The Sacred Shem Revelation | Part 1 of 4
Shem is the Hebrew word for Name
http://www.alanhorvath.com/bible_essay1.php
Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh thy Elohim in vain; for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Exodus 20:7
Note: All Scriptures are quoted from The Word of Yahweh: A Restored Name King James Version of the Bible (see link below).
When Messiah Jesus was asked to give an example of how we should pray, in Matthew 6:9 He began with Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. We're all familiar with what is commonly called The Lord's Prayer but have you ever asked yourself, What Name is to be Hallowed?
Aside from His command that we not take His Name in vain, and aside from the Messiah telling us that His Name is to be Hallowed, no one seems to ever mention His Name at all!
When Messiah Jesus was asked to give an example of how we should pray, in Matthew 6:9 He began with Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. We're all familiar with what is commonly called The Lord's Prayer but have you ever asked yourself, What Name is to be Hallowed?
Aside from His command that we not take His Name in vain, and aside from the Messiah telling us that His Name is to be Hallowed, no one seems to ever mention His Name at all!
Further, asking those who are in positions of authority concerning the Holy Scriptures, will produce more excuses than answers. What's going on? How is it that so many, who consistently proclaim the importance of Scripture, are capable of completely ignoring an issue that is so very obvious? How can they continue, year after year after year, to quote Scripture that plainly reveals His commands concerning His Name and not stop to think about what they aren't doing?
Jews won't speak or write His Name because they believe it is too sacred to utter and too sacred to write on anything that may be discarded or damaged. This attitude seems to be nothing less than admirable. Certainly, the Creator of all things deserves the utmost respect and awe! But after a careful study of the Scriptures, reading all that He Himself commands about His Name, this approach doesn't have legs; it doesn't stand up to the truth; it doesn't make any sense to anyone who has a sincere desire to please Him and, most importantly, it is based on man-made doctrine alone; it has no foundation of anything Scriptural at all.
Christians don't speak His Name because ... well, some say it isn't an important issue; it doesn't concern itself with Salvation. But this kind of reasoning is rather anemic. Others, apparently, think His Name is Elohim or Lord or Adonai or God ... but those aren't names, they are types. There are many elohim, there are all sorts of lords and gods, adonai means sovereign, el means mighty and elohim is a plural reference meaning mighty ones. Greek interpretors also replaced the Father's Name with the terms Theos and Kurios ... but theos means deity and kurios means sovereign.
And then there are those who call Him Jehovah ... they recognize that His true Name is Yahweh but say they use Jehovah because "it is the universally excepted name of God" ... placing greater importance on worldly trends than on Scriptural truth. Worse even than that, if any one only takes the time to research what that name actually means, they would be in absolute shock. Jehovah is an Americanization of the Hebrew-Aramaic Yah-Hovah -- the letter J wasn't introduced into this world until around 1600 A.D. and there is no J in the Hebrew-Aramaic alphabet. Even Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible blindly follows this error; if you look up "Jehovah" it will mistakenly tell you that this is the name of the Father while further revealing, through a more diligent study, that Yah refers to Yahweh (the Father's Name) ... while Hovah, as can be seen via reference number 01943, means ruin, disaster, misfortune and mischief. Therefore, Jehovah means Yahweh is ruin, disaster, misfortune and mischief! Now, who do you think conjured up that trick?
Christians don't speak His Name because ... well, some say it isn't an important issue; it doesn't concern itself with Salvation. But this kind of reasoning is rather anemic. Others, apparently, think His Name is Elohim or Lord or Adonai or God ... but those aren't names, they are types. There are many elohim, there are all sorts of lords and gods, adonai means sovereign, el means mighty and elohim is a plural reference meaning mighty ones. Greek interpretors also replaced the Father's Name with the terms Theos and Kurios ... but theos means deity and kurios means sovereign.
And then there are those who call Him Jehovah ... they recognize that His true Name is Yahweh but say they use Jehovah because "it is the universally excepted name of God" ... placing greater importance on worldly trends than on Scriptural truth. Worse even than that, if any one only takes the time to research what that name actually means, they would be in absolute shock. Jehovah is an Americanization of the Hebrew-Aramaic Yah-Hovah -- the letter J wasn't introduced into this world until around 1600 A.D. and there is no J in the Hebrew-Aramaic alphabet. Even Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible blindly follows this error; if you look up "Jehovah" it will mistakenly tell you that this is the name of the Father while further revealing, through a more diligent study, that Yah refers to Yahweh (the Father's Name) ... while Hovah, as can be seen via reference number 01943, means ruin, disaster, misfortune and mischief. Therefore, Jehovah means Yahweh is ruin, disaster, misfortune and mischief! Now, who do you think conjured up that trick?
I asked Michael Heiser, a noted Hebrew scholar, about this and here is what he wrote me:
- "German scholars took the consonants of the divine name (Y-H-W-H) and, bringing them into German, used the letters German uses for each sound:
J = the y sound as in German ja [yes];And so we get J-H-V-H. Next, they took the vowels from Hebrew adonay and put them in -- the intial a in adonai is actually not an a, but a half vowel (in Hebrew lingo, the hatef-patach). Half vowels are typically not a under the Y in Hebrew but are pronounced e (the vocal shewa). So, with that clarification out of the way, the vowels are e-o-a which, when wedded to the consonants produces Jehovah. Jehovah's Witnesses don't like the news that Jehovah is entirely artificial, but they usually don't stick around long enough to really get the point."
h = the same in both languages;
V = the w in Hebrew (waw, pronounced vav in Hebrew).
Michael Heiser, Ph.D. | Academic Editor, Logos Bible Software
Romans 8:1
Please don't misunderstand my intentions. The Bible tells us that the Father listens to our hearts and I believe that when we pray to God or cry out to the Lord or to Adonai or even to Jehovah, He knows by our hearts that we are praying to Him alone. I certainly do not wish to heap condemnation on anyone with this information, I'm only attempting to remind us of the truth found through His Word: The Father has a Name and he commands us to honor it. His Name is not God ... it's not Lord ... it isn't Adonai ... and it's certainly not Jehovah. It's Yahweh. And all I'm saying is, if you do love Him, why wouldn't you want to honor and obey Him by praising and glorifying His one and only sacred Name?
The New International Version of the Bible, in its preface, reads: "In regard to the divine name YHWH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the translators adopted the device used in most English versions of rendering that name as "Lord"..." -- noting the fact that most all English translations of the Bible have indeed replaced Yahweh (or YHWH -
) with the Lord. So, when you are reading your Bible, every time you see the Lord (in the Old Testament) you can remind yourself that the original text reads Yahweh.
The New International Version of the Bible, in its preface, reads: "In regard to the divine name YHWH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the translators adopted the device used in most English versions of rendering that name as "Lord"..." -- noting the fact that most all English translations of the Bible have indeed replaced Yahweh (or YHWH -
) with the Lord. So, when you are reading your Bible, every time you see the Lord (in the Old Testament) you can remind yourself that the original text reads Yahweh.In the Old Testament:
The Lord = Yahweh
God = Elohim
In the New Testament:
Lord = Master
God = Theos/Greek (should be Yahweh/Hebrew)
If you wish, you can purchase a Restored Name King James Version of the Bible, where the Names of the Father and of the Son have been restored. If you have trouble finding one, as I did, you can obtain a copy of The Word of Yahweh at the following web address - please note that I have no affiliation with this web site, nor do I endorse anything about it other than this wonderful version of the Scriptures which they have made available:
A Note About the Name Jesus:
You may be surprised to know that if anyone saw the Messiah strolling through Jerusalem and called Him Jesus, he would not have responded. No one ever called Him Jesus ... His Name was Yah-shu'a, which means Yahweh is salvation or Yahweh saves. The Greek interpretors changed the Name of Yahshua to Iesous which means Hail, Zeus and translates in English to Jesus. (End of quote)
Thank you Alan Horvath for that excellent post! Edward Laughlan.
Thank you Alan Horvath for that excellent post! Edward Laughlan.
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