Yahweh - The God Who Is

Several times is the Bible, we see instances like that in Psalm 8, where we read "O, LORD our Lord..." we see that the first instance of the word "LORD" is all uppercase, while the second instance of the word is written "Lord" with only the "L" uppercase, so what's the difference? Well, in English, the word carries the same definition, all uppercase or just the "L". But in Hebrew, the words are entirely different, with vastly different meanings. The second instance of the word Lord in this passage (written with only the "L" uppercase) means just that, the Hebrew word "Adonai." So, what is this all uppercase LORD, and what is the history about this name?

Even though the name has been in use for more that four thousand years, there are still some uncertainties about this name. The word in Hebrew is spelled "Yohd-Hey-Waw-Hey" and is transliterated as YHWH or YHVH. Sometime between the captivity of the Jews to Babylonia, and the time of Christ, Hebrews developed the tradition of replacing this name, given by God to depict Himself, with the name Adonai, as to not take the name of the LORD in vain. Today, many Jews continue such customs, and many Jews use the replacement "hashem" meaning "the name" in place of Yahweh of Jehovah. Because of this, we are not completely certain of the correct pronunciation of this name, which has been virtually unused for generations. Around the year A.D. 1520, the vowel points of the word Adonai were put to the letters of God's name, to form the word "Yehovah" which was written "Jehovah" since the Old English "J" made the sound of the modern English "Y" - this is probably not the correct pronunciation of the word. Most scholars agree that the correct pronunciation is: YAHWEH.

This name, and abbreviations of this name, are used more than six thousand times in the Old Testament, yet, are rarely transliterated into the modern English Bible. Though many Bible translations use the word "LORD" or "GOD" - all uppercase, many of the newer translations are just using the word "Lord" making it very hard for the average English reader to know when the word Yahweh is used in scripture. The word Yahweh, the scholars say, is either the hiphil form of the word "hayah" and since the word hayah means simply "to exist," the hiphil changes the word to causitive, or "the One who causes to exist..." the other widely accepted theory is that Yahweh is the imperfective qal form of hayah, which would change the meaning to "the One who is." In either event, He, the God of the Bible, is an ever-existant, eternal God, who causes all life and matter to come and stay in existance. Perhaps some light is shed when we see the name Yahweh parellel to the answer God gave Moses in Exodus 3:14, when God said "I AM THAT I AM" (KJV)

Yahweh is a name that all three parts of the Trinity use in the Bible, Father, Son, and Spirit. In Isaiah 54, the prophecy referring to Jesus calls Him "Yahweh Tzava'ot" "Yahweh our Hosts. " We also see how Jesus said "before Abraham I am" (John 8:58) obviously referring to this name. Also, the Holy Spirit is called, many times in the Bible "the Spirit of Yahweh" and in one case, when quoting what Yahweh had said in the Old Testament, the New Testament writer says that "the Holy Spirit said..." (See Isaiah 6:9,10 and Acts 28:25,26 ) One of the most popular scripture (especially among the Jews) is in Deuteronomy 6:4 which says "Hear Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one." The word "one" here is the word "echad" which, when studied more closely, means "unity" like a man and women become one flesh. God commanded Ezekiel to take two sticks and join them together that they would become one (echad) in his hand. Two sticks are one, and the three-person Godhead is also One.