THE NAMES OF GOD

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NAMES OF GOD IN THE BIBLE: A DISPENSATIONAL APPROACH : PROF. M. M. NINAN VI "CHILLUL HA-SHEM" PROFANATION OF THE NAME. Leviticus 22:32: "And you shall not profane My holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the Lord who hallows you". Though God clearly refers to Himself as 'I am' in Exodus 3:14, and though He specifically stated in the next verse that this was the name by which He wanted to be remembered, this was not the name that the Jews subsequently used. They preferred the name Yahweh, which is the third person singular of the present tense of the same archaic form of the verb 'to be'. So, instead of referring to Him as 'I am', the ancient Jews and the compilers of the Old Testament always called him Yahweh, meaning 'He is' or 'He who is'. 'I am' was too holy a name for the Jews to use. As time went on even the euphemism 'He who is' was so sacred and holy to them, it was never spoken by ordinary people. Only the high priest of the temple was permitted to say it out loud, and even he was only permitted to utter it once a year on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. This was essentially due to the understanding that knowing a name means knowing one intimately and thereby one can rule over that person. Thus the personal names of God, Angels and Demons were always kept secret. Thus the name of YHVH was forbidden in common use lest by using the name anything can be done. One of the explanation for the powers of healing and miracles of Jesus was that he alone knew the correct pronunciation of the name YHVH and he could use the name to do all impossible miracles. So how did the Jews get round saying the name of Yahweh when they read the scriptures or spoke of Him? They used two further euphemisms: 'Adonai', meaning 'Lord' ; Elohim or merely 'HaShem', which means 'The Name'. In the ancient Hebrew script there were no vowels, only consonants, and so 54
NAMES OF GOD IN THE BIBLE: A DISPENSATIONAL APPROACH : PROF. M. M. NINAN Yahweh was written YHWH. Whenever the Jews came across this sacred combination of letters, they ignored the correct pronunciation and instead said 'Adonai' or 'Ha Shem'. Eventually they lost the correct pronunciation of the name of God. During a 16th century translation of the old Testament into Latin, the translator accidentally wrote out YHVH with the vowel sounds of ADNI was written. This led to YeHoVa giving rise to the pronounciation of YHVH as Jehovah. When vowels were introduced they wrote the vowels for Adoni on YHVH indicating that it should be read as Adoni. So also with the Elohim. The Mesha Stele bears the earliest known reference (840 BCE) to the Israelite God Yahweh. 55
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THE NAMES OF GOD

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