Bible Study Genesis Part 23-Tetragrammation

One small detail in Genesis changes the whole tone of the Bible: the moment God is first called “the LORD God” in Genesis 2:4. We’re still early in our Genesis Bible study, but this is where the picture starts sharpening, because God isn’t only telling us what He does. He’s telling us who He is, and He does it, in part, through names.

We start with a question most people overlook: why do Biblical names matter so much? From ancient naming traditions to the way Scripture uses meaning-packed names, we walk through how a name can function like a summary of a story. Moses carries an Egyptian name tied to being “drawn out” of the water. Jacob literally means “heel catcher,” and the narrative shows how that label fits his birth, his choices, and even why God eventually renames him Israel.

Then we slow down at the tetragrammaton, the four-letter divine name written without vowels in Hebrew. We explain why you’ll hear both “Jehovah” and “Yahweh,” why many Jewish readers treat the name as too holy to pronounce, and why many English language Bibles signal it with LORD in all caps. If you’ve ever wondered what your Bible translation is doing behind the scenes, this will make those pages feel newly alive.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Scripture Matters

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Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries. We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture. Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible. It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision. Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us. It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word. We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death. In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death. Never treat what God has said lightly. There's truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

Genesis Journey And God’s Purpose

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Alright, so we are still at it. We're still trying to make our way through the entire Bible. Some people think it's impossible. I think it's entirely possible. We have been trying every single Wednesday to get closer and closer to the goal of knowing God completely or as much as He'll allow us to know Him. And as we go through more and more of His Word, a real picture is starting to come about. It's a God who is designing this world for us, that He purposely wanted us to have a place where we can flourish, where we can glorify Him so that we can remind the entire cosmos, the stars, the universe, remind them of what a wonderful God He is. If He can turn us around, then what a wonderful God He is. And that is the purpose that we are seeing now unfold. That's especially important in this book of Genesis because we're actually seeing it all the way from the beginning, and even a little bit before. We got to see what it was like, or at least we got a hint of what it was like before this current world was started. So that's where we are so far. We're still in the second chapter of Genesis. We are very early in the second chapter of Genesis, but we will continue to work our way through it. It will start picking up very soon. So let's go ahead and get started. Switched over to my, yes, I did. Okay. So

Why Names Matter In Scripture

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last time we were together, we had just started talking about the importance of names in the Bible. This week we're going to continue with that topic. And as I've already warned you, we'll be sitting here for a while, but for a while, maybe through the rest of the year. Now, that doesn't mean much. There's only a few more weeks in the year of 2022, but still, we may be working on this all the way into 2023. Now you may be thinking, really, names, we're going to be working this hard on names? Why are we spending so much time on such a common topic? Well, the way God uses names is anything but common. And to be honest, the reason why we're putting so much focus here is because God does. Anyone who has spent even a little bit of time studying Scripture would likely have to come to the conclusion that in the Bible, names are important. In fact, it's one of the most significant ways that God communicates to us. Nearly all of the names mentioned in Scripture, whether they be God's names or anyone else's names, most of the names found in the Bible are meaningful. Biblical names are far more than just a way to differentiate one person from the next. And listen, this is a key topic in God's word, and it's very rarely taught. As usual, we want to fill in the deficiency. But you know, I get it. I understand the hesitation to insist that names can be used with such force, especially given our modern society, our modern culture, where we just don't think too much about names. We'd rather be whimsical with our names rather than meaningful. But honestly, this is a relatively new viewpoint. Treating names in such an unimportant way is relatively new. For most of human history, names have had a purpose. Everyone has names and everyone has had names as far back as we can remember, if nothing else, to differentiate ourselves from others. I mean, if we were all called man or brother or wife or whatever, we'd never be able to properly communicate to or about each other. So in that sense, names are important to everyone. And in today's world, that's about the extent of it. We only use names now to say, well, you're one person or you're another person. That's it. There's no meaning behind our names. Well, the Bible takes names much further. Names in the Bible not only tell us who a person is, but names in the Bible tell us something about that person. And actually, that's not really all that unique to the Bible. This is an ancient tradition. In times past, people were given names for more than just personal identification. Names actually communicated detailed information.

Moses And Jacob Show Name Meaning

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For example, the ancient Romans developed what historians now call the system of trianomina or trianomena, meaning three names. You hear the word tri in there. Tria nomina was meant to describe the person more or less thoroughly. Here's how it worked. The first name, the praenomen, would be something like Quintus, which means fifth child, or Lucius, the child born at first light. Then the second name, or simply the gnomon in Latin, was the most important public name because it was the one that best revealed that person's connection to society. The gnomon was basically an indication of race or clan. Examples included Aurelius, meaning gilded or golden or Julius, relating to Jupiter, perhaps a priestly family or something else related to that god Jupiter. The gnomon is similar to what we today call our last name or our surname. Then the third name, the third in the tria nomenna, was called the cognomen, which was more or less a nickname. For example, Rufus meant red haired, Cato meaning prudent, Severus meaning strict. Perhaps you can hear the word severe in Severus. Well, the idea in the well, the Bible takes this idea even further. For example, one of the most well-known names in the Bible, Moses. Well, Moses, the word Moses, the name Moses, is most likely in an Egyptian word that means draw out or brought forth. Now I'm gonna ask you a question. Feel free to answer if you know it. Why is Moses's name Egyptian and why does it mean drawn out? Anyone have any idea? Well, I'll tell you. Those two questions have related answers. He is known by the Egyptian name Moses because he was given that name by Pharaoh's daughter. You remember that? When she drew him out of the Red Sea, when she drew him out when he was in that basket. Remember his parents, Moses' birth parents put him in that reed basket in order to protect him from Pharaoh's death squads. Well, Pharaoh's daughter herself actually found Moses, named him Moses, drew him out of the water, gave him that Egyptian name. That's how we got the name Moses. It describes him. Another very famous Bible character whose name most of you have heard is Jacob, as is the case with most of the human names we find in the English language Bibles. By the way, my nephew's name is Jacob. Jacob is a transliteration of the Hebrew name Ya'akob or Ya'akob. Now, Jacob, Ya'akob. The name Ya'a'Kob means it actually comes from the Hebrew word Akav or Akab. Now, Akab is used to mean a supplanter, someone who tries to take the position of someone else. That's the derived meaning. But the literal meaning is, believe it or not, listen to me, heel catcher. That's literally what Yah Kob means. Jacob means a heel catcher. The Hebrew word for heel is akib. And a kob is someone who seizes an Akeb, a heel seizer, a heel catcher, a heel grabber. That's what Jacob's name means. Now, how in the world did this biblical patriarch get such a name? Well, as strange as it may seem, it actually fits him very well. To demonstrate, we'll need to read a little bit ahead. For just a moment, we're going to jump to chapter 25 of this book, this book of Genesis that we're studying. This is the record of the birth of Jacob and his twin brother Esau. Maybe you didn't know that Jacob was a twin. His twin brother's name was Esau. Genesis 25, we'll start with verse 24. And when her days, meaning Rebekah, Rebekah was the mother of Jacob and Esau. Rebekah was the wife of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob and Esau. And when her days were, her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there came twins in her womb. And the first one came out red all over like an hairy garment. And they called his name Esau. Now Esau is named Esau because he came out all red and rough looking in the skin. In the Hebrew, that's what this name means. The word Esau means rough, but in the sense of something being reddened because of that roughness. Verse 26. And after that came his brother out. And listen to this: this is this is Jacob. And his hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob. Heel catcher. Heel catcher Jacob. He's a supplanter. A supplanter is someone who wants to take the place of someone else. Jacob, the heel catcher, the supplanter, wanted to take the place of his brother as firstborn. Now, as you know, the firstborn male in that culture was the favored son. Jacob the supplanter wanted to be the firstborn twin, and so he grabbed the red, rough Esau's heel. That's why he's named Jacob. Now, it's more than just that moment of his birth. We're going to find out that he's a Jacob throughout his life. He is a supplanter throughout his life. He is always trying to get something that doesn't belong to him. He's a Jacob. He's a supplanter. In fact, he's Jacob right up until God himself changes his name. Here's another trivia question. Maybe one of you can answer. Does anyone know what name Jacob received from God himself? Does anyone know what God named Jacob after he was Jacob at the brook Jabok? Anyone? Israel. Very good. Very good. It was Israel. God changed Jacob's name to none other than Israel. And this too is a name that's very, very rich in meaning. Now we're going to cover that when we get there, because believe me, we'll get stuck if I start talking about Israel. But Jacob became Israel. Yes, that Israel. The entire nation was named after Jacob, after Israel. The 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 sons of Israel were all named for the 12 sons of Jacob. That's who the 12 tribes of Israel were. They were each one of the sons of Jacob. And by the way, each of their names means something special in the Hebrew themselves. And I'm going to say it again. Names are used in the Bible for communicating truth. Now I'm going into detail on this name business because we're about to talk about something very important.

Law Of First Mention Explained

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Now let me just pause and rewind. Remind you that we are taking our time at the start of this book, because, as I said, Genesis is where we first learn so many vital things of God, things that will come up again and again and again throughout the rest of Scripture. The Bible is structured on what is called the law of the first mention. Now, before we go any further, let me say that not all scholars agree that this is valid, but I do believe it's valid, and I believe this is the way the Bible is structured. The law of the first mention is a principle found in biblical theology that states that the first time, listen closely, the first time you find a doctrine or a concept or a notion in the Bible, the first time that comes up, it's there that all the elements of that doctrine or concept or notion are presented. And then every other time that that doctrine or concept or notion occurs in Scripture, it's simply expanding on that first mention, the law of first mention. That's why it's so important for us to cover these firsts in detail. Almost everything here in the beginning will come up again. And if we've already had a detailed look at it, we're that much better off. That's why you must insist in your churches that they teach you the book of Genesis. It's here that we start to learn these things about God for the first time. Now, the word Genesis itself, as you remember, means beginnings. So many things are first introduced to us in Genesis that we will want to get to know in order to be able to understand their full exposition later on in the Bible. In Genesis 2, 4, the verse we're kind of stuck on, we see for the first time the type of relationship we're going to have with God. And it's the first of many. It's the first time he introduces us as in as what kind of God he is. And he's doing that here simply by telling us his name. Now let's read it again.

Genesis 2:4 Introduces Jehovah Elohim

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Genesis 2, 4. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created. We already dealt with that. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. This, listen to me, though you may not see it, this is one of the most pivotable, the most pivotal moments in all the Bible. God is referred to here for the first time as the Lord Jehovah, Jehovah Elohim. Now, we've already countered, encountered the Elohim name, but this is the first time we actually see God calling himself Jehovah. Now, I know we've said some of this already, but I'm trying to reset for my intended point. God has up to now used the Elohim name many times. The entire creation story is riddled with references to this Elohim name of God. In fact, the very first statement of the Bible says, in the beginning, Elohim created the heaven and the earth. As I've said, we've already covered that name. It is an amazing name, and God is worthy of it. That name describes him perfectly. But what I really want to point out here in the fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis is that for the first time God uses the name Jehovah. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God, Jehovah Elohim, made the heavens and the earth. This is indeed an important moment. And the reason this is important is that from here on we really start to see God's character. His character starts to come into focus. Why? Because he wants his character to come into focus. And so he finds different ways to communicate that to us. Can you believe that? God has anyone told you that in your churches? That God is interested in sharing with us the type of person he is. And one of the ways he does that is through this Jehovah name.

Tetragrammaton Pronunciation And Translation Issues

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Now, believe it or not, Jehovah is actually a made-up word. Well, I suppose all words are made up, but I think you get my point. You know, one of the challenges that we English speakers have when trying to translate or even read the Hebrew, at least the original Biblical Hebrew. One of the problems we have is that there are no vowels in Hebrew. There are no vowels like we we have vowels in English. There are no vowels in Hebrew. Now, this word that we're studying at the moment consists of the letters that we call JH VH. No vowels, just consonants. Scholars call this JHVH word the tetragrammaton. Tetra meaning four. Tetragrammaton means four letters, or more expressively, consisting of four letters. Now, in order to make the JHVH, the tetragrammaton, pronounceable, the scholars decided to throw in a couple of more or less random vowels. So they added an A and they added an O and came up with Jehovah. Now not trying to confuse you even. Than more, but there are some who claim that the tetragrammaton is not J H V H, but rather W H or sorry, Y-H-W-H. Some they say it's not J H V H, it's Y-H-W-H. That's why sometimes you'll hear the transliterated with vowels added. Yahweh. Some people say his name is Yahweh. Some say God's name is Yahweh. Some people say God's name is Jehovah. Yahweh is just as made up as Jehovah. For simplicity's sake, we're going to stick with J H V H, not because I think it's more right or more accurate, but rather so we're not switching between the two. Let's pick one randomly to avoid any for a further confusion. Now, Jehovah, or rather its four-lettered Hebrew version, that word Jehovah, that tetragrammaton, J H V H, is an extremely important and holy name to the Jews. In fact, now get this.

Why Jews Avoid Saying The Name

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The most Orthodox Jews won't even pronounce it in their Bibles, in the Bibles Jewish people use, even to this day. They've actually made the conscious choice to replace this holy word with another word just to avoid any inadvertent utterance of what they consider unutterable. The Jews find this tetragrammaton sinful to utter, so they've replaced it with another word. Now, to some of you, that seems extraordinary and extreme, but to the Orthodox Jew it is quite necessary. Therefore, the Hebrew scholars that are responsible for producing manuscripts of their scriptures will actually replace the tetragrammaton with the Hebrew word Adunai or Adunai, which simply translates to our word Lord. That's how much they revere this word. That's why we're taking our time on this. It is an important biblical word. Now, in many English language Bibles written or produced by Jewish scholars, you won't even see the word God spelled out. Whenever, and this applies to not only Bible, but anytime a devout Jew needs to write the word God, they will almost always leave out the middle letter O for no other reason than to more or less scramble the word. The letter O is left out of the written word God, which of course makes it unpronounceable. In other words, you'll see something like G followed by a dash, followed by a D. G-D, a completely unpronounceable word. That's how much they love God. And God isn't even God's name. But that's how important this is to them. That's how important this word is.

Why LORD Appears In All Caps

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And by the way, have you ever noticed in the King James and some of the other versions of the English language Bible that sometimes you'll see the word L-O-R-D all in capitals? Have you ever seen that in your Bible? Well, every time you see that, it's actually translating the tetragrammaton. It is in the original the word Jehovah. Whenever you see, if you ever get a chance, look in your Old Testament, you'll see some of your Bibles will have the L-O-R-D all in capitals. It's in the King James, it's in the N I V, it's in the English Standard Version. It may be in others. I don't know. I just checked those ones. That's where whenever you see L-O-R-D in all capitals, that's the tetragrammaton being translated. Are you starting to see that this is a very, very special word? It's so special that it appears more than 6,500 times. Jehovah appears more than 6,000 times. Just in the Old Testament. We don't use the word Jehovah in the New Testament. Just in the Old Testament, more than 6,000 times. That's a lot for a single word.

Next Week And Ministry Closing

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So I know what you're thinking. Well, what does Jehovah mean? What does the tetragrammaton mean? Well, next week as we continue on this topic, we're going to try to figure that out. See you then.

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We hope this study has blessed you. God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption. It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners. Please join us again soon. New content is being added all the time, so make sure you check back often. For more information on Chapel Ministries, including our YouTube channel and podcasts, please visit www.chapelontheweb.com. And if God has laid it upon your heart to share materially with us, we encourage you to follow the links to our secure giving page. Please note, Chapel Ministries is not an IRS registered nonprofit organization, and your donations to this program are not tax deductible. It's our hope that you do not rely on taxing authorities to decide for you who is worthy of your generosity.