The Heavenly Father's Great Name

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About the Cover

   Archeology continually unearths positive proof of the Creator's personal Name. This is a section of a 14-line commentary on the Book of Habakkuk found at Qumran among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Composed about 50 B.C.E., the scroll is written mainly in modern Aramaic script, the script we recognize as Hebrew. Here is proof that scribes revered the Creator's Name so much that when they came upon it, they wrote it in the more ancient paleo-Hebrew style. You can see the four-letter Name (Tetragrammaton) in the middle of the line fifth from the top. They were quoting from Habakkuk 2:13-14.

Acknowledgement

   We gratefully thank DeWitt Smith for his literary contribution that provided the basis for this booklet.
 

The Heavenly Father's Great Name

   What would you think of a man who would never mention his wife's name throughout his married life, but only referred to her as "wife"? Suppose a new doctor came to town and a friend of yours introduced him as "Mr. Doctor." Would that tell you anything more about him than what you already knew?

   While titles sometimes tell us the trade, profession or vocation of a person, they do not identify the individual from all other individuals that might be in the same profession or trade. Surely you can see that it would be inappropriate to refer to a man or woman throughout life simply by title. How could you identify the works of a great composer or any great artist if you just referred to them as those of "Mr. Composer" or "Mr. Artist"? Correct titles can be useful, but only the correct name can identify a specific individual.

   If you went through life never identifying your friends by their names, but only by titles, there would arise a question in the minds of your friends and others as to why you refused to use their proper names. The logic and necessity of identifying individuals by their proper names is obvious, but the paradox of this whole situation is that most people never stop to realize that the One they worship as "Almighty God" has a personal Name that He wants His people to identify Him by to distinguish Him from all other "mighty ones."

   Those who don't understand the importance of His Name argue, "Oh, He and I know who I mean. What difference does it make what I call Him?"

   What if you wrote a check payable to "The Man" or "The Lady" or just "Lady" or "Boy"? That certainly would not identify the person you wanted to receive the check. If it were lost, anyone could cash it because it could apply to any number of people. Surely in that case you would not argue that it "makes no difference, I know who I have in mind." You would be very careful whose name goes on the check. How much more important is it to use the correct name (rather than a mere title) of the One who created this universe, including you.

   There were many in ancient Israel who identified the "Almighty"--the One who provided all their needs and who gave them rain and sunshine in due season--but they did it by exalting a former title name that meant "lord" as a substitute for the real Name of the Almighty. This was displeasing to the Almighty as the following text indicates. "How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Which think to cause my people to forget MY NAME by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have FORGOTTEN MY NAME FOR BAAL."  (Jeremiah 23:26, 27)

   If the Almighty was displeased with the use of the title "Baal," which His people were substituting for His Name, why would He not be just as displeased with its English equivalent "Lord" which people are substituting today for His Name? The same is true of the title "God." This title "God" was originally a Teutonic word used in worship of idols by heathen Teutonic tribes (see "God," Oxford English Dictionary). In their conversion to Christianity they applied the same title and substituted it for the true Mighty One in their new worship.

   Today, the title names of "God" and "Lord" are thought appropriate in identifying the Supreme Being. However, the Bible indicates differently. Scripture states that our Maker and Creator is "jealous for (His) holy Name" (Ezekiel 39:25; Exodus 23:13). This means that He desires for us to use His Name with respect so as to identify Him from all other deities.

   The title name Baal was formerly used in reference to a lord or master of a house or one exercising authority. When used in that sense it was considered appropriate even when applied to the Almighty. But when this title name became an exclusive substitution for the holy Name of the Almighty, and then became associated with pagan religious worship, the title became detestable to the Almighty. The same abominable practice in ancient Israel of substituting titles for the true Name of the Almighty is practiced today in Christendom. The Christian world has forgotten His Name for the general titles God and Lord.

   Although His Holy Name is used approximately 7,000 times in the ancient Scriptures, rarely do you hear it mentioned in modern-day Christianity. The substitution has been nearly complete. The blame for much of this falls on Jewish scribes who endeavored to keep the Name they considered too holy hidden from the Gentile world. Additionally, translators did not see the importance of transliterating the Name.

What Is His Name, Then?

   What is the proper Name of the Almighty?  "Baal" or its English equivalent "Lord" is not His Name. Neither is the title "God" that the pagans used in their worship. Even Satan is called a god in the Bible, "the god of this present world" (2 Corinthians 4:4). There are "many gods and lords," as the Apostle Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 8:5. Using title names does not identify the One you worship. Capitalizing them doesn't help, either. It is not enough to argue that it is your intentions that matter, when our Almighty has stated thousands of times in the Old Testament what His specific Name is--and stresses repeatedly that He intends that we use it.

   In most Bible translations you will not find His Holy Name because the translators have substituted the titles God and Lord for His Holy Name. But you can restore it when you read the Scriptures. In many King James Bibles, everywhere you see the words "LORD" or "LORD GOD" in capital letters in the Old Testament, the Masoretic Hebrew script has the Hebrew characters . These four Hebrew letters, when transliterated into English are written "YHWH." (Transliterate means to bring a word sound for sound across from one language to another.) The four letters are often referred to as the Tetragrammaton.

   The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 consonants and no vowels except that some of these consonants carry vowel sounds. It so happens that the three Hebrew letters--the Yothe (Y), the He (H), and the Waw (W) that make up the holy Name--are known as vowel-letters. When the vowel sounds of these letters are included with the four consonants that make up the holy Name, we have the English transliteration "YaHWeH."

   Nearly every modern dictionary or encyclopedia shows that Yahweh is the correct English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton. In the King James translation and in older writings you will find it as "Jehovah." But this word is incorrect, and every modern-day authority will so inform you.

   The vowels that were used to coin the word "Jehovah" were taken from the Hebrew "Adonai." There is no such word in the Hebrew Scripture as "Jehovah." It is an invention of the 14th century by the Roman Catholic Church, and traditionally accepted by Protestants up until modern times when it was discovered that this was not a correct transliteration of the sacred Name. Now that we know that "Jehovah" is not correct, we should for the sake of accuracy alone refrain from using it.

The Jews Preserved the Sacred Name in the Ancient Scriptures

   Jewish scholars should know, if anyone knows, the truth about the Name of the One they worship. Jewish scribes were entrusted with the preservation of the Scriptures, Romans 3:1-2. The best up-to-date authority, the Encyclopedia Judaica, has the following to say about the Holy Name, and why the hybrid name "Jehovah" came into existence. The following is from vol. 7, page 680, under the heading "YHWH."

"The personal name of the [Mighty One] of Israel is written in the Hebrew Bible with the four consonants YHWH and is referred to as the 'Tetragrammaton.' At least until the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E., this name was regularly pronounced with its proper vowels, as is clear from the Lachish Letters, written shortly before that date. But at least by the third century B.C.E., the pronunciation of the name YHWH was avoided, and Adonai, 'the Lord,' was substituted for it, as evidenced by the use of the Greek word Kyrios, 'Lord," for YHWH in the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was begun by Greek-speaking Jews in that century.

"Where the combined form 'Adonai YHWH' occurs in the Bible, this was read as 'Adonai Elohim,' 'Lord God.' In the early Middle Ages, when the consonantal text of the Bible was supplied with vowel points to facilitate its correct traditional reading, the vowel points for 'Adonai' with one variation--a sheva with the first Yod of YHWH instead of the hataf-patah under the aleph of 'Adona'--were used for YHWH, thus producing the form YeHoWaH. When Christian scholars of Europe first began to study Hebrew they did not understand what this really meant, and they introduced the hybrid name 'Jehovah.' In order to avoid pronouncing even the sacred name 'Adonai' for YHWH, teh custom was later introduced of saying simply in Hebrew ha-She (or Aramaic Shema, [the Name]) even in such an expression as 'Blessed be he that cometh in the name of YHWH' (Psalm 118:26). The avoidance of pronouncing the name YHWH is generally ascribed to a sense of reverence.  More precisely, it was caused by a misunderstanding of the third Commandment (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11) as meaning 'Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH in vain,' whereas it really means, 'You shall not swear falsely by the name of YHWH' (JPS).

"The true pronunciation of the name YHWH was never lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian Church testify that the name was pronounced 'Yahweh.' This is confirmed at least for the vowel of the first syllable of the name, by the shorter form Yah, which is sometimes used in poetry (e.g., Exodus 15:2) and the--Yahu' or--Yah that serves as the final syllable in the very many Hebrew names."

   As stated previously, if anyone should know how to pronounce the Holy Name of the Elohim of Israel, it should be the Jewish priests and scribes. They say that the Name has never been lost and that it should be pronounced in English as Yah-weh. The end letter "h" is silent, and the "e" is pronounced as in the word "they."

   Notice in the quotation above that the Encyclopedia Judaica stated that the "shorter form" of the sacred, Holy Name of the Creator was "Yah." This fact is verified even in the King James Version. This shortened Name of "Yahweh" is "Yah," but is written as "Jah" in Psalm 68:4. The Hebrews had no "J" in their alphabet and neither did the English until 1565. Anyone who has read medieval literature written prior to this time knows that what is now a "J" was then a "Y." The "Y" and "J" have practically the same consonant value.

   There are some versions of the Bible wherein the translators have restored the Holy Name in the Old Testament, transliterating it correctly into English. You will find the Holy Name restored in Rotherham's Emphasized Bible, the Catholic Jerusalem Bible, and the Anchor Bible. However, this correction has been made only in the Old Testament. There is no good reason why this same practice of restoring the Holy Name in the Old Testament could not have been followed in the New Testament. It is not even done where the writers of the New Testament quoted directly from Old Testament passages that included the Holy Name.

   Their reluctance to do so was due in part to their desire to follow the popular and traditional use of the Greek "Theos" (God) and "Kurios" (Lord) that they found in old Greek manuscripts. Many were also laboring under the belief that the original New Testament was written in Greek. This has never been proved. The original writings of the New Testament have never been found. The New Testament books that we have are translations of copies many times over. Most modern scholars today agree that because of textual evidence the books of Matthew, Hebrews and Revelation were written originally in Hebrew. The numerous Hebraisms alone in the language of the New Testament give strong claim to its original Hebrew writing. There is a possibility that the Book of Luke and some of the writings of Paul could have been written originally in Greek, but there is no proof that this is so. Luke and Paul were the only authors of the New Testament capable of writing in Greek.

   For argument's sake, let us assume that the entire New Testament was written in Greek. That would not prove that the Holy Name was translated into Greek, and it is unthinkable that the New Testament's Jewish writers would have substituted the Greek title "Theos" and "Kurios" for the Name Yahweh.

Early Greek Septuagint Included the Creator's Name

   Substitution of the surrogate titles "Lord" and "God" for the sacred Name took place gradually after the first century. The earliest copies of the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) show that the Holy Name was retained in Paleo-Hebrew script, and was sometimes written in gold letters. Even copies of Origen's Hexapla (a third century church father) show the Tetragrammaton written in square Aramaic script, although the rest of the text is written in Greek. (See the cover explanation of the same done by Hebrew scribes.)

   George Howard, associate professor of religion and Hebrew at the University of Georgia, is the author of several books on early Christian theology. In the March 1978 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (Vol. IV, No. 1, pp. 13-14), he writes of the preservation of the Name Yahweh in early Greek translations:

"In 1944, E. G. Waddell discovered the remains of an Egyptian papyrus scroll (Papyrus Fuad 266) dating to the first or second century B.C.E. which included part of the Septuagint. In no instance, however, was YHWH translated kyrios. Instead, the Tetragrammaton itself--in square Aramaic letters--was written into the Greek text. This parallels the Qumran Covenanters' use of the paleo-Hebrew script for the Divine Name in a document which was otherwise written in square Aramaic script.

"The Fuad papyrus scroll is the earliest example we have examined, dating to the first or second century B.C.E. Here for the first time we have clear evidence that in pre-Christian times the Septuagint, at least sometimes, did not translate the divine name with the Greek word kyrios as had been thought; rather it preserved the Hebrew word YHWH itself.

"We can now say with near certainty that it was a Jewish practice before, during and after the New Testament period to write the divine name in Paleo-Hebrew or square Aramaic script or in transliteration right into the Greek text of Scripture. This presents a striking comparison with the Christian copies of the Septuagint and the quotations of it in the New Testament which translate the Tetragrammaton as Kyrios or Theos.

"The divine name YHWH was and is the most sacred word in the Hebrew language. So it is hardly likely that Jews of any sort would have removed it from their Bibles. Furthermore, we know now from discoveries in Egypt and the Judean desert that Jews wrote the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew even in their Greek texts. In all likelihood Jewish Christians felt the same way about the divine name and continued to preserve it in Hebrew in their Bibles. A famous rabbinic passage (Talmud Shabbat 13:5) discusses the problem of destroying heretical texts (very probably including books of Jewish-Christians). The problem arises for the rabbinic writer because the heretical texts contain the divine name, and their wholesale destruction would include the destruction of the divine name. This further suggests that Jewish Christians did not translate the divine name into Greek.

"First, as to the Old Testament: Jewish scribes preserved the Tetragrammaton in their copies of the Septuagint both before and after the New Testament period. In all probability, Jewish Christians wrote the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew as well. Toward the end of the first Christian century, when the church had become predominantly Gentile, the motive for retaining the Hebrew name Yahweh was lost and the words kyrios and theos were substituted for it in Christian copies of Old Testament Septuagints. Both kyrios and theos were written in abbreviated form in a conscious effort to preserve the sacred nature of the divine name. Soon the original significance of the contractions was lost and many other contracted words were added.

"A similar pattern probably evolved with respect to the New Testament. When the Septuagint which the New Testament church used and quoted contained the Hebrew form of the divine name, the New Testament writers no doubt included the Tetragrammaton in their quotations. But when the Hebrew form for the divine name was eliminated in favor of the Greek substitutes in the Septuagint, it was eliminated also from the New Testament quotations of the Septuagint.

"Thus toward the end of the first Christian century, the use of surrogate (kyrios and theos) and their contractions must have crowded out the Hebrew Tetragrammaton in both Testaments. Before long the divine name was lost to the Gentile church except insofar as it was reflected in the contracted surrogates or remembered by scholars."

   Had you ever given it any thought when reading the Bible how many times just the word "name" is used in reference to the Heavenly Family? The Name Yahweh is used approximately 7,000 times in the Old Testament, and some 100 times it should have appeared in the New Testament. The Hebrew scribes recorded the Name in the Old Testament, but in the hundred times that it should have appeared in the New Testament we find no indications of it. It is missing even in those cases where the Holy Name was quoted directly from the Old Testament. But as George Howard points out, research shows that the first century Apostolic Assembly did write the Name "even in their Greek texts."

   The Jews considered the holy Name (, YHWH) as the most holy word in the Bible, and it is unthinkable that Holy Spirit-inspired authors of the New Testament would have left it out in their original writings. Especially would this be so in those instances where direct quotations were made from the Old Testament. Let us examine just a few of many such quotations given in the New Testament. In Matthew 4:4 the King James translation reads: "But He answered and said, 'It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'"

In Copying Scripture Meticulous Scribes Revere Sacred Name  ~from The Bible Almanac, pp. 67-68 "When the Old Covenant writers finished their scrolls, there were no copying machines or printing presses to duplicate their writing for the public. They depended on scribes, men who patiently copied the Scriptures by hand when extra copies were needed and when the original scrolls became too worn to use any longer. The scribes attempted to make exact copies of the copies. Even so, they did not always avoid mechanical slips in copying at some points. Anyone who has ever done any copying will sympathize!    By the time Yahshua was born, the most recent Old Testament book (Malachi) had been copied and recopied over a span of more than 400 years; the books that Moses wrote had been copied this way for more than 1400 years. Yet during that time the scribes guarded the Old Testament text very well. It has been computed that, on the average, they mistakenly copied one out of every 1,580 letters; and they usually corrected these errors when they made new copies.    Before he began his work each day, the scribe would test his reed pen by dipping it in the ink and writing the name Amalek, then crossing it out (cf. Deut. 25:19). Then he would say, 'I am writing the torah in the name of its sanctity and the name of Yahweh in its sanctity.' The scribe would read a sentence in the manuscript he was copying, repeat it aloud, and then write it. Each tie he came to the name Yahweh, he would say, "I am writing the name Yahweh for the holiness of His name.' If he made an error in writing Yahweh's name, he had to destroy the entire sheet of papyrus or vellum that he was using."

   Our Savior quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 in this passage. Do you really think that our Savior said "God" when He quoted this Old Testament verse? In Deuteronomy 8:3 in the King James translation you will find the English word "LORD" in capital letters. Wherever "LORD" appears in capital letters in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Script (YHWH--Yahweh), which is His Holy Name, appears. If you have the Emphasized Bible or the Jerusalem Bible you will find it transliterated "YAHWEH" in their translations. Since Matthew 4:4 is a direct quotation of Deuteronomy 8:3, the Name "Yahweh" should have appeared also in the New Testament. Let us take another text exactly as it is written in the King James: "And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, 'Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness:' and he was called the friend of God." (James 2:23) James is quoting here from Genesis 15:6 in the Old Testament. Again, you will find in the King James the title "LORD" in capital letters, which indicates that a substitution has been made for the original holy Name, "Yahweh."

   We find also that the translators substituted the English titles "God" and "Lord" where the sacred Name is found in the Hebrew text in similar quotations, such as: Deuteronomy 6:13 in Matthew 4:10; Psalm 118:23 in Matthew 21:42; Deuteronomy 6:5 in Matthew 22:37; Psalm 110:1 in Matthew 22:44; Isaiah 61:1-2 in Luke 4:19; and Isaiah 54:13 in John 6:45.

   Romans 10:13 reads verbatim, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." This quotation is from Joel 2:32. Here once more when we examine the King James translation in the Old Testament we find the word "LORD" in capital letters. The translators should not have substituted a title where the sacred Name appeared in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, nor in the New Testament where the writers of the New Testament had quoted from the Old Testament. Following is the way Joel 2:32 should read, and in which it is so transliterated by Rotherham's Emphasized Bible: "And it shall come to pass whosoever shall call on the name of Yahweh shall be delivered."

The Savior's Name Contains the Promise of Salvation

   The Apostle Paul was called as a missionary to the Gentile world to proclaim the Holy Name of Yahweh. Notice the reading of verse 14 of Romans 10: "How then shall they call on Him [Yahweh-shua] in Whom they have not believed?  and how shall they believe in Him [Yahweh-shua] of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher [that uses the Holy Name]?"

   The apostle Paul, as well as all the other disciples, was commanded to preach to all nations repentance and salvation in His Holy Name (Mark 16:15, Luke 24:47). When the Apostle Peter was questioned by the priests "by what name" he had healed the impotent man, he replied: "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the NAME OF YAHSHUA the Messiah of Nazareth, Whom ye impaled Whom Yahweh raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you whole. This is the Stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other [Name]: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:10-12).

   If people never hear His Name because it is never preached to them, then according to this Scripture how can they be eternally saved or sealed by that Name? Some say that it isn't the Name that is important, that a Name does not save, but that it is the "person" who saves. This is an attempt in reasoning to quiet the conscience of those who refuse to use the Name that the angel Gabriel told Joseph (Yowceph) and Mary (Miriam) to name Him. This attempt to dissect His Name from His Person cannot be done. His Name identifies His Person, and one stands for the other. His Name is intrinsic with His very being because His Name has meaning. The above text states that there is saving power in that Name, which we shall now prove.

A Jew with a Latin-Greek Name?

   You will notice that we used the Hebrew Name given to our Savior in the above text, the very Name that the angel Gabriel told Joseph to give Him. The angel told Joseph: "And she [Miriam] shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name [not the Latin-Greek name "Jesus" that you find in your Bible, but] Yahshua: for He shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

   Our Savior was born of the tribe of Judah. He was a Jew, and was given a Hebrew name--not a Greek, Latin or English name. His name should sound the same the world over no matter which language is spoken. Not to do so is to corrupt it, and to corrupt it is a violation of the third Commandment, "Thou shalt not take the NAME of Yahweh they Elohim in vain [desecrate it]; for Yahweh will  not hold him guiltless that taketh HIS NAME IN VAIN" (Exodus 20:7).

   There are several different ways of taking His Name in vain (which means to falsify in Hebrew) but the way most done today, even though in most cases through ignorance, is by use of a corrupt form. If you remove an author's name from the books he wrote and reprint them with another name in them you would be falsifying his works. The same is true when you substitute Yahweh's Name with another. Everything that a believer in Yahshua does in obedience to Him should be done in the Name that the angel gave Him, and "FOR HIS NAME" (Romans 1:5).

   The name Jesus is a Latinized Greek translation of Joshua (a corruption of the Hebrew Yahshua). Joshua later took on the form Jeshua, which explains the "e" in Jesus. The "us" ending was added to indicate masculine nominative. (Write for the booklet, "The Missing J," which details this transformation.) The Savior was never called Jesus in His lifetime. In fact, the name "Jesus" did not exist until about 500 years ago, as scholars point out.

   It is this very issue as to the Name of the one we worship that will bring tribulation to Yahshua's elect. Scripture states: "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and you shall be hated of all nations for MY NAME'S SAKE" (Matthew 24:9). One version reads "on account of my name." O. H. Rieu, in his translation of the Book of Acts, puts it even plainer: "Ye shall be hated by the pagan world because you USE MY NAME. . ."

   The Apostle John was shown in a vision the events of the last days. He states that what will serve to delineate false worshippers from true worshippers of Yahweh will be a "mark" (seal) or the name of the Beast, as opposed to the mark or seal of the Father's Name as we see in Revelation 13: "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast...And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name...(v. 15, 17) And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred and forty and four thousand having His Father's Name written in their foreheads." (14:1; see also Revelation 7:3-4)

   Scripture says out Savior came in His Father's Name. He kept His disciples in that Name. But "Jesus Christ" is not the Father's Name. Our Savior stated plainly, "I am come in my Father's Name," John 5:43. If He came in His Father's Name, His name would be Yahweh-shua, which means "Yahweh saves" or the shortened form Yah-shua, which means "Yah saves." The Jews would not receive Him in that Name because they considered it blasphemous--too holy--for Him to use.

Is it really important to use the Heavenly Father's Great Name?  Click on Page 2 to learn more.