IS GOD'S NAME IMPORTANT?

On a Sunday morning the Parish Choir sung a melodious song of praise. I happily sing along hoping that my friend Roman who was beside me at the pew would open his mouth and say Yahweh.   Yahweh in the Bible is the Friend who directed Abraham into the desert to relocate Hagar and Ishmael away from Sarah and Isaac.  He is the God of Jacob or Israel.  He introduced Himself to Moses, as Ehyeh,  the Divine with many names (like Elyon, Hashem, Elroi, Shaddai, Adonai)  among the posterity of Abraham.

The Europeans gave Him a stronger name Jehovah, an English name most common in the Kings versions of the Bible, along with another un-Semitic English word God.

What is the name of God?  

Addressing this query to a group of believers, with my friend Roman, would reveal the difference of unity.

A Jew will say He is Yahweh/Elohim 

A Christian will say He is Jehovah An Arab Christian will say He is Allah A Muslim will also say He is Allah

But my friend Roman, who is a Roman Catholic by birth, is a performer.  First, he does a stare.  Then he turns his face to the left, to the right and stares again.   He does a toddler’s smile and a sound Ahhhhhh— to invite someone to save him. 

Roman is a believer in One Deity with three personalities- Father, Son, and Spirit.   He is not sure or he really doesn’t know what the Father’s name is but is quick to give the Son’s name- Jesus.   He knows nothing about the Spirit’s name.

I was praising Yahweh with the Church Choir so the biblical Name of the Creator may reverberate beyond the walls of the Church with the crowd.  But like Roman, the people opted for silence, unmoved by the majesty of the song.  If only they knew better – there could have been a tremendous roar of Praise to the One God of All the Prophets and Saints in that morning Mass!

What could be the reason or reasons why many Roman Catholics could not or would hesitate to declare Yahweh or Jehovah as God’s name?

Well, it took hundreds of years for the Roman Church to catholicize Christians into the dogma that the One God has three distinct and co-equal personalities.  The Trinity is never mentioned in the Bible but specialized catholics would insist it is there between the lines.   The God of the Hebrews have been called by many names (and titles) in the Semitic tongue as El, Ilah, Eloh, Alah but YHWH is the only proper name of God in the Jewish Tanakh or the O.T. Bible.

EHYEH or YHWH and ALLAH

YHWH is the English transliteration of the 4-letter Hebraic word Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh:  יהוה  also transliterated from the Canaan-Phonecian tongue (the Ancient Hebrew) mentioned in Isaiah 19:18 as the Language of Canaan.  It is the “archaic third person singular imperfect of the verb to be.”   It is also written as YHVH, or JHVH  - meaning He is, without a sound and without vowels.

Ehyeh (pronounced aye-ah) the name revealed by God unto Moses is  “considered by many rabbinical scholars to be a first person singular of  YHWH” therefore, I am.

Sometime between the 6^th and 7^th century, “Jewish textual scholars devised symbols to represent the vowels to arrive at a common pronunciation in their writing system.”   And YHWH was given a new perspective in English as Yahwah, Yahowah , and finally Yahweh.

The Anglicized form of YHWH which is JEHOVAH is an invented name or at least is the name used first by a “Dominican monk in Spain named Ramon Marti in 1270 CE,” in his book, Pugio Fidei (Dagger of Faith), almost 700 years before Charles Taze Russell and a group of Bible Study Students adopted the name JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES.  Charles was the first president of the Watch Tower Society.

Public use of YHWH is punishable by death so that in time, its correct pronunciation has been lost from Jewish memory.   The Jews instead use secondary names Adonai or Elohim in reading the scriptures in their rituals.    

The name Alah/Allah has been a name of a pagan deity in Arabia before Islamic times.   It is derived from the same Semitic origin as Elohim and is the personal name of God for both Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians.   Allah al Ab means God the Father and Mary is called Om Allah or Mother of God.  Allah al Ibn is God the Son (Jesus or Isa) and the Holy Spirit is called Allah Al Ruh al Qudush.

Is God a Name?

“GOD is what God is just as human being is what you are” – hence God is not God’s Name.

The exact history of the word  God  is not known.  It is a relatively new European invention and the Catholic Encyclopedia has it this way- “Anglo-Saxon  God; German Gott; akin to Persian khoda; Hindu khooda)”  along with the remark: “the name sometimes applied to an idol as the image or dwelling-place of a god.” 

Miracle of Tongues

My friend Roman has not seen the light of all these names.   In his catechism days, he never heard Yahweh mentioned.   Each time that Jehovah’s witnesses visit their home, his Mom would instruct him to say:  “We are not here.”   And Muslims do not sell Islam to Roman’s family only watches, perfume, and rags. 

Yet in God’s own time, Roman now is singing Yahweh hymns with the Choir.  Introducing the languages at Babel, God divided humankind into nations and tribes.  In compassion, He gathers them all to Unity as He disposes.   He purifies translations and transliterations, like prayers, so that humanity in all ages may glorify Him, His Name, His Attributes without ceasing.  Amen.