The Name Of God

Most Biblical Scholars and Jewish Historians believe that the true name of our Creator which most people call God or 'the Lord' is "Yahweh". This name comes from the four Hebrew letters. (represented here in Paleo or Ancient Hebrew) (Hebrew is read from right to left) Yod Y He H Waw W He H or YHWH. This name YHWH is often referred to as the Tetragramaton or (Four-Letters). Historians say that the Jews found this name to Holy to pronounce and so they adopted the man-made custom of pronouncing it "Ha Shem" or "Adonai". As a matter of fact, the common utterance "hallelujah," is actually a Hebrew word which means, "Praise Ye Yahweh." The reason that the j has the 'y' sound is because there is no letter J in the Hebrew. We prefer to write this word the way it actually sounds. Hence we write it as "Halleluyah." If you have a King James Bible please look at Psalms 68:4. There you will see the shortened form of the name of Yahweh in "JAH" which should really be "YAH." This mistake was later fixed in the NKJV. Furthermore all of the names in the Bible that contain and/or end in "iah" , example Nehemiah and some of the names that begin with a "J" or "Jah" should really be spelled/pronounced as "yah" because those names have meanings that contain the name of "Yahweh". Recognizing the meanings of the names can give you a better understanding of the Bible and it's characters. The Holman Bible Dictionary 1991 edition is an excellent source to learn the meanings of all the names of the Bible. Here are a few examples: NAME TALKED ABOUT MEANING SHOULD BE PRONOUNCED Izliah 1Chron. 8:18 "Yahweh delivers" Yisliyah Izrahiah 1 Chron 7:3 "Yahweh shines forth" Yizrayah Jachin or Jakin Gen 46:10 "Yah established" Yahkin Jahdai 1 Chron. 2:47 "Yah leads" Yahdai This is a photo of Psalms 119:59-64 in the Dead Sea Scrolls which are a collection of Hebrew Scriptures that date back 2000 years. Note Yahweh's name in the ancient Hebrew script while the rest of the text is in a more modern Hebrew that was used at the time.

Another evidence to the correct name of our creator being "Yahweh" is found in most Bible prefaces. Although they don't give a good excuse, many Bibles will tell you that the translators decided to change the Devine name from "YHWH" to 'the Lord'. The important point here is that they recognize "Yahweh" as being the Devine Name of our Creator. The fact is that this name is very important! We must be very careful not to misuse it or to abuse it in anyway. The Bible cautions us not to take it in vain; which means to misuse it falsely. Ex 20:7 7 Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh thy God (Elohim) in vain; for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Notice what Strong's Concordance says about the word vain:

Vain OT:7723 shav' (shawv); or shav (shav); from the same as OT:7722 in the sense of desolating; evil (as destructive), literally (ruin) or morally (especially guile); figuratively idolatry (as false, subjective), uselessness (as deceptive, objective; also adverbially, in vain):

KJV - false (-ly), lie, lying, vain, vanity. (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek- Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.) Hundreds of people have stated that they understood the Bible better when they started to replace 'the Lord' with the correct name of "Yahweh". This is not a surprise since our savior stated that the Name of Yahweh is the key to knowledge. Luke 11:52 52 "Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."

We see here that our Savior was upset because the experts of the law had decided and perpetuated the notion that you could not use the name of Yahweh in prayer, reading etc. In essence they had taken away the Name of Yahweh from the people and thus they had taken away the Key to Knowledge. One of our Savior's missions was to reestablish the name to the disciples because they would be going out to the world to preach the good news. The disciples believed just like any other Jew that the name was too holy to use and so our Savior had to teach them they should use it in prayer, reading etc. John 17:6-7 6 "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Notice that the second part of the above verse states that the disciples obeyed the word of the Father. At that point they would have understood and upheld the commandment given in Exodus 3:15 about the Father's Powerful Name: Ex 3:15 15 Elohim also said to Moshe (Moses), "Say to the Yisraelites, 'YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers--the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Yitsaac (Isaac) and the Elohim of Yahcob (Jacob)--has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.

So in keeping with the above commandment and many others regarding the Name, we invite and encourage you to utilize it in your prayers. Use it when you read the Bible; it will make more sense to you. Furthermore teach it to your children. But most importantly respect it and do not take it in vain! Ex 20:7 7 "You shall not misuse the name of Yahweh your Elohim, for Yahweh will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Ever see these Hebrew letters? They are the same as the above graphic, however it represents the more modern Hebrew: Remember that Hebrew is read from right to left; it also spells out YHWH.

H W H Y