by Jay Moody

Created on: May 22, 2008   Last Updated: October 21, 2010

            Yahweh is the most commonly used name for G-d in all of the Tanakh.  In Hebrew the Name is constructed of four letters; YHWH and first appears in the book of Exodus.  While Moses is tending his sheep he encounters G-d in the burning bush which effectively begins his career as a prophet. Moses is ordered to go into Egypt and demand that Pharaoh free the Israelites from bondage.  Moses then asked “when I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?” G-d gives him the most peculiar and profound answer.  He tells Moses to inform the Israelites that “YHWH sent you.”

            In ancient Judaism it was forbidden to speak the name YHWH aloud. Therefore when reading the scriptures the ancient priests and rabbis would substitute the word Adonai, “my Lord” in its place.  This tradition carried over into Christianity so that in the majority of English Biblical translations YHWH is replaced with the word “Lord.”  YHWH however, has a much deeper and more profound significance than can be encapsulated in such a human title of devotion such as “My Lord.”  It is a word which scholars have struggled to properly translate for the reader unfamiliar with the original Hebrew.

            Rabbi Arthur Green describes the YHWH name as a verb artificially rested in motion serving as a noun.  Green goes on to explain that a more proper translation for this Name should be “Is-Was-Will-Be.”  The implication of this translation suggests that God the eternal Creator is in fact the very essence of existence and exists as a truly eternal state of being.  Green also explains that the English translation would be better served as “I Shall BE what I Shall Be.”  When the four letters of the Name are reversed they spell out the Hebrew word H-W-Y-H, meaning ‘existence.’  The name itself contains within itself all things past, present and future. 

             Another possible conjugation of the YHWH name is Ehyeh or “I shall Be,” and Rabbi Green points out that this is the deepest name of God,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>