"........and they ask me, `What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" Exodus 3 v13

What's in a name  ?

The significance of names in the Bible 

the Names of God    -    Titles given to Jesus    -    Palestine   -   the Old Testament

In the bible there is great significance in many names - many  have a prophetic significance while others reflect peoples faith and gratitude to GOD.

The Name of God

The second line of "The Lord's Prayer", so familiar to us all, says, "Hallowed be thy name."   (Luke 11 v2)

We are also promised that, "Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved."   (Romans 10 v13 )

In Acts 2 v21, Peter quotes Joel 2 v32,  "In the last days everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

The name of God appears 6828 times in the Bible.

So what is God's name?

The name of our GOD and the titles by which he is known are extremely important and a casual use of " God " fails to communicate adequately the greatness, majesty, holiness, and grace of the one to whom we refer.

A god is merely any deity which somebody worships or trusts in.  Included in this are the gods of the ancient Egyptians, the people of Canaan, all sorts of wood, stone and metal idols through to the newest New Age concepts of God in everybody.

Moses (Moshe) asked God what he was to say when the people asked, "What is his name?" (Exodus 3 v13)

"God said to Moshe, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [ I am/will be what I am/will be]," and added, " Here is what you are to say to the people of Isra'el: "Ehyeh [I am or I will be] has sent me to you"" God said further to Moshe, "Say this to the people of Isra'el: "Yud Heh Vav Heh (ADONAI), the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham the God of Yitz'chak, and the God of Ya'akov, has sent me to you." (Complete Jewish Bible)

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has a name by which he wished to be known.     This most holy name of GOD is written in Hebrew by the letters yod hey vav hey.       This four letters name is called the "Tetragramaton". (The Hebrew letters are read from Right to Left)  Jewish tradition holds that this name is so holy that it may not be uttered.   It may have been uttered once a year by the High Priest when he entered the Holy of Holies.    Orthodox Jews will refer instead to Hashem ( meaning "The Name")

Karaite Jews do not hold to this tradition but follow the Torah instruction to use the name of God.   See Nehemiah Gordon's book,  "The Hebrew Yeshua vs the Greek Jesus."   For the Christian this  is worth pondering - are we as respectful as we should be to the name of our god?  Remember the second commandment,   "You are not to use lightly the name of YHVH your God, because YHVH will not leave unpunished someone who uses his name lightly."       (Exodus 20 v7 CJB)   But are we also failing in not using the name of our God at all?

These letters are yod, heh, vav and heh and sound as YHVH, or YHWH depending on which sound is used for the vav. ( vav can also be used as an "o" or "oo" sound )

The four letters  are written without vowel sounds, which is common practice in Hebrew.

The pronunciation of YHVH is considered to be unknown but is believed by some to be YAHVEH  (Yarvay) while others consider it to be YHWH  (Yarway) .    Nehemia Gordon contends that the Name should be pronounced YeHoVaH.     Some say that this pronunciation is obtained by applying the vowel signs belonging to Adonai ( LORD),  but Nehemia points out that this could not be the case.  Remember that in Hebrew, vowel sounds tend to be very underplayed.  This came to Europe as "Jehovah", but while many mainland Europeans pronounce the letter J as "Y" the English speakers pronounce a hard "Jay" .    Nehemia is working on another book which will give a full explanation for his point of view.

(YHVH is translated as LORD in the NIV and most other English Bibles and as ADONAI in the Complete Jewish Bible - look out for the capital letters)

Where the Hebrew reads Adonai YHVH, a reader of the Tanakh will say "Adonai Elohim", since the alternative would be the rather untidy  "Adonai ADONAI"  which is equivalent of The Lord the LORD;     The English is closer to "the Lord YeHoVaH."

(Remember that Halleluyah is the Hebrew word meaning literally "praise Yah".)

"The Name  YHVH "  is associated with God's nature of,  "Was, is and will be"  (A complete existence).  In Hebrew the words used are ECHEH ASHER ECHEH, meaning literally, "I am what I am" except that the word ECHEH has no tense.   ECHEH can just as well mean "I was" or "I will be" !     "I AM" was the name God said Moses was to refer to him by.   This is why Yeshua so upset the religious authorities when he said,  "before Abraham was, I am." (John 8 v 58)

The Name ( I am) also suggests to the author that YHVH exists without reference to anything or anybody else.

"Holy to Yahveh" by Terrye Goldblum Seedman explores this issue and its implications for the believer.  For the benefit of those new to this issue, I have continued the use of "GOD" and "Jesus" in this website although I believe YHVH wants us to move back to a proper use of his name.

See also Nehemiah Gordon's book,  "The Hebrew Yeshua vs the Greek Jesus"  for a discussion of swearing in the Name of YHVH.

YHVH is given other titles, all of which are more informative than God or Lord.

Adonai means Lord or My Lord

Elohim means God. (interestingly Elohim is plural)        (Elohenu means our God.)

El Shadai means Almighty God

Elohai Olam means Everlasting God.   In the blessing where God is called Melekh ha Olam, it means King, or ruler, of the Universe.   God is clearly seen as ruler of both time and space.

 There is also a set of names bringing out aspects of His being and His place in our lives.  (Either YHVH or Adonai could be used as appropriate)

Adonai Tzeva'ot	the Lord of Hosts (armies of angels)
Adonai Eloheinu	Lord our God
Adonai Elohei	Lord God
Adonai Nissi	The Lord is my Banner
Adonai Shalom	the Lord of Peace  (is my peace)
Adonai Shamah	the Lord who is there
Adonai Tzidkenu	the Lord our righteousness
Adonai Yireh	the Lord will see (to it)
YHVH Rapha	The LORD your healer
Adonai   Ro'ee	the Lord my Shepherd

Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu is a name which Jewish people like to use - It means "The Holy One, blessed be He"

You may also have wondered why many Jewish writings use "G-D" and "L-RD".   The author's understanding is that any written document may become worn or redundant and ready for disposal.   If that document contained the words in full, special procedures would be required out of respect for the name of God.

The names of Jesus

The short form of YaHVeH is YaH, or even Y, and this is combined with the word shua, for Salvation or Saves, forms the proper, Hebrew name of the one we call Jesus.   

When the angel of the LORD appeared to Joseph and told him the name he was to give the child it was Yeshua or Y'shua,  ( YHVH is salvation)  "because he will save his people from their sins."   (Matthew 1 v21 )    Yeshua is a shortened version of the original Yehoshua ( Joshua ).

The Rabbis who followed the High Priest and Pharisees in rejecting their Messiah  corrupted his name to Yeshu, meaning "May his name be erased forever".   This name is still in use.

The name Jesus Christ is derived from  Greek.   Iosus was a Greek approximation of Yeshua and Kristos is a translation of Mashiach (Messiah) which means "the Annointed One".       (Like David was anointed some time before he took up his throne, Jesus always was anointed, but he is yet to take his royal throne in Jerusalem to rule this world in righteousness.)

Thus in Hebrew our Lord and saviour's name  is "Yeshua ha Mashiach"

Jesus often referred to himself as the Son of Man.   The messianic significance of this title was plain to his hearers who were familiar with the prophets.  (See Matt 26 v64)  In Daniel’s vision, recorded in chapter 7 v13, he saw "a son of man" coming in the clouds and approaching the throne of The Ancient of Days and being given kingdom authority.   The title Ancient of Days is similar to the meaning of GOD’s memorial name which means "was, is and will be".  The son of man title also points out the humanity of the figure in contrast to the creatures mentioned earlier in Daniel’s vision, and the fact that Jesus shared our humanity, while still being God.

John, right at the start of his gospel, referred to Jesus as "the Word".  This is an excellent title as it shows him to be GOD's ultimate communication to mankind.   Whilst Islam boasts the purity of its Koran due to careful preservation of text, we have Jesus as GOD's living word or the image of GOD.  How ever many times the gospels are translated, the character and image of GOD in Jesus shines through.   The Jewish name for what we call the Old Testament is Tanakh, which is an acronym made up of the letters tet, nun, and khet.  These letters stand for - Torah  (the law),  Navaim (the prophets) and Khotavim  (the writings).  On the mount of Transfiguration three persons  were revealed to the selected disciples -  Moses / Moshe (the Law),  Elijah / Eliyahu   (the prophets)  and Jesus /Yeshua  (the Word .. (the writings)).   In his Sermon on the Mount Yeshua said he had not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.

Shiloh is a veiled title for the coming Messiah.  Judah was given the blessing that Kings would come from his descendants "until Shiloh comes."  Shiloh means "he to whom it rightfully belongs".  (Genesis 49 v10)        See also Tribes and Nations

The Branch is another messianic title referring to the prophecy of Isaiah 11 v1,  "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;  from his roots a Branch will bear fruit."   See also Tu'bShvat, the New Year of the Trees for an interesting fulfillment.

The Alpha and the Omega is another title of Jesus Revelation 1 v8, 21 v6 and 22 v13, "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.   Alpha and Omega are the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet, Greek being the language of oldest surviving manuscripts of Revelation.   It is interesting to note that, in Hebrew, the last letter of the alefbet is Tav and the old form of Tav is a cross.

Sar Shalom  means Prince of Peace.

Mashiach Ben-HaM'vorakh    (Mark 14 v61  (CJB) ) means the Messiah, son of the Blessed one (YHVH).

Our failure to call our God by his name rather than a title fails to distinguish him for all the other Gods and allows other faiths to believe, or pretend, we all worship the same God.  Would other faiths and sects still claim to worship the same God as us if we called him YaHVeH, the God of Israel?

Most names in the Bible are not the names which their owners would recognize. The letter "J" is a particular problem, being used where a "Y" sound should have been. The Nativity story should feature Miryam and Yoseff and the baby Yeshua.

Satan  

In Hebrew, ha Satan means the accuser or the adversary.

The Promised Land

Carelessness in the use of names also applies to our use of "Palestine" when we mean Israel, the land YHVH promised to his people.   Jesus did not live in Palestine and was never a Palestinian, as the PLO would have you believe in order to legitimize their claims upon the territory of Israel.   The name Palestine was derived from the Philistines, who were not Arabs or Jews.  It was applied to Israel by the Romans after they crushed the land and banished the Jews in AD (CE) 138 (ish).   It kept that name through the centuries it remained desolate, until the modern state of Israel was born in 1948.   Most of the "Palestinians" moved in after the Jews had started to restore the land to fruitfulness.

Even the term "The Holy Land" is a bit loose.  The land is not holy;  it is the land promised to Israel by "The Holy One of Israel".  That land is larger than present day Israel.  Britain gave away a slice of what had been designated for the new state of Israel.  Now the government of Israel is under pressure to give away more land.   The land was never owned by the children of Israel; they held it in trust.  Therefore it is not their possession to give away.  (See Jubilee in Leviticus)    The trouble with "Holy Land" is that it legitimizes the Muslim claim on the land since they maintain it is holy to them too, although Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Qu'ran.

The name of the Temple Mount has been progressively altered in western media by Palestinian media manipulation, until it is now referred to as "the Al Aksa Mosque complex" - all part of their argument that the Jewish Temple never stood there.   (see also Semantic Creep in Israel in Today's world .)

The Old Testament

The term "Old Testament" tends to suggest that these scriptures were superceded by the New Testament and are therefore of secondary, or merely historical importance.   Jesus did not come to do away with the scriptures, or replace them, but to fulfill and complete them.  They tell us so much about Messiah that we should not undervalue them.  

It is difficult to find a name which avoids this problem, but the Jews have a solution.  They call these scriptures the Tanakh.  This is an acronym made from the names of the sections of the scriptures.  The Torah (Law),  The Nevi'im  (the prophets) and the Khotavim  (the writings).  (See above - the Word)

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