Category: YHWH in the Old Testament

Bible Reading Plans

• Plan One: New Testament Only
• Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
• Plan Three: New Testament + History
• Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3

Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.

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Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute

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(Today’s Reading)

YHWH in the Old Testament

(Essay Installment 2)

Other Old Testament Names and Titles for God

In the centuries, and even millennia, since the burning bush, scholars have poured over the texts of Moses and the Prophets. There have been Jewish scholars, Christian scholars, and general historians all giving their perspective on this name. I’ll mention a few of the notable variations on YHWH.

• YHVH – In classical scholarship, a “W” is sometimes render as a “V,” so there’s no real difference in meaning here. Just a difference in which scholarly literature is being consulted.
• Yahweh – This is a term used by many modern scholars because they believe that this is the way YHWH was originally pronounced. They may be right, but they usually don’t claim to be certain.
• Jehovah – This variant like, the others above, carries no difference in meaning. The reason it arose will be explained later in this essay.
• Tetragrammaton – This academic term is a combination of two Greek words: “tetra” meaning “four,” and”grammata” meaning letters. So tetragrammaton literally means “the four-letter name for Israel’s God.

I like to use YHWH because there’s no doubt about those four letters. When speaking it, I say Yahweh.

Besides these variants of YHWH, which is a personal name, there are various descriptions and titles applied to God in the Old Testament.

• Elohim (description) – This is the Hebrew word for “God.” It is a plural term – “im” being the ending of a plural word in Hebrew as an “s” is the ending of a plural word in English. The plural is a sort of “royal” plural, denoting God’s immense majesty, power, sovereignty, and role as Creator. Be aware, though, that Elohim is also used in the Bible to refer to angels…and sometimes even to men – so context is important in determining the author’s meaning.
• Adonai (Title) – This is the Hebrew word for “Lord,” “Master,” “Ruler.” This word also can be used when addressing angels or men.

Beyond the very frequently used words above, there are many other terms that are used occasionally to reference or honor God.

• General Names and Titles
  • El – “Mighty one,” “strong,” or “prominent.”
  • El Elyon – “God Most High.”
  • El Olam – “The Everlasting God.”
  • El Shaddai – “God Almighty.”
• Personal Names and Titles
  • YHWH Sabaoth – “YHWH of Hosts” or “YHWH of Armies.”
  • YHWH-Jireh – “YHWH Will Provide.”
  • YHWH-Rapha – “YHWH Who Heals.”
  • YHWH-Nissi – “YHWH Is My Banner.”
  • YHWH-Shalom – “YHWH Is Peace.”
  • YHWH-Rohi – “YHWH My Shepherd.”
  • YHWH-Tsidkenu – “YHWH Our Righteousness.”
  • YHWH-Shammah – “YHWH Is There”.

To understand the importance of the name YHWH in comparison to the other names for God, consider the following counts of each time a specific name/title is used in the Old Testament. (The counts are approximate.)

• YHWH – 6,820
• Elohim – 2,600
• Adonai – 434
• El -238
• El Shaddai – 48
• El Elyon – 28
• El Olam – 4
• (The compound names above that begin with YHWH are already included in the YHWH count.)

As you can see, the occurrences of YHWH in the Old Testament far surpass all other words that refer to YHWH. And the closest to YHWH in number (Elohim) is actually even farther away than the count indicates because not all of those occurrences are referring to God. Recall that Elohim can refer to angels or men and even to the gods of other nations. YHWH only ever refers to Israel’s God.

You don’t even have to reach for a calculator to recognize from this list that there are more occurrences of YHWH in the Old Testament than of all the other identifiers of God put together. Its importance as the key identifier of Israel’s God cannot be overstated.

Consider this: The Old Testament uses YHWH to designate God two to three times as often as it uses God (Elohim) to designate God.

Not only is YHWH the most frequently occurring name for God in the Old Testament, it is the most frequently occurring content word (that is, excluding articles, prepositions, and such in the counts) in the Old Testament. The second most frequently-occurring content word is “kol” (meaning “all” or “every”) at 5,415. The third most common is “amar” (meaning “to say”) at 5,308.

Logic might tell us that God’s personal name would be the most commonly-found word used by Old Testament authors. Math tells us for sure!

Bible Reading Plans

• Plan One: New Testament Only
• Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
• Plan Three: New Testament + History
• Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3

Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.

Extras

Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute

Overflow

***

Today’s reading installment begins a new series. We just finished a series on “Finding Jesus in the Old Testament.” This new series is about what may be the greatest FJOT of all.

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(Today’s Reading)

YHWH in the Old Testament

(Essay Installment 1)

I have no way of knowing how familiar you are with the four-letter word YHWH. You may recognize it more quickly if I write it as YHVH, Yahweh, Jehovah, or one of the other forms it sometimes takes in English translations of the Old Testament. I’ll say a little more about these variations in the next section. In English, those four consonants are usually pronounced “Yahweh.”

I want to explain how this word made its way to us. If I go too slow for you, just skim down until you come across something you don’t already know. I myself find it useful, especially when discussing misunderstood subjects, to begin by going back and methodically reviewing the most basic and unquestioned aspects of the subject. “First principles,” some call it. It’s a way to thoroughly understand something.

YHWH is the answer God gave to Moses at the burning bush when Moses asked the following question:

Exodus 3:13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”

Moses was being given the assignment to take the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – who had, over several centuries, become the slaves of the Egyptians – and lead them out of their slavery in Egypt to the freedom of a land God had promised them. Since every nation back then had their own god or gods, all of whom had names, Moses expected to be asked the name of the god who was going to be the god of the Israelites in what would be a mammoth test of wills between Israel and Egypt…and therefore between the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt. This is just the way people thought back then.

Of course, God and Moses were not speaking in English. YHWH is the English representation of the four Hebrew letters that made up the name that the God who was speaking to Moses gave as His own. Here was the immediate reply to the question Moses asked above:

Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Notice the words and phrases that are in ALL CAPS. The New American Standard Bible (NASB) 1995, which is the primary translation I use, has the following footnote on each of the three occurrences of “I AM” in the 14th verse:

Related to the name of God, YHWH, rendered LORD, which is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be

The NASB translators are telling us the whenever we see LORD in ALL CAPS in the Old Testament, it means the word being translated is the Hebrew word YHWH. (The NASB is not unique in this regard; most English translations do the same with YHWH.) The NASB translators are also telling us that the meaning of God’s name YHWH is tied to the most basic and common of verbs: “is” or “to be.”

Before exploring the meaning of “HAYAH” further, let me identify some fundamental differences between the Hebrew and English languages. First, Hebrew has been spoken in ancient and modern times, while English as we know it had not yet developed in Old Testament times. Second, Hebrew is written right to left, while English is written left to right. Third, written Hebrew has no vowels. Hebrew vowels are pronounced, but are not written. This last fact is why YHWH has no vowels and therefore looks unusual to our English-speaking eyes.

What all this means is that when asked His name, God did not try to pronounce the English letters YHWH. Instead, He gave a name that was derived from the Hebrew verb “hayah.” In the first person, YHWH would mean something like “I am” or “I will be” or even “I cause to be.” In the third person, it would mean “He is” or He will be” or “He causes to be.” Scholars say that the name evoked existence, presence, or becoming. Most Bible readers today take it to simply mean “I am.” Thus YHWH was given as the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – and now, especially for Moses’ contemporaries, the name of the God of their descendants, the Israelites.