The name of the Lord

THE DIVINE NAME IN MODERN SPEECH
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Dr. Paul Manuel—2008

The biblical scholarly community has made extensive and free use of the tetragram(maton) for many years, both in writing and teaching. The practice is gaining acceptance among pastors and is even prevalent among the laity of certain denominations (e.g., Sacred Name). Some view this as a positive trend, one that enables people "to call on the name of the LORD" (Ps 116:13, 17), yet the result may actually be to make profane (common) what should remain sacred. Although use of the divine name is not a doctrinal issue basic to the faith, it is a concern to some of God's people and, as such, is a matter about which others should be aware. This brief discussion, in part, reflects the attitude and custom of many observant Jews (Messianic and non-Messianic), but the position it espouses derives support from what God has said on the matter, from the many traditions that have arisen as a result, and from the likely negative implications of a more tolerant approach.

The third commandment of the Decalogue is a suitable place to begin. Its most obvious meaning is that people should not use God's name in any way that would reflect improperly on His character, whether directly or by inference.

Exod 20:7 [= Deut 5:11] You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Commentators and preachers frequently read this passage as a prohibition against vulgar language¹ or (less directly) as a metonymy for wrong behavior. The most obvious meaning, however, does relate to speech, but examples from the biblical text point primarily to speech of a specific kind: the use of the Name in oaths.²

Lev 19:12 Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.

Deut 6:13 ( 10:20) Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

The Bible offers one other example of improper use of the tetragram in speech: blaspheming the Name.

Lev 24:10 Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. 11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) 12 They put him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them. 13 Then the LORD said to Moses: 14 "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15 Say to the Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; 16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death."

17 "If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someone's animal must make restitution—life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. 21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God."

23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses.

The seriousness of blasphemy is evident not only in its penalty (death) but in the associated crimes God lists, some (e.g., murder) requiring the same punishment.

These specific references to speech are not necessarily exhaustive of the command's only application. Lev 19:2 (above) includes a related concept that also occurs frequently in the Bible: profaning the Name.

Lev 22:32 Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.

Unlike blasphemy, "profaning the name" seems to characterize wrong deeds more than wrong speech, with the "name" being a metonymy for God's character.³

Lev 18:21 Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.

Lev 21:6 IPriestsl must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because they present the offerings made to the LORD by fire, the food of their God, they are to be holy.

The point in this, at least regarding the third commandment of the Decalogue, is to underscore the fact that God considers the use of His name in speech to be a serious matter, one that His people ignore to their peril.⁴ How should they then speak? Pirke Avot (a second century C.E. Jewish wisdom text similar to Proverbs) opens with these words:

Avot 1: 1 The men of the Great Synagogue said three things: Be deliberate in judging, raise up many disciples, and make a hedge for the Torah.

It is the third item that may be particularly helpful in governing the use of the divine name. Unfortunately, most Christians consider hedging Torah to be legalistic, a Pharisaic practice that Jesus condemned. What he condemned, however, was not the making of a hedge around Torah but the elevation of that hedge above Torah, so that "[they] nullify the word of God by [their] tradition" (Mark 7:13). Travers Herford (a gentile) commented on the Avot passage (1962:21):

To make a hedge for the Torah is a famous phrase, which, like many another Rabbinic sayings, has been much misunderstood. It certainly does not imply any intention to make a rigid system of precept, in which all the spiritual freedom enjoyed by the enlightened soul in communion with the divine should be lost. The Rabbis never had that intention, and never supposed that they suffered any such loss. That is an idea which exists only in the minds of Christians, misreading an experience which as Christians they have never known. The Rabbis always intended by 'the hedge of the Torah', and always understood the term to mean, the precaution taken to keep the divine revelation from harm, so that the sacred enclosure, so to speak, might always be free and open for the human to contemplate the divine. So far as the Torah consists of precepts positive and negative, the 'hedge' consisted of warnings whereby a man was saved before it was too late from transgression.

Herford was correct in stating that the 'hedge' is an experience Christians "have never known," yet most Christians do engage in some form of this practice. For example, the Bible does not condemn the consumption of alcoholic beverages (except by priests on duty), but because it condemns drunkenness, many choose to abstain from such consumption in order to keep from transgressing the prohibition. If they recognize that their decision on this matter is a hedge, it allows them sufficient latitude to participate without guilt in religious functions that serve wine (e.g., communion).

With regard to the tetragram, the seriousness which God attaches to His name has encouraged many Jews to erect a hedge, curtailing their use of that name and, thereby, avoiding transgressing the relevant prohibition. This practice extends at least back to the late Second Temple Period.⁵ In fact, several sources suggest that one of the only times people could hear the Name was in the temple during the recitation of the priestly blessing,⁶ and that even then it was deliberately obscured.⁷ Admittedly, this hedge is no guarantee against transgression,⁸ but it is a wise precaution.

Three other reasons commend the continued usage of this hedge today, especially by those in public positions because of the example they set.

• The first reason not to use the Name is that a speaker does not always know his audience, and the possible presence of those for whom pronouncing the tetragram would be offensive should deter him from such an avoidable impediment to communication. He risks not only offending his listeners, but distracting them from the substance of his message and intensifying their critical faculties so that they are less amenable to other things he may say.

• The second reason not to use the Name is that it prevents the tetragram from becoming just another way of referring to God, and one that might become too familiar a form of address. If, indeed, His "name is holy" (Isa 57:15), then it should be reserved for occasions that demand the gravity of such an utterance. Most pulpit speech or ordinary discourse does not qualify.

• The third reason not to use the Name is that in many cases a speaker would not be doing his audience a service by adding it to their vocabulary and encouraging its use. For example, when people pray, they often refer to God as if He is some form of punctuation, or as if He has a particularly short attention span and needs to be reminded every third or fourth word that they are indeed speaking to Him. This practice is bad enough; it would be worse, however, if the tetragram became just another comma.

Moreover, as the Name acquires greater frequency in the speech of believers, unbelievers would adopt it as well and likely use it in the same profane way they use divine titles?⁹

How do these objections fit with the biblical authors' extensive use of the Name, and should believers today emulate that usage? The answer lies, to some extent, in understanding the cultural context of the ancient documents and how that context changed as time passed. In the Biblical (OT) Period, writers typically employed the tetragram to distinguish Israel's God from the gods of the Canaanite pantheon, primarily for the sake of their co-religionists and for those whose devotion to the true God was less than whole-hearted.¹⁰ In the Second Temple Period, the tetragram declined in use partly because Judaism's strong monotheistic stance denied pagan deities and made the former distinction less of a necessity, and the situation has remained much the same since then. Furthermore, the biblical authors were frequently issuing divine proclamations and, as such, their speech was qualitatively different from that of believers today. For the prophets, especially, the Name validated their pronouncements. Because few (if any) modern speakers can legitimately lay claim to divine inspiration, they should not presume to use the Name in that way.¹¹

The holiness God attributes to His name, the tradition of the believing community, and the caution of common sense recommend careful deliberation in using the tetragram. However intimate His peoples' relationship with Him, however free they might feel from the confines of the law, God still deserves their deference, their reverence, even their fear. One way they express that care is in their treatment of the divine name in speech.

Ps 61:5 ...O God, you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

Bibliography

Herford, Travers, 1962, The Ethics of the Talmud: Sayings of the Fathers. New York: Schocken Books.

Endnotes

[1] For this more general concern, see Paul's admonitions instead.

Eph 5:4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

Col 3:8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

[2] The prophets address this theme:

Isa 48:1 Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness...

Jer 4:1 "If you will return, O Israel, return to me," declares the LORD. "If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, 2 and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, 'As surely as the LORD lives,' then the nations will be blessed by him and in him they will glory."

Jer 12:14 This is what the LORD says: "As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. 15 But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country. 16 And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, 'As surely as the LORD lives'—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people. 17 But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it," declares the LORD.

Jer 44:26 But hear the word of the LORD, all Jews living in Egypt: "I swear by my great name," says the LORD, "that no one from Judah living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name or swear, 'As surely as the Sovereign LORD lives."

Zech 5:4 The LORD Almighty declares, "I will send it out, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. It will remain in his house and destroy it, both its timbers and its stones."

[3] This is a common theme in Leviticus.

Lev 20:3 I will set my face against that man and I will cut him off from his people; for by giving his children to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.

Lev 22:2 Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings the Israelites consecrate to me, so they will not profane my holy name. I am the LORD.

It is also a particular concern of Ezekiel.

Ezek 20:39 As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you! But afterward you will surely listen to me and no longer profane my holy name with your gifts and idols.

Ezek 36:20 ...wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, 'These are the LORD's people, and yet they had to leave his land.' ...23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.

[4] Extra-biblical Jewish documents reflect the same concern.

CD 15:2 He must not make mention of the Law of Moses, because the Name of God is written out fully in it, 3 and if he swears by it, and then commits a sin, he will have defiled the Name.

Avot 4:4 R Yohanan b Beroqah [early 2nd c.] says, "Whoever secretly treats the Name of Heaven as profane publicly pays the price.

[5] During the biblical period, there was no particular compunction against using the name in speech, even for pagans.

• Egyptians

Exod 10:7 Pharaoh's officials said to him... "Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God.

Exod 10:16 Pharaoh...said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.

• Philistines

1 Sam 6:9b ...If it goes up to its own territory...then the LORD has brought this great disaster on us.

1 Sam 29:6a ...Achish called David and said to him, "As surely as the LORD lives, you have been reliable....

• Phoenicians

1 Kgs 5:7 ...Hiram...said, "Praise be to the LORD today, for he has given David a wise son to rule...."

1 Kgs 17:24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know...that the word of the LORD...is the truth."

• Sabaeans

1 Kgs 10:9a Praise be to the LORD your God, who has...placed you on the throne of Israel.

• Syrians

2 Kgs 5:17b ...your servant will never again make...sacrifices to any other god but the LORD.

2 Kgs 8:8b-c Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the LORD through him....

• Assyrians

2 Kgs 18:25b The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.

• Babylonians

Jer 40:2 ...the commander of the guard...said to him, "The LORD your God decreed this disaster for this place.

• Persians

2 Chr 36:23a ...Cyrus king of Persia says: "The LORD...has given me all the kingdoms of the earth...."

The name also appeared frequently in theophoric affixes.

• Proper nouns

Abijah, the Lord is my father Adonijah, the Lord is my master
Ahijah, brother of the Lord
Elijah, God the Lord, the strong Lord
Irijah, the fear of the Lord 
Jehiah, the Lord lives
Jehoahaz, possession of the Lord
Jehoash, fire of the Lord
Jehohanan, grace, or mercy, or gift, of the Lord
Jehoiachin, preparation, or strength, of the Lord
Jehoiada, knowledge of the Lord
Jehoiakim, avenging, or establishing, or resurrection of, the Lord
Jehoiarib, fighting, or multiplying, of the Lord
Jehoram, exaltation of the Lord
Jehoshaphat, the Lord is judge
Jehosheba, fullness, or oath, of the Lord
Jehozadak, justice of the Lord
Tobijah, the Lord is good

Place names

Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide
Jehovah-nissi, the Lord my banner
Jehovah-shalom, the Lord send peace
Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there
Jehovah-tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness

[6] This divine charge dates back to the wilderness.

Num 6:24 "The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Deut 10:8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today.

[7] Many documents from this era attest both the sacredness of the Name and the care people exercised in treating it:

LXX: Translators treated the tetragram differently than they did other proper nouns, rendering it ("Lord,") rather than transliterating it.

Qumran: Several scrolls distinguish the sacredness of the Name by using palaeo-Hebrew characters rather than square letters, and such practice may reflect a common scribal convention (e.g., IQpHab; 4QI5c; llQpsa).

Mishnah: When reciting the Aaronic blessing, the priests "in the Temple uttered the Name as it is written but in the provinces [they uttered it] according to its substitute" (m Tamid 7:2; m Sotah 7:6).

Josephus: Recounting God's answer to Moses' question in Exod 3:13 regarding the Name, Josephus writes that "God revealed to him His name" but adds the caveat, "of which I am forbidden to speak" (Ant 2:275).

Philo: Describing the priestly ephod, Philo calls the tetragram incised on it "a name which only those whose ears and tongues are purified may hear or speak in the holy place, and no other person, nor in any other place at all" (Moses 2:114).

NT: There is no indication that Jesus (or any of the disciples) ever uses the tetragram in public (although he may come close in saying, "Before Abraham was born, I am!" John 8:58). His preference is rather for divine titles (e.g., "father" Matt 6:9).

Talmud: According to R. Abina (470-499 C.E.), God said "I am not called as I am written: I am written with yod and he [etc.], but I am read aleph daleth [nun yod]" (b Kid 71a).

Recalling his experience as a youth visiting the Temple, R. Tarfon (early 2nd c.) said, "I once ascended the dais [where the priests stood when they blessed the people]...and inclined my ear to the High Priest, and heard him swallowing [pronouncing indistinctly] the Name during the chanting of his brother priests" (ibid.).

Cf. Sir 50:20 Then Simon came down, and lifted up his hands over the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, to pronounce the blessing of the Lord with his lips, and to glory in his name; 21 and they bowed down in worship... to receive the blessing from the Most High. 22 "And now bless the God of all, who in every way does great things; who exalts our days from birth, and deals with us according to his mercy."

Apostolic Fathers: Justin Martyr (mid-2nd c.) recognized the sanctity of God's name and advised against its use, lest the speaker succumb to "a hopeless madness" (Apologia 61).

As a result of such precautions, there is no certainty regarding the proper pronunciation of the Name or to what degree that pronunciation may have changed as Hebrew changed over time.

Knowledge of the name may have waxed and waned. There was an awareness before the flood, for "men began to call on the name of the LORD" in the time of Enosh (Gen 4:26). Later generations may have lost that awareness, and by the time of the patriarchs, God says...

Exod 6:3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.

Whatever the status of people's knowledge, God reveals the name to Israel and expects them to preserve it.

Exod 3:15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, '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, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation."

[8] Jesus notes several circumlocutions common in the late Second Temple Period, as does the Mishnah.

Matt 5:34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.

m Shebu 4:13 [Swearing] "by [the name of] Alef-dalet [initial letters of Adonai]" or "Yud-he [initial letters of the tretragram]," "by the Almighty," "by Hosts," "by him who is merciful and gracious," "by him who is long-suffering and abundant in mercy," or by any other euphemism —lo, these are liable.

[9] According to the Palestinian Talmud, it was the decline of moral standards within the priesthood that caused the High Priest to pronounce the name less clearly.

p Yoma 40d At first the High Priest used to proclaim the Name in a loud voice: hut when dissolute men multiplied, he proclaimed it in a low tone.

[10] In addition to the Aaronic Blessing, the High Priest used the name in his solemn confession of sins on the Day of Atonement.

Lev 16:21a He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites....

m Yoma 6:2 [T]hus he used to say, "I pray, O LORD! Your people, the house of Israel, have done wrong, they have transgressed, they have sinned before You. I pray, by Your name! Pardon, I pray, the iniquities, the transgressions, and the sins which Your people, the house of Israel, have committed...."

The response of the people was to prostrate themselves and proclaim:"Blessed be His glorious, sovereign name for ever and ever."

There is some indication that Israel once used the name as part of a greeting, "The LORD be with you" (Judg 6:12; Ruth 2:4; m Ber 9:5), but the practice fell out of usage and is condemned in rabbinic literature.

m Sanh 10:1 [T]hese are they who have no share in the world to come.... Abba Saul (c. 140-165 C.E.) says... he that utters the Divine Name according to its letters.

Pesikta 148a Whoever explicitly pronounces the Name is guilty of a capital offence.

[11] The use of Jehovah in some Bible translations (e.g., ASV) and hymn texts is the result of an inadvertent error by Petrus Galatinus who, in 1518, combined a Latin transliteration of the tetragram consonants with the vowels for the Hebrew qere The resulting artificial form appears four times in the KJV (below) and consistently (6777x) in the ASV.

Exod 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

Ps 83:18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

Isa 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

Isa 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: It may serve as a useful circumlocution in certain instances. Nevertheless, recognizing that some who are concerned about misusing the Name may not agree, it is probably best to avoid the term in speaking and writing.