The
Holy Name of Yahweh in the Testaments
Prologue: The following list of Biblical verses
underscores the importance ancient Israel in all the three sections of the
Biblical record attached to the NAME of God, Yahweh. This Holy Name is connected in the Torah with redemption
from political bondage and sexual bondage and the Torah consciously states that
the prophecy and mission of Moses was of radical historic importance. With the Name of Yahweh, Israel is no
longer an Abrahamic culture! See
Exodus 6:3 "For I appeared to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob through
"EL SHADDAI," and My Name YAHWEH, I did not make known unto
them!"
The
student may double-check the accuracy of the following translations by looking
at the New Jerusalem Bible (Catholic) translation or in the Holman Christian
Standard Bible (Protestant) translation which honors the integrity of the Divine
Names in the original Hebrew.
Elohim is translated as "God", Adonai is translated as
"The Lord," while Yahweh, Yah, El and Shaddai are kept in their
original form. Not all versions of
the New Jerusalem Bible have this feature. NJB's ISBN is #0-385-14264-1 (edition with notes and
cross-references) or #0-385-46961-6 (deluxe edition) or #0-385-49320-7 (edition
without cross- references).
HCSB's Psalms and Proverbs translation's ISBN is #0-840-04142-X. There is an out-of-print edition that
honors the Name of Yahweh:
Rotherham's Emphasised Bible ISBN 0-825-43601-X.
The
JPS (Jewish Publication Society) also substitutes YHWH's Name with the
"LORD." Perhaps in the
future, the use of the Anglicized Tetragrammaton (YHWH) will prevail in Jewish
publications instead of any specific translation or vowelized transliteration. There are also a number of Jewish
orthodox translations that use "Hashem" (the Name) instead of
"the LORD" in their translations.
There
are also books that isolate the Yahweh stories according to the unknown author
or school of scholars called J.
For example, the popular work The Book of J was written by Harold
Bloom (translated by David Rosenberg) ISBN 0-679-73624-7. Also please note that the third person
masculine in Hebrew is a default for any noun which is either masculine or
feminine. If Yahweh is one, then
there is no gender in Yahweh.
1.
Exodus 3: 13-15
Moses then said to God: "Behold I am going to address the
Israelites saying to them: 'The God of your ancestors sent me to
you." When they ask me:
"What's His/Her Name!?" then what should I respond to
them?" And God said to
Moses:" (Eheyeh Asher Eheyeh) I am that which I am becoming!" And He continued: "Thus shall you
say unto the Israelites: "(EHeYeH) I AM sent me to you." (Note that now there is a break in the
dialogue in which Moses is silent).
But then God spoke once again unto Moses: "Thus shall you say unto
the Israelites "YaHWeH (the One who causes all to be) the God of your
ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me
to you. This is My Name for
eternity and this is My Remembrance from generation to generation."
2.
Psalm 135:13 "Yahweh is Your Name forever; Yahweh is Your
Remembrance from generation to generation."
3.
Psalm 116:13 "I will lift up the cup of salvation and call
out in the Name of Yahweh!"
4.
Psalm 122:4 "For there (i.e. in Jerusalem) the tribes
ascended, the tribes of Yah, a testimony for Israel, giving thanks to the Name
of Yahweh."
5.
Psalm 105:1 "Give thanks to Yahweh, call out in His/Her Name,
make known among the peoples His/Her deeds."
6.
Psalm 124:8 "Our help is through the Name of Yahweh, Maker of
heaven and earth."
7.
Psalm 33:21 "In Him/Her our heart rejoices! In His/Her holy
name we trust!"
8.
Jeremiah 3:17 "At that time they will call Jerusalem
"The Throne of Yahweh" and all the nations will be gathered unto her
for the Name of Yahweh and for Jerusalem and they will no longer walk in the
stubbornness of their evil heart."
9.
Jeremiah 10:25 "Pour Your wrath on the nations who knew You
not, and on families who called out not in Your Name -- for they
consumed Jacob and ate him up completely and laid waste his
habitation."
10.
Deuteronomy 18:5 "For in him (i.e. the Levite) Yahweh your
God chose from all the tribes to stand and to serve in the Name of Yahweh, he
and this children for all days."
11.
Deuteronomy 28:10 "Then all the peoples of the earth will see
that (the) 'Name of Yahweh' is called upon (i.e. associated with) you, and they
will reverence you."
12.
Malachi 1:11 "For from the shining of the sun and its going
down, My Name is great among the nations and in every place there is incense
and contribution to My Name and
pure poor offerings - for My Name is great among the nations has said
YHWH Tseva-ot, (Creator of all).
13.
Malachi 2:2 (an address to the Priests) - "If you continue to
refuse to listen and if you continue to not place it on your heart to give
honor to My Name, says Yahweh of all Armies, then I will send to you the curse
and convert your blessings into the worst curses because you are not paying
attention!"
14.
Isaiah 43:7 "All who are referred to by My Name, for My honor
I created them, reformed them, also remade them." (Hebrew has the singular
third person)
15.
Isaiah 42:8 "I am YHWH, that's My Name, and My honor I will
not assign to any other, neither (transfer) My praise over to human
inventions."
16.
Isaiah 63:16 "Surely You are our Father (Parent); surely
(even) Abraham won't know us and Israel (i.e. Jacob) won't recognize us -- You Yahweh our Parent are our redeemer -- Your Name is most ancient."
17.
Isaiah 52:5-7 "'Now what am I doing here?' declares Yahweh,
'for My people are dismissed as nothing, their conquerors celebrate obscenely,
declares Yahweh, and My Name is constantly being despised."
18.
Zachariah 14:9 "Then Yahweh will be Sovereign over all the
earth; on that day Yahweh will be one and His/Her Name one."
19.
In Matthew Chapter 3 which describes John the Baptist preparing the
Way, it declares: "This is He who was spoken of through the prophet
IsaiahÉ"A voice is calling out in the desert "Clear the Way for
Yahweh, in the wilderness make straight a path for our God!" (Isaiah 40:3
In the temptation story (Matthew Chapter 4) which
represents the very spiritual formation of Jesus, the time in which he is
forged into who he is to become, Jesus quotes back to Satan the following
verses -- all of which clearly are Yahweh verses but poorly translated as such
by the Gospel editors:
20.
"For not on bread alone can man live but on each utterance of
the mouth of Yahweh shall man live." (Deut. 8:3)
21.
"Don't test Yahweh your God" (Deut. 6:16)
22.
"Fear only Yahweh your God, and serve only Him, and in His
Name only shall you swear."
(Deut. 6:13)
23.
In Matthew Chapter 22, Jesus summarizes the Torah with the two
well-known verses that few understand are both Yahweh verses: "Love Yahweh your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul and with all your possessions." (Deut.
6:5) and "So love thy neighbor as thyself - I am Yahweh!" (Lev.
19:18)
24.
When Jesus entered his synagogue in Nazareth, he read a Haftarah
(the Prophetic reading selection that is recited in every Synagogue on the
Sabbath Day) from Isaiah that included the following words according to Luke
4:18, 19: "The Spirit of the
Lord Yahweh is upon me -- for Yahweh has anointed me to proclaim the news to
the humble" etc. Even though
the Gospels themselves rely on the Greek Septuagint, here Jesus himself read
directly from the Hebrew text in which Yahweh's Name was specifically cited by
this Gospel as the source of Jesus' mission. The complete thread of all these verses specifically noted
in the Gospels as Jesus' direct teachings in the Torah cannot be mere
coincidence: Jesus knew the Holy Name of Yahweh and served Yahweh and wanted us
to know that!
Copyright
information:
Translations
of the above Tanach verses are all by Rabbi Monty Eliasov.
© The Twelve Tribe Torah Institute,
Inc. Version 3.12
Permission
is given to freely distribute this list.
Whenever
reprinting or emailing, please include this copyright information.