A
History of the Name of YHWH - PART I
Twelve
Tribe Torah Institute ©
This is
the original Mitzvah given to the first major prophet, Moses the Levite: to
know that the Name of God is YHWH and to acknowledge that this name is not only
Eternal but to be used for all earthly generations who wish to live in Freedom.
EXODUS
3:13-15 Read this paragraph carefully. It informs us that in
order to get ourselves out of slavery we must have a personal relationship with
God in addition to a national-cultural relationship. Moses is telling us
that no longer is God a noun, El Shaddai, but from now on YHWH is a verb and we
are called upon to be in relationship with Yahweh. We are not to see God
as a noun, not as an object of worship, nor solely an object of transcendent
awe and a merciful God of dynamic interaction matched only by the lives of
humans on planet earth.
The
Torah puts this deep teaching across to the reader by creating a dialogue
between God and Moshe. First God says "My Name is EHYEH" (EHYH
with the first letter being an Aleph). Because EHYEH is a common verb
form we are informed in the relational change in consciousness by this
statement, EHYH will bring you out of the land of slavery. Because we
humans cannot use the real Name of God, EHYH, and this Name is the one to hide
and to reserve for God alone, the Torah next informs us that the Name EHYH
wants us to use in this revolutionary new spiritual and religious consciousness
is YHWH. Because this verbal root is not as well known as the EHYH
verbal root, and because the Jewish Priests have literally forgotten the
pronunciation of the Name YHWH, we must study deeper to get at the
pronunciation.
It is
totally beyond my doubt that the Name of YHWH was used by all Israelites up
until the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586. You
are referred to the Twelve Tribe Torah PRINT RESOURCES section to see just a
select number of verses from the whole Tanach (Jewish Scriptures) and even the
Gospels that remind us to continuously use this Holy Name. The fact of
the matter is that Moshe was instructed by Yahweh that "This is My Name
forever; this is My remembrance from generation to generation." This
is the new revelation of Moses. Until that point in Israelite history,
God was worshipped with the Name EL SHADDAI (see Exodus 6:2-3). Moses
changed history by changing the Name of God to Yahweh! Worshipping God
the noun will lead us all into a state of slavery. The Exodus happens
when we worship God in an ongoing relationship that includes birth, death, and
rebirth.
While
the holiness of the Name was palpable during the First Temple, the whole point
of Moshe's revelation to humanity was lost. Even when Jesus came along,
he only hinted at this restoration because Mankind was not ready. Only
when we stand together globally at Mount Sinai with the threat of annihilation
hanging over our heads, are we able to begin to start understanding the basic
deep and eternal teachings of Moshe the first Levitical prophet in
Israel.
So even
though all Israelites in the southern kingdom of Judea used the name of YHWH in
everyday prayer and in reverential reference to the Creator, the priests
conflated the Name with the Temple in Jerusalem, and it was assumed that
Jerusalem could not be destroyed as long as YHWH's Name was associated with the
Temple. However, as Jeremiah the prophet came to warn Judeans, this was
not to be. The New Covenant of Moshe now needed to be on the heart, in
accordance with the teachings of the Levitical Priests, not just in ritual, in
accordance with the Cohanic Priests. The newly discovered scroll now
called Deuteronomy also emphasized the same message.
It is
not a coincidence that the new scroll of Deuteronomy comes into use at this
time because the destruction of Israel, the northern kingdom, which happened in
722 BCE struck both fear and wisdom into the hearts of the
prophets. The leaders of Jerusalem dumbed down the traditions of
YHWH to accommodate the pagan sects when the commandment was just the opposite,
we must elevate the pagan teachings to accord with the eternal moral values
first expounded by Moshe Rabeinu.
So the
question begs to be asked: when did the Name of Adonai get substituted
for the Name of YHWH? While it is true that the Name Adonai is
ancient and probably preceeded the Name of Yahweh, it is clear that in the
First Temple, YHWH was worshipped directly as is clear in the Tanach (Hebrew
Scriptures).
The
simple answer is that after the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem,
this happens organically and over hundred of years, triggered by the deep
disappointment inherent in the loss of the First Temple, the House of
YHWH. At first both Names are used, YHWH and ADNY, and only when the
Second Temple is built is it established that the Holy Name of YHWH will be
reserved for the Priests in Jerusalem. At the same time, the Levites are
demoted to being servants of the Cohanic Priests and the people at large use
Adonai, the Lord, in their prayers to the Creator.
The
best way to actually see this culture of ambivalence is to inspect the Book of
Lamentations. One note: "Lord" (capital "L" followed
by lower case "ord") indicates Adonai in the original Hebrew, while LORD (capital "L" larger font followed by
"ORD" capital letters but with
smaller font) indicates YHWH in the original Hebrew. If you can read
these words in the original Hebrew then it will be so much easier and more
transparent as the two words have no linguistic relationship with each other in
the Hebrew.
If you
inspect the first two chapters of Lamentations, YHWH is still the saintly one
(1:18), and it is Adonai, the Lord, who has destroyed Jerusalem and caused so
much distress (1:15, 2:1, 2:2 etc). Then in 3:17,18 the roles are
reversed and eventually, the names become interchangeable, hinting that
transformational point where YHWH and ADNY could be used
synonymously. The Priests will later modify that to read: "we
use YHWH in the Temple while you all use ADNY in your
communities." It is amazing to read the Book of Lamentations
this way, and this interchange does not occur in this manner in any other
scroll of the Torah.
The
Name Adonai is found in the earliest writings of the Torah, in the stories of
Abraham and certainly in the stories of Moses. It is difficult if not
impossible to ascertain how early the Name ADNY was used but many indications
are that it was used in the First Temple era in the following manner, "the
Lord YHWH" (in the Hebrew, Adonai YHWH). This was not unusual,
and we find both EL YHWH and YAH YHWH in the Tanach in addition to YHWH Elohim,
and YHWH Tsevaoth (more on those combinations later in this essay).
I want
to say up front that the religion of Moshe the Levite challenged the religion
of the Cohanic Priests and that this tension in the Torah is really not
resolved until Jesus reinstitutes the Levitical path. In fact, the
religion of Moses differed from the religion of Abraham and they are not
synonymous! Moses makes this clear by disdaining the commandment of
circumcision (see the story of Tsiporah and the story of Joshua).
Before
going deeper into the analysis, let us ask the next question: "what is the
proper way to pronounce the Name YHWH?" This is an important
question and if left up the decision of the Cohanic Priests, one that will not
be disclosed until they can control the religious practices of the Temple once
again. So evidently YHWH appoints Levites to secure the truth and
resurrect the hidden faith of the Jewish people. This is as it should
be.
For
those reading this and who do not know much Hebrew, let me make it clear that
only the consonants are written in the Torah, not the vowels. So by
looking at the word YHWH, we cannot ascertain with certainty how it was
pronounced. On the surface, a few possibilities arise from playing with
the letters and adding vowels. YeHoWaH is one way that is commonly
assumed to be the pronunciation and this in fact has been the Jewish
traditional way of looking at this. The transliteration Jehovah reflects
this tradition. Adonai is seen as a hint towards the vowelization of
YHWH. Semi vowel, o, and a (the i is really a consonant Y which is really
a semi-vowel and this is the next point to be made in this study).
Another
way of vowelizing YHWH is YaHWeH. This is the tradition in Israel kept alive
and accurate by the testimony of the Samaritan Priests of the northern kingdom,
namely Israel which was called Samaria. By asking Samaritan Priests
(myself and) scholars ascertain the tradition in the North.
So was
Yahweh ever used in the South, in Judea? Probably not. This we can
fairly well ascertain because Judeans loved to integrate parts of the Name of
Yehowah in their names. This tradition goes back to the earliest times as
Joshua's full name in Hebrew was Yeho-Shua, YHWH will save. Yehowah and
Yahuwah may have been alternate forms and Yahu is a popular suffix in personal
names in Ancient Israel. YirmeYAHU, means Yehowah will raise up, the name
of Jeremiah. EliYAHU, the full name of Elijah, and there are many more
examples of both the Yeho prefix and the Yahu suffix in Israel. There is
no reason to assume that only one way of pronunciation was prevalent when the
Name was in the mouths of the people. It is only a priestly issue to
worry about the one and only exclusive proper way of pronouncing YHWH's Name.
This
shortening of YeHoWaH into YeHo produced another even shorter version Yo and
this is evident in the name Joel, i.e. Yo-El, meaning Yo is God, i.e. Yehowah
is God. Another popularized very short form is YaH as in the short form
of the name Elijah, i.e. Eli Yah, i.e. my God is Yah! However, it
is very possible that YaH is also a separate Holy Name that was used very early
in Israel and kept alive only by the Levites in the Psalms and by Isaiah, the
prophet most closely aligned with the Psalms. Also note that Yesha-Yahu,
Isaiah in Hebrew, means Yahu's salvation, another short form of Yehowah or
Yahuwah.
OK, so
this explains the different traditions and variations in the pronunciation of
Yahweh's Name, but if Yahweh is a verb (note that God is a noun, this was the
brilliant revelation of Moshe Rabeinu, that Yahweh is a verb), what does it
mean? Before I offer some possible translations, allow me to preface with
the main point here, and that is, in addition to our global, national, clan
consciousness, the "WE consciousness," the Torah as revealed to Moshe
is to announce the "I consciousness" which we in the West have
assumed without the Name of Yahweh and without seeing this Name in Jesus' name,
and therefore we have gone off the mark of this profound teaching, the original
revelation of Moshe. These two consciousnesses live together in tension
that if in balance leads to harmony and the opposite when out of balance.
The
gift of the personal consciousness, the religion of the individual is bound up
with the relationship of the individual to YHWH. In other words, the
Priests can only inform us about our group consciousness of the Divine
YHWH. It is only the Levites who can inform us of our individual
relationship with YHWH. YHWH is not the object, the transcendent,
the far-removed, or the objectify-able. I, as an alive being in
relationship with the Divine, am talking to YHWH and being communicated to by
YHWH all the time. It is the mediation of the Holy Spirit, YaH, which makes
this possible for mere humans. Love is the essential component in this
relationship (You will love YHWH your God with all your heart, and with all
your being, and with all your intensity) and (YHWH has love us with no
expectation in return). And as with someone I love, I may create
substitute names of endearment such as pumpkin or sweety, so we are encouraged
to create names of endearment for YHWH
However,
we cannot forget that just like a woman has multiple roles (mother, daughter,
sister, wife, real estate agent, activist and so on), so YHWH is complex and
relates to us through multiple roles, facets, aspects, faces. And as a
person's relationship will depend on conscious awareness of our needs, our
partners' needs, their low and high points, our low and high points, our
responsibility and the Divine Promise, we are in a complex relationship with
YWHW who is NOT God, or The God, but in the present, in active relationship
with each of us simultaneously and together.
So, now
that we understand the faith of Ancient Israel as taught by Moshe Rabeinu but
highjacked by the Priests and Pharisees throughout the ages, we can attempt to
understand the verbal form that YHWH most certainly is. The
pronunciation of YaHWeH is actually easier to understand because the verb form
is more recognizable. As YaR-eH is the future tense of a causative tense
of the verb R-H where the dash is an Aleph, it means he will show as compared
to YiR-eH, meaning he will see. Taking the major occurrence of the verbal
form HoWeH which is used in modern Hebrew to mean the present tense, it meant
that the Hand of God is manifest in your cattle, in this sense in a negative
way to make them die. So YaHWeH is the causative tense of the verb to
manifest, that God is the cause of all that manifests. It can also be
read as the continuous causative tense, meaning that God continually causes the
world to manifest.
The
pronunciation of YHWH as Yehowah is more popularly know through the rendition
Jehovah. In Germanic languages the J is equivalent to a Y sound.
And the Vav is a Waw in Yemenite Hebrew and was probably the correct
pronunciation in Ancient Judean Hebrew. This is a much more complex
form than Yahweh which is more easily deciphered as a verb. Yehowah seems
like a verbal noun, a gerund form of the verb to be HOWEH. On the other
hand, it has a noun like format such as the word Menorah (light holder or
giver) coming from the root NeR (light). If this is correct, and we may
never know for sure, Yehowah would mean something like, The One Giving Life, or
may "The Existing." What is most probably is that this
was the way the Holy Name, the Four Letter Name of YHWH, was pronounced in the
First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.
How can
we say this with any degree of confidence? Especially in light of the
certainty that in the North (Israel) the Holy Name was pronounced Yahweh (at
least since the latter days of the Second Temple)? The key is in the
strong custom in Ancient Judea to create personal names using the Holy
Names. When El was commonly used as a Name of God, names such as ShemuEL
(His Name is EL), GavriEL (Might of EL), NethanEL (Gift of EL), AriEL (Lion of
EL), etc. were used. YaH, the Two Letter Name of YHWH, was used as well
in personal names as was YAHU(WAH) or YEHO(WAH). So in the Bible there
are personal names such as NeriYAH (My light is Yah) or NeriYAHU (and they
seemed to be interchangeable). EliYAH (my God is Yah) or EliYAHU.
Also ShemarYAH(u) (Yah has protected), NethanYAH(u) (Gift of Yah), GedalYAH(u)
(Yah has caused greatness).
The
YEHO(wah) affix is very common as well. YEHOshua (Joshua or Yehowah's
Salvation) and YEHOnathan (Jonathan or Yehowah's Gift) and YEHOnadav (Jonadab
or Yehowah's Freewill Gift) are well know examples of this Israelite and Judaean
custom to use the HOLY NAME as part of everyday personal names so that the
Mosaic commandment to remember and assure the verbal name of YHWH was upheld in
Israel.
Copyright
information:
Translations
of the above Tanach verses are all by Rabbi Monty Eliasov. A History of
the Name of YHWH -- Updated October 30, 2008 -- PART I
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The Twelve Tribe Torah Institute, Inc. Version 1.06
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