God’s name – YHVH (Tetragrammaton)
Shalom and welcome to Today’s post on God’s name.
Yeshua is the Only-begotten Son of God as stated in Luke 3:22 which reads “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” but this is also referenced in many other passages of the bible. Being God’s son he never mentioned his name, not even in Lord’s Prayer as appears in Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Why didn’t he call his father by his name? Reason is simple, God’s name is sacred and should not be taken in vain (as stated in “The Ten Commandments“). This is a rule still enforced and followed by Jews Today, that’s why they respectfully refer to God as Adonai Elohim. Yeshua always abode by the Law, even when he gave us the perfect prayer sample through “Lord’s Prayer”.
God does have many names being Tetragrammaton the most respected one; and by far the one who infers or reveals Yeshua’s purpose, as described in the Tanakh and B’rit Hadashah. In order to understand this, we must firstly know about the origins of the Hebrew language (and by the way, I’m not a Hebrew expert and I’m learning as I go).
The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters and it is a variant of the Phoenician alphabet. Every letter is represented by a symbol, having said that if we take God’s name as it is in the Tetragrammaton we have the Hebrew letters י (yud) ה (heh) ו (vav) ה (heh), or YHWH.
If we take each letter and its meaning, as shown below
י (yud) = Closed hand
ה (heh) = To reveal / Window
ו (vav) = Nail
ה (heh) = To reveal / Window
Then it can be interpreted as “Revelation through the hand with nails”. The only historic character whose “hands” (according to historians were his wrists instead of hands though) that were nailed were Yeshua’s, even his name means “Salvation” or “He Saves” (He being God).
As mentioned earlier, I’m not Hebrew and I’m learning as I go but Ruach Hakodesh put this message in my heart so I’m sharing it with you all.
In my humble opinion, any other name for God might be referring to someone else because it’s not as it appears in the bible (e.g.: Yahveh, Jehovah, etc.). If my name were Pedro (Spanish for Peter) why would people then start calling me Peter, it is a proper name, therefore should not be translated. If we follow this rule for places and persons, why not follow it and respect it for God and his son Yeshua?
The Hebrew Letter chart and Paleo Hebrew alphabet used were borrowed from Shane Willard Ministries.
Paleo Hebrew alphabet
Filed under: Faith - @ January 9, 2017 1:41 pm