S4 E7: The Names of God--Part 1

Season 4 of Spirit-Led Hope is covering the Doctrine of God, or theology, from a Spirit-led perspective. In this episode, Glenn begins a discussion on the names of God. Specifically, this episode looks at the general and personal names for God found in the Old and New Testaments. Glenn also addresses the possibility that Christians can become too casual when relating to the name of God.

This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/ . These transcripts have been edited for accuracy and are typically of higher quality than those produced automatically by many podcast apps.

Season 4 is part of a long term goal to study systematic theology from a Spirit-led perspective. If you want to know more about systematic theology, or expand your study, Glenn is using the following text as a helpful framework to make sure the main topics are covered:  Foundations of Pentecostal Theology, by Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave.  The book is published by Foursquare Media and Glenn is using the Second Edition published in 2016.       

Transcript

S4 E7 TRANSCRIPT 

THE NAMES OF GOD--PART 1

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at:

     THE NAMES OF GOD—PART 1

As I was preparing for this episode, I realized that we could have covered some of this material in Season 3, when we talked about the Bible. It turns out that there are some nuances throughout Scripture when it comes to the names of God. And this has affected the Biblical text we read today.

Names in the Jewish culture often conveyed something about the nature, or attributes, of the person. So anytime we see God’s name in Scripture, we should pay attention to it. The Israelites also considered the personal name of God to be so holy, they avoided spelling it out or pronouncing it. And this tradition, has carried over into most English translations. I do not know if that is true for translations in other languages, but it would not surprise me if it were.

GENERAL NAMES AND PERSONAL NAME

As you investigate God’s name in the Bible, you will find the general name for God, his personal name, and his titles. Let us start by looking at his general name in the Old Testament. We see an example of this in the very first verse of the Bible. Let’s read it.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 CSB

So here, English translations use the word “God,” capital G, small o, small d. This is a translation of the Hebrew word ‘elohim. Now, I am not a Hebrew or Greek scholar, and I do not speak those languages, so please forgive me if I pronounce some of these words wrong. I have heard them pronounced many different ways. For example, I have heard this word pronounced ‘elohim. But whenever you see “God” in the Old Testament, written with a capital G, you know that will be a translation of God’s general name which is ‘elohim or a variant like ‘el or ‘eloah. 

Another important word in the Old Testament is “Adonai” or “Adonay” which is the Hebrew title of Lord, given to God. The importance of that word will become clearer when we talk about God’s personal name.

If you want to hear these words pronounced by linguists, use a resource like the Blue Letter Bible or various YouTube videos where linguists voice their pronunciation. And yet, even there, you will find there is not always an agreement on how these words should sound. Often, there is a disagreement on how they should be spelled. But again, my apologies if I really mess them up.

In the New Testament it is simple…the Greek word “theos” is translated as God with a capital G. In its original use, theos just meant a deity, but in the New Testament context it is the general name for God. You will also see the word “kurios” translated as Lord with a capital L. Kurios in its original context generally meant a master. If you want to see how these words are spelled, please go to spiritledhope.com and read the transcripts you will find on my website. These are transcripts I produced, and all spellings are correct.

So, there you have it…these are the Hebrew and Greek words which become the general name of “God” with a capital G to English speakers. Now let us look at God’s personal name. In the last episode we read the account where Moses spoke to God in the burning bush. In that exchange, God revealed his personal name. So let us read that section of Scripture again.

Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name? ’ what should I tell them? God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”

Exodus 3:13,14

If we look at the Hebrew characters which are translated as “I AM,” or “I AM WHO I AM,” we are reading the personal name of God. The Hebrew characters translated into English, are written in all capitals as YHWH. This arrangement of four letters is called the Tetragrammaton. The Tetragrammaton, God’s divine personal name, is used over 5000 times in the Old Testament.

But wait a minute…if you have read the whole Old Testament, you know that your English translation does not say “I AM WHO I AM” 5000 times. And that is because the ancient Israelites were very careful when it came to speaking God’s name. Instead of speaking God’s personal name out loud, they would use “Adonai,” the Hebrew word for “Lord” which I mentioned earlier. Most modern English translations of the Bible respect this Jewish tradition and replace the Tetragrammaton with the word “Lord” written in all small capital letters. So, whenever you read the Old Testament and see “Lord” in all small capitals, you know that is referring to God’s personal name. You can mentally substitute the Tetragrammaton in its place.

As a side note, if “Adonai” is used with the Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew manuscript, many English Bible translations will render that as “the Lord God” with “God” written in all small capitals. If you want to know how your version of the Bible handles the Tetragrammaton, look in the very front of the Bible. Most study Bibles will explain their conventions in the first few pages. If you cannot find an explanation in your Bible, then I suggest going to the publisher’s website or use a parallel Bible like the online Blue Letter Bible to figure it out.

The ancient Israelites believed God’s personal name was so holy that it should not be spoken out loud. They also had a fear of saying his name in a way that was displeasing to God. Because of this, the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton has been lost. You may recall from Season 3 that Biblical Hebrew only contains consonants. So how do you say YHWH if you do not have any vowels? We do not know for sure. 

Some of the early English translators took the vowels from the word for Lord, which is Adonai, and combined them with YHWH. From this, the translators settled on Jehovah as God’s personal name. But more recent work by scholars has made that a less favorable translation. Now, the most accepted way to say God’s personal name is Yahweh, and it will be what I use whenever I talk about the personal name of God.

But if you hear someone say Jehovah, or Yahweh, or Yehowah, or something else like that…you can be pretty sure it is their attempt to say God’s personal name.

In studying for this episode, I was surprised to find that some Jewish mystics prefer Yahweh because they believe that whenever we breathe, we are speaking the personal name of God. In other words, the sound of breathing is God’s name. Let me see if I can demonstrate their view by taking some exaggerated breaths.

Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh. I am not sure I am convinced, but I kind of get it. You will have to make up your own mind about that.

Now that we have settled on Yahweh as the way to say God’s personal name, do we see his name anywhere in an English version of the New Testament? The answer is yes, but it is not obvious at first because of the way the Hebrew of the Old Testament was translated into the Greek of the New Testament.

But here is the bottom line, and it should not surprise us…the name “Jesus” is transliterated from the Hebrew and Aramaic as “Yeshua” which means “Yahweh saves.” You could also say that “Jesus” means “Yahweh is salvation.” Jesus, the focal point of the New Testament, embodies the personal name of God. I love that.

IS IT OKAY TO SAY GOD’S PERSONAL NAME?

So far, we have looked at the general names and the personal name of God. Before we go any further, I want to bring up a challenging topic. When we see how cautious the Israelites were in speaking God’s personal name, it makes me wonder if it is possible to be too flippant and casual when speaking God’s name.

The obvious answer is yes. For sure, a common day for me includes hearing someone speak “God” or “Jesus” in a very inappropriate way. It might be at work, or in the store, or something I hear on the radio, a podcast, or television. It is easy for me to hear an example of someone misusing God’s name. And, unless you live an isolated life, I suspect the same is true for you.

But that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about myself, or you, or other Christians. Is it possible to become so casual in our relationship with God that we lose the majesty and power of his name. And, I believe, the answer is yes.

I can recall seasons where God took a back seat to the rest of my life. And if I am honest with myself, during those periods the name of Jesus was not much different than Tom, Dick, or Harry. Now, I did not swear using God’s name, or anything like that. But I had lost the reverence of God’s name and the personal connection.

Monica and I recently celebrated our 45th year of marriage, and I love her name. Even after all these years, I love hearing her name spoken. If I meet another woman named Monica, I automatically assume she must be one of the greatest people on the planet. In fact, if I meet someone named Monica who is not a good person, it irritates me that they have sullied the name of my wife. And if someone uses Monica’s name in a derogatory way…watch out, because I want my wife’s name to be honored.

If that is the way I feel towards the name of my wife, how much more should I honor and respect God’s name. What I have found in my own life, is that when I am personally close to God, his name holds tremendous significance.

This does not mean that I am worried about calling out to God by his name Yahweh. I am not worried that he will hit me with a lightning bolt because I pronounced it wrong. But I do experience reverential awe that God has allowed me to speak to him personally. It is like someone famous has given me their personal cell phone number and I can call them at any time.

God does not demand that we address him by some title like an earthly leader would. And yet, he is the Creator, the one who spoke everything into existence. He is worthy of our respect, and awe, and worship, even though he has made himself personally known to us.

I think what can happen is that our connection with the humanity of Jesus can, at times, cause us to approach him casually. And there is a place where that is fine. But we must never forget the reason why Jesus went to the cross for us and the price he paid for us because of our sins. It is that knowledge that keeps Jesus in our minds as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Jesus himself reminds us of our position with God when he taught us how to pray. Here is how the Lord’s prayer begins…I am reading it in the CSB so it may sound different from what you are used to. Remember, these are the words of Jesus.

“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.”

Matthew 6:9 CSB

This verse summarizes what I have been saying. We are encouraged to call God by the intimate name of Father…that is personal. And yet, at the same time we are to acknowledge his holiness.

This ability to do both, comes out of intimacy with God. We can, of course, understand and approach this intellectually. But the more you know God, and spend time with him, the combination of intimacy and reverence comes naturally. That God the Holy Spirit would live within me, a broken human, and be for me? That puts me on me on my knees at his feet. And at the same time…I experience the unconditional love of Jesus and know him as both a Savior and friend. That is for me and for you. Wow.

This is challenging stuff…but it is God’s desire for all of us as we live a Spirit-led life. A Spirit-led life is one that acknowledges the glory, holiness, and power of God but responds to his Spirit in intimate trust because of the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is what God wants for all of us.

CLOSING

Well, we are running out of time for this episode, so let me quickly switch gears. Because this episode is dropping just a few days before Christmas, it is appropriate that we end with a classic Christmastime reading from Isaiah 9:6-7, which lists some of the names of Jesus…here we go:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV

May you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas, and we will meet again in the New Year when our next episode continues looking at the names of God.

As always, you can send me comments, suggestions, or questions, by email at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com. You can also send me a one-way text message by going to the episode show notes and clicking on the link with your smart phone. This is one of the ways you can encourage me.

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Again, have a great Christmas and…

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Until the next episode, take care.

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