God’s Name….an important but overlooked topic….
How many people pray the Lord’s Prayer and say the words “hallowed be thy name” without a single thought as to what Jesus was saying?
What does “hallowed” mean?
It means to treat God’s name with respect and reverence, as the Bible writers did.
What is God’s name in the Bible, and did he intend for his worshippers to use it? Why is it missing from modern day translations?
Is there a difference between a name and a title?
Can we explore these questions?
Going back to Exodus and the liberation of God’s people from slavery in Egypt, Moses was sent by God to facilitate their release.
Exodus 3:13-15…from the Jewish Tanakh….
| 13 And Moses said to God, "Behold I come to the children of Israel, and I say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" | | יגוַיֹּ֨אמֶר משֶׁ֜ה אֶל־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֗ים הִנֵּ֨ה אָֽנֹכִ֣י בָא֘ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וְאָֽמַרְתִּ֣י לָהֶ֔ם אֱלֹהֵ֥י אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם שְׁלָחַ֣נִי אֲלֵיכֶ֑ם וְאָֽמְרוּ־לִ֣י מַה־שְּׁמ֔וֹ מָ֥ה אֹמַ֖ר אֲלֵהֶֽם: |
| 14 God said to Moses, "Ehyeh asher ehyeh (I will be what I will be)," and He said, "So shall you say to the children of Israel, 'Ehyeh (I will be) has sent me to you.'" | | ידוַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־משֶׁ֔ה אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם: |
| 15 And God said further to Moses, "So shall you say to the children of Israel, 'The Lord God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is how I should be mentioned in every generation.” | | טווַיֹּ֩אמֶר֩ ע֨וֹד אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶל־משֶׁ֗ה כֹּ֣ה תֹאמַר֘ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ יְהֹוָ֞ה אֱלֹהֵ֣י אֲבֹֽתֵיכֶ֗ם אֱלֹהֵ֨י אַבְרָהָ֜ם אֱלֹהֵ֥י יִצְחָ֛ק וֵֽאלֹהֵ֥י יַֽעֲקֹ֖ב שְׁלָחַ֣נִי אֲלֵיכֶ֑ם זֶה־שְּׁמִ֣י לְעֹלָ֔ם וְזֶ֥ה זִכְרִ֖י לְדֹ֥ר דֹּֽר: |
So God revealed his name, and its meaning to Moses and instructed him to tell the people that their God, (
יְהֹוָ֞ה Yahweh) would liberate them from slavery.
Some will be saying right away that this is not correct…the meaning of God’s name is “I Am”….but the Jewish Tanakh translates the Tetragrammaton as “
I Will Be What I Will Be”, which is not a statement of his existence, (as the Israelites already knew that their God existed) but it was a statement of his intentions in connection with them….he would “BE” whatever he needed to be, in order to accomplish his will and purpose for them….he had to deal with an obstinate Pharaoh and he needed to force him by various means, to release them. Yahweh had a role for them to play….and that was to produce the promised Messiah, through the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the tribe of Judah. Everything about him was outlined in prophesy.
Yahweh became everything he needed to be in order to accomplish his will….and in the process, he demonstrated, in ways his people had never seen, the reality of his power.
How did the Israelites come to lose God’s name, and how did its meaning get to be twisted?
God sent his last prophet to his wayward people some 300 years before the Messiah arrived in 29CE. That would mean that God had virtually given up on correcting his people because they were serial covenant breakers and he let them go their own way until he sent his son….”a prophet like Moses”, who was not sent to correct them (as they were incorrigible) but to divide off from them a “remnant” who would accept Jesus as “the one” promised in their Scripture. This was prophesied. (Rom 9:27)
Long before Jesus arrived on the scene, the Jews had stopped saying God’s name in their speech, but they had kept it in their Scripture with the four Hebrew consonants “YHWH”. They addressed him audibly as “Adonai” which is a title….meaning ”Lord”. This title was common in Bible times as a mark of respect, with slaves often addressing their masters as “lord”. Sarah addressed Abraham by this title, so it is not another name for “God”. (1 Peter 3:6)
After some time, the pronunciation of the divine name was lost and when Jesus came, he too was addressed as “Lord”.
Why did Jesus call the Pharisees ‘children of the devil’? (John 8:44) Because satan had used them in his scheme to have God’s name eliminated from human speech….not only that, but he had manipulated these religious leaders to twist the Scriptures and to teach the people human traditions instead of scriptural truth. Like their “father the devil” they were liars. (Matt 15:7-9)
So now we have a situation where their Messiah has arrived but in a religious climate that was hostile to any change. The Pharisees had the people performing a sham religion, full of legality and short on truth and mercy….making Jesus’ job very difficult. And yet to whom was Jesus sent?
It was not to those proud intractable religious leaders, but to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 15:24)…..the ones who were”lost” because of the shameful neglect of their shepherds….so what did Jesus do that was reflected in the words of the Lord’s Prayer? He made the “hallowed” name of his Father known to his disciples.
In prayer Jesus said at John 17:25-26…
”O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (ESV)
So Jesus rectified that problem right away, by making his Father’s name known to his followers…..under the divine name there would be love and unity.
Fast forward to later centuries and what do we find? God’s name is not only missing from human speech again, but it is also absent from his own word….very few English Bible translations contain the divine name at all, so satan has once again accomplished his goal…..only better now that it has been subtracted from scripture altogether.
What human author would tolerate their name being removed from their own work, and substituted with the title “Author”? Their name makes the work theirs….to claim credit for. The name of the author is as important as the name of the book they wrote. The author’s reputation is indicated by his name. People will seek out his writings.
The divine name was used extensively in the OT Hebrew Scriptures (almost 7000 times) but in modern Bibles you can only see where it used to be, by the use of capital letters for the title “LORD”. And in the NT Greek Scriptures even where the Hebrew verses quoted by Jesus and the apostles used the divine name, it is again substituted by the title “Kyrios” again meaning “Lord”.
How did this happen….twice? And why is the divine name still hidden from people who read their Bibles? If Jesus taught us to “hallow” or to “sanctify” God’s name, how do to sanctify a name you never use?
Whose agenda are the Bible translators supporting?
Even the “KJV only” crowd can see the divine name in their translation, but only 4 times out of 7000….the most notable is in Psalm 83:18….but who said that this was OK? Who chose those 4 verses?
Going back to Moses in Exodus 3, we see God’s command that his name was to be maintained in every generation, and yet the Jews disobediently chose to stop saying it.
When Jesus came, he restored the divine name but after his death and the passing away of his apostles, the divine name again disappeared as Christianity was taken over by the “weeds” of Jesus’ parable….in a satanically inspired counterfeit “Christianity”.
If you understand the importance of God’s name, then every effort should be made to restore it to its rightful place…..but I hear people say that “we do not know how to to pronounce it”……but that argument falls flat when we say the name “Jesus”, which is the English translation of the name of God’s son, that most people accept without question, yet the English translation of the Father’s name, “Jehovah” is rejected? They even balk at the transliteration “YAHWEH” (how it may have been pronounced in Hebrew) Make sense of that if you can….but God knows his name in any language.
The importance of God’s name was stressed by Jesus himself, so “hallowed be thy name” is as important today, as it was back then. Who can argue with that?
