@stunnedbygrace and @Rita in response to your request.....
How did this law apply to the Jews? Here is what I have found in my research.....
Apparently the Jews were making frivolous oaths in God's name, and failing to live up to them, thus taking God's name in vain. This meant using God's name in a worthless way and thus treating it with disrespect. Oaths were common in those days and if God's divine name was invoked, woe betide anyone not keeping their word. An oath was like a vow. (Deuteronomy 30:2; 23:21; Ecclesiastes 5:4)
The Jewish leadership were aware of the problem and developed a novel way to solve it....instead of prosecuting the offenders, which God's law required, they instead removed the divine name from their speech, making it unlawful to utter it. Problem solved.....but not in a way that God would approve. By losing the divine name from their speech, supposedly out of respect... (this was never commanded by God, in fact Yahweh had told them in Exodus 3:15....."And God said further to Moses, "So shall you say to the children of Israel, 'Yahweh 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." Jewish Tanakh) This was just another disobedient act against their God with far reaching implications.
Jesus had a comment on this....Matthew 5:33-37...
"Again you heard that it was said to those of ancient times: ‘You must not swear without performing, but you must pay your vows to Jehovah.’ 34 However, I say to you: Do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Do not swear by your head, since you cannot turn one hair white or black. 37 Just let your word ‘Yes’ mean yes, your ‘No,’ no, for what goes beyond these is from the wicked one."
So swearing a vow, even if God's name was not used, was still a serious matter. A man had to back up his words by actions. Not doing so was allowing room for the devil.
In removing God's divine name from their speech, the Jews eventually lost how to pronounce it, so Yahweh (YHWH) became a nameless "LORD" usually indicated by the capitalization of the letters where his name had been substituted in English translations. "ADONAI" replaced it in Jewish speech.
(Interestingly the name "Baal" means "Lord" as does "Allah".....so having nameless gods apparently gives them all the same title....Yahweh however was never nameless until the Jews made him such.....this led to a confusion between the "Lord Yahweh" and the "Lord Jesus" leading some to believe, in later centuries, that the two were one and the same...but they never were.
The trinity is a product of that travesty.
When Christ walked the earth, the divine name had been lost for a very long time, (no one knows exactly when they ceased to use it) but Jesus said he came to restore it and make it known to his disciples. (John 17:25-26) The Jews still refused to utter God's name under any circumstances, (and still do) but kept it in written form....so when the Christians wrote their letters and accounts, those later translations into Greek reverted to the Jewish tradition of keeping God nameless. But ancient fragments found God's name with the four Hebrew consonants clearly seen in the Greek text. The devil does not want the name of God to be known or used.....but at Acts 15:14, Peter "has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name."
God's name was to be important to God's Christian worshippers.....for obvious reasons.
How did this law apply to the Jews? Here is what I have found in my research.....
Apparently the Jews were making frivolous oaths in God's name, and failing to live up to them, thus taking God's name in vain. This meant using God's name in a worthless way and thus treating it with disrespect. Oaths were common in those days and if God's divine name was invoked, woe betide anyone not keeping their word. An oath was like a vow. (Deuteronomy 30:2; 23:21; Ecclesiastes 5:4)
The Jewish leadership were aware of the problem and developed a novel way to solve it....instead of prosecuting the offenders, which God's law required, they instead removed the divine name from their speech, making it unlawful to utter it. Problem solved.....but not in a way that God would approve. By losing the divine name from their speech, supposedly out of respect... (this was never commanded by God, in fact Yahweh had told them in Exodus 3:15....."And God said further to Moses, "So shall you say to the children of Israel, 'Yahweh 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." Jewish Tanakh) This was just another disobedient act against their God with far reaching implications.
Jesus had a comment on this....Matthew 5:33-37...
"Again you heard that it was said to those of ancient times: ‘You must not swear without performing, but you must pay your vows to Jehovah.’ 34 However, I say to you: Do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Do not swear by your head, since you cannot turn one hair white or black. 37 Just let your word ‘Yes’ mean yes, your ‘No,’ no, for what goes beyond these is from the wicked one."
So swearing a vow, even if God's name was not used, was still a serious matter. A man had to back up his words by actions. Not doing so was allowing room for the devil.
In removing God's divine name from their speech, the Jews eventually lost how to pronounce it, so Yahweh (YHWH) became a nameless "LORD" usually indicated by the capitalization of the letters where his name had been substituted in English translations. "ADONAI" replaced it in Jewish speech.
(Interestingly the name "Baal" means "Lord" as does "Allah".....so having nameless gods apparently gives them all the same title....Yahweh however was never nameless until the Jews made him such.....this led to a confusion between the "Lord Yahweh" and the "Lord Jesus" leading some to believe, in later centuries, that the two were one and the same...but they never were.
The trinity is a product of that travesty.
When Christ walked the earth, the divine name had been lost for a very long time, (no one knows exactly when they ceased to use it) but Jesus said he came to restore it and make it known to his disciples. (John 17:25-26) The Jews still refused to utter God's name under any circumstances, (and still do) but kept it in written form....so when the Christians wrote their letters and accounts, those later translations into Greek reverted to the Jewish tradition of keeping God nameless. But ancient fragments found God's name with the four Hebrew consonants clearly seen in the Greek text. The devil does not want the name of God to be known or used.....but at Acts 15:14, Peter "has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name."
God's name was to be important to God's Christian worshippers.....for obvious reasons.
