The tetragram

THE DIVINE NAME IN MODERN SPEECH
pdf
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, and 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."

The seriousness of blasphemy is evident not only in its penalty (death) but in the associated crimes that God lists, some of which (e.g., murder) require 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" in this case 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 [Priests] 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.⁵ 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.⁶ 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,⁷ and that even then it was deliberately obscured.⁸ Admittedly, this hedge is no guarantee against transgression,⁹ 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 should set in godly speech.¹⁰

• 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.¹¹

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 (Old Testament) 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.¹² 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.¹³

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.

For the Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here.