The Bible usually uses the name of God in the singular (e.g. Ex. 20:7 or Ps. 8:1), generally using the terms in a very general sense rather than referring to any special designation of God. [1] However, general references to the name of God may branch to other special forms which express His multifaceted attributes. [1] The Old Testament/Hebrew Bible reveals YHWH (often vocalized with vowels as "Yahweh" or "Jehovah") as the personal name of God, along with certain titles including El Elyon and El Shaddai. [2] [3] [4] Jah or Yah is an abbreviation of Jahweh/Yahweh, and often sees usage by Christians in the interjection "Hallelujah", meaning "Praise Yah", which is used to give God glory. [5] In the New Testament the terms Theos, Kyrios and Patēr (πατήρ i.e. Father in Greek) are additionally used to reference God. [6] [1] [7]
Respect for the name of God is one of the Ten Commandments, which some Christian teachings interpret to be not only a command to avoid the improper use of God's name, but a directive to exalt it through both pious deeds and praise. [8] This is reflected in the first petition in the Lord's Prayer addressed to God the Father: "Hallowed be Thy Name". [9]
Going back to the Church Fathers, the name of God has been seen as a representation of the entire system of "divine truth" revealed to the faithful "that believe on his name" as in John 1:12 or "walk in the name of Jehovah our God" in Micah 4:5. [10] [11] In Revelation 3:12 those who bear the name of God are destined for the New Jerusalem; which will come down (to earth) from heaven. John 17:6 presents the teachings of Jesus as the manifestation of the name of God to his disciples. [10]
John 12:28 presents the sacrifice of Jesus the Lamb of God, and the ensuing salvation delivered through it as the glorification of the name of God, with the voice from Heaven confirming Jesus' petition ("Father, glorify thy name") by saying: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" referring to the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus. [12]
The simplest form by which God is referred to in the Old Testament is El [13] [14] [15] (see proper names of earlier Canaanite gods). Elohim (singular Eloah) is likely derived from the same root and points to God as being strong and mighty, able to judge and to strike fear. [13] [15] Elyon refers to elevation and being exalted. [13] These are, however, not proper names for God, but epithets also used for rulers and judges. [13] Adonai has a similar context and refers to God as a powerful ruler. [13] [14] Similarly, El Shaddai, derived from "shad" i.e. Lord, also points to the power of God. [13]
Yahweh is the principal name in the Old Testament by which God reveals himself and is the most sacred, distinctive and incommunicable name of God. [13] Based on Lev, 24:16: "He that blasphemes the name of Yahweh shall surely be put to death", Jews generally avoided the use of Yahweh and substituted Adonai or Elohim for it when reading Scripture. [13]
The pronunciation of YHWH in the Old Testament can never be certain, given that the original Hebrew text only used consonants. [16] The English form Jehovah (יְהֹוָה, Yəhōwā) was formed during the Middle Ages by combining the Latinization of the four consonants YHWH with the vowel points that Masoretes used to indicate that the reader should say Adonai when YHWH was encountered. [16] Thus Jehovah was obtained by adding the vowels of Adonai to the consonants of YHWH. [16] Jehovah appears in Tyndale's Bible, the King James Version, and other translations from that time period and later. In Christianity, certain hymns dedicated to God invoke the divine name using the vocalization Jehovah, such as Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah . [17] The Jehovah's Witnesses, a Restorationist denomination, make consistent use of Jehovah. [18]
Jah or Yah is an abbreviation of Jahweh/Yahweh/Jehovah, and often sees usage by Christians in the interjection Hallelujah, meaning "Praise Jah", which is used to give God glory. [5]
Many English translations of the Bible translate the Tetragrammaton as LORD , following the Jewish practice of substituting Adonai for it. [19]
In the same sense as the substitution of Adonai, the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible to Greek mainly used the word Kyrios (Greek : Κύριος, meaning 'lord') for YHWH. [20] Apostle Paul was likely familiar with the use of the term Kyrios in the Septuagint and used it in his letters to refer to Jesus, thus signifying his divinity. [20] [21]
The pronouncement "I Am that I Am" in Exodus 3:14, in rabbinical scholarship taken as a gloss on the meaning of the Tetragrammaton, was in Hellenistic Judaism rendered as ἐγώ εἰμί ὁ ὢν. In the iconographic tradition of Eastern Christianity, it is common to depict Christ with a cruciform halo inscribed with the letters Ο, Ω, Ν for ὁ ὢν "He Who Is".
In Exodus 34:14, God does give his name as Jealous. "...for you shall worship no other god, because Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." This highlights the idea that God's name is associated with His jealousy in the context of His demand for exclusive worship.
While the Old Testament has a wide variety of names and epithets that refer to God in Hebrew, the Greek text of the New Testament uses far fewer variants. [22]
The essential uses of the name of God the Father in the New Testament are Theos (θεός the Greek term for God), Kyrios (i.e. Lord in Greek) and Patēr (πατήρ i.e. Father in Greek). [1] [15] The Aramaic word "Abba" (אבא), meaning "Father" is used by Jesus in Mark 14:36 and also appears in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6. [23]
In the New Testament the two names Jesus and Emmanuel that refer to Jesus have salvific attributes. [24] [25] [26] The name Jesus is given in Luke 1:31 and Matthew 1:21 and in both cases the name is not selected by humans but is received by angelic messages with theological significance, e.g. the statement in Matthew 1:21 "you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save his people from their sins" associates salvific attributes to the name Jesus. [24] [25] [27] [28] Emmanuel, which appears in Matthew 1:23, may refer to Isaiah 7:14, and does not appear elsewhere in the New Testament, but in the context of Matthew 28:20 ("I am with you always, even unto the end of the world") indicates that Jesus will be with the faithful to the end of the age. [29] According to Ulrich Luz, the Emmanuel motif brackets the entire Gospel of Matthew between 1:23 and 28:20, appearing explicitly and implicitly in several other passages, setting the tone for the salvific theme of Matthew. [30]
The names of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are inherently related in the New Testament, e.g. with Jesus' instruction to His disciples at the end of the Gospel of Matthew (28:19):"make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". [31] The Greek word pneuma , generally translated spirit, is found around 385 times in the New Testament. [32] The English terms Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost have identical meanings, with the former having become the usual term in the 20th century. [33] Three separate terms, namely Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth and Paraclete are used in the Johannine writings. [34] The "Spirit of Truth" is used in John 14:17, 15:26 and 16:13. [35] The First Epistle of John then contrasts this with the "spirit of error" in 1 John 4:6. [35]
Although in some modern cultures names are simply labels and designators that distinguish one item from another, in Christian theology the names of God have always had much deeper meaning and significance. [14] In the religious sense, the names of God are not human inventions, but have divine origin and are based on divine revelation. [13]
Veneration of the name of God goes back to the Old Testament, and as in Exodus 20:7, the Ten Commandments state: "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God". [36] Christian teachings view this commandment as not simply an avoidance of the use of the name of God, but as a directive to exalt it, through both pious deeds and praise. [8]
In Christian teachings, the name of God is not simply a label, but involves divine mysteries that require and preempt respect and praise. [13] Louis Berkhof states that the issue surrounding the use and interpretation of the names of God provide a theological puzzle in that given that God is "infinite and incomprehensible", His names transcend human thought, yet they allow Him to be revealed to humans as he descends to what is finite and comprehensible. [13] Thus the name of God has always been revered in the Christian tradition, and has been associated with His presence. [13] [16]
The traditions and the hymnody of Christian liturgy have for long emphasized the importance of acting in the name of God, e.g. the Sanctus (which may go) states: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord". [37]
Going back to Church Fathers such as Justin Martyr [38] or Cyril of Alexandria, in Christian teachings the name of God has been seen as a representation of the entire system of "divine truth" revealed to the faithful "that believe on his name" as in John 1:12 or "walk in the name of the Lord our God" in Micah 4:5. [10] [11] This is further shown in Jesus' Farewell Discourse to his disciples at the end of the Last Supper, in which he addresses the Father and in John 17:6 and 17:26 states: [10]
In Revelation 3:12 those who bear the name of God are destined for the New Jerusalem; which will come down (to earth) from heaven. [39] In Christian teachings, although the people of God bear the name of God, even they can offend the name of God by transgressing against the nature of God, and disobeying his commandments, as in Romans 2:24: "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, even as it is written.". [40]
The first petition in the Lord's Prayer is "hallowed be thy name" and is addressed to "Our Father who art in Heaven". In his 4th century sermon "Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom Come", Gregory of Nyssa referred to Romans 2:24 and Ezekiel 36:23 which states:
And I will sanctify my great name, which hath been profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, saith the Lord Yahweh, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
Gregory stated that the petition that starts the Lord's Prayer deals with the insults, disregard, and inattention to the honor of God's name and seeks to remedy that through the pious actions of believers. [41] Modern Christian theology has continued that teaching, and also adds that the remedy also involves the judgement of God against those who disrespect his name. [9]
In John 12:28 Jesus submits a petition to the Father and receives a response: [12]
Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
The first glorification refers to Matthew 3:17: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." at the start of the ministry of Jesus with his baptism, and the second to his upcoming crucifixion. [12] Thus in John 12:30 Jesus explains to the crowd who hear the voice: "This voice hath not come for My sake, but for your sakes", referring to his crucifixion as the key element of the path to salvation. [12]
Other prayers in various Christian traditions have continued to refer to the name of God, e.g. the Catholic Golden Arrow prayer begins with: [42] [43]
May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God
The widespread use of the Jesus Prayer in the Eastern Orthodox Church has also been associated with the power of the name of God, with continuing theological discussions. [44]
Judaism has different names given to God, which are considered sacred: יהוה, אֲדֹנָי, אֵל, אֱלֹהִים, שַׁדַּי, and צְבָאוֹת ; some also include I Am that I Am. Early authorities considered other Hebrew names mere epithets or descriptions of God, and wrote that they and names in other languages may be written and erased freely. Some moderns advise special care even in these cases, and many Orthodox Jews have adopted the chumras of writing "G-d" instead of "God" in English or saying Ṭēt-Vav instead of Yōd-Hē for the number fifteen or Ṭēt-Zayin instead of Yōd-Vav for the Hebrew number sixteen.
Jah or Yah is a short form of the tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the personal name of God: Yahweh, which the ancient Israelites used. The conventional Christian English pronunciation of Jah is, even though the letter J here transliterates the palatal approximant. The spelling Yah is designed to make the pronunciation explicit in an English-language context, especially for Christians who may not use Hebrew regularly during prayer and study.
"Jesus is Lord" is the shortest credal affirmation found in the New Testament, one of several slightly more elaborate variations. It serves as a statement of faith for the majority of Christians who regard Jesus as both fully man and God. It is the motto of the World Council of Churches.
God the Father is a title given to God in Christianity. In mainstream trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first Person of the Trinity, followed by the second person, Jesus Christ the Son, and the third person, God the Holy Spirit. Since the second century, Christian creeds included affirmation of belief in "God the Father ", primarily in his capacity as "Father and creator of the universe".
There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word god is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or specifically to the Supreme Being, as denoted in English by the capitalized and uncapitalized terms God and god. Ancient cognate equivalents for the biblical Hebrew Elohim, one of the most common names of God in the Bible, include proto-Semitic El, biblical Aramaic Elah, and Arabic ilah. The personal or proper name for God in many of these languages may either be distinguished from such attributes, or homonymic. For example, in Judaism the tetragrammaton is sometimes related to the ancient Hebrew ehyeh. It is connected to the passage in Exodus 3:14 in which God gives his name as אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה, where the verb may be translated most basically as "I am that I am", "I shall be what I shall be", or "I shall be what I am". In the passage, YHWH, the personal name of God, is revealed directly to Moses.
Hallelujah is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Tanakh, twice in deuterocanonical books, and four times in the Christian Book of Revelation.
Two names and a variety of titles are used to refer to Jesus in the New Testament. In Christianity, the two names Jesus and Emmanuel that refer to Jesus in the New Testament have salvific attributes. After the crucifixion of Jesus the early Church did not simply repeat his messages, but focused on him, proclaimed him, and tried to understand and explain his message. One element of the process of understanding and proclaiming Jesus was the attribution of titles to him. Some of the titles that were gradually used in the early Church and then appeared in the New Testament were adopted from the Jewish context of the age, while others were selected to refer to, and underscore the message, mission and teachings of Jesus. In time, some of these titles gathered significant Christological significance.
The Darby Bible refers to the Bible as translated from Hebrew and Greek by John Nelson Darby.
The Angel of the Lord is an entity appearing repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible on behalf of the God of Israel.
Jehovah is a Latinization of the Hebrew יְהֹוָהYəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The Tetragrammaton יהוה is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God's name in Christianity.
In contrast to the variety of absolute or personal names of God in the Old Testament, the New Testament uses only two, according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. From the 20th century onwards, "a number of scholars find various evidence for the name [YHWH or related form] in the New Testament.
In the Book of Genesis, Jehovah-jireh was the location of the binding of Isaac, where Yahweh told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham named the place after God provided a ram to sacrifice in place of Isaac. This name, hence, carries the meaning, "The Lord will provide".
In Christianity, God is the eternal, supreme being who created and preserves all things. Christians believe in a monotheistic, trinitarian conception of God, which is both transcendent and immanent. Christians believe in a singular God that exists in a Trinity, which consists of three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Christian teachings on the transcendence, immanence, and involvement of God in the world and his love for humanity exclude the belief that God is of the same substance as the created universe but accept that God the Son assumed hypostatically united human nature, thus becoming man in a unique event known as "the Incarnation".
The Tetragrammaton is the four-letter Hebrew theonym יהוה, the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left, are yodh, he, waw, and he. The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass". While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form Yahweh is now accepted almost universally among Biblical and Semitic linguistics scholars, though the vocalization Jehovah continues to have wide usage.
Gender in Bible translation concerns various issues, such as the gender of God and generic antecedents in reference to people. Bruce Metzger states that the English language is so biased towards the male gender that it restricts and obscures the meaning of the original language, which was more gender-inclusive than a literal translation would convey. Wayne Grudem disagrees, believing that a translation should try to match the words of the original language rather than introduce the translator's opinion as to whether the original words meant to include both sexes or not, and that trying to be gender-neutral results in vague and contorted writing style. Michael Marlowe argues from a third standpoint, that the cultures in the Bible were patriarchal. The topic has theological and political undercurrents. Paul Mankowski says that inclusive-language translators are bowing to feminist political taboos rather than trying to translate accurately, while Marmy Clason says that their opponents are motivated by hostility to feminism rather than fidelity to the original meaning.
Sacred Name Bibles are Bible translations that consistently use Hebraic forms of the God of Israel's personal name, instead of its English language translation, in both the Old and New Testaments. Some Bible versions, such as the Jerusalem Bible, employ the name Yahweh, a transliteration of the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH), in the English text of the Old Testament, where traditional English versions have LORD.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain" is the second or third of God's Ten Commandments to man in Judaism and Christianity.
Psalm 68 is "the most difficult and obscure of all the psalms." In the English of the King James Version it begins "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered". In the Latin Vulgate version it begins "Exsurgat Deus et dissipentur inimici eius". It has 35 verses. Methodist writer Arno C. Gaebelein calls it "The Great Redemption Accomplished" and describes it as "one of the greatest Psalms".
Kyrios or kurios is a Greek word that is usually translated as "lord" or "master". It is used in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible about 7000 times, in particular translating the name YHWH, and it appears in the Koine Greek New Testament about 740 times, usually referring to Jesus.
For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is believed to be the third Person of the Trinity, a triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each being God. Nontrinitarian Christians, who reject the doctrine of the Trinity, differ significantly from mainstream Christianity in their beliefs about the Holy Spirit. In Christian theology, pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit. Due to Christianity's historical relationship with Judaism, theologians often identify the Holy Spirit with the concept of the Ruach Hakodesh in Jewish scripture, on the theory that Jesus was expanding upon these Jewish concepts. Similar names, and ideas, include the Ruach Elohim, Ruach YHWH, and the Ruach Hakodesh. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is identified with the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, and the Paraclete (helper).
The Old Testament contains various titles and surrogates for God, such as El Shaddai, El Elyon, Haqqadosh (The Holy One), and Adonai. In chapter three, consideration will be given to names ascribed to God in the patriarchal period. Gerhard von Rad reminds us that these names became secondary after the name YHWH had been known to Israel, for "these rudimentary names which derive from old traditions, and from the oldest of them, never had the function of extending the name so as to stand alongside the name Jahweh to serve as fuller forms of address; rather, they were occasionally made use of in place of the name Jahweh." In this respect YHWH stands in contrast to the principal deities of the Babylonians and the Egyptians. "Jahweh had only one name; Marduk had fifty with which his praises as victor over Tiamat were sung in hymns. Similarly, the Egyptian god Re is the god with many names.
…pronouncing the God of Israel's proper name," known as the holy or divine tetragrammaton, written with four consonants, YHWH, in the Hebrew alphabet. In order to vocalize it, it is necessary to introduce vowels that alter the written and spoken forms of the name (i.e. "Yahweh" or "Jehovah").
Shorter forms of Yahweh: The name Yahweh also appears in a shortened form, transliterated Jah (pronounced Yah) in the Revised Version and the American Standard Version, either in the text or footnote: "my song is Jah" (Ex 15:2); "by Jah, his name" (Ps 68:4); "I shall not see Jah in Jah's land (Is 38:11). It is common also in such often untranslated compounds as hallelujah 'praise Jah' (Ps 135:3; 146:10, 148:14), and in proper names like Elijah, 'my God is Jah,' Adonijah, 'my Lord is Jah,' Isaiah, 'Jah has saved.'
Many of the uses of kyrios for God are in citations of the OT and in expressions derived from the OT (e.g., "angel of the Lord") , and in these passages the term functions as the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT name for God, Yahweh. For example, twenty-five of the uses of kyrios for God in Luke are in the first two chapters, where the phrasing is so heavily influenced by the OT. The third frequently used term for God is "Father" (patēr), doubtless the most familiar term for God in Christian tradition and also perhaps the most theologically significant title for God in the NT. Unlike the other terms for God already mentioned--without exception in the Synoptics, and with only a few exceptions in John--"Father" as a title for God appears only in the sayings attributed to Jesus (the Johannine exceptions are in editorial remarks by the Evangelist in 1:14, 18, a saying of Philip in 14:8 and the crowd's claim in 8:41).
Jehovah's name is "majestic, great, fear-inspiring and unreachably high." All of God's purposes are linked to his name.'
There is yet another name which is particularly assigned to God as His special or proper name, that is, the four letters YHWH (Exodus 3:14 and Isaiah 42:8). This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name. Therefore, it has been consistently translated LORD. The only exception to this translation of YHWH is when it occurs in immediate proximity to the word Lord, that is, Adonai. In that case it is regularly translated GOD in order to avoid confusion.