There has been a lot of controversy stirred over the years about the name of God, that being the triune-God, and also the name of the person of Jesus. And to make it clear why this is a spiritual warfare issue, it is because of the way many people are claiming is God’s real name, it pretty shocking.
This post is going to be broken down into two parts. The first will be about the only name of the triune-God, Yahweh (or, יהוה) and the only name of Jesus (Ἰησοῦς or, Iēsous).
The Divine Name of Yahweh
There have been many, many books written about the “names of God.” These names range from El (אֵל, singular), Elohim (אֱלֹהִים, plural of אֵל), or Jehovah (there is no Hebrew equivalent to this name), Jehovah-Jireh (Jehovah provides), Sabaoth (צְבָאוֹת or, tsbaot).
However, in studying the history of the Ancient Near East (ANE), El was a very common name attributed to many “gods” of the ANE. What that means is that El/Elohim was used as a generic reference to the “God” of the Israelites and the Bible.
Jehovah, as a seminary professor of mine has said, is a name used by people that do not understand Hebrew. When the Hebrew name for God, יהוה showed up in the Hebrew text, becaue of the command to “not take the name of יהוה your God (El) in vain”, the Hebrews refused to speak the name of God to avoid any mistakes in taking such a holy name in vain. Therefore, the Masorets when adding the vowel indicators (the dots, lines and dashes) put only some of the vowels for אֲדֹנָי (Adonai) to indicate to readers to say “adonai” out loud instead of Yahweh. When you look at the transliteration of this combination it looks like “Jehovah”. The reality is, that “Jehovah” is in fact a misinterpretation of the text and has been accepted as a name of God, but the tradition fallacy which states that “because tradition says it is true, therefore it is true despite what the evidence says” has been taken as evidence and it simply is not. Also, since the Roman Catholic Church has been using that argument for centuries to defend erroneous traditions that contradict scripture, it is only logical to throw the name “Jehovah” out. Also, names associated with “Jehovah” like, “Jehvah-Jireh” were not names given to Yahweh, but really to monuments or indicators that reminded the people about something that Yahweh wanted them to remember about who he was, with Jehovah-Jireh, that Yahweh was their provider. But it was not his actual or even proper name. To be honest, like with Sabaoth which is just a reference to “hosts” or “armies” indicating angels, claiming these names to be “names of God’ is, believe it or not, taking God’s name in vain because you are refusing to recognize him for who he is.
We get a reference to God’s true and holy name in Exodus 3:14-15:
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, 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 thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ex 3:14–15.
“the LORD” here is the divine name of יהוה and is the name used the most for God. Whenever you see “the LORD” or even “GOD” in small caps in your Bibles, it is in fact the divine name, יהוה, and it is the only proper name that God gave us as his holy name. Anything other “name” is a handy reminder of who God is, but his real, and only, name is יהוה, Yahweh.
Understanding this as God’s true divine name helps us in evidence for the Trinity as well. Although many turn to 1 John 5:7 in the KJV which says that:
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 1 Jn 5:7.
However, in other Bibles it says:
For there are three that testify:
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Jn 5:7.
The difference is because the additional part in the KJV was added later to help explain and give direct evidence to the reality of the Trinity. However, this text did not start showing up until after the original Latin Vulgate, translated in the 4th century. After that, other Greek copies started showing this verse, none of the older Greek documents we have show that this additional part of the verse existed. Much like the Woman Caught in Adultery in John 8, and the the longer ending to Mark 16. These are also later additions to the text and were accepted as scripture because of “tradition”.
But if that verse does not work is there one that does? In fact, there is. It is the verse most Rabbinic Jews and many deniers of the Trinity try to use for evidence that there is no Trinity. It is Deuteronomy 6:4:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Dt 6:4.
Wait Anthony, how does that explain the Trinity? It says God is ONE. Well, let us look at the Hebrew:
שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה׀ אֶחָֽד׃
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: With Werkgroep Informatica, Vrije Universiteit Morphology; Bible. O.T. Hebrew. Werkgroep Informatica, Vrije Universiteit. (Logos Bible Software, 2006), Dt 6:4.
Okay Anthony, you’re speaking gobbledegook again. Here is the direct translation:
“Hear Israel Yahweh our Gods Yahweh one.”
Okay, so … wait what? That is right, the word “God” in our English Bibles for that verse is really “Gods”. Despite what others have said in theological books, the reference to God as “Elohim/Gods” is a reference to God’s trinitarian reality. So, when this verse is spoken it is saying that Yahweh is composed of “Gods” and that those “Gods” are one. Who are the three “Gods” that scripture, specifically the New Testament, recognize as “Gods”? You guessed it: the Father, Jesus and the Comforter (the Holy Spirit). And as Deuteronomy 6:4 plainly states, these three “Gods” are one God, proving the Trinity.
The Name of Jesus
The big controversy today with the name of Jesus is that there are people claiming that the true name of Jesus is, Yeshua, because the letter “j” did not exist until the middle ages. While this is true about the letter “j” the claim simply is not true.
First, the name of the Messiah is never given to us in the Old Testament. So, saying Jesus’ real name is Yeshua, and that it is blasphemy to call Jesus, “Jesus” is in fact wrong since the Bible never says Jesus’ name is Yeshua.
Second, since the Old Testament never gives Jesus’ name in Hebrew, the only name we have for Jesus is, Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous). If someone is going to claim it is blasphemous to call Jesus, “Jesus”, because that is not his real name, hate to burst your bubble, but the only name the Bible gives us for Jesus is the Greek: Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous). The name Yeshua is never given to Jesus. I have seen other writers try to claim that Jesus’ true name is Yahushua like Zen Garcia, an active gnostic and kabbalist, on page 4 of his 2017 book The Collected Works of Enoch the Prophet. Again, like with Yeshua, Garcia’s claim here is completely fallacious.
While I was on Facebook, another woman I followed made the claim that Yahweh was not God’s true name, but only the name “Jesus” was. Again, this is a fallacious claim because Jesus also claims to be Yahweh.
While there are many examples in the gospel of John, the most prudent is:
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 8:58.
The words here, “I am”, in the Greek read “ἐγὼ εἰμί” (egō eimi). This form of “I Am” is also used in the Septuagint, the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Tanakh (our Old Testament), for “I Am” in Exodus 3:14 in all caps above, or small caps in your modern Bibles. That is correct, Jesus was claiming to be Yahweh. Not only in John 8:58 either. Like the other seven famous I am statements in John, for instance, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me.”, is also a claim to Jesus being Yahweh. Another overlooked story about Jesus claiming to be Yahweh is one of the few stories in all four gospels, Jesus walking on water. When Peter says to the “ghost”, “who are you lord?”, we all know Jesus states, “be not afraind, it is I.” However, the Greek uses the Greek form of “I Am”, “ἐγὼ εἰμί” (egō eimi). When Peter asked who the “ghost” was, Jesus said he was “Yahweh”. When Peter asked, “if it is you tell me to come out to you on the water.” Peter failed in his faith right there, he did not believe that Jesus was who Jesus claimed to be. The whole theology of “get out of the boat” is completely flawed. If Peter had truly believed that this “ghost”, Jesus, was really Yahweh, Peter would have stayed in the boat to begin with. When Jesus asked Peter, “why did you doubt?”, this was not about doubting Peter’s ability to walk on the water by believing in Christ. It was the failure of actually believing in Christ to begin with.
Jesus associating himself with Yahweh, the true name, and most holy name in all creation, and also the Bible telling us that the true name of God is יהוה and Jesus’ name as being Ἰησοῦς, technically the use of any other name, including Yeshua for Jesus would be blasphemy by the reasoning of people telling us we can only call Jesus, Yeshua.
Conclusion
The reality is, that many people that make these claims simply do not understand biblcial interpretation or textual criticism. In reality, calling God, God, or Jesus, Jesus in any languages form, is perfectly fine. These names are language translations and not replacements for any of the names of the persons of the Trinity, or the Triune-God himself.
There is one more case, however that has come up in recent years about the fact that biblical Hebrew was originally written without vowels. Some have made the claim that Hebrew, therefore, was also spoken without vowels. Anyone that knows anything about language, or just making noises at all, will know that coherent language cannot be made without vowels. No language, from the beginning of time until now, has ever been spoken without vowels.
I say this because a meme claim was circling around that the two halves of Yahweh’s name “yh” and “wh” sound like when we breathe in as “yh” and us breathing out as “wh” is a mark of God and everything we breath we are “speaking” God’s name. The same meme makes the claim that from when w are born to when we die, we start by saying the first half of God’s name when we come out of the womb, and when we die, we say the final half of God’s name. All of this is based off the claim that biblical Hebrew was never spoken with vowels. This is of course, absurd.
The Masoretic text that we base our current Old Testament off of, was scripted with the vowel indicators as a way of not letting the Jewish people once again forget how to speak their own language, like in Nehemiah. The second temple was the centre of learning, especially about the Tanakh. When the second temple was destroyed in 70 AD, how to read the Tanakh properly was also starting to be lost and forgotten. Therefore, to protect the scriptures, and make sure everyone could read them forever, the Masorets added the vowel indicators. Some will take this to say then that we really do not know how to speak God’s name, יהוה. While this may seem like a fair argument, let us all be honest, would our God, the almighty Yahweh, really let his creation forget what his holy name is? I highly doubt it. God will not let his name, or himself to ever be forgotten.
Ultimately, the yhwh argument about breathing is dangerous because it would then mean that even when not “sinning”, but we are doing something of a secular nature for the sake of simply living, by simply breathing God’s name, you are in fact taking God’s name in vain because you are using his name with impunity, not caring about its significance or holiness. Dangerous line of thinking.