1Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain, to Horeb. 2Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 3Moses said, “I will go now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”
4When Yahweh saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!”
He said, “Here I am.”
5He said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.” 6Moreover he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
7Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 9Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
11Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
12He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
13Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?”
14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, 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 this is my memorial to all generations. 16Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. 17I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ 18They will listen to your voice. You shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall tell him, ‘Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh, our God.’ 19I know that the king of Egypt won’t give you permission to go, no, not by a mighty hand. 20I will reach out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do among them, and after that he will let you go. 21I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it will happen that when you go, you shall not go empty-handed. 22But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, and of her who visits her house, jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing. You shall put them on your sons, and on your daughters. You shall plunder the Egyptians.”
The people of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East worshipped many gods, each one possessing a proper name. The Greek-speaking world had a number of gods, such as Zeus, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Ares, with Latin counterparts of Jupiter, Diana, Venus, and Mars. As well, the Egyptians had many gods, the chief being Ra, the sun god. The kingdom of the Babylonians, among whom a large number of Israelites lived after the deportation had Marduk as their chief deity. The Canaanites worshipped several gods, the most known being Ba'al and Asherah, Ba'al's consort. All of these nations had proper names of their deities, as given above, and also more generic designations, such as god and lord (master). The same is true of the God of the Hebrews/Israelites. They referred to their deity as God and Lord, but we find in the history of God's revelation to His people that He also gave to them through Moses' encounter with the Israelite deity on Mt. Horeb, that their God also had a proper name.
When Moses came before the God of the Israelites He had some specific instructions. Look at His words to His prophetic and spokesman as He indicated that He would be bringing His people out of bondage after they were in Egypt for approximately 400 years, foretold in Genesis 15:13-16, to possess the land of Israel that was inhabited with worshippers of false gods. In Exodus 3, the Hebrew deity said that having heard the cries of His people He had come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and take them to the land promised to Abraham.
Upon hearing these divine words, Moses inquired of God regarding the name of the God before Him. The reply is clear, forceful, and commanding: "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' (Ex 3:14). These Hebrew words are God's proclamation of Himself, words that only He could proclaim. They are the same words that Jesus gave to the challenge of the unbelieving Jews in John 8:58 (the Greek text says eγω ειμι (ego (I) eimi (I am)), or I myself am. Having given this personal statement, the I AM provides for Moses and the Israelites how they were to address Him. "Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This (referring to Yahweh) is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations" (Ex 3:15). Having given this revelation of His personal name to Moses, to be taught to the Israelites, this personal name is given several more times in His address to Moses. One will observe in the text of the Old Testament the name of the true God (the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Israel), approximately 6,000 times as the personal name by which He was known and addressed in the Hebrew Scriptures (see specifics about the name Yahweh in Ex 3 discussion above.
This exposition gives rise to why the personal name of God, said to be His name forever and for all generations, is often not known and is not pronounced among Jews and Christians alike. There are several reasons why this may be so.
| Hebrew | ה | ו | ה | י |
| Greek | β | ι | ||
| English | h | w | h | y |
Greek manuscripts and church fathers had difficulty using the name since the language did not have a y or h: yahweh (Hebrew and English have y, h, w, while Greek and Latin do not have a y, h, or w). Yet some fathers and manuscripts use the equivalent of Yahweh as ιαε or ιαβε for יהוה (iae or iabe for Yahweh).
4. Since Yahweh was the name for the Jews to acknowledge the God of their fathers through all generations, is there any importance for the Christians today? In the preface of the 1971 New American Standard Version of the Bible there is an interesting paragraph:
THE PROPER NAME OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT: In the Scriptures, the name of God is most significant and understandably so. It is inconceivable to think of spiritual matters without a proper designation for the Supreme Deity. Thus the most common name for the Deity is God, a translation of the original Elohim. One of the titles for God is Lord, a translation of Adonai. There is yet another name that is particularly assigned to God as His special or proper name, that is, the four letters YHWH (Exodus 3:14 and Isaiah 42:8). This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name. Therefore, it has been consistently translated LORD. The only exception to this translation of YHWH is when it occurs in immediate proximity to the word Lord, that is, Adonai. In that case it is regularly translated GOD in order to avoid confusion. It is known that for many years YHWH has been transliterated as Yahweh, however no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation.
5. The writers of the preface acknowledge the importance of having a proper designation for the Supreme Deity, as in fact religions throughout history and today have such names, but when it comes to the God of the Bible, who provided the name He wanted to be known by in the Old Testament, this is the one that is not used and is ignored. Those who wrote the preface indicate that YHWH has been spoken as Yahweh (note Hallelu-yah), "no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation." This is an odd statement. We know that the pronunciation of Yahweh is as correct as most of what we know in biblical scholarship, yet it is not used (with the exception of the Jerusalem Bible, World English Bible, and Christian Standard Bible). The use of Yahweh does not appear to be a requirement for Christians. Nonetheless, I believe that the name that was given by God for the people of the Abrahamic Covenant has some basis for Christians to use the divine name when dealing with the Hebrew Scriptures since this is an eternal name He has given and is His proper name in the Old Testament.