1After these things Yahweh’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
2Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Abram said, “Behold, you have given no children to me: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.”
4Behold, Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.” 5Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will be.” 6He believed in Yahweh, who credited it to him for righteousness. 7He said to Abram, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”
8He said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?”
9He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10He brought him all these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn’t divide the birds. 11The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him. 13He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. 14I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth; 15but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. 16In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.” 17It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: 19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
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 prophet 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.'" (Exod 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" (Exodus 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 Exod 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 (Exod 3:14 and Isa 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.