Posted on 03/10/2014 12:36:42 PM PDT by redleghunter
You are not wrong to sing, “Jesus is the sweetest name I know,” even though Yahweh is.
Here’s why.
God gave himself the name Yahweh. No man gave him this name. It is God’s chosen personal name. He loves to be known by this name. It is used over 5,000 times in the Old Testament. It is almost always translated by *Lᴏʀᴅ* (small caps). But it is not a title. It is a personal name, like James or Elizabeth.
You know the name Yahweh best from its shortened form Yah at the end of Hallelujah, which means “praise Yahweh.” I love to think about this when I sing. When I sing, “Hallelujah,” I love to really mean, “No! I don’t praise you Bel, or Nebo, or Molech, or Rimmon, or Dagon, or Chemosh. I turn from you with disdain to Yah! I praise Yah. Hallelu Yah!”
God announced his name to Moses in Exodus 3:15. God said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers. . . . This is my name forever.”
He preceded this announcement with two other statements so the meaning would be clear. He said, “I am who I am” (verse 14a). And he said, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you’” (verse 14b).
The Hebrew name Yahweh is connected to the Hebrew verb “I am.” So Yahweh is most fundamentally the One-Who-Is. “I am who I am” is the most foundational meaning of Yahweh. It means: My am-ness comes from my am-ness. My being from my being. My existence from my existence.
There are vast personal and covenantal implications of this. But this is foundational. No beginning. No ending. No dependence. He simply is, always was, and always will be. He communicates all of this with a personal name. To be sure, he has titles, and he has attributes. But this is a personal name. He packs the weightiest truth about himself into a personal name. Infinite greatness and personal knowability are in the name Yahweh.
Then in the fullness of time, Yahweh came into the world to seek and save the lost. The angel said to Joseph, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus is an English transliteration of the Greek Iesoun. And this in turn is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Joshua. And Joshua is a combination of Yah and “salvation” or “save”. It means “Yahweh saves.”
So Jesus means “Yahweh saves.” Jesus is Yahweh with a human nature coming to save his people from sin.
Paul confirms this in Philippians 2:11. He says of the risen Jesus, “Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” That is a quote from Isaiah 45:23 where Yahweh is the one to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Paul is saying that, in the end, the whole world will acknowledge that Jesus is in fact Yahweh incarnate.
So you don’t have to choose between singing, “Jesus is the sweetest name I know,” and, “Yahweh is the sweetest name I know.” Indeed you dare not choose.
There is no name in earth or Heav’n above, That we should give such honor and such love As the blessed name, let us all acclaim, That wondrous, glorious name of Jesus. And someday I shall see Him face to face To thank and praise Him for His wondrous grace, Which He gave to me, when He made me free, The blessed Son of God called Jesus.
PING
Acts 4:
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Incorrect. The word means "God" or "Existing One" and is not His proper name, which no man knows. The letters JHVH or YHWH is a tetragrammaton (greek for 4 letters). The Jews considered it a mortal sin to speak, or write, the name of God so the letters JHVH/YHWH came into being as a way to get around that. The letters are Yod, Heh, Wah, Heh and are spoken by the Jews as 'adonai' when reading the holy text.
The only name God has given that man may know Him by is "I am, that I am." which is Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh in Hebrew.
Except no man knows how to pronounce it.
I believe if you check Gen. 4:26, you will find that men began to call on the Name of YHWH. Likely these were men only from the line of Seth and Enosh (since Cain's line was definitely self-absorbed). It may be both a name and title, because after all, this is the Holy One the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Rescuer of souls...There is no other.
Thanks for posting this.
Nobody knows what they called Him. Moses wrote Genesis well after that and He set the standard since he met God on Mt. Sinai and was given His name then.
This is called isogesis, my FRiend. The assumption that you are maintaining is that your conclusion is already true and you will inflict it on Moses as he pens Genesis.
Interestingly, he did not write it that way. So, unfortunately, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate that when they "called on the Name of YHWH" they did not actually call on the Name of YHWH, but called out, "I DON'T KNOW YOUR NAME but I AM CALLING ON YOU". Hmmm. Peculiar hermeneutic.
This song always reminds me of a story Dave Gorley used to tell. Dave was a musician who traveled with evangelist Dwayne Friend. When he met people after the services, he’d say, “Hi, my name’s David and Jesus is the sweetest name I know.” During his travels, he was learning sign language and once, when he met a deaf person, he inadvertently signed, “Hi, my name’s Jesus and David is the sweetest name I know.”
Moses wrote in his vernacular. He was not saying that they used "JHVH" specifically.
post of the day. halleluYah and amen!
I am so pleased when anyone takes an interest in the name of our Creator.
Except for the dalet, the tetragrammaton (YHWH = yod he wah he) is spelled exactly the same way as the word YHDWH (yod he dalet wah he) from which we get the work Judah, which in Hebrew is pronounced “ya hu d ah”.
If we simply remove the dalet (D) from YHDWH and pronounce the remaining letters (YHWH) in Hebrew, we get “ya hu ah”.
See my tag line.
His name isn’t really “Jesus”....it’s Yeshua. Yeshua means salvation.....”Jesus” doesn’t have a meaning. When the gosple spread to hellenized world they changed the Y at the beginning to a J. The hebrew ending “ah” sound did not go over well for Greeks because that was how they ended feminine names. So they gave it a greek masculine ending with an “s”. Notice a lot of greco-roman names end this way (Persius,Onesimus, Julius)....
I love discussions like this. It taxes me to get out my Bible (large print,LOL) and get to studying. As long as things stay on a civil level, only good can come from posts like this. Thanks to all and blessings on you all. Maranatha
No, He is right. It is HIS NAME.
Exo 3:15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD [YHWH] 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.
How can it be His Name forever and a remembrance (memorial) if it is not to be uttered?
The Jews considered it a mortal sin to speak, or write, the name of God [...]
The Jews were wrong. You use Moses downthread, but if you read Moses you will find YHWH's name is to be on our lips. it is the Name we are to swear by. Torah teaches differently than the Jews... And I would submit that the Brit Hadasha teaches the Jews (I would say Christians too) doubly their error - For they (we) will not see Messiah again until they (we) say 'Blessed is He who comes in the Name of YHWH!'
[...] so the letters JHVH/YHWH came into being as a way to get around that.
No. The name predates the use of vowel markers in Hebrew. It is unfortunate that their error caused them to omit the vowel points in His Name. But that is the reason.
We are reasonably sure of the Name - Yahoweh, Yahuweh - By it's use in proper Hebrew names. Yahweh, being a familiar contraction, is what I use, just as Yeshua (Jesus) is a familiar contraction of Yahoshua (Jehoshua, Joshua) - It is the sort of contracted nickname given by a family member or good friend. That we can call him Yeshua says we are part of the family.
Standing somewhere in the shadows you’ll find Jesus. ... And you will know him by the nail prints in his hands.
It’s so refreshing and wonderful to study His names, know them, and learn to call on Him by the name which represents your praise or your need at a particular moment. My favorite study on the names of God is “Lord, I Want To Know You” by Kay Arthur. I highly recommend it.
I noticed the Lexham English Bible (LEB) by the LOGOS group uses “Yahweh” in the OT text in their literal translation:
http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Lexham-English-Bible-LEB/
http://lexhamenglishbible.com/
How can it be His Name forever and a remembrance (memorial) if it is not to be uttered?
God did not make the rule, the Jews did. This is well established.
The Jews were wrong
Once again, their rules. It was a matter of reverence, same could be said about their belief that looking upon the face of God would bring instant death. That turned out to not be the case, but that did not stop them from believing it and covering their heads when praying.
it is the Name we are to swear by
Why do so many people get this simple concept all wrong? The Name, in this inference, is the POWER and AUTHORITY of God. Not whether you swear by Tom, Dick, or Harry. Same for "Blessed is he who comes in the NAME OF THE LORD." It is authority, not "Bob sent me.".
No. The name predates the use of vowel markers in Hebrew. It is unfortunate that their error caused them to omit the vowel points in His Name. But that is the reason.
So what? That has nothing to do with the text.
That we can call him Yeshua says we are part of the family.
Of that we can agree, though it is not because we get to call Him "Josh" but by His sacrifice and willingness to share in His inheritance.
Great discussion. Which we can point out we are on "this side of the Cross and Empty tomb" so it is the Name Yeshua/Jesus which we invoke as the Name above all names:
Philippians 2:(NKJV)
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:(CJB)
6 Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be possessed by force. 7 On the contrary, he emptied himself, in that he took the form of a slave by becoming like human beings are. And when he appeared as a human being, 8 he humbled himself still more by becoming obedient even to death — death on a stake as a criminal! 9 Therefore God raised him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name; 10 that in honor of the name given Yeshua, every knee will bow — in heaven, on earth and under the earth — 11 and every tongue will acknowledge that Yeshua the Messiah is Adonai — to the glory of God the Father.
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