[This was first posted June 21, 2013. Every time we write the Tetragrammaton Name of the God of Israel, we are constantly aware that we might be offending the chosen people who, out of utmost reverence, avoid the Name altogether and instead substitute ‘circumlocutions’ such as LORD or HASHEM. whether in speech or in writing. Here’s an attempt to explain when and how this avoidance might have begun. —Admin1.]
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How did it happen that the Name of the One True God was all but forgotten?

Image from communio.stblogs.org
Was there a biblical prohibition regarding men calling on the Name? As far as we have researched, none.
So why can we not read the Name in Christian/Messianic/Jewish Bibles? Instead of the Name, we read substitutes such as LORD, ADONAI, and HaShem.
Here is the rabbinic explanation, from Everyman’s Talmud by Abraham Cohen:
THE INEFFABLE NAME
To the Oriental, a name is not merely a label as with us. It was thought of as indicating the nature of the person or object by whom it was borne. For that reason special reverence attached to “the distinctive Name” (Shem Hamephorash) of the Deity which He had revealed to the people of Israel viz. the tetragrammaton, JHVH.
In the Biblical period there seems to have been no scruple against its use in daily speech. The addition of Jah or Jahu to personal names, which persisted among the Jews even after the Babylonian exile, is an indication that there was no prohibition of the four-lettered Name. But in the early Rabbinic period the pronunciation of the Name was restricted to the Temple service. The rule was laid down:
“In the Sanctuary the Name was pronounced as written; but beyond its confines a substituted Name was employed” (Sot. VII,6).
The tetragrammaton was included in the priestly benediction which was daily pronounced in the Temple (Sifre Num. 39;12a). It was also used by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement, when he made the threefold confession of sins on behalf of himself, the priests, and the community. The third occasion is described in this manner:
“Thus did he say: O JHVH, Thy people, the House of Israel, have committed iniquity, have transgressed, have sinned before Thee. I beseech Thee by the name JHVH, make thou atonement for the iniquities and for the transgressions and for the sins wherein Thy people, the House of Israel, have committed iniquity, have transgressed and sinned before Thee; as it is written in the Torah of Thy servant oses, saying: ‘For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before JHVH’ (Lev.xvi,30). And when the priests and the people that stood in the Court heard the glorious and revered Name pronounced freely out of the mouth of the High Priest, in holiness and purity, they knelt and prostrated themselves, falling on their faces, and exclaiming: Blessed be His glorious, sovereign Name for ever and ever” (Joma VI, 2).
In the last stage of the Temple’s existence, there was reluctance to give a clear enunciation of the tetragrammaton. This practice is attested by R. Tarphon, who belonged to a priestly family. He records that in his boyhood, before he was old enough to officiate,
“On one occasion I followed my uncles on to the dais, and I inclined my ear to catch what the High Priest said. I heard him cause the Name to be drowned by the singing of his brother-priest” (Kid.7Ia).
Behind the care not to give explicit utterance to the Name may be detected a lowering in the moral standard of the priests. The Talmud declares:
“At first the High Priest used to proclaim the Name in a loud voice; but when dissolute men multiplied, he proclaimed it in a low tone” (p. Joma 40d).
On the other hand, there was a time when the free and open use of the Name even by the layman was advocated. The Mishnah teaches:
“It was ordained that a man should greet his friends by mentioning the Name” (Ber. IX, 5).
It has been suggested that the recommendation was based on the desire to distinguish the Israelite from the Samaritan, who referred to God as “the Name” and not as JHVH, or the Rabbinite Jew from the Jewish-Christian.
This custom, however, was soon discontinued, and among those who are excluded from the share in the World to Come is
“he who pronounces the Name according to its letters” (Sanh. X,I).
A third-century Rabbi taught:
“Whoever explicitly pronounces the Name is guilty of a capital offence” (Pesikta 148a).
Instead of JHVH the Name was pronounced Adonai (my Lord), in the Synagogue service; but there is a tradition that the original pronunciation was transmitted by the Sages to their disciples periodically—once or twice every seven years (Kid. 71a). Even that practice ceased after a while, and the method of pronouncing the Name is no longer known with certainty.
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This is why, in our website, we have chosen one translation to extensively feature, chapter by chapter, and this is The Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox. It is downloadable for free,
http://toby.weebly.com/uploads/2/7/4/8/2748917/everett_foxxstorah.pdf.
For the other books of the TNK, the Prophets (Neviim) and the Writings (Ketuviim), we feature ArtScroll and add YHWH whenever they use HaShem (the Name) and the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) and substitute YHWH whenever they use LORD.
When the Name of the One True God is written all over His Torah and the TNK or the Hebrew Scriptures, and one can read it over and over wherever it occurs, there is no room for mistaking any other name for THE NAME.
Man is without excuse. When asked: who is your God and what is His Name? The answer should be one and only one: YHWH. . . that is, if He is the God you worship.
[ESV] 1 Kings 18:21
1 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If [YHWH] is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.
For further reading, here’s a good article titled “God is not God’s Name”: http://www.yhwh.com/gingn/gingn.htm.
NSB@S6K