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I had recently mentioned that on Yom Kippur the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and there present the sacrificial blood upon the cover of Ark of the Covenant to make atonement for Israel. During this solemn ritual the priest would invoke the sacred name of the LORD (i.e., יהוה) while saying his prayers for the people. Since this was the only time the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies and utter "shem ha'gadol," the great Name of God, Yom Kippur also came to known as the "Day of the Name" (יום השם).
Perhaps because the Yom Kippur ritual is so mysterious and exciting, the question naturally arises as to how the priest would pronounce the sacred name YHVH (יהוה). Is YHVH pronounced "Yahveh"? or "Yahweh"? or perhaps "Yehovah"? (the morpheme YAH is clearly attested). Consulting the original manuscripts does not settle the issue because they were written without vowels, and the scribes who later added the vowel points (i.e., nekudot) changed the pointing for YHVH to avoid saying the name in vain. Christians sometimes feel a bit frustrated or anxious when they consider this, especially because various religious cults claim to have discovered the phonetics of God's "real" name and use it a sort of "shibboleth" or password for acceptance into their societies...
To seriously attempt to answer the question about God's name, however, requires thinking a bit about the philosophy of language, and in particular understanding that a name (of any kind) is a symbol intended to point to a reality. Every name (spoken, written, or otherwise represented) is a sign that is intended to signify something. Names "point" to things, and every name (or term) encapsulates a cluster of ideas that summarize, describe, and define what that thing is as opposed to other things (genus and difference). The Name for God, then, would point to or signify the Reality the name stands for, though in the case of God who is the Supreme Being, no one name can fully express the Reality signified since God is Infinite and beyond our full comprehension. That is why Yeshua has a name that no one knows but himself (Rev. 19:12). Indeed the name YHVH (יהוה) is derived from the Hebrew verb hayah (היה), meaning "to be," which implies that the Reality signified transcends spatio-temporal categories and therefore is "ein sof" (אין סוף), beyond all reckoning and therefore ineffably mysterious (2 Chron. 6:18; Psalm 40:5; 145:3; Job 9:10, Rom. 11:33).
When Moses encountered the Lord in the burning bush at Sinai, the Torah says "God" (i.e., Elohim: אלהים) called out to him and said, "I am the God of your father (אלהי אביך) - the God of Abraham (אלהי אברהם), the God of Isaac (אלהי יצחק), and the God of Jacob (Exod. 3:6), thereby rooting the knowledge of God in human history and the personal experience of revelation given to the patriarchs. However, after God commissioned Moses to go to Pharaoh with the message "shelach et-ammi," "let my people go!" Moses hesitated and wondered how he should respond if the elders of Israel were to ask him what the name of God was. The LORD then answered ehyeh asher ehyeh (אהיה אשׁר אהיה), "I AM what I AM." "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM (אהיה) has sent me to you'" (Exod. 3:14).
In grammar there is a concept known as "apposition," meaning that two or more words or phrases may be grammatically parallel and share the same referent. For example, if someone wrote, "the first US president, George Washington, was born in 1732 in the Province of Virginia," the words "the first president" and "George Washington" logically refer to the same person, namely a man born in 1732 in the English colony of Virginia. Logically this is a matter of equivalence (if a=b then b=a; if a=b and b=c, then a=c, etc.). When God further said to Moses: "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you' (Exod. 3:15), he was equating the name YHVH (יהוה), the great I AM (אהיה), with God (אלהים), the Creator and Master of the Universe, who is known as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- and that these names are in apposition -- they are equivalent significations of the Divine Reality. Note that God concluded this instruction by saying: "This is my name forever (זה־שׁמי לעלם), and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."
What's really most interesting - and essential for us - is not how to say God's name but what God's name means. Another way to say this is that what is most important is not a label identifying "what" God is but an encounter revealing "who" God is. The Name ehyeh, while mysterious, esoteric, and wonderful, does not describe God's character or heart, and therefore it calls for further description using other categories and terms we can understand. Therefore when Moses interceded for forgiveness after the sin of the Golden Calf and was reassured of God's faithful love for Israel, the LORD invited him to go back up the mountain to restore the broken covenant and to learn the meaning of his Name: "And the LORD said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD' (Exod. 33:19). God then instructed Moses to carve two new tablets for the testimony and to present himself at the cleft of the rock on the top of the mountain. Then LORD descended in the cloud "and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD" (Exod. 34:5): "The LORD, the LORD, God of mercy and grace, longsuffering and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, keeping compassion for thousands, carrying away iniquity and transgression and sin, but that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation" (Exod. 34:6-7). Note well that this is a *second* and more complete revelation of the name YHVH given in the Torah (the first was given to Moses at the outset of the Exodus (see Exod. 3:13-15)). This passage of Scripture is so important that the Jewish sages have called it shelosh esreh middot rachamin, or the Thirteen Attributes of God's Mercy.
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In Jewish thought, the numerous names of God revealed in Scripture (Elohim, Shaddai, Elyon, Adonai, Goel, Tzur Olam, the King of Israel, etc.) are thought to reveal different aspects or attributes of God's character and will to us. They function as "short hand" for descriptions of His essence - revelations of the hidden mystery and glory of the LORD. Since taking the name of the LORD "in vain" is one of the Ten Commandments, certain conventions are used to restrict the use of the Names of God. For example, it is common practice to refer to the LORD (יהוה) simply as "Hashem" (the Name) or to deliberately alter the sound or spelling of a divine name.
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Some people seem to be preoccupied with finding out how to pronounce or utter the Sacred Name of the LORD (i.e., יהוה), though Jewish tradition maintains that the Divine Name is entirely ineffable and therefore intrinsically mysterious. Indeed, attaching a name to something "labels" it and claims authority over it (e.g., when David put his name over a conquered city). Since the LORD is utterly unique, without rival, the Creator and LORD who is answerable to no one, He cannot be named. The Jewish mystics say (perhaps as a form of hyperbole) that the proper Name of the LORD is all the letters of the Torah sounded at once -- without interruption. This is called the "304,805 letter Name of God." That is, string together all 304,805 letters of the Torah - from the first letter of Bereshit (Bet) through the last letter of Devarim (Lamed) - and "read" this as a single "Word." Of course the point here is that no one can do this. Indeed, the Angel of the LORD asks, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is incomprehensible?" (Judges 13:18).
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There are quite literally hundreds of names, titles, metaphors, similes, allegories, and allusions given in the Hebrew Scriptures. Though YHVH is the most frequently occurring Name for God, it is clearly a play on the verb "to be" (hayah). We do not "invoke" the Name like a magician might utter a "divine spell." God is near to us -- He's in the wind, in the heavens and earth, as close to you as your own heart (Deut. 30:14; Rom. 10:8). The really hard part is to love and obey the LORD -- not to learn how to say His incomprehensible Name. Indeed, what good would it be to know how to properly pronounce the Sacred Name of the LORD if you do not love and obey Him? If you want to call upon the Name of the LORD, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33).
The Name of the LORD (שֵׁם יהוה) represents the LORD God of Israel's glory, reputation, character, and mighty deeds of salvation for His people. Knowing His Name means understanding His glory as the Savior of the world (מוֹשִׁיעַ הָעוֹלָם). Indeed, personally knowing the Name of the LORD means inwardly accepting that He has valiantly acted on your behalf by saving you from the bondage of your shame and sins through Yeshua, the revealed Word (i.e., Name) of God. In short, knowing who Yeshua is and what He has done for you is to know the Name of the LORD (Rom. 10:13; Phil. 2:10-11). You simply cannot know the "Name of the LORD" without knowing the Name of His Son (John 5:23; Prov. 30:4). Yeshua is the Name above all other names, and before Him every knee shall bow and tongue confess. There is no other name by means of which it is necessary for us to be saved (Acts 4:12).
The idea of "Name" means more than mere phonetics; it has to do with the deeds, acts, power, reputation, and glory of God. It has to do with meaning, and not just ordinary meaning, but the most sacred and extraordinary meaning of which the heart may ever know. Those who do not honor the Son do not honor the Father who sent Him (John 5:23).
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