All of the material here is historical fact. I present it not as a
religious piece but as simple information. Please note that Hebrew is spelled right to
left.
- The Absolute Name as originally given to Moses on Sinai (Exodus 3:14) is
AHYH ASR AHYH: "I Will Be Who I Will Be."
- "I Am That I Am" is a mistranslation. This is a Christian
interpretation applied 1000 years after the fact.
- Saying "I Will Be" made people very nervous. So "I Will
Be" (AHYH) was changed into "He Will Be": YHWH This Name is known as the Tetragrammaton: "The 4 Letter
Name." In English you most often see this Name as "Yahweh." The certain
original pronunciation has been lost. Over 30 different pronunciations are known to the
Kabbalists.
- The Tetragrammaton, spelled vertically, is the pictogram of
a human being: .
This is a visual representation of what it symbolically means to be created
in the image of God.
- Over the years this discomfort with the Divine Name continued. Soon,
people would not pronounce YHWH at all. Whenever they saw YHWH in the Bible, they would
either say "The Name" (Ha Shem) or "The Lord" (Adonai).
- Originally, Hebrew did not have vowels. Eventually the Hebrews felt it
was wise to insert little dots (called vowel points) around the letters to remind the
reader of the exact pronunciation.
- When they came to YHWH in the text, they added the vowel points for
Adonai to remind the reader that the Divine Name was not to be pronounced.
- In the Middle Ages, around 1500, translators misunderstood that the vowel
points were for "Adonai", not "Yahweh". Thus, they combined the
letters of YHWH with the vowels of Adonai. The result was "Jehovah". This is,
quite simply, a mistranslation. Like changing "Betty" into
"Botta" by keeping the same consonants but using the wrong vowels.
- In our modern Bibles, then, whenever YHWH is found, we usually
"translate" it as LORD or Jehovah. Both are wrong, though Jehovah is certainly
preferable to LORD.
- "God" is a noun. It is a type of Being. "God" is not
a name. "Human" is what you are....but you also have a name.
- Thus, when catechisms & preachers say "What is God's name? God
is God's name" they are also simply wrong.
- As you can see, the farther we go in time, the more confusion &
ignorance we acquire. At this point, very few of the ordained clergy understands any of
this. Of those who know it, only a small percentage actually cares.
- Yet the 3rd Commandment STILL SAYS, "Thou shall
not take the Name of YHWH your God in vain, for YHWH will not leave
him unpunished who takes His Name in vain."