[Originally posted May 2012, revisited July 19, 2014. This is part of the series IN HIS NAME, here are other related articles on this topic:
- IN HIS NAME: What’s in a name? – 1
- IN HIS NAME – Whose ‘Word’ is the Bible? – 2
- IN HIS NAME – 3: Disagreements on Declaring the Name
- IN HIS NAME – Where in What Bible is His Word? – 3
- IN HIS NAME, amen! -8
- God Has Two Names?
- Abrahamic Faith – 2 – The Awesome Name of God
- How it happened that Jews do not say nor write the Name
- “Father” in the Trinity – “the Old Testament God” – the same
- The Names of God —- Perspective of a Noahide
—Admin1.]
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If your name were really John Doe, would you care to be identified as “the unidentified person’s name”? Or “J-hn D-e”? Or “Mister” or “M-st-r”? Or “m-n”?
This borders on the ridiculous, after all who is John Doe? He’s not God, there is no restriction to use or spell his name as it was on his birth certificate, who cares how anybody addresses him?
Well, John Doe should care, and his parents Mr. and Mrs. Doe who named him. It’s bad enough that he has to share the same name with heaven-knows-how-many John Does there are in the world, perhaps none at all; all the more reason to use his name John Doe, since it has been borrowed or made up and widely used to name any and all unidentified persons . . . well at least in the USA. Will the real John Doe please stand up?
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If man is prone to slapping a name such as “John Doe” on any unidentified person, he is just as prone to assigning a name to imagined deities as well as the All-Existent One True God. Man simply has a knack for assigning names, since Adam was given the privilege and responsibility of naming all living things. That has been extended to all created things, animate or inanimate, to thought systems, philosophies, etc., out of necessity for the sake of order, systematization, clarification, differentiation, categorization. We live in a world where NAME matters!
OK, OK, point made, you know where this preface is leading to!
If the Creator God of our incredible universe and other worlds beyond wanted to leave mankind ignorant of—
- His existence,
- His character,
- His attributes,
- His Way,
- His acts in history,
—-and leave man guessing about
- who He is,
- what is He like,
- what is His Name if He has one . . .
—can He blame man for not knowing His Name?
Can He blame man for resorting to different names in their sincere effort to identify Him?
But why leave man in ignorance?
- Isn’t the knowledge of GOOD something God would want humanity know?
- And isn’t the ultimate GOOD God Himself?
- Is it not important for the True God to be known for everything He has done for humanity?
- Should He not care enough to make sure man does not attribute this created world and all its wonders to someone else other than to Him the Creator?
Will the One True God please come forward!
The true gospel is that God has already done so; it is all recorded in the Sinai account Exodus 3-6 and reiterated over and over throughout the TNK.
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Fortunately for us, there is a movement springing from within Christianity that has trailblazed the research as well as the restoration of the Sacred Name. We agree with them on the need to declare the True God’s Name —YHWH.
Hereunder are excerpts from the first part of their presentation, focused only on the Name of the God of Israel. They continue on to explaining the Hebrew name of Jesus; that part, understandably, we will not include here but for those who are interested, please go to this link: revelations.org.za/NotesS-Name.htm.
NSB@S6K
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A “Bible Revelations” Presentation – Created 1998, updated 16 May 2010
RESTORATION OF THE SACRED NAME
Why were the Sacred Names removed from the Scriptures? – 7000 times in the Old Testament and 1000 times in the New Testament? The Restoration thereof is flooding the world – You can share in it also!
Introduction
The use of the Sacred Name by Commentators, preachers and in special Sacred Name Bible publications, have been rapidly increasing over the last few decades. So intensive has this increase of knowledge been, that the use of the Hebrew or Jewish Names of The Most High and the Messiah, have become almost common domain in religious education and institutions and amongst dedicated worshippers.
According to Jewish Orthodox tradition, the Sacred Name is not to be uttered and accordingly, the form “G-d ” is used in writing or printing. In place of pronouncing the Sacred Name in prayer, worship and discussion, the form “Adonai” (the Hebrew for ‘Lord’) is used.
- With due respect to our Jewish readers and to the Almighty, we teach, use and print the Sacred Name for the following reasons, which we feel do override all other considerations:
- To identify and accordingly exalt the bearer of this Name as the PERSONAL God of Israel and of the universe, as opposed to the general interpretation of a rather mystical, almost unidentifiable Being, as held by most religions.
- To proclaim and make known this Name unto the masses of believers who claim to follow Him but know not His Name – so that they may sanctify and praise His name that His Name may be honoured among the nations (Malachi 1:11; Isaiah 12:4).
- To conform with what may really be the more correctly interpreted instruction of Exod. 20:7 concerning the use of His Name: viz. “Do not make His Name worthless” “Lo tisah et Shem YHVH Eloheicha l’shav.” By withholding the proclamation of His Name, we may well be guilty of “making His Name worthless.” For a more comprehensive overview of this interpretation and the topic in general, please refer to the study: Should we refrain from using the Sacred Name of God as Judaism insists?
- The Torah and Tanach (‘Old’ Testament) clearly records how Hebraic Patriarchs and Prophets actually proclaimed and pronounced the Sacred Name as a Testimony to non-Jews and non-believers and how His followers will come to know His Name and call upon Him, using this Name! Please refer to: Should we refrain from using the Sacred Name of God?
- The Bible in many places presents an explicit and clear Divine Mandate for stressing and publishing proper knowledge of His name. Here are two such instances:
Jeremiah 33:2 “YHVH Who made the earth, Who formed it and set it firm – YHVH is His Name – says this: ‘Call to Me and I will answer you …'”
Isaiah 12:4 “Give thanks to YHVH – call His Name aloud. Proclaim His deeds to the nations, declare His Name sublime. Sing of YHVH, for He has done marvelous things – let it be known to the whole world!”.
- YAH or YAHU
The ‘Personal’ Name of the ‘God of Israel’ by which He anciently revealed Himself to Moses ( 6:2). ‘YAH’ is spelt in original Hebrew, with the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet – the ‘yood’, smallest letter in the alphabet, represented by the inverted comma ( ‘ ). YAHU also has the meaning of ‘He is YAH’
- Obscure Preservation of the Sacred Name ‘YAHU’
Hebrew personal names have meanings, and many such personal names have throughout time, been linked to the Sacred Name YAHU. In this obscure way, the Sacred Name YAHU has been preserved for modern times, notwithstanding the fact that it has been almost totally removed from most Bible Translations.
This Name, through recent archeological discoveries in Israel, has been found to be part of more Hebrew words and names than were formerly known. There is an untold number of usages in the Tanach (‘Old Testament’) where this form of the Sacred Name is used as a conjunction in Biblical names. Some of the more common examples of these are:
EliYahu (‘Elijah’)
YeremiYahu (‘Jeremiah’)
YeshiYahu (‘Isaiah’)
YahuShafat (‘Josephat’)
In each of the examples above, the meanings of these names refer to the Name of the Most High, eg.YAHU is Strength, my God is YAHU, etc
Similarly, the Tribe of Judah, the progeny of which to this day, still represents the original Hebraic Faith instituted by Moses according to the Divine Mandate which was handed to him personally by YAHU, God of Israel, some 4000 years ago. All the disasters of Time failed to wipe out the Tribe of Judah, which today is known as ‘the Jews’ – in Hebrew: Yahudim. The Tribe of Judah, in Hebrew is‘Yahuda’, a Jew is ‘Yahudi‘. While no specific Hebrew meaning is attached to this term in the modern usage, we do find the following meanings as applied to obscure Bible characters with similar names:
‘YahuAdah’ (YAH unveils) 1 Chron. 8:36
‘YahuYadah’ (YAH knows) 2 Samuel 8:18, etc
- THE TETRAGRAMMATON
The Sacred Name appears in the Hebrew Scriptures as four Hebrew letters Yud, hey, vav, hey, which is closest represented by the letters YHVH. This format is known as the Tetragrammaton. According to Jewish tradition it is regarded as ‘not to be uttered’ in order never to profane it in any way. In Judaism it is therefore pronounced as ‘Adonai’, meaning ‘Lord’. Notwithstanding this prohibition, the Sacred Name is acknowledged in its usage as part of the names of many Biblical characters, as referred to above – and as any Bible concordance or reference book will provide.
Because of these prohibitions, translations of the original Hebrew scrolls have, throughout the ages, replaced the Tetragrammaton with ‘the LORD’ (in capital letters) and the Sacred Name, in so doing, became ‘lost’ for many centuries.
Since the sixties, there has been a movement in modern theology and especially amongst sincere Bible students throughout the world, to restore the newly ‘rediscovered’ Sacred Hebrew Name. Sacred Name publications which chose to restore the Sacred Name in the almost 7000 instances in the Bible, appeared one after the other and the ‘Sacred Name Movement’, towards the nineties and the turn of the millennium, became a flood which today literally engulfs the world…
Although there is no firm consensus on the actual pronouncement or spelling of the Tetragrammaton YHVH, there are several representations or transliterations in use by theologians and Bible students. Some of the more popular forms are YAHVEH, YAHWEH and Jehovah. A comprehensive list of the various usages that abound, are presented further down on this page.
For the purposes of this Web Site and out of respect for the Sacredness and sanctification of the Name, we will print the Tetragammaton form YHVH throughout the studies of this Web Site and leave the reader free to either substitute it or pronounce it in the way they find comfortable.
The mystery attached to the Name of the Almighty, is related to the verb ‘to be’ ( I am, I was, I will be) which is the Hebrew verb ‘Hoveh’ (the ‘v’ pronounced as in ‘victory’), meaning “to be”, in the present tense. YHVH therefore, means: “YAH Hoveh”, which means “YAH is …” (YAH being His abbreviated (actual ?) name as reflected in Psalm 68:4 in some translations.
It is therefore quite possible that the correct rendering of the SH’MAH (the Greatest Commandment – Deut 6:4) should therefore read:
| SHMAA | YISRAEL | YAH | HOVEH | ELOHEINU | YAH | HOVEH | ECHAD |
| HEAR | ISRAEL | YAH | IS | OUR GOD | YAH | IS | ONE |
Source: http://www.biblicalhebrew.com/links.htmechad YHVH Eloheinu
