<aside> šŸ“ Table of Contents

</aside>


<aside> šŸšØ This post has been a long time coming, but itā€™s not an easy subject to address. This issue of how to address the Most High is a spiritual one in which I encourage you to pray over. This is precisely the type of issue I believe Paul was speaking on in Romans 14. It is important to allow the Holy Spirit to dictate our actions, but it is also important to allow the Holy Spirit to dictate othersā€™ actions (re: donā€™t force your conviction on someone else).

</aside>

Introduction

God is not a name, it is a title like king or father. In theory ā€œGodā€ could refer to any deity. Traditionally, ā€œGodā€ with a capital G has been used to differentiate the Judeo-Christian God from other deities, however linguistically ā€œGodā€ with a capital G simply denotes a monotheistic god. Due to this ambiguity, many have argued that it is improper to refer to the Most High as God.

YHWH

The most important thing to understand about the name of God, presented in Exodus 3, is that Hebrew does not have written vowels the way English doesā€”or rather writing the vowels is a modern invention. The letters found in the Bible are יְהוÖøה which translate to ****YHWH or YHVH (there is debate other where the third letter should be translated as a W or a V [4][5]). These four letters are known as the Tetragrammaton and represent the name of God.

Is it Actually a Name?

Most people say this is the name of God but itā€™s actually a little more complicated than that. In Exodus 3:13-16, Moses asks what name he should give the Israelites when he returns to deliver them from captivity. For context, during that time in that region most people believed in multiple gods. For example, the Egyptians had Isis, Ra, and Osiris, just to name a few. People of that time were not necessarily of the belief that there was only one God so Moses wanted to be clear to the people which God had sent him.

Although YHWH says He is giving Moses a name, the response He gives Moses is actually kind of tongue-in-cheek. Mosesā€™ question assumes the possibility of other deities, but YHWHā€™s response is actually a phrase that means ā€œI AM THAT I AM.ā€ YHWH is basically saying ā€œI am the only Godā€ or ā€œI am who I amā€ when He responds to Moses. His instructions are to call Him ā€œI AMā€; this phrase in Hebrew is אֶֽהְיֶהā€”not YHWH. YHWH means He is. When we use YHWH we are basically saying ā€œHE IS THAT HE IS.ā€

And GodĀ saidĀ moreoverĀ unto Moses,Ā Thus shalt thou say unto the childrenĀ of Israel,Ā The LORDĀ GodĀ of your fathers,Ā the GodĀ of Abraham,Ā the GodĀ of Isaac,Ā and the GodĀ of Jacob,Ā hath sentĀ me unto you: thisĀ isĀ my nameĀ for ever,Ā and thisĀ isĀ my memorialĀ unto allĀ generations. šŸ“šExodus 3:15 KJV

Below, I replaced the wordā€™s God and LORD with the original Hebrew of what is said in Exodus 3:15 so we can discuss:

And אֱלֹה֓יםĀ saidĀ moreoverĀ unto Moses,Ā Thus shalt thou say unto the childrenĀ of Israel, יְהוÖøהĀ ×Ö±×œÖ¹×”Öµ×™Ā of your fathers,Ā ×Ö±×œÖ¹×”Öµ×™Ā of Abraham, אֱלֹהֵיĀ of Isaac,Ā and אֱלֹהֵיĀ of Jacob,Ā hath sentĀ me unto you: thisĀ isĀ my nameĀ for ever,Ā and thisĀ isĀ my memorialĀ unto allĀ generations. šŸ“šExodus 3:15 KJV

If you look at the Hebrew, the definite article isnā€™t actually present before LORD or God. What God actually said could be translated ā€œHE IS God of your fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you.ā€ Now, God does say that is His name forever and ā€œthisā€ is His memorial (whether this is the in reference to the name or to the miraculous deliverance from Egypt is a question Iā€™ll leave you with), so we use YHWH as His name. In His instructions, we see that YHWH Elohim is equivalent to The God of Abraham or The God of Isaac or The God of Jacob (later named Israel, though probably the The God of Jacob is used to avoid confusion whether The God of Israel refers to the person or the nation, which didnā€™t always follow YHWH).

When we look at Exodus 3:15, is only YHWH the name He is claiming? Or is the name YHWH Elohim? Or is the name ā€œYHWH Elohim, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob?ā€ Are we cutting off part of His name by simply using YHWH?

Pronunciation

So I already mentioned that Hebrew didnā€™t record vowels at the time of writing the Bible and that thereā€™s a bit of debate over whether the third letter in the Tetragrammaton should be translated as a W or a V.[4][5] That should have clued you in that thereā€™s also a lot of debate on how to actually pronounce it. The most common rendering is Yahweh, followed by Jehovah. I have also seen Yahveh and more recently groups are claiming that the correct pronunciation is Yahuah.

There are many articles floating on the internet explaining why a person favors this or that pronunciation (though I could not find an explanation for Yahuah until I read Idolatry by Josh Mulgia). I am not going over them here because Iā€™m not an expert in Hebrew, and quite frankly, I donā€™t think our Creator expects you to be an expert in Hebrew either.

lf I am going to write His name, though, I tend to favor YHWH (probably because I learned Hebrew with וÖø as a waw not a vav, so it lives in my head as a W) or יְהוÖøה, because itā€™s the most accurate I can be without making assumptions. In speech, I have said Y-H-W-H, Yahweh, and even Yod-He-Vav-He (the names of the Hebrew letters).

<aside> šŸ’” Most of the people Iā€™ve seen argue that you must use יְהוÖøה over God refer to him as Yahuah or Yah. I find this interesting because though some admit there is guess work on the exact pronunciation, the most accurate way to represent His name on paper would be to use the Tetragrammaton (יְהוÖøה) and the most accurate way to verbalize it, knowing that we arenā€™t sure of the vowels would be to name the Hebrew letters: Yod He Vav He. Yet, this does not seem to be the preference. Arguably, Exodus 15:2 is an example of the Israelites referencing YHWH as simply YH (assumed to be Yah)[3] but elsewhere like, Exodus 3:15, He is referenced as Elohim (which translates to God).[2]

</aside>

One thing I will say is if He expected us to pronounce it exactly right, we would see an emphasis of Messiah encouraging the disciples to use His name and we would see the apostles teaching the Gentiles to use His name (with its correct pronunciation). While there are passages telling us to praise His name, I donā€™t feel the concept that we canā€™t use His title and must only use His name is present anywhere in the Bible. In fact, YHWH isnā€™t used at all in the New Testament. A common theme that comes up in discussion is the issue of language, but the New Testament writers didnā€™t bother to include the Tetragrammaton (or someone removed itā€¦ but if we concede that the New Testament was altered to remove the Tetragrammaton, we have to ask what else was changed and the whole text becomes questionable.)

Titles