
= |
Yahu |
|
“I AM” |
“HE” |
= |
|
|
|
|
“I AM HE” |
Alluded to by God.
God
Himself alluded to His Three-Lettered Name on several instances: “See now that I, even I, am he…” (Deuteronomy
32:39).
“Who
hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the
LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he” (Isaiah 41:4).
“Hearken unto me, O
Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last” (Isaiah 48:12; also 43:10, 13, 25;
46:4; 51:12).
New Testament Proof.
“Yahu”
appears to have been spoken by Christ. “Then
Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief
priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus
therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said
to them, "Whom are you seeking?" They answered Him, "Jesus of
Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am He." And Judas, who
betrayed Him, also stood with them. Then -- when He said to them, "I am
He,"-- they drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:3-6, NKJV).
Why
did Judas and the band of men fall to the ground? We see why in Temple worship
practices: “The High Priest spoke the name of God on the Day of Atonement in
his recitation of Lev. xvi. 30 during the confessions of sins; and when the
priests and the people in the great hall heard him utter the ‘Shem ha-Meforash
(the Distinguished Name),’ they prostrated themselves and glorified God.”
Translator
H. Danby corroborates this from the Mishnah,
a collection of Jewish legal traditions. “And when the priests and the people
which stood in the Temple Court heard the Expressed Name come forth from the
mouth of the High Priest, they used to kneel and bow themselves and fall down
on their faces and say, ‘Blessed be the name of the glory of his kingdom for
ever and ever!’ (Yoma 6:2).”
Many
people have the impression that the men arresting Christ fell backward. On the
contrary, they fell forward on their faces in an act of worship! They were from
the Temple, and, as our references relate, they customarily fell to the ground
on their faces whenever they heard the Name of God. Apparently, when Christ
said “I am He,” He used the sacred phrase Yah
huw – the Three-Lettered Name YHW
(Yahu).
Lost from the
Scriptures. Why
is the form Yahu not found in the
Bible? Holy Name advocate Brian Allen wrote that “When the Jews were carried
into Babylon in 606 B.C.E. many of the personal names had the element ‘yahu’…”
Researcher Ziony Zevit, though, said that when the Jews returned from
Babylonian captivity 70 years later, the suffix had changed from -yahu to -yah (Matres Lectionis in
Ancient Hebrew Epigraphs, 1980, p. 25).
“An
examination of the chronological distribution of the suffix in Judean
inscriptions indicates that -yhw is characteristically pre-Exilic, and -yh
post-Exilic… Japhet points out that in Ezra-Nehemiah all names with this
element are written -yh with one exception” Zevit summed up.
After
Babylon fell to the Medo-Persians, the Jews began returning to Jerusalem to
rebuild the city and the Temple under a decree King Cyrus of Persia issued in
538 B.C. By the time of the returning Jewish leaders Ezra and Nehemiah, the use
of -yahu as a suffix in Hebrew
theoporic names had mostly ceased.
About
2,000 years later, in Europe, even the rare names which had the suffix -yahu in the Hebrew text, such as Eliyahu, were transcribed by Bible translators
with the more familiar -iah and -jah suffixes.
The
Three “Lost” Names of God
|
Spelling |
Pronunciation |
Meaning |
Notes |
|
Y-H ( E J ) |
“YaH” |
“I AM” |
As
in Isaiah or Hallelujah |
|
Y-H-W ( F E J ) |
“YaHU” |
“I AM HE” |
As
in Eliyahu or Netanyahu |
|
Y-H-W-H ( E F E J ) |
(God’s most sacred Name) |
“I
AM THAT I AM” |
(Ineffable,
never spoken aloud) |
According
to The Encyclopaedia Judaica (Volume
7, p. 680): “The prohibition against the pronunciation of the name of God
applies only to the Tetragrammaton.” We are free to say God’s two other Names
aloud.
HalleluYahu!
&
Excerpted from the booklet The
Lost Names of God and the book The
Deep Things of God by M.M. Tauson. Printed copies available at Amazon.com –
For free pdf copies of our e-booklets, click the Booklets and/or Google Drive tabs
on the menu bar.
Bible quotations are from the King James Version (KJV) unless
otherwise indicated.
