yhwh

Crazyguy

We have been told that this yhwh is the symbol for gods name and that they the Jews didn't use his name because it was so special. History shows that the name was banned for a time before the maccabees and after it was to sacred to say. There is a problem with this idea though and that is, in older writings of the name dating back to around 1400 bce in Egypt the name yhw was found and yhwh was also found on a moabite Stella also very old. So its my thought that these symbols were not a shorted version of gods name because his name is so sacred but in fact some kind of actual name. Any ideas?

jgnat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha_Stele 840BCE

Surely a pagan nation would have no qualms about speaking the sacred name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh_(Canaanite_deity)

Yahweh, a Caananite deity, god of War.

https://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2010/03/08/The-Name-Yahweh-in-Egyptian-Hieroglyphic-Texts.aspx

http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1443443/jewish/Why-Dont-Jews-Say-Gds-Name.htm

Modern Jewish beliefs about the name of G-d. I haven't found when this tradition started, but it could be well after the adoption of YHWH by Isreal from Caanan.

sarahsmile

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Golem.html

Love the Golem story it might have some truth.

That is why they stopped calling on the name of God so certain ones could have the power. Some thought they could raise the dead with the name.

Earnest

There is a thought that Jah (YH) and Jehovah (YHWH) are two different names for the same God. Sometimes in the Bible it speaks of 'Jah Jehovah' which suggests they are two different names. Why would you repeat the same name? However, when YH is used as a patronym (as in Joshua (ending with YH), or you have the Greek term Hallelujah (ending IAH), it seems that it is referring to Jehovah and just using 'YH' or 'IAH' for brevity as it is a composite word.

The orthodox, rabbinical Jews seemed to have avoided using God's name in the inter-testamental period, probably after the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, known as the Septuagint. However, this was not universal and only became so after the destruction of Jerusalem when Judaism became rabbinical. Even then there remained some branches of Judaism who continued using God's name and still do so today.

Cold Steel

The ancient Hebrews simply didn't have the concept of God that was taught and believed by the ancient Christians. The concept of the Trinity was used by the early church fathers to reconcile the monotheistic teachings of traditional Judaism to the concept of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How can 1+1+1=1? Only if the oneness of God is pluralistic.

I have no problem believing in the individuality of each member of the Godhead. In Genesis, God seems be plural ("man has become as one of us"). The members of the Godhead seem to be able to speak to each other. The analogies of God being like raindrops or flickers of fire, while initially satisfying, always leave a bad aftertaste. Is Jesus God, the Son of God, or both?

Ultimately it doesn't matter what people think. If they want to think of God as one in purpose, like I do, or that they are three manifestations of one being, the important thing is what is being said, not who said it. The New Testament teaches that Jesus is the Firstborn Son of God and the Only Begotten Son of the Father. It also teaches that human beings are not just a creation of God but God's offspring. But if we're created at birth, this would be impossible. If we are the offspring of God, we had to have had an existence prior to our birth.

There are singular nouns that have plural elements. A family, for example, is singular, but it can include an indefinate number of elements. So can the word quorum have an indefinite number of elements. The singular term "God" also can be a singular term with inefinite numbers of elements. The apostles were a quorum, and Jesus prayed that "[the apostles] may be ONE, even as [God] is ONE." Or..."that they may be one, even as we are one."

YHWH should be considered an actual name, but it remains a mystery to us as to how it was used and when. We only know it was treated with the utmost respect. "God" is not a proper name, but a title, like El or El Elyon or Eloheim. Jesus, in the Gospels, plainly identifies himself as Yahweh, but not the Father. He enraged the Jews by telling them he was the great I AM who spoke to Abraham and other prophets. In the Old Testament, Yahweh is the great judge of nations and mankind, yet John says that "the Father judges no man but has committed all judgment unto the Son." (John 5:22) As the mediator between the Father and Man, Yahweh is also the Shepherd of Israel, the Savior, and the First and the Last, all titles claimed by Jesus. At the conclusion of Earth's redemption, Yahweh will present it to the Father, redeemed and glorified. The ancient Hebrews did not have this understanding (except possibly the patriarchs). The understanding of God revealed in the New Testament was, to the Jews, a horrendous blasphemy to this day.

That's my understanding of Yahweh. I don't think it would be likely that it would be a name without vowels. But I think it pertains to the Son, not the Father. It's clearly not the same name as Michael.

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transhuman68

LOL, of course there were no vowels in the old Hebrew language: or any punctuation of any kind, so everything in the OT is just a mess- modern day scholars have to guess where the words start & finish- and YHWH was just YHWH. To the southern kingdom, god was YHWH, but in the northern kingdom god was Elohim. The writings of each flyspeck kingdom were combined to make the mess we know as the Bible today.

Xanthippe

Perhaps it should be pronounced Yourway as in you're in charge, do it your way

DATA-DOG

Some say that YHWH simply represents 4 attributes of the "concept" of "GOD", but in reality the "GOD" of the bible doesn not exist. It's just a concept pushed by religious leaders of various denominations to enable them to have power over others. Some say the reason why you never get any answers to your prayers, or see any divine protection of Christians [ think of JWs claiming angelic protection, but NEVER getting it ] is because Jehovah of the Watchtower is a concept created to make you a slave to religious leaders.

DD

jamclark

In all that I've seen, it is an abbreviation from anything like Yahweh, Yahovah, Yahuah, Yahuwah, etc. and also a source toward Jehovah and other linguistic twists (sounds new to modern languages like the J, V, and W).

It certainly is better to use a YHWH based name than LORD or God or similar title. Better also than a modernized version of YHWH. I was comfortable with Jehovah during my 19 years of studying with them, but they prefer that accepted (and established) name instead of a more proper YHWH based one.

In my studies, YHUH is equivalent to the YHWH (U compared to the Germanic W) which leads to Yahuah as His name.

It is up to us to make the truth our own and listen to His voice.

yhwh

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