In recent years a number of tracts have been distributed originating with the Faith Bible & Tract Society in Salem, West Virginia, insisting that Christians ought to address the Deity by His Hebrew name, and avoid using such terms as "Lord," "God," or "Jesus."
DON NEUFELD, Research Book Editor, Review and Herald
and it was variously applied to the `Sun-God.' "—Ibid., p.8.
Anyone, therefore, who addresses the Deity by the terms "God," "Lord," "Jesus," is charged with worshiping in the name of pagan deities.
The aim of the movement is to destroy "the detestable, pagan, substitute names, which have been fostered by an apostate religion, and imposed upon an unsuspecting religious world," and to "restore the Holy name of our Heavenly Father."—Why Worship in the Names of Pagan Deities? pp. 6, 15. This holy name, they say, is "Yahweh."
Those whose aim it is to restore this name call their efforts The Sacred Name Movement, and their message the Back to Yahweh message. For the sake of convenience and brevity, in this article we shall refer to them as Sacred Namites.
A careful reading of the tracts reveals a total lack of evidence for the allegations made. No valid reason is given as to why Christians should change their age-long customs and begin to use only the Hebrew names of the Deity. Many Scripture texts are quoted, but none of these support the claims set forth.
But the matter is more serious than this. If their allegations were true, the Scripture writers themselves would stand indicted, for these authors use names and titles that the Sacred Namites condemn. Such an implied condemnation of those who wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit is indeed grave, and almost akin to blasphemy.
We should be able to let the matter rest here, for normally one is not required to disprove what has not been proved. However, not all will have the pamphlets available to see for themselves this total lack of evidence. Furthermore, many of those who do are unfamiliar with Hebrew and Greek, and hence unable to evaluate the allegations presented. We shall therefore proceed to show that these allegations are contrary to Scripture and slanderous of the Scripture writers.
The Sacred Namites urge that we abandon the terms "Lord," 'God," or their equivalents, and call our heavenly Father by the name Yahweh. What are the facts concerning this name?
The divine name in the Hebrew Old Testament is represented by the following Hebrew characters
These four letters, called the Tetragrammaton, occur more than 5,000 times, and the shortened form 25 times. This sacred name the Jews refuse to pronounce, substituting for it generally the Hebrew term 'Adonai, or, where 'Adonai occurred with (see PDF), 'Elohim. As a result of this refusal there is some uncertainty as to the true pronunciation of The Masoretes, who supplied the vowel points for the Hebrew Old Testament in about the seventh century A.D., inserted with the letters (see PDF) not its own vowels but those of either 'Adonai or 'Elohim; generally the former, but where (see PDF) occurred with 'Adonai, those of the latter. It is the combination of the vowels of 'Adonai with the characters rim' that gives us the term "Jehovah," obviously not the true pronunciation of (see PDF).
Scholars generally agree that the pronunciation of rim' was probably Yahweh. Following is a recent statement by Raymond Abba from the University College of Swansea:
"The proper name for God as the covenant God of Israel is represented by the tetragrammaton min'. The original pronunciation is uncertain. By inference from its contracted forms in compound names—fl' or ir77 at the beginning, or or ;;1' at the end—it appears to have been pronounced Yahweh, and this is confirmed by independent testimony to its transliteration as 'RV or (see PDF)."— 'The Divine Name Yahweh," Journal of Biblical Literature, LXXX (December 1961), p. 320.
This same author makes a suggestion as to the significance of the name:
"It is, therefore, within the context of the covenant with Israel that the divine name has significance. 'The name is not a name like Elohim, which expresses God on the side of His being, as essential, manifold power; it is a word that expresses rather relation—Elohim in relation to Israel is Jahweh" [A. B. Davidson, Theology of the Old Testament, p. 56]. "Yahweh is essentially a Bundesgott and Israel a Bundesvolk."— Ibid., p. 326.
From time to time there have been those who have thought they had discovered an ante-Biblical origin of the name Yahweh. Concerning this the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says:
"While both derivation and meaning are lost to us in the uncertainties of its ante-Bib, origin, the following inferences seem to be justified by the facts: (1) This name was common to religions other than Israel's, according to Friedr. Delitzsch, Hommel, Winckler, and Guthe (EB, s.v.), having been found in Bab inscriptions. Ammonite, Arab. and Egypt names appear also to contain it (cf Davidson, OT Theol., 52 f); but while, like Elohim, it was common to primitive Sem religion, it became Israel's distinctive name for the Deity."—Volume 2, p. 1266.
However, Raymond Abba ("The Divine Name Yahweh," Journal of Biblical Literature, LXXX [December 1961], pp. 320, 321) remarks, "The origin of the name has been the subject of much controversy, and there is as yet no general agreement among OT scholars. . . . There is in fact no convincing attestation of any god of this name among the Kenites or indeed anywhere outside Israel."
The settlement of this problem, if indeed it will be settled this side of eternity, must await further discoveries. In the meantime there is nothing in the Scriptures to deny that the name may not have been used outside of Israel, and for a deity other than the God of Israel.
It is possible for the English reader to know where in the Hebrew Old Testament occurs, for in both the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version it is rendered "LORD," written with a capital and small capital letters. On the other hand, "Lord" with a capital and small letters generally represents '(see PDF) or 'Adonai.
With what we have said here regarding mry the Sacred Namites are generally in agreement, though I have not seen them suggest that Yahweh may also possibly have been the name of a pagan deity. It is not with these facts concerning the sacred name that we differ with them, but in their application of these facts.
The Sacred Namites do point out that the Hebrew 'Elohim in the OT is applied to Yahweh. They say, however, that "Elohim is not a NAME but a TITLE."—The Memorial Name Yahweh the Only Name, p. 14. This may be a matter of definition. It is true the 'Elohim often is a title, as, for example, when it refers to pagan deities, which 'Elohim frequently does (Ex. 18:11; 20:3; etc.). Yet there is not complete consistency in their arguments regarding titles; another inveighs against them. Speaking of "god" and "lord," one pamphlet says, "which are not even names, but merely titles of office. (i.e., Truman is a name, President is the title of his office.) People have been praying to the title of office for centuries. Why, we ask? How could that happen? Why did not the wise men tell us the name of our Heavenly Father."—Why Worship in the Names of Pagan Deities? p. 3. But the Bible writers frequently use the "title" 'Elohim instead of the "name" Yahweh. The first verse of the Bible says, "In the beginning God [Elohim] created the heaven and the earth." Why did not the wise men tell Moses the name of our heavenly Father? Not only here, but frequently, he used the "title" 'Elohim, though he knew the name Yahweh and frequently used it also.
An examination of evidence shows that 'Elohim is frequently used as a name. This is not as evident in English as in Hebrew. The term 'Elohim is a plural form and is translated as a plural when it refers to pagan deities. However, when applied to the true God, the verb associated with it is in nearly every case singular in form (for exceptions see Gen. 20:3; 35:7), showing that its subject was considered as singular. When applied to heathen deities the verb is plural. Thus when a Hebrew reader of Scripture came across 'Elohim associated with a singular verb, he had no question as to whom it referred, and to him it was equivalent to a name.
In His agonizing cry on the cross our Saviour did not address His Father as Yahweh.
The gospel writers have preserved His cry by transliterating the Aramaic form, Eloz, El:6i, lama sabachthani. Elöi is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic 'Elahi, equivalent to the Hebrew 'Eloah, a term used also of foreign gods (see Dan. 11:37-39). 'Elo'ah is the singular form of 'Elohim. If Jesus is our example, we may feel perfectly free to address our heavenly Father as 'Elohim; we do not have to address our heavenly Father by Yahweh merely. Later we will show that there is no objection, either, to using a translated form of the Hebrew name.
But the Old Testament more than 400 times also calls the Deity 'Addn, or 'Adonai, and frequently by one or the other of these terms alone (see Ps. 114:7; Isa. 1:24; 3:1; etc.). But what do the Sacred Namites say concerning 'Adonai? They say it is the name of a pagan deity, and they compare it with Andoms (The Name of the Father and of the Son, p. 5). Another pamphlet says, "Are not worshippers using substitute names and stretching forth their hands in prayer to strange deities, to God, to Lord, to Adonai, to Pan, to Herr, to Bog, to Kurios?"—Why Worship in the Names of Pagan Deities? p. 7; see also p. 11. Were the inspired writers of Holy Scripture, then, stretching forth their hands in prayer to strange deities when they addressed the Creator as 'Adonai? Certainly not. And the fact that a name or title may have been applied to a pagan deity is no reason in itself that it could not be applied to the true God. For such a use we have the example of Bible writers.
As to why it is proper to use 'Elohim, even though this term is applied to pagan deities, the Sacred Namites say: "We of the Sacred Name Movement are fully aware that the noun Elohim is applied for the false as well as for the true. Elohim is not a NAME but a TITLE and we are enjoined against using the NAMES of false deities." —The Memorial Name Yahweh the Only Name, p. 14. They assert, however, that 'Adonai is the "name" of a pagan deity (see above). Apparently the Bible writers knew no such distinction. That is why we say that the allegations of the Sacred Namites are contrary to Scripture and slanderous of the Scripture writers. The sacred penmen were quite unaware of the rules the Sacred Namites are seeking to foist upon Christendom.
(We shall next examine these claims from the New Testament point of view.)
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This is the text of a folder sent out by the author with the first evangelistic sermon requested by new people. It will have some interest for our evangelists.—Editors
