Locked Up and Hidden Away
After I started to look more deeply into the culture of Christianity and the history of my beliefs, I found myself picking up a book discussing all the different names that describe God in the Bible. It was fascinating to learn that God’s name was not actually “the LORD”, but instead is another word that we never even use. Whenever you see the phrase “the LORD” spelled out within the Bible in all capital letters, the underlying word written in most of the Hebrew Scriptures is יהוה. This translated into English is YHWH. This grouping of four letters is often referred to as ”the Tetragrammaton”, and is generally thought to be referring to God’s actual proper name.
There is a lot of controversy about how the Tetragrammaton is actually pronounced, due to questionable vowel points which have been inserted between the consonants. When I first started researching this issue, “Yahweh” was the pronunciation that seemed to have the most amount of support in Messianic circles.
So Many Opinions, Which One is the Truth?
After spending a good six or seven years calling God “Yahweh” and teaching my children to do the same, a new Facebook friend strongly expressed that he believed “Yahweh” wasn’t the correct way to say or spell God’s Name, it was “YaHuWaH”. A lively discussion ensued, and it became apparent that more information was needed. After researching the matter on the Internet, I found that there are a LOT of conflicting opinions regarding how to pronounce and spell God’s Name. Additional pronunciation variations include Christianity’s revered standard, Jehovah; as well as Yahowah and Yehovah. Furthermore, a lot of the Messianic Christians or formerly Christian believers espousing these specific pronunciations are militant about insisting that ONLY their variation is correct and anything else is a personal insult to God. Some folks will lecture that if you innocently use the word “God” or the “wrong” pronunciation or spelling of the Tetragrammaton, you are not actually worshiping our Creator at all but some Babylonian or Egyptian deity!
In addition to the fact that being told you are worshiping Satan is a conversation and relationship killer, this rigid viewpoint is a real turnoff to those who have been worshiping their Creator the best they know how. This unloving stance really tends to discourage seekers from learning about God’s true Name at all, because they are so repulsed by the unfriendly and unloving vitriol expressed by the “Name of God” believers.
Opinions on this matter are abundant, and I began to feel confused. In my heart, I inherently knew that I needed to seek out and learn about this matter from a scholar with an authentic Jewish background, as opposed to someone with an active Messianic agenda. After seeking God’s leading on the matter, I was referred to a Jewish rabbi and scholar who explained that the name I had been using, “Yahweh”, was not the true Name of God that has been known to Jews for millennia. Sadly, Judaism has not felt compelled to share their most accurate information with Christians, so Christianity as a whole has remained blissfully unaware that they don’t even know God’s true Name. Furthermore, the early Masoretic scribes hid the truth of God’s actual proper Name by inventing the YHWH Tetragrammaton, which really ends up being more of a descriptive title.
Dr. Shmuel Asher, a Karaite scholar who specializes in Ancient Hebrew Studies, explains,
Not only did our ancestors hide the name by the invention of their YHWH – Tetragrammaton, which is generally translated as Jehovah. Over much time they have sold this by-product to all religions, even in the Jewish community, that this was in fact the name which we are commanded to use instead, while very carefully side-stepping the proper NAME that was actually given to Moshe (Moses) on Mt Horeb. IF that wasn’t clear, I will clarify, ALL PROFESSIONAL ORTHODOX AND MANY NON-ORTHODOX CLERGY KNOW THE TRUE NAME! It’s you who doesn’t! We are taught this true name, and even sing songs[1] using this name that supposedly does not exist. However, the reasons given to us for hiding it from all Gentiles are as follows:
1. So the pagans can’t learn it and utilize its formidable power.
2. So that the common people do not defile it and treat it as common or base.
However, when asked WHERE this commandment is to hide the proper name of GOD from his people, ALL people, we get no good answer. That is because a truthful Torah answer does NOT exist. [2]
The true Name of God is found several places in the Hebrew Scriptures. In Exodus 3:14 it is denoted in full as “AHEYEH ashar AHEYEH“. This is the complete phrase that has been translated into English as “I AM THAT I AM”. We find AHEYEH used as a proper name in two other places in Exodus 3 as well. In addition, it is found in Genesis and is also used as a first person proper name in Exodus 4. It is worth mentioning that Moses was given AHEYEH ashar AHEYEH description as more as a clarification, since Moses had already been introduced to God’s Name “AHEYEH”. Dr. Asher continues,
Here are the details that separate the proper name from the YHWH EXPRESSION, which was made up and instituted long after Moshe died:
The {א} – Alef prefix makes a Verb refer to one’s self – (personally).
The { י } – Yod prefix relates the Verb to someone else – {impersonal} –
{yhwh = He WILL be} vs. {AHYH = I exist forever} –
Thus, (AHYH is the) proper name! [2]
Dr. Asher explained that the three word phrase AHEYEH ashar AHEYEH is not really a phrase as we would understand it in English. Rather, it was God’s way of telling Moses that He was from before, and into forever. This is how things were understood in the ancient Hebrew language and culture. Kind of like “I am Donna and Donna and Donna and Donna…” He then raised a troublesome point.
Now here is where the big issues begin for most people not brought up within the Jewish community or culture, knowing the many hidden truths like this one. Exodus 3:15 has been manipulated, and the YHWH = Jehovah has been added in order to facilitate and perpetuate hiding the true name. We know that the YHWH -Tetragrammaton was a mechanism devised to be the tool used to actively aid in hiding His True Name. Even building on top of this by making it punishable law to say the name, this practice comes to us directly from the practices of pagan Babylon. This YHWH title is closely associated with all manner of Kabalistic rituals through Gematria, as well as ancient & modern Masonic religious rites, the Catholic Church, and other satanic occult rituals. Unknown to most people, this YHWH title is found and used by all of the above. [2]
Let me emphasize that this is not just a name transliteration issue, but rather a deliberate mistranslation of a proper name—God’s own Name—by intentionally replacing God’s actual Name with a title. Whenever you see “the LORD” spelled out within the Bible in all capital letters, the actual underlying Hebrew word was originally אהיה which when correctly translated is very likely pronounced ah-ee-YEH.[3] This word was later removed, and the YHWH third person title, which we see throughout the Hebrew Scriptures today, was installed in its place. The layers of deception just keep getting deeper and deeper!
Most Christians are generally brought up believing that all Scripture is 100% inerrant and inspired. Because of this foundational belief, we often have a hard time accepting that many of the Scripture passages found in the Holy Bible are, for lack of a better word, doctored.
Many people have had huge issues when succumbing to the realization that the ancient scribes made so many deletions & additions to their Masoretic copies. Of course, these Masorite copies are the source texts most all Greek & Latin language Bible versions are derived from, and subsequently (translated) into the later European languages. The fact remains, here we are, it is not going away, and it really should be our collective duty to clear it up; to get back to as close as possible to our original source of truth and power. [2]
A Divine Directive
While it is troubling to consider that the ancient scribes took it upon themselves to hide the name of God, it is even more shocking to understand that there is a deeper reason for this phenomenon that points back to the Eternal One Himself. At some point well before the Christian era, God removed His name from Israel. The reason for this removal was that the priesthood of Israel had ceased listening to God and had wandered away from Him. They began adopting and intensifying the tenets of pagan practice, and including them as part of their worship of the God of Abraham. For this reason God said,
“I judged (Israel) according to their conduct and their actions. And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, ‘These are AHYH’s people, and yet they had to leave [AHYH’s] land.’ I had concern for [I cared what other nations believed about] my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.”[4]
“I swear by my great name,” says AHYH, “that no one from Judah living anywhere in Egypt [also a metaphor for someone living in sin outside of God’s Law] will ever again invoke my name or swear, ‘As surely as the Lord AHYH lives.’” [5]
By instituting the pagan practices and rituals of a foreign god into their worship of AHEYEH, Israel had for all intents and purposes “chosen” to follow another god instead of her true God. So, as the prophets said, God removed His True Name from her midst. The great irony is that these scribes who actively hid God’s True Name from the people, as they continue to do today, thought that it was all their idea!
This discovery was unnerving to say the least, but the evidence showing that God’s name is still being removed from His followers was undeniable. Have we in Christianity unwittingly adopted the very same ungodly pagan thoughts, practices and ideas about God that were present in ancient Israel? Have Israel’s own sins—“the sin of the fathers”—now followed the children even into Christianity’s beliefs and views of our heavenly Father? Protestantism grew out of Roman Catholicism, which grew out of Judaism, which had already been highly modified to suit its own agenda. What is it within these religions that God still finds so objectionable that He would continue hiding his very name from Christianity in the modern era?
The Use of God’s True Name in Christianity
There is another layer of deception that needs to be peeled back in order to get to the heart of this “Name of God” issue. In addition to the fact that the Masoretic scribes have actively hidden the Name of God, Christianity also has an unspoken aversion toward using God’s name and prefers to use instead the title, “The LORD”. The Tetragrammaton, although it is a scribal invention and not God’s true Name, is used over 6,000 times throughout the Hebrew Scriptures; yet never once does anyone within Christianity ever read even an approximation or guesstimate of God’s Name in the pages of any major modern Bible translation. Instead, God is continually referred to by the title “The LORD” alone.
So deep has this Christian aversion become that the translators and editors of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) translation of the Bible actually took it upon themselves to demand that God’s actual Name was “entirely inappropriate” for any Christian to read from the Scriptures! Take note of the RSV’s opening notes regarding the Name of God:
“While it is almost if not quite certain that the Name was originally pronounced ‘Yahweh,’… the use of any proper name for the one and only God, as though there were other gods from whom He had to be distinguished, was discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.”[7]
Who made these Bible editors the sole arbiters of what is and is not ‘entirely appropriate’ for the universal (i.e. “catholic”) faith of the Christian Church!? After all, God specifically defended God’s own name and “oneness” by saying unto Moses,
“AHEYEH asher AHEYEH:” and he said, “So will you tell the children of Jacob; {AHEYEH} has sent me to you.”[8]
Ironically, we sing song after song extolling ourselves to “praise the name of the Lord.” Yet we never actually praise God by Name! We claim the promise that,
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe.”[9]
Yet we never come near the “strong tower” of God’s own holy Name, but continue to distance ourselves from the Almighty by holding dear to God’s title alone! The true translation of this passage from Solomon’s Proverbs should rightly be,
“The name of AHEYEH is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe.”[10]
Although many Jews don’t have much to say about Jesus, there are some Jewish scholars who believe that Jesus himself knew the true Name of God and used it regularly. Dr. Asher states that “Jesus, whose actual proper name may be better represented as {Yehshiyeh}, was NOT persecuted right from the start by the Pharisees for saying mean things. They looked to kill him… mainly for OUTWARDLY speaking and TEACHING the Name in public; which in turn exposed the long Talmudic traditions of hiding the TRUE Name of The Most High from the unwashed population! As well as making certain to tell everyone who exactly lied to them. This was a much larger issue than even most scholars today understand.” [2]
From a personal perspective, I noticed that most of my friends and family showed no desire to even speak God’s Name, and looked at me like I was an oddly shaped slice of religious fruitcake when I used it. They just did not seem to care that they were addressing God by an impersonal title, because their tradition of addressing God as “the LORD” was more important. How I wish they could hear Jesus say, as he did to the Pharisees, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”[11]
I did take comfort from the fact that people in the modern era are starting to find and use God’s Name again. Is it because, perhaps, they are finally starting to root out the paganism in their belief system?
Calling upon the Name of AHYH
God’s Name sounded quite foreign to my non-Hebraic ears, but I wanted—no needed—to know more! And so I tentatively started calling upon it, the best I knew how. I gingerly and a bit self-consciously introduced it to others, as well. Somehow, I knew that God appreciated hearing me call on His Name. The introductions had been made, and we were now on a first name basis. It felt like such a gift. Me. ME! Speaking to the God of the Universe like a friend!
As I started praising my Father by Name, the little flame of understanding in my heart started to grow. Slowly but certainly, I was starting to become acquainted with the God that Jesus knew!
[1] Here is a youtube link to an example of a song that is very familiar to most Jews containing God’s true Name. This version of the song was recorded in the 1970s and the lyrics were actually written in the 17th Century by the poet Shalom Shabbazi! This certainly helped me understand that Judaism has long known God’s true and proper Name. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB9_nVfNSsU
[2] Dr. Asher’s extensive, very educational study regarding God’s true Name from a Karaite Jewish perspective is found here. http://ancienthebrewlearningcenter.blogspot.com/p/true-name.html quoted3/25/12. Additional information regarding early Jewish scribal changes to the Scriptures can be found in his new book, “The Land of MEAT and Honey”, available at www.AHLCglobal.com.
[3] The first two syllables of AHEYEH kind of run together like you are saying “aye aye, captain”. To me it is easier to phonetically think of it as ”aye-YEH“.
[4] Ezekiel 36:16-21 NIV / CEV /NASB
[5] Jeremiah 44:25-26; See also Amos 6:8-11; Hosea 2
[6] Exodus 34:5-7
[7] From the opening notes at the beginning of the editors of The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version,Nashville: Cokesbury, 1952. This is the Bible that I used all the time growing up, as it was given to me when I was a child.
[8] Exodus 3:14 As translated at http://www.ancienthebrewlearningcenter.blogspot.com/p/true-name.html
[9] Proverbs 18:10 NKJV
[10] Having been around a fair number of Messianic and Torah-observant believers who have strong opinions on how God’s Name should be pronounced, I considered using the standard Tetragrammaton to denote God’s true Name in this book, since that is the variation with which most people are accustomed. However, because I cannot in good conscience continue to perpetuate the lie begun by the early Masorite scholars and continued by Catholicism, I will be using the true Tetragrammaton – AHYH -in this book; rather than the scribal invention of YHWH or YHVH.
[11] Mark 7:9