by zack 13 Replies latest watchtower bible
I ask this because Jesus referred to God as: my Lord, my Father, my God. He never used the word Jehovah. It always seemed
to me that IF ANYONE would use the name, certainly Jesus would. So is YHWH really God's name? Or was it just a Hebrew term to
identify and differentiate the Supreme Being from all other beings, the One calling himself "He Who Causes To Become", or "I Shall
Prove To Be What I Shall Prove To Be"?
Zack--------
I've had similar thoughts,
...that YHWH is more of a concept than a Person.
"God is Love".
Love "causes to become".
I AM, therefore I create.
(Or is it I create, therefore I am?)
How about I love, therefore I create?
Or a hodgepodge of thoughts to that effect. :)
In hebrew word "name" means something more then just combination of letters over ones person. Name means your essence, your beeing, your nature. God meny times sayed "My name is whatever" and this "whatever" allways is characteristics of God. So the name YHWH is the very essence of God and you are true - he is one who brings reality into being, in our language it is "Creator". Because creating is what makes a god God. If it does not create reality, it is not God! And by revealing his true name YHWH God proclaimed himself to be the one true God who creates, not some bla bla bla God which can be invented by anyone with good imagination. You can see this name giving and name changin in Scriptrues many times, personal name is changed when inner state, inner nature of man is changed. So it is in our culture that name is only sound, in Hebrew culture the name is more, it is THE NAME. So to call for Name of God is the same as to call for God himself. Name of God is short description of his nature. The same goes with Satan. Name "Diabolos" is opposite to "Symbolos"(everyday symbol), and it means - one who messes up. So in conclusion YHWH is the very name of that supreme source of whole reality - it IS God the Creator revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit for us to have chances to comprehand the nature.
You ask is "Jehovah really a name" but then go on aboutYHWH.
They are not the same thing.
YHWH is the Hebrew name as found in the Hebrew scriptures.
Jehovah is a made up name from the 12th century.
A Roman Catholic monk took YHWH and the vowels from Adonai (Lord) and put them together an came up with Jehovah.
Even Jews today do not regard Jehovah as a name for God.
It also amuses me that the JW's so persistent that "Jehovah" is used, forget that it was made up by a Catholic monk and approved by the Pope of the time. If they were true to their view about not using anything from the "pagan" influenced Catholic Church. Then they should drop the use of Jehovah.
I actually had the Spirit talk to me on this very subject a few weeks ago. I say Jehovah is not a name of God, and I tell you why. It's artificial, just like Allah. To say his name IS Jehovah, I can't buy that. If you say Elohim, Eloah, Adonai, Yeshaua*, then I think thats a lot more accurate.
Here is a link to a site that speaks about this topic.
http://wernerbiblecommentary.org/?q=node/8
I don't kn ow how to make this a link, so just copy this into your browser. The 8th paragraph speaks directly tp this topic.
Thanks all so far.
In the older polytheistic setting gods had names for the same reason people had names: to identify them from each other.
Should you not possess what your god Chemosh gives you to possess? And should we not be the ones to possess everything that our god Yahweh has conquered for our benefit? -- Judges 11:24
In this particular setting "Yahweh" was probably evocative of the wind blowing, which suited a storm-god pretty well.
When a particular god becomes "God," his name cannot play such a role anymore. Then it becomes an extraordinarily sacred name, barred from everyday use, open to theological or philosophical interpretations (related to "being" in Exodus 3:14) as well as magical or esoterical uses. This is exactly what happened to "Yahweh" in Jewish monotheism.
Yahweh is an embarrassing vestige of God's childhood -- when he was a little god.
It's a hebrew term to reference their creator god. Jehovah is just an approximation of the tetragrammeton in english.
Remember that the name "Jehovah" was not invented by the WTS. It was in use since 1206 AD. I find many non-JW songs that use Jehovah and passed by 3 churches on my recent trip that had "Jehovah" in the name and other church that had "Jehovah" in the title of the Sunday sermon.
Blondie
