The
September/October issue of
Bible Study Monthly has an article entitled
"Moses and the Burning Bush," attributed to AOH (Hudson), which discusses much of Exodus 3. There is one paragraph about the holy name as related to Exodus 3:14,15 that I wish to comment on, since the facts are not presented accurately.
The Divine reply to Moses gives us one of the most sublime passages in the whole Bible. "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM ....... Say to the children Israel, I AM has sent me to unto you." In those words, rightly understood, God asserts His own eternity and in fact removes Himself from association with any question of designating names. The word used there is hay ah which is the present tense of the substantive verb "to be" in the first person.
Actually,
hayah is the infinitive form, an active form of "to be," or "to become." Hayah itself is not the first person form.
Exodus 3:14 does use the first person form of hayah; however, this form is usually rendered into English as EHYEH, not HAYAH. According to Strong, hayah (Strong's #1961, this word means "to exist," but he adds, "i.e., be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary)."
The brother seems to be stating that Yahweh has no designated "name," as does his Son (Jesus, Joshua, Yahshua, Yeshua), or any name similar to men like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
However, such a statement does not fit the Old Testament as a whole, since the Bible does indeed many times speak of the holy name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and gives the designation of that name.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was indeed proclaiming his name to be EHYEH 'ASHER EHYEH, or, to use the short form, EHYEH. The brother speaks of this as a substantive verb form. Many Hebrew "names" use substantive verbal forms, so the holy name of God is not unique in this sense. His argument appears to be that this usage means that we should render the holy name in English rendered as a descriptive noun as an interpretation of the verbal form of the Hebrew. However, Hebrew names that use substantive verbal forms are not given a nounal interpretation, nor are they usually rendered into another language with such an interpretive noun . The verbal substantive simply means that the verb itself is used as though it were a noun. In other words, although the word itself is a verb, it is used as a noun. However, the verbal names are never changed into a noun that are thought to be an interpretation of the substantive verb.
The substitution of the third person for the first gives yahweh which has become transliterated, clumsily, into the English word Jehovah and used in some circles as a proper name for God.
Actually, "Jehovah" is not any more a 'clumsy' rendering into English than the way most other names in the Bible are rendered into English. The same arguments used to claim that "Jehovah" is a 'clumsy' rendering could be used for the rendering in English of practically every name in the Bible, including the names Elijah, Joshua, Jesus, etc. "Jehovah" is indirectly based on the Masoretic text, wherein the Masoretes have given vowel points which gives the holy name an approximate pronunciation of "Yehowah." The original Hebrew had no written vowels. In Jesus' day, the Hebrew had no vowel points, but Hebrew, or at least the Aramaic, was still being used. Shortly after A.D. 70, Hebrew became a dead language.
It was not until several centuries after Christ that Jewish scribes began to assign vowel points to Hebrew words. In other words, they were dealing with a dead language when they added the vowel points. Some claim that the Masoretes deliberately put vowels points that would cause one to mispronounce the holy name, but, as yet, I have not seen any evidence that this is true. Of course, even the Masoretes may have had difficulty assigning vowel points, since even they were dealing with what had become a dead language at the time they assigned those vowel points. Thus, as one Hebrew scholar told me, we cannot be for sure that any of the vowel points actually represent the original pronunciation of any of the Hebrew words.
Some argue that Yahweh actually represents the Hebrew pronunciation. Directly, however, the form "Yahweh" came into existence as a result the Greek rendering of the holy name with vowels, such as might be represented with the English vowels: IAOUE or IAUE. It is from this Greek usage that the English Yahweh was formed, by taking the Hebrew consonants YOD HE WAW HE and overlaying it with the Greek pronunciation. Regardless, however, we have nothing definite, and we do have hundreds of theoretical guesses based on assumptions, about the true original pronunciation of the holy name. In reality, we have no more reason to assume that we need to have the exact same pronunciation of God's holy name than of the name of his son. The most common rendering in English of the holy name are Jehovah and Yahweh. The most common rendering of the name of his son are Jesus and Joshua. We should not view these renderings as different "names," however, but simply as variations of the same one "name."
The word should always be rendered as in fact Dr. Moffat usually renders it, "the Eternal." That is the only possible manner of referring to, or describing God, who is from everlasting to everlasting, having no beginning and no ending, who is, and was, and shall be, the Almighty.
This I have to disagree with, since the Bible no where authorizes us to change the holy name to "The Eternal." This phrase is actually a man's nounal interpretation that has been given to the substantive verbal form of the holy name. If we are to do this with God's name, what about the name of His Son? Should we stop referring to the Son as "Jesus" and start calling him "The Eternal's Savior," thereby giving an interpretive nounal meaning to his name? Let us take the name Isaac, which is a verbal form meaning, "he laughs." The name is a substantive verbal form, a verbal form that in Hebrew is being used as a nounal appellation. Should we bring that into English as "The Laughter." Or perhaps we should give it the interpretation: "The Laughing One(?)."
Actually, the scriptures do not show that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ever authorized changing his holy name to such a nounal interpretation as "The Eternal." I do not have Moffat's translation of the Old Testament, but I would suspect that if he is changing the holy name to "The Eternal," he has Isaiah 42:8 reading something like: "I am the Eternal, that is my name." I am not sure how Moffat would fit this nounal interpretation into Exodus 3:14: "The Eternal who The Eternal(?)." If anyone has Moffat's rendering of Exodus 3:14, I would like to see it. I suppose that he would have the holy name changed in Exodus 3:15 to read something like:
God said moreover to Moses, "You shall tell the children of Israel this, 'The Eternal, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations."
This would not, as claimed, mean that "God asserts His own eternity and in fact removes Himself from association with any question of designating names," since it would have God as asserting a name designated as "The Eternal." However, I will emphasize that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob never authorized anyone to change his name to a nounal descriptive, such as "The Eternal." This is man's doings and man's interpretations. It assumes first that the verbal form, EHYEH and YAHWEH, are referring to eternal existence, and then it assumes that that eternal existence can be summed up in nounal phrase, "the Eternal."
I realize that "man" has been debating the meaning of the holy name for centuries. Can we come to a certain understanding of its meaning? I believe that the Bible itself is designed to give us the proper the meaning. Donald E. Gowan, in his book, Theology in Exodus, sums up some, but not all, of the Biblical designs that show the proper meaning of the holy name, although he is hesitant to be definite about its meaning:
4. Should the verb 'ehyeh be read as present or future tense? (Some even mix them.) The evidence points toward future, although it cannot be conclusive. The first-person singular of the verb "to be" is used in a rather restricted way in the Old Testament. It occurs without waw-consecutive forty-two times (counting the parallels 2 Sam. 7:14 and 1 Chron. 17:13 as one), and in twenty-nine of those God is the subject. All of the latter are future in meaning, and of those with other subjects, only Ruth 2:13, 2 Sam. 15:34, and some difficult and questionable passages in Job (3:16; 10:19; 12:4; 17:6) have anything other than a clearly future sense. With God as the subject, the verb form occurs nine times in the formula "I will be with you" and eleven times in the formula "I will be your God and you will be my people." This suggests very strongly that the form should be translated, not "I am," but "I will be." (11)
5. Does the root hayah ever mean "existence" in the Old Testament? (12) Certainly it is used many times simply to indicate that some "is' (e.g., "an the earth was a formless void," (Gen. 1:2), but existence as over against nonexistence is not a subject Old Testament writers discuss, except perhaps in Second Isaiah: "I am Yahweh, and there is no other; besides me there is no god" (Isa. 45:5). But if the writer of Exodus wanted to tell his readers that God said to Moses he is the only God who exists, or (worse yet) that he is "absolute existence" (Maimonides and others), there was a straightforward way to do it -- exactly as Second Isaiah did.
Lest any may not get the point here regarding Isaiah 45:5, we need to ask the question, what Hebrew verb form is used in Isaiah 45:5 for the words "am" and "is"? Is it a form of the verb hayah? Many may be surprised when we say that Isaiah used no verb form at all. The words "am" and "is" are supplied by translators. Most editions of the King James Version denote this by putting the words "am" and "there is" in italics, showing that there is actually no written verbs in the Hebrew. This implies that the usage of 'EHYEH in Exodus 3:14 is more than just about existence vs. non-existence, eternal or otherwise.
While there is much I disagree with
on this site (the author is evidenlty trinitarian), I will quote some of what the author says about the verbal forms 'EHYEH and YAHWEH:
The derivation of JeHoVaH seems to be from a root word meaning "TO BE", i.e., Havah. This could be translated in either of two tenses. in the Qal, corresponding to a static perfect in which all movement has ceased, it would then mean, HE IS (if spoken by others) or I AM, if spoken by Himself. That is, The Supreme Being, The Self-existent, underived, self-sufficient, absolute BEING. The A.V. reflects this in Ex. 3:14, where God names Himself with the words:
"I AM THAT I AM."
If this be the only concept and proper translation, then the Name would be YEHWE or YEHWEH.
538
If the phrase EHYEH ASHER EHYEH , (I AM THAT I AM) , is in the older Hiphil imperfect tense (most able authorities on the Heb. text favor this), then the Name would more nearly approach YAHWE or YAHWEH as a pronunciation. The meaning of this tense is an expansion over the other. From mere self-existence, an apathetic and immobile being in constant repose, distant and unfeeling … to One in constant movement, not only in connection with past revelations of Himself, but in loving living movement, acting in the present circumstances and affording new manifestations of Himself in the future. The whole context of the JeHoVaH passages bear this out. It is JeHoVaH Who has seen the affliction of the people in slavery ... it is He Who will lead them forth. He will love them with an everlasting love and judge them when they embrace other gods. He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious — He will be to His people all that they need.
The important fact is that the name has the pre-form-ative 'yod’. The force of this construction is to give the word a future or indefinite sense. The stress would fall on the active (and future) or continuing manifestation of the Divine Existence. The phrase EHYEH ASHER EHYEH, if rendered in the Hiphil tense would be translated:
"I Shall Be What I Shall Be"
"I Will Become Whatsoever I Please"
"I Will Be What I Will Be"
"I Will Be That I Will Be"
If spoken by others the "I AM" of Ex. 3:14b would be expressed as:
"He Who Brings Into Existence"
"He Who Shall Be (or) Shall Become"
"He Causes To Become"
The author of the above, evidently believing that this speaks of Jesus as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then endeavors to apply this meaning to the "seed of the woman," in the sense of "the coming one." In reality, the one promised by Yahweh in Genesis 3:15 is not Yahweh who made the promise. Since this sidetracks the topic, however, I will not address this in detail at this time.
The point is that the verb forms 'EHYEH and YAHWEH are used in active terms. The "active" sense of these Hebrew verbal forms do not actually mean the expressions as we might interpret them into English in the phrases give above, since these phrases are only an approximation of the active sense of the verbal forms. All of them, I believe, although they try to express the active sense of the verbal forms, and probably express the best as possible in English, still they all probably fall short of the fuller sense as such expressed in the Old Testament times.
The contextual usage of Yahweh gives evidence that Yahweh is used in connection with Yahweh's covenants and his promises. Recognizing this, most scholars refer to the holy name as the 'covenant name of God with Israel.' In other words, they want to limit the holy name's importance only to Israel after the flesh, and that, in the Old Testament only.
Nevertheless, we read.
Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty. Walk before me, and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and you, ... I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you." -- Genesis 17:1,2,7.
Yahweh appeared to [Abraham], and said, ... 'In your seed will all nations of the earth be blessed." -- Genesis 26:2,4.
The covenant with Abraham, Paul tells us, was 430 years before Yahweh gave the Law covenant to Israel. It is this covenant of Yahweh with Abraham. -- Galatians 3:17-19.
Why is this covenant of Yahweh with Abraham so important to Christians? It is because Christians, by faith, enter into that covenant Yahweh made with Abraham for as the seed of Abraham. Thus the holy name should be just as important to Christians as it should be to Israel according to the flesh. (
Luke 22:29 -- Rotherham; Galatians 3:26,2) Jesus is the blessed one who came in the name of Yahweh. -- Deuteronomy 18:15-22; Psalm 118:26; Matthew 21:9; 23:39; Mark 11:9,10; Luke 13:35; 19:38; John 12:13.
In reality, since the main covenant involved is regarding "the seed of woman" (Genesis 3:15), as well as "the seed of Abraham," the promise of Yahweh, the holy covenant name does involve Yahweh's active interest in fulling the promises to both the Israel of the Old Testament, and Israel of faith in the New Testament.
To give God a name, as men and false gods have a name, is to bring Him down to the level of those false gods and make Him one among them.
(1) "We" do not have to "give" God a name. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has given Himself a name. However, by replacing the holy name with "the Lord," "God," "Adonai," or any other form, even "the Eternal," what really happens is that man is indeed giving God a different name than He has given Himself.
(2) Scripturally, the name "Yahweh" does indeed distinguish the only true God from all the false gods, images, gods formed by the hands of men.
Exodus 3:15 - God said moreover to Moses, "You shall tell the children of Israel this, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. -- Matthew 22:32; Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37; Acts 3:13; 7:32.
1 Kings 18:24 - Call you on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Yahweh; and the God who answers by fire, let him be God. All the people answered, It is well spoken.
2 Chronicles 33:22 - He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them.
Nehemiah 9:5 - Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting; and blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
Psalm 105:1 - Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples. -- Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13.
Ps 138:2,5 - I will bow down toward your holy temple, And give thanks to your Name for your lovingkindness and for your truth; For you have exalted your Name and your Word above all. Yes, they will sing of the ways of Yahweh; For great is Yahweh's glory.
Isaiah 12:4 - In that day you will say, "Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name. Declare his doings among the peoples. Proclaim that his name is exalted!" -- John 17:26.
Isaiah 42:8 - I am Yahweh, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to engraved images.
Isaiah 48:2 - (for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Hosts is his name):
Jeremiah 3:17 - At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Yahweh; and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. -- Ephesians 4:17,18.
Jeremiah 8:19 - Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities? -- 1 Corinthians 10:22.
Jeremiah 16:21 - Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Yahweh.
Ezekiel 30:13 - Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis; and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
Joel 2:32 - It will happen that whoever will call on the name of Yahweh shall be saved; For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, As Yahweh has said, And among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls. -- Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13.
Micah 4:5 - Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods; But we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever.
Zephaniah 3:9 - For then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that they may all call on the name of Yahweh, to serve him shoulder to shoulder.
Zechariah 13:9 - I will bring the third part into the fire, And will refine them as silver is refined, And will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, 'It is my people;' And they will say, 'Yahweh is my God.'"
The word "name" here [in Exodus 3:15] -- Shem -- is based on the idea of renown or fame, as when we say "he made a name for himself", and "memorial" -- zeker -- is rememberance or memory. "For ever" -- Ieolam -- extends the name and the memorial, the fame and memory, into the illimitable future, into a continuance without a stipulated or visible ending. In what clearer terms could there be conveyed to mortal man. the realization that all his endeavours to know or visualize or defined God, the Creator, the Almighty, the Heavenly Father, call him what we will, the one simply expression "the Eternal" includes all and sets him for ever apart from the every other object of veneration and every other form of authority that has existed or can arise amongst man.
First we are told that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does not have a name, but now we are told the that the name [that he does not have?] means renown or fame. The Hebrew word "shem" does not, of itself, carry any thought of renown or fame. It can, under certain circumstances, refer to the fame earned which is associated to the appellation itself. We would not say that a certain newscaster made a name for himself and then attribute the term "the Newscaster" as the "name" associated with that fame, which is basically the same kind of thing that one does when one replaces the holy name with a man's interpretation of that name, such as "the Eternal." Yes, Yahweh is eternal, but he is much more, and His holy name means more than that. His being eternal does not relate to His keeping of his promises; the term man has replaced for the holy name, that is, "the Eternal," simply relates to God's eternal existence, which would imply neither anything good or bad, nor anything active toward the Israelites, so as to offer any hope to the Israelites as related to such a meaning. Thus, by limiting the holy name to the expression, "The Eternal," one actually subtracts from the full meaning of the holy name.
And please note that the substitution of "the Eternal" for the holy name does not, as claimed, mean that such replacement in fact removes God from association with a name designation. It simply changes the name designation to "the Eternal," and thus, "the Eternal" becomes the name designation, in the same way that many translators and copyists have changed the holy name to forms of the titles "the Lord," "God," etc.
I will also note that throughout the article, Brother AOH does not refer to the holy name as "the Eternal," but usually he follows the KJV tradition of using "the Lord" or "God" in references where the holy name is used in the Hebrew. On page 197 of the magazine, for instance, he states:
And Moses listened and his heart failed him and he replied dejectedly they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee." (4:1) And the gracious Lord gave him two signs...
On page 198, in quoting Exodus 4:12, he does use the phrase "the Eternal" for the holy name, but in the sentence just preceding, he uses the term "the Lord."
In the same issue, we find another article by Brother AOH, entitled "The Phillippian Jailer." (pages 163-168) Not once does he use "the Eternal" as the holy name, but several times he uses "the Lord" as the holy name.
I am trying not to be overly-critical, but since the most important name in the universe is involved -- the holy name of the only Most High, I believe that we should, as Bible Students, be more critical of how we present that holy name. I know that I myself have, in times past, presented things I thought and believed at the time to be accurate, only later to find out that I was not as accurate as I thought, and thus I need to go back and adapt my study presentations so that they might be more accurate.
Christian love,
Ronald
